Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

[NMSooner'80]

The dunk was banned in college and high school basketball between 1968-76. It seems hard to believe now. I always thought it was something done to punish teams with dominant big men like Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). The dunk was reinstated in time for my freshman year of college (fall of '76).

I did see three live OU games in the conference season of '76. OU had a smallish team that season, so dunking was barely an option for that crew. But, OU had some guys coming in as freshmen who could throw it down (Al Beal and Clifford Johnson come to mind), so I did see plenty of them until graduation and beyond.

Blake Griffin remains the best dunker at OU, in my opinion. I'm trying to think back to some other fantastic slammers - so I came up with Calvin Pierce, Mike Bell, Skeeter Henry, Harvey Grant, and of course, Wayman Tisdale and Stacey King. I'm not trying to name all of them, of course, but just winging a few since I started seeing OU games in person.

 

[tmeyer3307]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Willie Warren was pretty solid for a guard.

 

[opsooner]

It seems like Calvin Pierce’s only shot was the one-handed dunk and it didn’t matter who was in front of him. If you were brave enough to take the charge you were going to pay for it. I miss those days.

I like your list and would also put Al Beal and Choo Kennedy on it. Taylor Griffin also had a few impressive dunks.

I remember watching games on TV when they use to just drop it in but never saw one live.


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[Salt City Sooner]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Angelo Hamilton in Durham anyone?

 

[WichitaSooner]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Angelo Hamilton in Durham anyone?

Great memory! And we almost won the game...I remember Curry shooting a couple incredibly deep threes that did not meet with approval from the ESPN crew lol. He was 25 years ahead of his time in that respect.

 

[thebigabd]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Why was there a dunk ban? My first thought, given the era, was that racism was at play because the black players could dunk.

Is that what happened?

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

https://www.try3steps.com/2018/03/ans-ncaa-once-banned-what-basketball.html

Dunks: For more than a decade, the NCAA prohibited players from performing dunks. The league's rules committee officially launched the ban during the 1967-1968 season and kept the prohibition until 1977. Why did the NCAA outlaw the dunk? Over the course of the 1965-1966 season, league medical personnel recorded 1,500 incidents in which players were injured after colliding with the backboard. The committee believed the ban would prevent such incidents. However, many college basketball fans speculate that the NCAA instituted the prohibition due to then-UCLA star and eventual NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who enjoyed posterizing opponents.

When college basketball outlawed the dunk
https://www.philly.com/philly/sport...hen_college_basketball_outlawed_the_dunk.html

[excerpt] ... A few seconds into Texas Western's socially significant victory over Kentucky in 1966's NCAA championship game, David "Big Daddy" Lattin slammed home a dunk over Wildcats star Pat Riley.

Adolph Rupp, the coach of all-white Kentucky, grimaced. He hated the dunk, thought it was an affront to fundamental basketball.

On the other bench, coach Don Haskins, no less a stickler for X's and O's, relished the psychological message Lattin's emphatic basket had delivered.

"[Haskins] was very strict about some things," said Orsten Artis, one of Texas Western's groundbreaking five black starters that day. "You couldn't go behind your back or between your legs. But he loved the dunk."

Unfortunately, not many coaches or administrators shared Haskins' delight. And within a year the NCAA rules committee, many of its members contemporaries and friends of Rupp's, outlawed the dunk.

***************

 

[usedtobe1]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

I remember it well. I graduated from OU in ‘69.

Dunking was outlawed in warmups until a couple of years ago. When I refereed HS ball, when we were ready to come out on the floor, we would crack open the door and blow a whistle loud to warn the players to quit dunking. We would then wait about 10 seconds before coming out. Nobody wanted a technical foul for dunking before the game or second half.

 

[vbdad]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

I saw some as a kid. It took awhile for players to start dunking with much regularity after it was reinstated. The Lousiville teams were very good at it with Darrell Griffith called Dr. Dunkenstein. Obviously Phi Slamma Jamma then went crazy with them.

Calvin Pierce had a knack for the follow slam coming from the free throw area. Of course with three guys always guarding Wayman there wasn't anybody left to block him out. He was extremely strong.

Shawn Clark got higher than anybody I can remember at OU. He posterized Dave Hoppen in Lincoln as well as anybody has ever been dunked on.

Anthony Bowie had some great dunks. HIs follow against Georgia Tech and Mark Price is easily one of the top 5 loudest moments in the LNC.

 

[NMSooner'80]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

I remember it well. I graduated from OU in ‘69.

Dunking was outlawed in warmups until a couple of years ago. When I refereed HS ball, when we were ready to come out on the floor, we would crack open the door and blow a whistle loud to warn the players to quit dunking. We would then wait about 10 seconds before coming out. Nobody wanted a technical foul for dunking before the game or second half.

I think the rule has been relaxed some on grabbing the rim on a dunk, or at least amended so a guy can grab the rim to avoid injury. When OU played Indiana State in the 1979 Sweet 16, OU tried the high lob (McCullough to Beal), and it resulted in a T on Beal when Larry Bird undercut him going to the hoop. I had a class with Beal that semester, and he was still mad about it when we all got back from spring break.

I also knew a high school coach in small-town New Mexico who banned it on his teams for years, even when he had some kids who could dunk. His rationale was that he didn't want to get beat on a missed dunk / technical foul, because he saw it happen once. He finally eased up on that rule in '83, and he had some kids who got some "showtime slams" in home games that caused that small-town gym to rock.

In OU's first season after the dunk reinstatement ('76-77), Clifford Johnson was the first guy to use it much. But Beal had maybe the best one in '77 Bedlam when he posterized a skinny 7-footer from OSU, seconds after he blocked the same kid's lame attempt at a sky hook.

 

[sanguinetti]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Anthony Bowie had some great dunks. HIs follow against Georgia Tech and Mark Price is easily one of the top 5 loudest moments in the LNC.

Bowie was a guy i was going to mention. i remember one against Mizzou on the road (since i saw it on TV at my high school buddy's house, i remember)....Tisdale had the ball in the low post and 3 of Norm's goons D) collapsed on him...and AB was streaking down the lane and Tis dropped it off to him....tomahawk. lots of Sooner high 5's going back down the court.

 

[sybarite]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Willie Wilson, 63-65

 

[sybarite]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

During my grad school years, the dunk was banned. There was a guy, Alvan Adams, who still did quite well. I think the inability to dunk probably made Randy Gregory ineffective as a college scorer. He could get into position to shoot, but about the only way he could hit would have been a dunk. Probably could have been a 16 ppg scorer if the dunk had been allowed.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Mike "Helicopter" Bell .. 1988, 89

Jackie Jones .. 1990

 

[brsooner]

Re: Who else saw a live college BB game during the "dunk ban" period?

Glass backboards with fixed rims broke easily and were expensive, plus dangerous.