RIP Dick Enberg, remembering one of the great calls in college basketball history. I didn’t know until years later that he was also the play by play man for UCLA basketball at the time. You certainly couldn’t tell in his call of this comeback, he realized the magnitude of the moment and called it like the pro he was.
The old time announcers weren't the homers these guys are today. One reason is that many of the radio announcers were employed by the station and not the teams.
I was 15 when this game was played and I remember watching it at my neighbors house. Notre Dame scored the last 12 points to win it. We both went crazy when the Irish won it. One of my favorite sports memories!
Steve - it was an incredible game ... Walton had a great quote about that game a few years later ... He said: "January 19, 1974 ... Digger Phelps, he ruined my life on that day."
Notre Dame was undefeated themselves, ranked #2 in the country.... and it was STILL a monumental upset. That tells you how UCLA was viewed at the time.
I was in junior high school when I saw this game on tv.. have always been a Notre Dame fan.. can't begin to describe how happy and proud I was that day... The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame ended UCLA's 88 game winning streak!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one could take that from us!!
I was in my freshman year of high school and I just remember how unbelievable this seemed. I remember the Irish faithful claiming that "God made Notre Dame #1". The very next week they played the rematch in LA. One of the UCLA fans held up a sign stating "The Lord Giveth and the Bruins shall taketh it away". And the Bruins did in a big way in that rematch.
I saw this game inside the arena. 11,000 fans almost on top of the court . Greatest sports moment in my life. The last 3 minutes seemed to take an eternity. Until I just watched this ancient Video I did not know that the great Dick Elbert was calling the game. I can still remember the roars from the crowd.
I saw this game back in 1974 when I was 15 yrs old. I will never forget the excitement and exultation when my team (Notre Dame) upset top-ranked UCLA!!!!
I saw this when it happened when I was in 3rd grade. The fact that there was no shot clock back then really augmented the excitement and the incredible nature of this comeback......coming back from being down by a score of 70-59 with 3 minutes and 22 seconds left to play and no shot clock was absolutely amazing.
I was 8 years old. Had never watched a college basketball game in my life. My dad and I were watching the game and he bailed right around the time ND started their comeback. Don't know what he was doing, but when I told him what happened he didn't believe me until he watched the news that night.
Tommy Curtis had no chance to travel, he caught the pass and immediately dribbled. His Basket ends their miracle rally. Defender fell down so the uncontested momentum killing layup becomes a turnover. Ucla got completely screwed 🤔🙄 that was a legit basket taken away
I was a young 15yr old adolescent and LOVED basketball. I watched this game on a black n' white TV set. That was when collegiate basketball had a lot of young talent, David Thompson, Tommy Burleson, Erine "D" from Providence, etc... John Wooden...what a pillar of CHARACTER....RIP
I was 8 when this historic upset occurred. I was rooting for Notre Dame in the epic 1973 national championship game too...as a Celtic fan it was great to see 7 ft 1walton help us win a championship in 1986 , he would've been a top 5 center all time if not for the injurys
I was 13 and this was probably the first time I’d watched a complete college basketball game. I know I didn’t understand the significance of it being UCLA’s first loss in three years but I liked Norte Dame and Adrian Dantley.
I went to IU when Knight was the coach there - in '73 Notre Dame played IU in Bloomington - we were sitting under the ND basket when they came out to warm up - and man-oh-man you should have seen the legs on Adrian Dantley - they looked like tree trunks!
I was a senior in high school at this time. I watched it at home. I was a big ND football fan in those days and this was a huge game, a game of the ages!
absolutely. obviously a magical moment for nd, but it was magical because of who they beat, and that personal uneaten streak for Walton is a testament to how amazing he was as an all-around player. plus, for those of us who grew up on sports in that era, the tvs network cobbled together to show national college hoops allowed us outside of socal to become addicted to the articulate, passionate expertise of dick enberg. it wasn’t long before nbc got him to cover college and pro sports. A true broadcasting icon who was perfect to channel those last frantic four minutes.
As a side note, Notre Dame beat UCLA on January 23, 1971 in South Bend. Then UCLA started its 88 game winning streak which was broken by Notre Dame January 19, 1974. Sandwiched in between those two Notre Dame victories was UCLA had its 88 game winning streak.
