NMSooner'80
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The first year of OU men's basketball at the Lloyd Noble Center was the '75-76 season. The guys missed Alvan Adams that year (he went pro a year early), and they had only three non-conference games (losses). Their only home league game was a loss to KSU.
At the time, I was a senior in high school, and I finally just decided I wanted to see what was shockingly my first-ever live college basketball game. My folks went to OU when there was only one basketball team, and they were lousy. Wrestling was a far bigger deal at OU in their day, so they hadn't developed any interest in driving to Norman to watch hoops.
I was 18 and decided to be my own person and drive up with my eventual freshman roommate to a Saturday night game with OSU. It was a game that I figured OU had a shot to win, plus the '75 OU football team was going to receive its national championship trophies. It was the night of Jan. 31, 1976.
The '76 team was severely undersized but started showing improvement before it got to Bedlam. Back then, there was no dunking allowed in the college game, although OU only had one guy who could have probably done much dunking anyway (a forward named Billy Graham). A couple of freshmen guards, John McCullough and Cary Carrabine, started finding open shots that night against the Pokes, and OU rolled to a 57-42 win.
Although the crowd mainly showed up to see the halftime football trophy ceremony, the fans got into the spirited second-half effort by OU. It was a good first game to see live, and the atmosphere became pretty "big time" as the OU lead grew. The whole experience inspired many folks to start coming back for games like the Mizzou game a couple of weeks later. That was when OU shocked the defending league champs, who wound up barely missing out on a Final Four slot later in '76.
It was a different time for college basketball in the state. I will admit that I didn't get too motivated to drive up by myself to see a game at the OU Field House before the LNC opened. Back then, there was no Imhoff Road connection to Chatauqua from Jenkins, and parking wasn't always done on pavement for the bigger games between then and the '78-79 season.
Hard to believe that it'll be the 46th anniversary of the first-ever LNC win for OU men's basketball. It's almost as hard for me to believe that I'd never been to a live college basketball game before that night of Bedlam.
At the time, I was a senior in high school, and I finally just decided I wanted to see what was shockingly my first-ever live college basketball game. My folks went to OU when there was only one basketball team, and they were lousy. Wrestling was a far bigger deal at OU in their day, so they hadn't developed any interest in driving to Norman to watch hoops.
I was 18 and decided to be my own person and drive up with my eventual freshman roommate to a Saturday night game with OSU. It was a game that I figured OU had a shot to win, plus the '75 OU football team was going to receive its national championship trophies. It was the night of Jan. 31, 1976.
The '76 team was severely undersized but started showing improvement before it got to Bedlam. Back then, there was no dunking allowed in the college game, although OU only had one guy who could have probably done much dunking anyway (a forward named Billy Graham). A couple of freshmen guards, John McCullough and Cary Carrabine, started finding open shots that night against the Pokes, and OU rolled to a 57-42 win.
Although the crowd mainly showed up to see the halftime football trophy ceremony, the fans got into the spirited second-half effort by OU. It was a good first game to see live, and the atmosphere became pretty "big time" as the OU lead grew. The whole experience inspired many folks to start coming back for games like the Mizzou game a couple of weeks later. That was when OU shocked the defending league champs, who wound up barely missing out on a Final Four slot later in '76.
It was a different time for college basketball in the state. I will admit that I didn't get too motivated to drive up by myself to see a game at the OU Field House before the LNC opened. Back then, there was no Imhoff Road connection to Chatauqua from Jenkins, and parking wasn't always done on pavement for the bigger games between then and the '78-79 season.
Hard to believe that it'll be the 46th anniversary of the first-ever LNC win for OU men's basketball. It's almost as hard for me to believe that I'd never been to a live college basketball game before that night of Bedlam.
