Tuesday, March 14, 2000Wouldn't be 'just another game'
UC and OSU haven't played since '62 final
BY SCOTT MacGREGOR
The Cincinnati EnquirerGeorge Wilson remembers that it wasn't just another national championship game. Playing for the NCAA title alone isn't what made it so special.
It was for the national championship, versus Ohio State.
UC VS. OHIO STATE REVISITED • 1961: UC 70, OSU 65, overtime
The favored Buckeyes, the defending national champions, came in ranked No.1 in the nation; the Bearcats were No.2. UC coach Ed Jucker feared Ohio State would jump to a big lead, but the Bucks led only 39-38 at halftime in what the Enquirer described as “one of the most brilliantly played first halfs in national championship history.” Jerry Lucas had 18 points for Ohio State in the first 20 minutes.Carl Bouldin's shooting pushed UC to a 52-46 lead midway through the second half, but OSU came back to score 12 points in a row and regain the lead. The game went back-and-forth, with Tom Thacker putting UC ahead on a jumper with two minutes to play, only to have Ohio State's Bob Knight cut to the basket for a layup to tie it 61-61 with 1:40 left.
That set up a dramatic end to regulation. Cincinnati went into stall mode for the final possession, but Thacker's jumper missed, and Lucas rebounded for Ohio State, calling a timeout with two seconds left. Larry Siegfried threw the ball in to OSU's John Havlicek, who called a timeout with one second left. OSU tried to throw a lob into Lucas at the basket that was picked off by UC's Paul Hogue, forcing overtime.
In overtime, UC hit five free throws — three from Tony Yates — and Thacker's last-second jumper provided the final margin and the upset win. It ended Ohio State's winning streak at 31 games and was its only loss against 27 wins that season. It was UC's 22nd straight win, and the Bearcats finished 27-3.
• 1962: UC 71, Ohio State 59
Ohio State was again the nation's top-ranked team and UC was No.2. Lucas twisted his knee in the Buckeyes' semifinal win, limiting his effectiveness in the title game. He finished with 16 rebounds, but had only 11 points in his final college game.
UC dominated from the middle of the first half on, taking a 19-point lead at one point. Hogue, the tournament MVP, led UC with 22 points and 19 rebounds; Thacker had 21 points; Yates had 12.
Havlicek's jumper with nine minutes to play in the first half gave Ohio State a 23-22 lead, but UC countered with a Hogue hook shot, and the Bearcats never trailed again. Thacker followed with a jumper and Hogue, on his fourth try, scored. The Buckeyes never got within three again.
Ohio State (26-2) became the first team in NCAA history to lose two consecutive championship games. UC finished 29-2 in the best season in school history.
“We knew how important it was,” said Wilson, a sophomore center on the University of Cincinnati's 1962 title team that beat top-ranked Ohio State in the final for the second consecutive year. “Anytime you played Ohio State, it wasn't just another game.”
For the last 38 years, it hasn't been a game at all. But it may be next week.
Though they are separated by only 110 miles of Interstate 71 and are two of the more storied college basketball programs in the nation, UC and OSU haven't played since UC's 71-59 victory in that '62 championship game — a drought that could end next weekend if things fall into their proper place.
If No.2 seed UC and No.3 seed OSU each win their first two NCAA Tournament games in the South Region, they would meet either March 23 or 24 in the Sweet 16 in Austin, Texas.
“The whole state of Ohio would shut down that night,” Wilson said.
It is a bitter cold war that has raged for nearly four decades, and four decades before that. The schools have played only eight times in 95 years — the series is split four wins apiece — and haven't met in the regular season since 1921.
That '62 title matchup was the second straight year that UC, ranked No.2 in the nation both seasons, beat No.1 Ohio State, in the NCAA final.
UC won 70-65 in overtime in 1961, handing Ohio State its first loss and ending its winning streak at 31 games.
There has been much clam or from fans and the media to get the two teams together — Ohio Gov. Bob Taft even discussed the issue with UC athletic director Bob Goin at the Crosstown Shootout.
But OSU athletic director Andy Geiger said the only way they'll meet “is in a tournament like this.”
It's Ohio State that doesn't want to play. Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins said as far back as 1991, “I think (playing OSU) just makes sense.”
The Bearcats inquired about a series in the 1980s, but Ohio State would only play in Columbus.
“We've been ready, willing and able to play for 70 years,” as long as it's a home-and-home series, UC Sports Information Director Tom Hathaway said.
Most recently, UC suggested the possibility to Geiger when the schools met to discuss a football series in 1997.
But Geiger resisted the idea because OSU was in the middle of five losing seasons and UC had developed into a national powerhouse.
“I didn't think the program was ready,” Geiger said. “Each program needs to make its way in terms of building the type of program it wants to have, and you do that with your schedule book.”
In 1991, then-OSU coach Randy Ayers was cool to playing UC, despite the fact that the Buckeyes were the two-time Big Ten champions and the Bearcats hadn't yet risen back to prominence by making the 1992 Final Four.
There has also been talk that OSU won't play because of the Damon Flint incident in 1993 in which UC was accused of turning the Buckeyes in for recruiting violations.
Flint, a Cincinnati high school star, ended up at UC, but Cincinnati athletic officials swear they didn't turn Ohio State in.
Geiger, for his part, said the Flint fiasco has not played a role in his decision.
“We haven't played in the regular season since 1921,” he said. “That was before Damon Flint.”
But Geiger says a UC-OSU series could happen at some point.
“When we feel comfortable with a regular series that's not something that's bigger than life, we would approach the possibility for a game,” he said. But we consider the Big Ten conference where our major games are played, and should be played.”
But some former players believe this game should be played.
“It would be great,” Wilson said. “You could probably sell 30,000 tickets.”
Geiger insists despite the geographic proximity of the schools, it's not a natural rivalry.
But there is a rich history, and the names in the feud are legendary.
Back in the early 1960s, OSU and UC were two of the nation's top three programs, along with 1959 national champion California. UC made five consecutive Final Fours from 1959-63, winning two national titles.
Ohio State went to three straight Final Fours from 1960-62 behind Jerry Lucas, perhaps the greatest player in Big Ten history, and future Boston Celtics star John Havlicek.
Cincinnati had five players who were or would become All-Americans in guards Tom Thacker and Tony Yates and big men Paul Hogue, Ron Bonham and Wilson.
Ohio State had four in Lucas and Gary Bradds at center, Havlicek at forward and Larry Siegfried at guard.
The Bearcats' 1961 win was viewed as a fluke because Ohio State was the dominant team of the era and had the nation's best player in Lucas, who averaged 24.3 points and 17.2 rebounds for his career.
But UC players knew they had won that game on their own talent, and were out to prove it again the following year — which they did with a convincing 12-point win.
“That '60 Ohio State team, and our '62 team,” Wilson said, “I'd put them up against any team, anywhere, on any court.”
Right now, fans would settle for the current Buckeyes and Bearcats, on a Texas court next week.
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