I remember this game very well, we (my family) were huge NC State fans & hated UCLA's guts because Wooden & his Bruins were unbeatable for many years. That's why there's a mob scene on the court at the end--any basketball team defeating UCLA during the 1960s to the mid 70s was as rare as a stumbling across an albino cobra. But the 1973-74 season was not their year. First this loss to ND, then I think they were beat by 2 colleges in Oregon, then NC State beat them during the Final Four. Next year the Bruins won the title--again--but Wooden retired after that season.
Back when Notre Dame was very popular in Los Angeles. They would play Football with USC alternativing Home Fields Annually(Like they still do Today), then they would play 2 Games of Basketball with UCLA(One on Each Home Floor). God I miss those days!
I was there. One of my best memories at ND. We had no idea that would happen. Oh, and that was me with the crazy blonde kid on his shoulders at the end. Made him famous! What a laugh we had later!
Remember also that UCLA lead by 17 in the first half. Walton had hurt his back vs Wash st. so they kept him out of the prior 3 games so he could play, that's how big this game always was. He actually wore a tight back brace like a corset. This is Notre Dames' greatest moment in one of the great rivalries of yesteryear.
Unforgettable game. At the time I was 11 and the biggest UCLA basketball fan. After all these years...these painful words still ring as clear today in my mind as it did that day decades before..."Into Walton...Trgovich, Meyers...its all over.
I grew up playing against Trgovich in H.S. - our first game as HS freshman was at his HS ... He was just a skinny kid sitting on the end of the bench in 1967 - didn't even start!
@@douglascarlson9006 his senior year 1971 they were undefeated and won the state championship (East Chicago Washington) sadly they no longer exist as they consolidated with cross town rivals Roosevelt in the late 80’s to form Central high school. Incidentally EC Roosevelt went undefeated and won the state championship the year before 1970.
@@notnek202 Yup - I was there in '70 also - do you remember, ECR beat ECW in the sectional in '70 by just 4 pts ... As legends have it, Jim Bradley was supposedly THE best player to ever come out of this area ... John Wooden actually made a recruiting trip up here to meet with him in '70 ... it was before my time, but there was a guy from Gary Roosevelt named Orstin Artis who was supposedly better than Bradley ... And there were also stories about a playground legend from Gary named Howard Rand who was supposedly better than both of them!
UCLA was a juggernaut in those days, and Walton was a beast. The younger fans don’t realize how dominant he was, they think of him as this goofy guy who does color on games. IMO the 2nd best college player I ever saw.
I am a Tar Heel fan but this rivalry in the 70s was unique as they always played a home and away each year. Never believe this ever happened between 2 non conference foes.
@@chrismalloy7960 I would agree with the mid 70s part but no way was this even close to the best rivalry by say past 1982. Some other rivalries Ive enjoyed non UNC: Kentucky vs LSU late 70s/early 80s, the trio of Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas late 80s, Georgetown vs St Johns mud 80s, Kentucky vs Arkansas mid 90s, Duke vs Maryland early 00s to name a few. Also Fab 5 Michigan vs Indiana, Memphis State vs Louisville early to mid 80s
@@chrismalloy7960 uh, no. it was unique because it was 2 non-conference teams playing twice in a season from 71-72 thru '82-'83, but best? the irish made 1 final 4 during that stretch (tho they did make 8 straight ncaa's from '74-'81). ucla made 7 final 4's in that stretch w/3 national titles and 1 runner up. that's good, but indiana-kentucky would top my list... there was never a game from '71-'83 between the 2 (15 games, 3 in the ncaa) where 1 of them wasn't ranked, in 12 both teams were ranked and in 8 of those both were in the top 10.
oops, hit reply too soon. and as you go into the 80's, duke-unc, georgetown-syracuse, louisville-uk, iu-purdue, were just some of the matchups that outshone nd-ucla on a regular basis. imho.
1974 UCLA was an awesome team, but all you hear is about them coughing up late leads to Notre Dame and N.C. State. There is a lot of pressure always being on top of the mountain!
Notre Dame came in to play Indiana at Assembly hall in '73 and we were sitting under ND's basket when they came out to warm up ... Man-oh-man, you should have seen the legs on Adrian Dantley - they looked like tree trunks!
Only 10 yrs old at the time & living in Toledo, OH. UCLA, the Wizard & Walton were my idols. TOTALLY devastated by this loss. The only comparable feeling was when we got absolutely robbed in the ‘72 Olympic b-ball game. Wow...seems like only yesterday!!😳😳
Back then, ucla was on every week. The early game was a minor conference match up. Then ucla and whoever they kicked the crap out of. Except this week. TVS was an early precursor of espn, and showed a lot of reg season hoop games. Good bar trivia: notre ended UCLA's 88 game hoop streak. Irish also ended Oklahoma's 47 game football win streak.
