Bulldogs bark 56 years later

Watching Drake play in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last weekend reminded me of my freshman college days in Indiana, when this Iowa boy followed Drake in the NCAA tournament.

It was March 20, 1969, and Drake was playing top-ranked UCLA in the Final Four in Louisville, Ky. Drake was a huge underdog to the Bruins, which at the time boasted the greatest basketball teams in college history. UCLA finally pulled out the last-minute victory, 85-82, to avoid the upset of the century. UCLA boasted a 29-1 record, its only loss to crosstown rival USC, 46-44, in the final game of the regular season.

John Wooden coached UCLA to an unbelievable 10 national championships in 12 years, a record that will probably stand forever. Wooden assembled some of the greatest talent from across the country, led by center Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

That was before every game was televised. The only way I could follow it was on WHO radio, “your 50,000 watt clear channel voice of the middle west.” Play-by-play was delivered by the incomparable Jim Zabel.

I couldn’t get a clear signal until I carried my transistor radio from my dorm room out to the third floor landing. I sat there listening in the dark all by myself, but as time went by and passing students heard the brewing upset, a crowd gathered around me and my little radio.

None of them were Iowans, but all of them quickly became Drake fans in the David vs Goliath contest, hoping the dominating Bruins would get their comeuppance.

In the end it didn’t work out that way, but coach Maury John and his Bulldogs gained a ton of respect and a lot of fans across the nation on that cold spring night.

Drake went on to beat another perennial powerhouse, North Carolina, 104-84 for third place and a 26-5 record that year.

Now Storm Lake’s own Ben McCollum is walking in Maury John’s footsteps at Drake. The first-year coach there has guided the Bulldogs to more victories — 30-3, as of this writing — than any other team in Division I this season. On Sunday Drake won the Missouri Valley Conference championship before a national TV audience by beating Bradley, and earned an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Don’t count Drake out in a fight with the big boys of basketball. Ben came to Drake this season after a stellar coaching career at Northwest Missouri State, where he led the Bearcats to four Division II national championships.

Ben’s mother Mary Timko and sister Mary Rose Ivey are leading the St. Mary’s graduate’s cheering section from Storm Lake now, along with his many hometown friends including Times Pilot general manager Jon Robinson. Jon was Ben’s college roommate at NIACC in Mason City, where Ben played basketball and Jon played baseball.

We won’t have to listen to a scratchy little transistor radio to follow Drake now, but we’re still rooting for the Bulldogs 56 years later.