Sunday, March 3, 2013

A Real Piece of History


This is the longest clip I've ever seen from Western Kentucky's epic win over Kentucky in the 1971 NCAA Tournament.  The video quality isn't all that great, but until today I didn't even know this much footage of that game existed.

5 comments:

  1. This is phenomenal. It appears as though an early adopter of video-recording technology captured the game on tape, as, about 16 minutes in, there's a moment where the channel is changed to an episode of Here's Lucy.

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    1. I'm assuming that was your favorite moment of the video.

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    2. I do love that show, and I was sorry to see Hulu.com shift it from its free to its fee-based streaming offerings.

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  2. Some of the things that strike me about this:

    -- Jim McDaniels picked up his third foul fairly early in the first half. Well, he finished the game with four fouls--and 35 points and 11 rebounds. McDaniels made 11 of 11 free-throw attempts.

    -- All of these guys are really, really great offensive basketball players. All of them. Check out how beautiful and intricate this WKU possession is. In this game, WKU hit 42 of 83 field-goal attempts (50.6 percent) and 23 of 30 free throws (73.3 percent); UK, 33 of 74 (44.6 percent) and 17 of 25 (68 percent). When these two teams played in the NCAA tournament last season, WKU made 25 of 63 field-goal tries (39.7 percent) and 10 of 16 free throws (62.5 percent); UK, 30 of 54 (55.6 percent) and 18 of 25 (72 percent). By and large, that's a lot better and, certainly, a lot more offense.

    -- Three of UK's starters were from Kentucky (Tom Payne of Louisville Shawnee, Jim Dinwiddie of Leitchfield and Mike Casey of Shelby County). In addition, three of the reserves who played were also from Kentucky (Terry Mills from Barbourville Knox Central, Stan Key from Calloway County and Larry Stamper from Lee County). I wasn't able to quickly find the WKU roster, but at least two of the starters--the Tops' two highest scorers in this game--were from Kentucky (McDaniels of Scottsville and Jim Rose of Hazard). In last season's game, none of UK's starters and two of WKU's were from Kentucky. George Fant, a nephew of McDaniels, went to Warren Central High in Bowling Green, and Jamal Crook started out at Louisville Ballard before transferring to a high school in Las Vegas and then a Maine prep school.

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  3. And now the video is gone! GONE! What a gift that we got to glimpse that thing for the short time it was available.

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