I went to IU when Knight was the coach there - in '73 Notre Dame played IU in Bloomington - we were sitting under the ND basket when they came out to warm up - and man-oh-man you should have seen the legs on Adrian Dantley - they looked like tree trunks!
No Michelle, that was another ND legend, Austin Carr. A few years before his death I had the pleasure of attending a meeting that featured Coach Wooden taking a few questions and I asked him why very few ever talked about Carr when great college ballplayers came up and he said he never forgot Carr in those discussions!
Of all of the basketball games that I've seen, none were more thrilling then this game. I was fourteen, and was seeing a UCLA game for the first time. Notre Dame's shooting got very hot, and UCLA's, cold. Notre Dame's defense was intense, and superb. I believe Notre Dame traveled to Los Angeles one week later, and lost to the Bruins in a rematch. I remember thinking at the time that the regular season rematch was unusual in itself; UCLA belonged to the old Pac-8 Conference, and Notre Dame was an Independent. UCLA's 1974 season didn't necessarily improve after that point; they would lose back-to-back games against Oregon and Oregon State, and would lose to N.C. State in double-overtime in the national semi-finals. What an era, however! The Bruins would return the next year and win it all, in John Wooden's final year as coach.
This was Bill Walton's first game back after breaking his back in a game twelve days earlier and having back surgery. UCLA led by 17 at halftime, and by 11 with just three minutes and fifteen seconds left.
Dantly was from Washington DC where I grew up hence DC had a lot of ND fans, he came to my summer BB camp and was a great guy, played one on one with him. Believe he now lives in DC and does great community work in the city. Great attitude
I went to IU when Knight was the coach there - in '73 Notre Dame played IU in Bloomington - we were sitting under the ND basket when they came out to warm up - and man-oh-man you should have seen the legs on Adrian Dantley - they looked like tree trunks!
I remember watching this braodcast live on TV as a kid, and all I remembered to this day was Shumate throwing the ball up in the air at the end. I always wondered how close the ball came to going thru the UCLA hoop on the way down, but I'm guessing the buzzer went off before he tossed it anyway.
Some friends and I at school after that game were also talking about exactly that - how our hearts stopped when John Shumate celebrated a little carelessly! OMG, if that ball had come down through the net, he would not have lived it down yet.
@@brianarbenz1329 That would be a "Tin Cup" movie moment when Kevin Costner's Roy McAvoy gave the US Open away on the last hole with a septuple bogey 12 heard `round the world, but the way he did it would never be forgotten. Also Vinko Bogataj, the ski jumper who crashed down the ramp on the 70's ABC's Wide World of Sports intro . . . the "agony of defeat". It would have been a catastrophe, but they would have remembered that more than if they'd won.
No shot clock. No 3-pt line. No dunking. No official review of an out of bounds play. You can say all you want about how today's athletes are better than they were 40+yrs ago, and there's no question they are.....but with the possible exception of Christian Laettner's shot vs Kentucky, this is the greatest college basketball game I have ever seen. I was 13 at the time, watching it in my basement in Bellwood, IL. on a 13 inch black and white portable tv. Only one timeout called in the last 2 minutes and only one foul (offensive). Today's college game in comparison, makes me sick !
+mark Joseph I watched it on TV that day and this is definitely one of the greatest games I've ever seen, certainly the most memorable. However, I think the greatest game I ever saw was several months later when NC State defeated UCLA in double overtime in the NCAA FInal Four, avenging their only loss of the season, and subsequently won the NCAA Championship. David Thompson was one of the most exciting college players of all time. That was certainly a great year for college basketball.
I was 11 years old at the time and remember this game vividly. I have 3 games that I have to list as tied for the greatest college basketball game I've ever seen and you mentioned 2 of them. I'd add Princeton's near upset of Georgetown in the NCAA tournament in the late 1980s.
Phelps doesnt get credit for helping the college game get out of low ratings funk. He had his firdt class he recruited and knew they were good. Only 3 or 4 national games during season. I saw more ACC games than Big ten games. In chicago.
@@shawnyoung8752 , Funny because having grown up watching ACC BASKETBALL the ACC Now has its own network. So I hardly see any ACC Games anymore because I refuse to subscribe to all these channels. So now living in North Carolina I probably see more Big 10, Mid Western and even west coast games. I miss the days where you could just sit down and turn on the game without having to figure out who’s on ?
