College basketball – Obrey Brown

January 28, 2025February 4, 2025

PART 1: “BLACK” JACK GARDNER, 1928 TERRIER GRAD: HUGE CONNECTION TO HOOPS WORLD

A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. — Obrey Brown.

If you want to talk basketball, maybe “Black” Jack Gardner – a 1928 Redlands High alum – might be about as good for a story, or two, or three, or more of anyone from that tiny city. Also known as “The Fox,” Gardner’s departure from Redlands led him on a sensational journey in which he would eventually wind up in 10 different Halls of Fame.

Jack Gardner (Photo by Commons) — “Black” Jack Gardner, a Redlands High product of 1928, may have set a Terrier record by being part of 10 different Halls of Fame. (Photo by Commons)

He’d coached against legendary hoopsters like Bill Russell, John Wooden and Adolph Rupp, against his former college, USC, logging most impressive basketball-coaching careers around college annals. In 1998, Gardner spoke by telephone with me from Salt Lake City, his living residence.

Revelations from that conversation, plus another couple of contacts, were eye-opening. Credited with discovering another Hall of Famer, John Stockton, Gardner watched plenty of hoops, even in retirement. In fact, he showed up at every Final Four between 1939 and 1997.

It’s a man with quite a resume. Even today, after the remarkable successes of Wooden, Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Larry Brown, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Rupp and Jerry Tarkanian, Gardner qualifies among collegiate basketball’s most elite coaches.

To date, he remains one of three coaches – Pitino and Williams are those others – to lead two different programs to that Final Four on two occasions. Though he was a 1910 New Mexico birth, his path began in Redlands, where he was a four-sport Terrier athlete.

Long before Kansas became a major force in collegiate basketball, especially under legendary coach Forrest “Phog” Allen, Gardner’s Kansas State regularly outplayed those Jayhawks.

“Yes,” said Gardner in that 1998 telephone chat. “Coach Allen didn’t recruit much in those years. I think I got better players because I recruited. When he got going, boy, things got better for them.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Statue of Forrest “Phog” Allen, a legendary Kansas basketball coach, went up against Redlands product Jack Gardner, who coached Kansas State to some prominent times in the 1940s and 50s. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).

One name: Chamberlain! To Kansas. Yes, Gardner tried to get him. More on Wilt later, though. As for Gardner, off he went to USC after his Redlands days, that 5-foot-11, 160-pounder becoming an All-American during his 1928-1932 stint as a Trojan. It was, of course, long before basketball became one of USA’s iconic sports.

He was All-Coast, USC’s high scorer for two seasons, Trojans’ team captain and MVP during a successful collegiate playing career. His hoops future wasn’t in a uniform.

COACHING CAREER BEGINS

After coaching at Alhambra High School, going 29-11 over two seasons, to a 1934 Southern Section runner-up spot, losing to Santa Barbara, 19-14, at Whittier College.

It was off to Modesto Junior College, posting three state California state titles over four years, then hired at Kansas State in 1939.

Gardner, who is enshrined in that Naismith Hall of Fame, coached K-State’s Wildcats in two stints – first from 1939-42, then after World War II from 1946-53. After posting just 20 combined wins in his first three seasons, Gardner returned to Manhattan, Kansas in 1947 and led the team to its first winning season in 16 years with a 14-10 mark.

One season later, the Wildcats made most of their first NCAA Tournament appearance, advancing all the way to Final Four in 1948. Runner-up Baylor University beat K-State, 60-52, in those Western Regional Finals.

That squad became K-State’s first in school history to notch 20 wins en route to capturing a Big Seven crown. K-State tied for another Big Seven title in 1950-51, finishing 25-4. Gardner guided his ’Cats to arguably their greatest season.

All-American Ernie Barrett led K-State to its third Big Seven title in four seasons.

Ranked fourth that season, K-State survived a scare from No. 12 Arizona, winning 61-59, then beat No. 11 Brigham Young University, then No. 2 Oklahoma State to reach the 1951 finals against Rupp’s No. 1-ranked Kentucky.

