Linkmeister

Radio days

I went down the hill to the store with 10 minutes left in the Butler-Kansas State game and got back home when there were still 3 minutes left. Considering it took me 25 minutes in real time, that says something about television timeouts.

I had the game on the radio in the car; I was reminded of another big game I had to listen to on the radio, since a) I was working and b) I was in Yokusuka, Japan. It was the 1974 Semi-final game between UCLA and North Carolina State.

N.C. State erased an 11-point deficit midway through the second half and a seven-point deficit in the second extra session behind David Thompson's 28 points and 10 rebounds to halt UCLA's string of seven consecutive NCAA championships.

I was crushed. I'd lived in UCLA's home town, Westwood, while Mom attended grad school there and was a huge UCLA fan. That double-overtime loss was devastating.

And nobody I worked with cared! In 1974 the term "March Madness" hadn't been invented, only conference champions went to the tournament, and there were only 25 teams involved. Most of the guys in the Navy enlisted ranks with whom I worked had no rooting interest in college teams. In fact, I think there were only two of us in an entire shift of 25 guys who had even attended college.

There I was, dying of anguish as David Thompson, Monty Towe and Tommy Burleson beat Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes. I was off in a corner of the room, surrounded by a dozen rattling teletype machines, and I had no one around who'd even say "hey, better luck next year."

That was a bad sports day.

Posted by Linkmeister at March 27, 2010 01:48 PM | TrackBack