Dick Enberg as always was magical. A week later UCLA beat Notre Dame in Pauley coasting to a 19 point win 94-75 so yes, this was huge. Bill Walton said he didn't know why he didn't set himself and just shot this spinning shot. 1974 was a horrible year for the UCLA Dynasty. They made the cover of Sports Illustrated by losing both games on their Oregon trip and then blowing late leads in Reg & OT to North Carolina St. who they dominated and beat by 18 earlier in the year for the Wolfpacks only loss. Notre Dame eventually lost to Michigan in the Semi's as well. Late turnovers were huge issues in these games with some pretty poor passing. UCLA would win the title without Walton the next year beating Kentucky for Wooden's final game.
What is not stated is that ND was the last team to beat UCLA three years earlier. ND was the last team to beat UCLA before the streak started.-- I was a student at ND at the beginning of the 88 winning streak- ND beat UCLA behind Austin Carr's fantastic game. What a game- three years later I saw the game that broke the 88 game winning streak, but by then I was a grad and saw it on tv.
I lived in Niles, Michigan then, a few miles north of Notre Dame. Was age 11 then and attended many ND games that year but not this one. What a great team with Adrian Dantley, John Shumate, Gary Brokaw, Dwight Clay and others. I think Toby Knight was a reserve on this team if memory serves. Always remember Brokaw going pro after his sophomore year. Dantley went pro after his junior year. He was a scoring machine at ND. What a great time to be at ND. They won the NC in football in '73 or '74 too. Love hearing a young Dick Enberg call this game.
because college basketball didn't have one and dones, most teams had tons of talent. UCLA had 4 guys drafted into the NBA that year and still had multiple more pro players coming up.
It was amazing how quickly Phelps rebuilt that ND program. After the Carr-Collis Jones teams, I think they won something like 6 games, actually needing help from a couple of football players who walked on. In very short order they shot right back up.
This 73-74 team did not include Dantley, I think he came in a year later. And yes, ND had just defeated #1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl National Championship game on Dec 31, 1973, making them undisputed national champions in football, and with this epic toppling of #1 UCLA in bball in early 74, they were also #1 in college basketball after this battle. In 77, ND won the college football national championship again by pulverizing #1 undefeated Texas 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl (their home field), and in 77-78, Digger led ND to the Final 4 in college bball. That 6 year span, 73-78, was Notre Dame sports heaven. No school could top that.
@@kbrewski1 From Dantley’s Wikipedia: “As a freshman, he played an important role in one of the biggest games in college basketball history, Notre Dame's 1974 upset to end UCLA's record 88-game winning streak. “ And I recall very well ND’s March, 1978 success in NCAAT. My alma mater, U of Arkansas, beat ND in the 3rd place game of the Final Four on a buzzer shot by Ron Brewer of the Triplets fame.
@@massey3129 Yes, I was wrong. I was thinking as a freshman Dantley wasn't eligible to play that year, but they must have changed that rule in the early 70s. Although not a starter, Dantley did make a key steal and layup in the final 3 minute rally. I have watched the final 3 minutes of that game many times and had a brain fart that Dantley was in fact on that team.
i was 13 years old when this was played and like Mark I watched it on a black and white TV . Think it made the cover of Sports Illustrated that week. Irish were sporting some good looking uniforms. Dwight Clay,,,I could tell 99.9% of my friends that name and they would have no idea who I was talking about
I was 13 in in Bloomington,Ind visiting a friend at an apartment ,when all the collage kids came rolling out into the parking lot whooping and hollering . That's how I learned ND had won.
What people forget is that 7 days later Notre Dame traveled to Pauley Pavillion for a rematch against the Bruins and they got their asses handed to them 94-75.
I was 12 and at a Ford dealership with my dad buying a Pinto wagon. Watched it on TV. I dont know what ess worse. My Bruins losing or buying a Pinto.😳😳😳
After this Irish victory over UCLA, breaking the Bruins NCAA Record 88 game winning streak, Notre Dame was ranked #1 in College Basketball, this was the first of the two meetings between UCLA and Notre Dame in the 1973-74 season. Before these two would meet in Westwood, the Los Angeles Times put out a story on The Fighting Irish and headlined it "God made the Irish Number One" referring to Notre Dame winning the 1973 National Championship in Football before moving up to Number 1 in Basketball after beating the UCLA Bruins in South Bend.
I remember seeing a sign held up by a Bruin fan during that Saturday night rematch one week later that stated "The Lord Giveth and the Bruins shall Taketh away!".