What a spot for a guy that had graduated from Redlands some 23 years earlier. Anyone watching him at all those playing days in old Terrier Gymnasium couldn’t have predicted anything like this.

It was a battle of Wildcats in the finals – No. 1-ranked Kentucky taking on Gardner’s K-State Wildcats. K-State led at halftime, 29-27.

Barrett, though, was injured and K-State got overwhelmed in that second half, losing 68-58. What a story that would eventually turn out, though. History revealed some dirty play. Point shaving. Kentucky players were branded. Arrested. Jailed. Barred for life.

In looking ahead to Gardner’s career, consider that he coached against the likes of Smith and Wooden, Rupp and Allen, plus both McGuires – Frank and Al.

Gardner’s Utah team went up against Russell’s University of San Francisco in 1955. A decade later, he played the foil of Kentucky in Glory Road movie fame, scouted Stockton for the Jazz and had an edge in a pair of Utah-based rivalries against both Utah State and Brigham Young University.

Part 2 coming.

January 28, 2025January 31, 2025

PART 2: POINT SHAVING SCANDAL SCARRED 1951 NCAA FINALE

There was 1948 and 1951. Again in 1961 and 1966.

All four of “Black” Jack Gardner’s trips to NCAA’s Final Four came without a national championship – 1948 and 1951 coaching at Kansas State, then 1961 and 1966 at his next stop, University of Utah. Three times his squads lost in semifinals. It was in 1951 that his team came closest. That season, though, was a disaster for college basketball. It involved point shaving.

Kentucky, coached by legendary Adolph Rupp, beat Gardner’s K-State team by 10 points, but there was more to it. K-State had beaten Arizona, Brigham Young and Oklahoma A&M to earn its spot in that season’s NCAA championship game.

Adolph-Rupp-1930 (Photo by Commons) — Adolph Rupp, shown here in 1930, would eventually become one of college coaches greatest champions. Rupp’s Kentucky team took on Redlands’ Jack Gardner in the 1951 NCAA finals – a game scarred by a point-shaving scandal. (Photo by Commons.)

Kentucky’s involvement in that point-shaving mess was later to be uncovered when No. 1-ranked Wildcats arrived in Minneapolis in search of their third NCAA championship in four years. Gardner’s No. 4-ranked Kansas State, the champion of the Big Seven, awaited.

Led by 7-foot junior All-America Bill Spivey and sophomore Cliff Hagan, the Cats beat Gardner’s K-Staters, 68-58. Kentucky’s celebration didn’t last long. Shortly after winning the title, that point-shaving scandal broke in New York.

REAL REASON FOR KANSAS STATE’S LOSS

Five of Kentucky’s players, including Alex Groza, Ralph Beard and Spivey were implicated. Groza and Beard, stars of USA’S 1948 Olympic basketball team and eventual professionals, were thrown out of the NBA. Spivey fought those charges, but never played another game in college or pros.

Gardner, he told me, “bit his tongue” in suffering such a setback. There was, he said, “nothing he could do.” Fifteen seasons later, in 1966, was Gardner’s last in leading his team into that NCAA Tournament. It would be a memorable achievement.

Gardner, upended by Rupp in ’51, nearly squared off against him in ’66 when Texas Western hit stride, inspiring that future 2006 movie “Glory Road.”

In “Glory Road,” Rupp was portrayed by Academy Award winner Jon Voight. Don Haskins was played by Josh Lucas. Tons of actors portrayed various roles – reporters, rival players, boosters, racists, students, you name it. There were no roles to depict Gardner, or even Chambers.

As for Utah, there was a consolation game in those days. After losing to third-ranked Texas Western, the unranked Utes lost to second-ranked Duke, 79-77, to finish a 21-8 season. None of that was portrayed in “Glory Road.”

In 1966, after Utah beat Oregon State, 70-64, the Utes found themselves up against that rather historical team – Texas Western University, later known as Texas-El Paso. In that 2006 motion picture, “Glory Road,” its story focused on Haskins’ decision to lead an all-black team into that 1966 Texas Western season.

