Skip to main content

30 Years ago Today



The Dawn of Madness
30 Years Ago, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson clashed for the NCAA title and changed basketball forever
March 26, 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the epic NCAA championship clash between Larry Bird of Indiana State and Magic Johnson of Michigan State.

March Madness was in full swing in 1979 when the Michigan State Spartans locked horns with the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores in the NCAA basketball title game. Featuring two future NBA superstars, the championship game proved to be one of the most heralded in college basketball history.

The Michigan State Spartans, of the powerful Big Ten conference, were led by a flashy, gregarious point guard who represented black and urban America. On the other side, the unheralded Indiana State Sycamores had gone 33-0 on the back of the reclusive “hick from French Lick” who represented white and small town America.

On Monday night, March 26, 1979, Indiana State and Michigan State met for the NCAA basketball championship in Salt Lake City. The place was buzzing with excitement, as a capacity crowd of 15,410 fans packed the Events Center at the University of Utah.

It was the MSU Spartans who took command early, rolling to a 37-28 advantage at halftime. The numbers told the story, with Michigan State shooting 52 percent from the field and the Sycamores 38 percent.

The second half didn't prove to be much better for Indiana State, as the Spartan defense continued to bottle up Larry Bird while Magic Johnson, Greg Kelser and Terry Donnelly put the necessary tallies on the board. At one point, the Sycamores managed to pull within six, but that's the closest they got, as Bird could only manage seven of 21 from the field and hand out two assists.

When the final buzzer sounded, the score stood Michigan State 75, Indiana State 64. Magic Johnson, who scored 24 points in the title game, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.


The final game marked the beginning of the rivalry between future Hall of Famers. To this day, it remains the highest-rated game in the history of televised college basketball. Both Magic and Bird would enter the NBA in the fall of 1979, and the rivalry between them and their teams (respectively, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics) was a major factor in the league's renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MICE at Apsara Angkor Resort and Conference Center

Photo: Standard room; bath MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions. It’s an important industry because  MICE  visitors are usually on business and often spend more than leisure travelers. Meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions, or Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) is a type of tourism in which large groups, usually planned well in advance, are brought together for a particular purpose. Meeting  – Is a general term indicating the coming together of a number of people in one place, to confer or carry out a particular activity.  Incentive  – Meeting event as part of a programme which is offered to its participants to reward a previous performance. Conference  – Participatory meeting designed for discussion, fact-finding, problem solving and consultation. As compared with a congress, a conference is normally smaller in scale and more select in character – features which tend to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cause and Effect

It's because the earth continues to wobble on its axis that we continue to stumble down the streets of the heart. It's because of the loneliness of the first cell trying to swim through its primordial pool that we are filled with a kind of galactic fear. For example: one moment a rocket falls capriciously into a square. Another moment, a rogue wave turns over the fishing boat whose crew leaves their memories floating like an oil slick that never reaches shore. In this way we understand our dying loves scratching at the door. In this way, each love creates its own theory of pain. Each love gnaws the derelict hours to the bone. But because there are so many blank spaces in history we still have time to write our own story. Wittgenstein said our words have replaced our emotions. He never understood how we have to cleanse ourselves of these invisible parasites of doubt and fear. We might as well worry about the signals from dead worlds wandering around the universe forever. Think i...
1 comment
Read more

Phrases for Public Speakers at Sea

by M. B. Powell We ought, first of all, to note her oceanic eyes flecked with sea wrack. And we should pause to consider the wavy wilderness of her damp hair. I will not dwell on her cheeks ruddy under my thumbstrokes. I will not attempt to explain the shapely abalone shells of her ears. I wish to call your attention to the cunning animal of her mouth, muscular. I wish to say something about the mollusky dark language of her kisses. I am obliged to mention her sudden breasts, breaching, rhythmic. And I am perfectly astounded at her finger charting my lips round her nipple. Here, in this connection, let us notice her nipple against the roof of my mouth. Here, in passing, let us observe ...
2 comments
Read more