I've been enjoying the NCAA basketball tournament more than usual this year. That's because the Loyola of Chicago Ramblers have been shocking the basketball world, and after their win last night, they've made it to the Final Four. For most people, this is notable because Loyola of Chicago is not known as a major basketball powerhouse. (To be clear, it's not as tiny a school as people might think. Undergrad enrollment is 16,500, which is twice the enrollment at Northwestern.) But for me, it's not only notable, but highly-notable for another reason. It's not just that Loyola is just about two miles down the road from Northwestern -- literally. (Both schools are on Sheridan Road. Northwestern in Evanston borders Chicago about a mile to the north of Howard St. -- which is the dividing line -- and Loyola is about a mile south of Howard Street. But one of the iconic sports memories of my life concerns Loyola basketball. I was but a wee kid at the time, but even then I knew it was something really special when Loyola of Chicago shocked the basketball world (the first time...) back in 1963 when they made it to the NCAA basketball finals. And it was all the more shocking because four of their five starting players were black, led by All American Jerry Harkness. They weren't given any chance against their opponents, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, since Cincinnati was not only the defending national champions -- but they were the two-time defending national champions. And yet...Loyola won. In overtime. On what was literally a last-second shot. Despite being behind by 15 points with about 10 minutes left. I don't remember much of the game (I didn't remember any of those details above, but was reminded of them when tracking down this video below), but I knew enough even at that young age that when I was watching on our old black-and-white set, this was pretty amazing. It helped, too, when you could hear the Loyola announcer Red Rush screaming "We won!! We won!!! And now, I wasn't just a fair-weather fan. I followed all the Chicago teams, including the DePaul Blue Demons and their legendary coach Ray Meyer, and Loyola was especially fun to listen to because Red Rush was a reasonably-outlandish announcer. I remember that their games were sponsored by Gonnella Bread -- easy to remember because Red would loving boom out their slogan, "Gonnella, it's swella, fella." And I've always remembered Loyola's coach, George Ireland. I listened to Northwestern basketball, too, but...well, they sucked eggs. As you may recall, up until last year they were the only major college team never to have qualified for the post-season tournament in the history of the NCAA. It was a notable tournament that year for another reason. That was the year that Mississippi State played in the NCAA post-season tourney for the first time, having avoided it in the past, despite being a very good team, since that would have meant playing integrated teams. And in their very first NCAA tournament game, Mississippi State's opponent was...the Loyola Ramblers. From what I've read, it's one of the most-famous games in NCAA history, known as the Game of Change. And Loyola, of course, won -- "of course," because they had to have won all their tournament games that year, given that they won the championship... This is a very good 30-minute documentary on Loyola's 1963 championship season, made by Comcast Sports. It focuses on that Game of Change and the championship game. If you only want to see the coverage of the final game, just jump to the 22-minute mark. (Loyola is wearing the white uniforms.) The fun thing, too, is you get to hear Red Rush's wildly-excited play-by-play, including his screaming of "We won!! We won!!" Alas, not a word about Gonnella Bread. But it is swella, fella. (And still is, after 130 years...)
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From the archives. This week's contestant is Stacy Fahrion from Denver, Colorado. The hidden song was on the tip of my tongue, and I knew I knew it, but I just couldn't place it. And then I did. Some will likely get it far earlier than I did, because the tip of their is much clearer. As for the composer style, it's one of those styles I just don't know well enough and mix-and-match about four or five different people. So, I didn't get it.
There was a March for Our Lives rally today in Santa Monica, which I was hoping to make. I had somewhere to be in the morning, but was able to get back in time around when it was beginning. I hadn't expected many to attend, given where it was held, but I was surprised by how jammed it was. If I had to estimate, there were maybe 1,500 people. (I think there were other rallies throughout Los Angeles, so that isn't the total for the city.) The best thing of all were how many kids were there, many pretty young, but most high school age.
The march began at 15th street on Montana Ave. and headed to the Pacific Ocean, where there were speeches on the Palisades. I couldn't really hear anything, so I wandered around a bit and headed back. In a perfect world, it would have been nice if a more visible location had been used. Montana Ave. is a nice, quiet street, sort of a boutique shopping around in Santa Monica that parallels between the far more busy Wilshire Blvd. to the south and San Vincente Blvd. a few blocks north. And the area of the Palisades was north of where most activity is. Of course, the reality is that most attention today was on Washington, and with other marches around the city, getting this many here was encouraging. This photo doesn't come close to doing the crowd justice, but it's the best I could do...
Following up in a way on the video I posted the other day from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which had references to The West Wing, I received the following from Shelly Goldstein. It was all the more pointed since the Lady Shellington and I used to have a fine tradition where we'd call one another after episodes of The West Wing and analyze the bejeepers out of it.
So, it was fun to see most of the cast reunited for this, though if you're going to reunite the cast of The West Wing -- or any show for that matter -- it would be nice if you actually showed them all together (which you would think would be the point) for more than about three seconds. That said, nice too is the appearance at the end of the video by Jason Kander, the nephew of my longtime Camp Nebagamon friend, John. (Who, in turn. is the nephew of the other "John," better known for writing the musicals Cabaret and Chicago.)
Well, this is odd. It comes from ABC's 50th anniversary special in 2003. Unfortunately it's not remotely as funny as it should be, but there are some good lines in it, and just the concept wins points. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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