SD Sports Arena Hosted Wooden’s Last Stand 45 Years Ago
The 1975 Final Four was held at the San Diego Sports Arena. (Photo:©The San Diego Union-Tribune)
On Monday night, the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament championship game was supposed to be played at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Locally, all San Diego State Aztecs fans would have gravitated to McGregor’s to watch their team compete for a national title. And with a little luck, my colleague Brian Vilven would have serenaded the folks with “This Shining Moment” after the Aztecs captured the school’s (Shout out to the 1973 Men’s Volleyball team) second D-1 national championship. But that wasn’t meant to be.
With the void of sports in our lives, I’ve been reading more. I came across several articles about the 1975 Final Four that was played at the San Diego Sports Arena. Yes that’s right, college basketball’s biggest weekend was played in Point Loma. But this Final Four is best remembered for John Wooden’s unexpected retirement from the sport than UCLA winning their 10th national championship in 12 seasons.
Wooden’s retirement announcement came out of nowhere as he informed the team in the locker room following the Bruins thrilling overtime victory over Louisville in one of the national semi-final games. It caught the college basketball community off-guard as Wooden rarely talked about leaving UCLA. But he felt the time was right for a change.
Before Connecticut women’s basketball, there was UCLA men’s basketball. Each were the true definition of a dynasty at the collegiate level. It’s been well-documented how Wooden’s Bruins held an 88-game winning streak (1971-74) that ended in a road loss to Notre Dame. The greatness of his coaching style was more about the life lessons he brought to his players each day in practice than teaching them the fundamentals of basketball. It’s the main reason why Wooden remains an innovator in college athletics still today.
This was John Wooden’s final game as Head Coach at UCLA. (Photo:©The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The 1974-75 Bruins weren’t Wooden’s most talented team as he usually had more than a few superstars leading the charge to another championship run. No, this was a group that played well together because each starter knew their role on the court and executed it to perfection.
However, the Bruins were under tremendous pressure to succeed one last time for coach Wooden. The championship game itself was a seesaw affair as UCLA and Kentucky exchanged the lead 15 times before the Bruins pulled away with 92-85 win. The front line was the star of the game as Richard Washington scored 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Dave Meyers added 24 points and 11 rebounds in the victory. But the unsung hero on this night was Grossmont High graduate Ralph Drollinger who shined at the center position with 10 points and 13 rebounds in the contest.
As the game clock hit triple zero, Wooden calmly walked over to Wildcats head coach Joe B. Hall and shook his hand. No fanfare, no grandstanding. Wooden left the Sports Arena floor and college basketball with his crumbled score program in hand as a winner.