The 2010-11 Harvard basketball team is in prime position to win the first Ivy League championship in school history.
But what some people may not know is that 40 years ago the Crimson also thought they had the team that would achieve Ancient Eight glory.
With former NBA star and then-Harvard assistant coach K.C. Jones reeling in top recruits, the Crimson were led by sophomore stars Floyd Lewis and James Brown. (Lewis rejected more than 100 scholarship offers to play for the Crimson, and Brown, of course, is now a famous football sportscaster.)
According to some former Penn players, though, Harvard was a little too cocky.
“Harvard shot their mouth off in the paper and I think that got us a little excited,” ex-Penn center Jim Wolf C’71 told me for a story on the 1970-71 Penn basketball team that will soon appear in the Gazette.
What happened next could have probably been predicted.
The Crimson came into the Palestra on Feb. 19, 1971, looking for their eighth straight victory, but the mighty Quakers blew the doors off them, 103-72. The following night – on this date, 40 years ago – Penn enjoyed another demolition, cruising by a strong Dartmouth team, 102-75 team. (If only Penn fans got free cheesesteaks for 100-point games back then!)
During his Harvard playing days, James Brown never beat Penn
“They thought they had finally put together the team to beat us,” Wolf said of Harvard, “and we just ran them out of the gym.”
Those two routs were not entirely shocking considering the 1970-71 Quakers won every game they played in the regular season. But there were still some elements of surprise because, according to Wolf, Penn was famous with the bettors for doing just enough to win and not covering the spread. The Quakers’ Corky Calhoun was also not a huge scorer that season (he averaged 10.1 points per game), but showed some of his enormous potential by torching Harvard for a career-high 28 points.
“We knew what they were going to do; we prepared for it all week. We just couldn’t stop it,” Harvard coach Bob Harrison said in the New York Times game story written by Murray Chass. “They have a pride that’s worth a million bucks. … They deserve to be champions.”
The Quakers, of course, would go on to be Ivy League champs that season (and the next four), and the Brown/Lewis Harvard teams would never beat Penn.
But the Crimson did have one thing going for them that night 40 years ago: Chass, in his game story, wrote, “Harvard displayed better looking hairdos … with many of the players wearing long, bushy hair, long sideburns and well-cultivated mustaches.”
Picture James Brown like that.
The Penn Gazette Article on the 1971 29-0 Penn Quakers was absolutely terrific. First, I’m old enough that as a 12 year old kid, I not only watched just about every game of Penn’s that year on WPHL-17, but also attended quite a few at the Palestra. Those were indeed the days. Steve Bilsky and Dave Wohl were an amazing backcourt, and Steve Morse and Corky Calhoun could work it on the boards and shoot out the lights.
Your facts (and this is for Mr. Zeitlin) are almost perfect in the article. I hated Villanova then as much as I do now (I later became a Penn alum). But, Second, because Villanova’s Howard Porter was later declared ineligible due to using a pro agent (he was entertaining offers from the ABA and NBA), Villanova forfeited all of its NCAA games.
Consequently, as is well known and noted in Wikipedia, Penn never actually lost the last game, the NCAA Regional Final, because they played against a team with an ineligible Professional Player who had already signed a pro contract. “As a result of the Villanova’s forfeit to Penn, the 1971 Penn Quakers are the only team in NCAA History to go undefeated and not win the national championship….. Villanova was disqualified after the tournament for having an ineligible player, Howard Porter, who had signed with an agent prior to the tournament…Villanova’s first place finish in the east regional was relinquished to Penn, with the regional consolation game (3rd place) winner, Fordham (coached by Digger Phelps, a former Penn assistant coach), receiving 2nd place.” SEE 1971 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Tournament. Consequently, the University of PA Men’s Basketball Team of 1970-71 not only went 29-0, but they remain, to this day, the only team in NCAA history to go undefeated and not win an national title.
As usual, Villanova cheated to win that game, is the point.
One might add to this that Coach Amaker at Harvard has already been cited twice, once two years ago, and again this year, for recruiting violations. Penn has always run a clean program and has never been accused of recruiting violations at any time.
And nicer guys than Steve Bilsky of the 71′ team, Tony Price from the 79 Final Four team, or Jerome Allen from the 93-94 Ivy Champs who last won an NCAA team, I don’t think you will find.
Penn Hoops is class, tradition and fair play. All the way.
And the Palestra is the world’s best place to see a hoops game.
I played for Jim Wolf @ Marple Newtown in ’75. He was a class act and a great mentor. To me, this was the golden age of basketball in Phila. The Big Five was certainly a dominant league during this era. I recently visited Howard Porter’s grave here in Orlando. So sad…
wasn’t it ’71(or maybe ’69) that Penn played stall ball against villanova with steve bilsky taking the winning shot to beat ‘nova 31-29. Bilsky & Dave Wohl as guards,the rest of the team was no fluke with Bob Morse,corky Calhoun, jim wolf, craig littlepage(?), they had a great team but rematch with villanova was incredible. Howard Porter said in interview with Whitey Rigsby that ‘Nova team was not looking for revenge,but if there were 3-point shooting then, entire ‘Nova team could shoot from the outside.
Pingback: A look back at the most memorable Penn-Harvard basketball games | Penn Gazette Sports