RU to honor Valvano, Lloyd, and the 1967 team...

[ecojew]

...at the Seton Hall game in early December per this link that I happened to see while trying to access an article mentioned on a wrestling thread.


http://www.mycentraljersey.com/stor...egacy-rutgers-honor-1967-hoops-team/75169058/


Everybody knows about Jimmy V but perhaps fewer know about Bobby Lloyd, who was a first-team All-American and the leading scorer on the 1966 - 67 team that was RU's first ever basketball team to play into the post-season. The team finished 3rd in the NIT that year, but before everyone pooh-poohs that as an insignificant achievement, you have to realize that in 1967, the NCAA had just 23 teams, including several from conferences that would today be called "mid-majors", and the NIT had 14. There were no at-large NCAA bids for second place teams in a conference so several of them - ranked in the Top 20 (it was just a top 20 at the time). So an NIT bid for a school whose schedule was still loaded with games against Lafayette, Lehigh, Colgate, Bucknell, etc. was quite an achievement but the achievement grew in stature as "NIT week" unfolded at the old MSG in March of 1967. RU fans packed the Garden for a Saturday night game against #14 Utah State and Rutgers won the game by just 2 points in one of the most exciting games I have ever witnessed in person. The atmosphere at the Garden was unbelievable - the NY press was commenting on it throughout the week. But things got better when RU knocked off #13 New Mexico on Tuesday night setting up a match against Walt Frazier-led SIU on Thursday, a game which sold out so quickly that many of us couldn't even buy tickets. In the end, RU lost a very competitive game but went on to claim 3rd place by defeating Marshall before another packed house. Lloyd scored an NIT record 129 points for the tournament, a record that would stand for years afterward, probably for at least as long as the teams played just four games in a 14 or 16 team field.

Overall, that team generated more excitement on campus than anything up till the unbeaten team of 1976, and quite possibly than anything since 1976 (even 1989, since that took a great while for the excitement to build).

Unfortunately, I will be out in CA that week and won't be able to attend but I hope that many do go and give the 1966-7 team the props it deserves for literally putting RU basketball on the map and showing the great potential the program has always had, though it has mostly gone unfulfilled. For me personally, that team provided me with one of my best all-time memories of Rutgers sports, and, since I don't really follow pro sports much at all, of sports in general.

 

[skeeter70]

Yep..I was there as a RU freshman and remember it well..If there were a 3point line Bobby Lloyd would have scored 200..He had a picture perfect release and along with Jimmy V. almost unstoppable. Hard to believe it was almost a half century ago.Thanks for sharing the memory..

 

[shields]

Great to read this. Would also like RU to have a Roy hinson night or John Battle night. honor some of our great players.

 

[RutgersMO]

I was there. Remember beating NYU at the Garden earlier that year when they had a great player named Mal Graham.

We were UP on SIU by double digits at the half....but lost by around 10 (not googling). But SIU also had Garret (another NBA'er).

Why did it take so long for RU to honor this team: long overdue ?


MO
PS Lloyd was FIRST TEAM AA (AP?)...along with Walker from Providence and Lew Alcindor from UCLA.

 

[knights1212]

We should realize that at the time when the NCAA took only 3 teams the league tournaments meant everything. Sometimes a team in the top 5 or 10 in the country would lose in their league tournament and not go to the NCAA and would wind up in the NIT. Today that pressure isn't there as many leagues get several teams in the tournament. In the 60's only one team from each league made it.

 

[RutgersMO]

We should realize that at the time when the NCAA took only 3 teams the league tournaments meant everything. Sometimes a team in the top 5 or 10 in the country would lose in their league tournament and not go to the NCAA and would wind up in the NIT. Today that pressure isn't there as many leagues get several teams in the tournament. In the 60's only one team from each league made it.

USC had teams that were 24-2 (Mo Layton- NJ product / Spoon Riley) / they sat and watched UCLA rack up another NCAA Championship.

MO
PS USC's only two loses were to UCLA.

 

[MSRU71]

Ahh, great memories. I started RU in 67. I followed Bobby Lloyd in the Teaneck Armory where he played for the Jersey Americans before they became the nets. Valvano became our freshman coach (in those days you couldn't play varsity until you sophomore year). In order to get a seat in the Barn, you had to get their early, while the freshman game was going on. Valvano was worth the price of admission. He was out of his mind nuts on the sidelines. We loved him.

I remember one of the games at the RAC, when that team was honored at halftime. Valvano had everyone cracking up the a line that went something like this. "Here I am, after 25 years, and I am still waiting for a return pass from Bobby."