Give me a break with the whiny sore loser stuff. Wooden was so sure in his coaching methods that he didn't believe in time outs. Felt his team already knew what to do. They had won 88 in a row. ND outplayed them in the last 3 minutes pure and simple. UCLA had multiple chances to win game, Walton missed about 3 close shots.
My sentiments mirror Chris Hagee and UncleMikeNJ. I look at it over and over, just to see if the result changes, BUT IT NEVER DOES !!! UCLA's rout the following week, softens the pain just a little. 3 CALENDAR YEARS W/O A LOSS !!! UNHEARD OF !!!
The Greatest College Basketball Game Ever Played. You can't overstate the importance and impact of this epic win. First, most people probably don't know that Notre Dame was the last team to beat UCLA back in 1971 before they started the 88 game streak. Second, ND and UCLA were by 1974 arch rivals. ND played UCLA home and away every year under Digger, as he knew that the best way to gain recruiting attention and establish a great program was to play the best teams, so as an Independent they had a brutal schedule. Third, college basketball back then had no national TV contract. There was no ESPN and Dickie V, there was no weekly national Game of the Week, but for a few select games. Most of college bball was regional TV broadcasts like this one. This monumental upset got so much attention and was so epic because of the 88 game streak being broken, it led DIRECTLY to NBC deciding to do a weekly Game of the Week on Saturdays, which led eventually to the famous Enberg, Packer, Al McGuire broadcast team. THIS game from a TV standpoint put college bball on the map. Fourth, Notre Dame was no slouch in college basketball by 1974. Digger had built ND into a national power, they recruited nationally not just regionally, and had beaten UCLA in 1971. In this game, ND was also undefeated and ranked #2. So it was a monumental college bball clash. It was no fluke that ND won, it was just a huge upset because UCLA hadn't lost in 3 years. Fifth, remember as you watch this, that ND came back down 11 with 3 minutes left when there was NO shot clock and NO 3 point shot to make comebacks easier. UCLA could have slowed the pace down but the only way ND could have won is to make those 3 quick steals. Plus they didn't miss a shot the last 3 minutes. Sixth, NDs student body became famous for this game, and all during the 70s and 80s ND was the hardest place to play in the country many years. NDs student body made the small ACC a madhouse, and they affected the game so much that the student body was named MVP of this game. This also made ND #1 in both College Football (they had just beaten Alabama to win the Nat Champ in football) and College Basketball. A truly legendary epic game. Bill Walton, to this day, still says this was his toughest and most crushing loss he ever suffered. It was also his FIRST LOSS EVER in HS or college. He literally had not tasted defeat since grade school in a basketball game.
Just got to your post. Nailed it. Phelps was a master motivater. Him a Al McGuire were they best working the refs with talking un their ear. Not screaming.
great game? absolutely. greatest ever? ehhhhhh. greatest upset? maybe, but only because of how legendary ucla was at the time. you claim ucla-nd were arch rivals by '74. imho that's completely false. prior to this game the irish were 2-9 all time vs the bruins, w/just the '71 win since they won game 1 of the series in 1952. and the 9 ucla wins were by 31, 29, 51, 13, 31, 58, 25, 26 and 19 points. that's an average of 31+ points per game. no, they weren't rivals. as for national broadcasts, no network covered regular season games back then, but the tvs network was syndicated to every region in the country. i watched this game as a teenager in ohio which had no alliance to either school. nbc already had a contract at this time to broadcast the ncaa tournament, and it was 2 seasons later that nbc joined forces w/tvs to start airing games nationally on the weekends. as for nd being a 'national power' by then? lmao. no. austin carr had put the irish on the map a few years earlier, but in digger phelps' 1st 2 seasons after carr graduated he went 6-20 and 18-12... not exactly national power records. to phelps' credit, the '73-'74 team was really good, would go 26-3 but lost to michigan in a 2nd round ncaa tournament game. the irish would go on to make 8 straight appearance in march madness including '74, but no season would be like this one, and nd woefully underperformed in march, only twice advancing past the 2nd round in those 8 tournaments. nationally prominent, maybe, but not national power. the acc was an intimate arena (saw one game there driving back to columbus from chicago 20+ years ago), and obviously was electric in those final minutes as nd staged that miraculously comeback where the shots and their luck all fell their way.
That traveling call on Curtis, highlights the difference in how traveling was called back in the day. That isn't even close to traveling today. You had to be tight on the dribble back then, or it would get called in a second.
