1968 — A HISTORICAL NOVEL: CHAPTER 9
UCLA Gets its Revenge, Then Another National Championship
Lew Alcindor made an impressive statement in the NCAA Tournament, and then took a stand against racial injustice
As the clock ticked down in the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and UCLA’s surgical and somewhat startling evisceration of Houston in the national semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament was moments from completion, Jack looked over at the Houston bench where the Cougars star player, Elvin Hayes, sat with a towel draped over his head, as if he didn’t want anyone to see how defeated and disappointed he was.
What a stark contrast, Jack thought, to what he had witnessed back in January at the Houston Astrodome when Hayes and the Cougars — so confident, downright brash, even — had beaten mighty UCLA and Lew Alcindor in what had been billed as the Game of the Century. Hayes had been superb that night, a fierce combination of skill and will as he scored 39 points and carried the Cougars to a well-deserved victory that enabled Houston to flip spots in the wire service polls with UCLA.
But in this mismatch of a rematch, these Cougars were not those Cougars, and these Bruins were certainly not those Bruins. And so impressive was UCLA’s 101–69 beat-down of undefeated and top-ranked Houston, that its 78–55…