I never would have imagined back then that RU would be though of more as a football school, than Basketball.

 

[CoralKnight]

...at the Seton Hall game in early December per this link that I happened to see while trying to access an article mentioned on a wrestling thread.


http://www.mycentraljersey.com/stor...egacy-rutgers-honor-1967-hoops-team/75169058/


Everybody knows about Jimmy V but perhaps fewer know about Bobby Lloyd, who was a first-team All-American and the leading scorer on the 1966 - 67 team that was RU's first ever basketball team to play into the post-season. The team finished 3rd in the NIT that year, but before everyone pooh-poohs that as an insignificant achievement, you have to realize that in 1967, the NCAA had just 23 teams, including several from conferences that would today be called "mid-majors", and the NIT had 14. There were no at-large NCAA bids for second place teams in a conference so several of them - ranked in the Top 20 (it was just a top 20 at the time). So an NIT bid for a school whose schedule was still loaded with games against Lafayette, Lehigh, Colgate, Bucknell, etc. was quite an achievement but the achievement grew in stature as "NIT week" unfolded at the old MSG in March of 1967. RU fans packed the Garden for a Saturday night game against #14 Utah State and Rutgers won the game by just 2 points in one of the most exciting games I have ever witnessed in person. The atmosphere at the Garden was unbelievable - the NY press was commenting on it throughout the week. But things got better when RU knocked off #13 New Mexico on Tuesday night setting up a match against Walt Frazier-led SIU on Thursday, a game which sold out so quickly that many of us couldn't even buy tickets. In the end, RU lost a very competitive game but went on to claim 3rd place by defeating Marshall before another packed house. Lloyd scored an NIT record 129 points for the tournament, a record that would stand for years afterward, probably for at least as long as the teams played just four games in a 14 or 16 team field.

Overall, that team generated more excitement on campus than anything up till the unbeaten team of 1976, and quite possibly than anything since 1976 (even 1989, since that took a great while for the excitement to build).

Unfortunately, I will be out in CA that week and won't be able to attend but I hope that many do go and give the 1966-7 team the props it deserves for literally putting RU basketball on the map and showing the great potential the program has always had, though it has mostly gone unfulfilled. For me personally, that team provided me with one of my best all-time memories of Rutgers sports, and, since I don't really follow pro sports much at all, of sports in general.

Great Memories. Just a few more.

the '67 NIT was the last to be played at the old MSG on 8th Avenue between 49th & 50th streets.

In Lloyd's first year in the ABA with the NJ Americans, I remember listening to Spencer Ross as he described Lloyd being ejected from a game for a fight with an opposing player named Larry Brown. Ever hear of him ??

In '69, my senior year, and Lloyd's last year in the league, the Americans moved out on Long Island to the Commack Arena and became the NY Nets. Together with a friend, I drove 90 miles from New Brunswick to see a game vs. the Indiana Pacers. The 4,000 seat arena was also home to the LI Ducks hockey team. The basketball court was placed on top of the ice . Since the court was shorter than an ice rink, the ball boys had to skoot onto the ice to retrieve any ball that went over the endline. The arena temperature was kept at about 50 degrees to keep the ice from melting and all the players on the sidelines were wearing winter coats on top of their uniforms.

 

[cubuffsdoug]

Ahh, great memories. I started RU in 67. I followed Bobby Lloyd in the Teaneck Armory where he played for the Jersey Americans before they became the nets. Valvano became our freshman coach (in those days you couldn't play varsity until you sophomore year). In order to get a seat in the Barn, you had to get their early, while the freshman game was going on. Valvano was worth the price of admission. He was out of his mind nuts on the sidelines. We loved him.

I remember one of the games at the RAC, when that team was honored at halftime. Valvano had everyone cracking up the a line that went something like this. "Here I am, after 25 years, and I am still waiting for a return pass from Bobby."

I never would have imagined back then that RU would be though of more as a football school, than Basketball.

Perhaps, the Nets were doomed from the start. They were always second class to the Knicks and just about everywhere they played (Armory in Teaneck, & Commack Arena in LI) was a step below pro expectations. Heck, I believe their first ever home preseason game took place at Hackensack High School's newly opened 3000 seat gym and they weren't the last pro team (Atlanta Hawks) to use the gym. Anyone who was a fan of the American could listen to the games on a radio station out of Hackensack-WJRZ, which had a broadcast ratio of 10 miles.[roll] The Nets have come a long way from those days.

