UCLA Photography UCLA start Bill Walton dunks
over Memphis in the 1973 NCAA Championship game.
By Jackie Abellada
Daily Bruin Contributor
Not many UCLA students can remember the early 1970s. In fact,
most were not even born yet.
But ask any sports fanatics what is undoubtedly the best
performance of any collegiate basketball player in history and they
will likely point to a single game.
The date: 1973 ““ March 26 to be exact.
The match-up: UCLA against Memphis State for the 1973 NCAA
Tournament Championship.
The site: St. Louis, Mo.
The player: William “Bill” Walton.
His performance that day: 21-of-22 from the field (an incredible
95.5 percent), putting up a total of 44 points.
The result: 87-66 in favor of the Bruins.
In a single game, the San Diego native had etched his name and
his 6-foot-11 image in the NCAA championship record books for
having the most field goals made, the highest field goal
percentage, and the most points scored.
“Coach Wooden tells me that he always thought I was a
great basketball player until I missed that one shot,” Walton
said.
Many of the players on the court that historic day did not even
realize what he had done. It was not until the final buzzer had
sounded and the official box score was announced that they grasped
Walton’s personal performance.
“I would always play on the other side of the court from
Bill so that I would get the rebound when he missed,” said
then-Bruin forward Larry Farmer. “That game, I just remember
thinking that I did not get that many rebounds.”
Farmer had only two boards that night.
Even John Wooden had not noticed the magnitude of Walton’s
offensive output during the contest. According to Wooden, he just
knew that Walton, his junior center, was making a tremendous amount
of shots.
“Sometimes I would tease him about that one shot he had
missed,” laughed Wooden, the Bruins’ head coach from
1948-75. “I would tell him, “˜If you could make all
those other shots, how could you miss that one?’
“He was also 2-of-5 from the line, so he missed those
too.”
Walton had not only helped seal a perfect 30-0 record for the
Bruins for the second year in a row but also lifted UCLA to its
seventh straight NCAA championship.
“Coach Wooden told us to think like champions, act like
champions, work like champions, and you’ll be like
champions,” Walton said.
However, the victory was not easy for the Bruins despite the
21-point margin. At halftime, the two teams were tied at 39
apiece.
According to Farmer, it was the closest game the Bruins had
played the entire season.
But Walton was just too much for Memphis State.
“We tried everything on him ““ we had players
double-teaming him, we even put players in front and in back of
him,” said Gene Bartow, who coached Memphis State from 1970
to 74 and later at UCLA from 1975 to 77. “But somehow they
always found a way to get the ball to him.”
Almost 30 years have passed and people still talk about the game
where Walton was nearly ““ and to many was ““
unstoppable.
With the 2002 March Madness just a couple days away, it is hard
not to think about previous NCAA Tournaments.
And that day definitely tops the charts.
“I think it is the best performance of any player in the
NCAA championship game,” Bartow said.
Enough said.