1979 - (2) Indiana State Sycamores @ Bradley Braves 

Short shorts...no 3 point line...low res video...old school commercials...I'm in heaven!

Crazy how few Bird college games are on RU-vid. And ISU doesn't have the whole season posted. The games available. Are usually posted by fans of his teams opponent's. Just like this game. But thanks for the game.

Huge Larry fan! Thanks for posting!

This is awesome !! Thank you so much !! Huge Larry Bird fan and this is a gem !!

Grew up in the 1950's and remember the Robinson Field House with great memories of not only the great games but the very personal experience of watching them close up.

You rarely see someone being face-guarded like Bradley is doing to Bird. The guard doesn't watch the ball, just stays, facing Larry's chest, That's respect.

Kind of a weird 4 on 3 game with two players glued to Larry Bird at all times.

I was there for this game, playing in the band. It was a lot of fun to watch-even when you rooted for Bradley. By the end of the game, Bird was just standing off to the side laughing. Bradley might have stayed in the game if not for Nicks!!

I was fortunate enough to be at ISU when Larry Bird was playing. It was one of the best times in my life. My wife and I lived in married student housing on Crawford Street. I was in the USMC and stationed out in Santa Ana, CA. when I happened to pick up a Sports Illustrated magazine that had Larry Bird on the cover. He was just a sophomore at the time. I was blown away and thought "who the hell is this guy?" Well I found out pretty quick! We actually went to their first game, an exhibition game against the Russians. ISU won....not many college teams beat the Russians but ISU did. We only went to one other home game and then we stopped because the line to get in the door was long. We watched it in the apartments with friends.

Larry Bird turned out to be a pretty decent NBA player.

Graduated from Bradley in '88 - these are gold! Glad to hear there is more on the way.

Thanks for posting it very clear picture and love the Indiana State announcers

Same Bird as with the Celtics. More interested in winning than having the ball in his hands all the time.

Hey let's all go to Avanti's on Main for Gondolas after the game. LOL These were the best days EVER. Thank you for sharing these games.

I think that Bird guy is going to be a pretty good NBA player!

52:37 Another fine example of ‘Larry is too slow and can’t jump’. 1:02:25 Second bucket followed by second steal.

I am at the 28:22 time. If I were ISU's coach, I would have bird just move around a little in the back court and let the other players play a little 4 on three, outside and inside. The way he is keeping Larry in the post, his defenders can sag off him some to curb penetration, by the other players, and the 2 players wouldn't be rebounding much, either. Just a thought. He may have done something similar later in the game, but they won it, anyway.

Great game wish you had some early 80s games against Marquette when Doc Rivers was playing .

This feels like something I wasn’t meant to see

The commercials are interesting.

Very interesting. A college basketball arena, in an old military hangar, B29s, no less. I would bet it is difficult to heat and cool. How cool is that? Outstanding!!!

no 3pt shot and no clock the way BB should be played. only 2 dunks and Bird had one. the band played most of the game and loved the Indian mascots on the bench. and I miss the old field houses the crowed was right on top of the players.

I don't think the braves cared about winning so long as Larry didn't have a good game.

Smart strategy by Bradley. They stayed in the game most of the way then seemed to tire and turn it over. Same defense FDU used against Purdue. Purdue just couldn't shoot and ISU could. So much for todays superior player BS.

please tell me were any mvp's won at indiana state by legend larry bird

Do you have the game where Carl Nicks scored 50 points against us (Bradley) at the fieldhouse? My godfather talks about that game all the time. Would love to see it 👍

This should have shown other teams how to defense isu that year. The hard double team really disrupted what they wanted to do. Of all the isu games available on RU-vid from that time, this is the only team that tried this. They really shut Larry down. The coach should have made an adjustment and brought Larry out to the top of the key imo. Would have opened up the lane and forced them to change that defense.

Larry should have brought some bug spray. They were on him like flies on@#$%

1:20:00 A non-starter in the 21st century.

47:35 Larry is EASILY the tallest player on the court!

That Bradley players last name is Maniscalco, that's funny.

The warmup top by Bradley?

I WAS 12

Not sure why Hodges left Larry camped on the block in that defense. Didn't bode well for ISU that four of their guys struggled against three of Bradley's.

Is Ben Drieth who was one of the officials the same Ben Drieth who was a long time NFL referee

I don’t know what the hype is with this Bird guy is. He’s too slow. He can’t jump. The NBA will eat him up.