 

[TDIrish27]

I was in college then and made a trip or two on weekends to see the Pacers play in Indy.

Hey------ anything to get out of SB on a weekend-----and if you wanted to go to Chicago you needed to have cash.

Roger Brown played for the Pacers-----he was tremendous.

 

[ecojew]

RU hadn't played at the Garden in decades because "it wasn't good enough" but during that magical 1966-7 season, we had two games scheduled there. The first was against Mizzou, which we won, + the second was the game against NYU and its great star Graham. But Lloyd stole the show that night by going 19 for 19 from the foul line, extending his foul shooting streak which would eventually reach 60 consecutive free throws made. I'm pretty sure that was an NCAA record. Anyone know if it still stands?

I also was a freshman that year, starting out with the celebration of RU's bicentennial.

 

[RUPete]

USC had teams that were 24-2 (Mo Layton- NJ product / Spoon Riley) / they sat and watched UCLA rack up another NCAA Championship.

MO
PS USC's only two loses were to UCLA.

Wow, now that's frustrating.

 

[ecojew]

"Wow, now that's frustrating."

Yes, it is and to make matters worse, the Pac-8 (I think it was still just 8, before the AZ schools joined) did not permit its second place finisher to go to the NIT! There were a few other leagues that held off for awhile on that decision too, including the B1G, which also did not allow its teams to go to any bowl other than the Rose! It was a different world.

IIRC, the NCAA did not expand to 32 teams until the 1974-5 season, which was the first year that RU qualified for the dance by defeating St. John's for the ECAC-Metro championship and went on to lose to Louisville in Tulsa (or somewhere out there in Oklahoma). When the tournament was still just 23 teams, several major conference champions (ACC, B1G, SEC, Big 8, PAC8, and possibly 2 others - maybe the SWC and WAC?)had first-round byes that took them right into the Sweet 16! The 23 bids included bids to champions of the OVC, MAC, Southern, Ivy League, Mid-Atlantic, Big Sky, Missouri Valley, + WCC conferences (I'm probably forgetting a couple) who would be seen as mid-majors today. And there were 5 or 6 bids for "independents", three of which were reserved for eastern independents. Those went to BC, St. John's, and UConn in 1967. So that is why there were so many good teams in the NIT back then. And it was all played in New York, which was great for RU fans.

 

[BoroKnight]

That 1975 game was definitely in Tulsa. My first exact memory of Rutgers basketball (aside from the vague ones of watching them on the "TVS Game of the Week" back then, when, despite living ONE town over, I had no idea where College Avenue was) was watching a very fuzzy TV picture of Rutgers playing Louisville.

Even in the later 70s, when the fields expanded -- slightly, as it turns out -- the NIT still was a pretty big deal. But by then, "getting" to the Garden was the accomplishment since they moved to campus sites for earlier rounds.

And yes, it's is FAR overdue to honor the team that basically started Rutgers basketball. And growing up in the 70s and graduating high school the same year we went 22-9 and then won a tournament game before losing to top-seeded St. John's in 1983, it's still hard to believe we have been down for so long.

Reminding people of when we were good can't be a bad thing.

 

[Joey Bacala]

Indiana celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the undefeated 76 team this year as we celebrate the 49th anniversary of the 67 team. Party on.

 

[ecojew]

RU could also celebrate the anniversary of its undefeated 75-76 team, at least going into the Final 4. I don't know if your comment was intended as a slight but the efforts of that '67 team were very significant to the program's history and led RU onto a big-time stage in college sports for the first time ever. To me that is worth celebrating.

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Somehow our mommies let a bunch of 13 year old Highland Park boys take the train and go to the Garden to watch Lloyd , Valvano and friends. I remember one of my buddies wondering why we had no black players while all of the non southern teams did.. Times have changed in 50 years huh? Lloyd had as sweet a stroke as I ever seen to this day and Valvano was an animal. I may have eaten as many hot dogs as Joey Chestnut that night.. :smiley:

 

[cRURah]

I was a junior that year. Attended every game at the Barn and every game at the NIT except Southern Illinois with Walt Frazier in the semis. We saw that game on a huge video screen in the Barn. I remember sleeping in line at the Barn to get tickets to the NIT. It was often said we had the best set of guards in the country that year. Bobby L was a true superstar who hit something like 100 foul shouts in a row setting the NCAA record. As the team did well over the course of the season, fans in the Barn chanted "NIT, NIT, NIT" non-stop and the sound was deafening. Back then RU was a true basketball school.