There was no mention of that NCAA semifinals between Texas Western and Gardner’s Utes in that movie. Though Jerry Chambers, of Utah, was selected as that year’s Final Four MVP despite losing, 85-78, to Kentucky, “Black Jack’s” role was curiously absent in that movie.

Haskins may have changed the way basketball was played, but Gardner’s career seemed far deeper.

GARDNER TOOK ON COLLEGE HOOPS’ BIGGEST NAMES

Marquette’s legendary coach, Al McGuire, brought his team into Madison Square Garden (N.Y.) to beat “Black” Jack’s Utes by 20 at that 1970 NIT. Marquette capped a 24-3 season with that NIT championship. A 24-3 team? NIT? Remember, NCAA tournaments had just expanded to 32 teams a year earlier.

Gardner’s final career game from the sidelines was a loss – by 11 points. Against rival BYU. A few seasons earlier, at home in his Utes’ Huntsman Center, Dean Smith’s North Carolina Tar Heels got him in 1965. By five points.

DeanSmithcropped2 — Dean Smith, of North Carolina, was among the coaching legends that Redlands’ Jack Gardner went up against. (Photo by Commons.)

Speaking of North Carolina. In 1956-57, Frank McGuire’s unbeaten Tar Heels beat Utah on Dec. 27, 1956 by 21 points en route to their own NCAA championship a couple months later.

That was a crazy tournament in which UNC beat No. 11 Michigan in the semifinals before knocking off Wilt Chamberlain’s Kansas team in that season’s finals – both triple overtime victories.

“I watched all those games,” Gardner recalled, chuckling. “I won’t say it. I won’t say if we could’ve beaten Kansas, Wilt’s team. I just won’t get into it.”

There was a 1964 game in which Utah knocked off a Cal-Berkeley team by 25 points. On that Golden Bears’ team was another Redlands product, Danny Wolthers, who averaged 17.7 points that season. A few years earlier when he was in high school, Wolthers played for Jerry Tarkanian during their Redlands days.

A couple years earlier, though, Cal tagged Utah with a 72-66 loss in that 1962-63 season opener at Berkeley’s Harmon Gym. Wolthers averaged 6.7 points that season..

That must’ve been a nice win for No. 5 Utah when it outdueled No. 8 Utah State on Feb. 27, 1960 in Logan, 77-75. Aggies’ coach Cecil Baker had a 24-5 team that season while Gardner’s squad finished 26-3. It was a big basketball night for Utah.

No. There was never a collegiate matchup with Tarkanian, that ex-Terrier coach who took a similar pathway to major colleges as Gardner – through junior college ranks, namely Riverside and Pasadena. Tark wound up at Long Beach State during Gardner’s final years in Salt Lake City.

Jerry_Tarkanian_with_LBSU_players_in_1970-71 Photo by Long Beach State — Jerry Tarkanian, in this 1970-71 photo with three of his top Long Beach State players, including future NBA players Ed Ratleff and George Trapp, had coached Redlands High School about one decade earlier. But Tark’s teams never played against Utah teams coached by Redlands’ Jack Gardner. (Photo by Long Beach State)

Long Beach State never played Utah in that five-year span.

“The Fox,” meanwhile, had quite a career.

Even Sports Illustrated got into the mix on Gardner.

That magazine once wrote that “he could win with an old maid on the post and four midgets.” A proponent of fundamental basketball, Gardner was an expert in fast break basketball. His Utah teams were accordingly known as the Runnin’ Redskins, later the Runnin’ Utes.

Part 3 next.

January 28, 2025January 31, 2025

PART 3: “BLACK” JACK PART OF 10 HALLS OF FAME

“Black” Jack Gardner’s Kansas State record, 147-81 (.645) was largely built over his final seven seasons when his mark improved greatly to 127-47 (.730). There were a pair of 20-win seasons and two Final Four appearances, including a championship gane. After helping the squad to back-to-back second-place conference finishes in 1952 and 1953, he handed reins of that program to his assistant coach, Tex Winter, in 1953.

Yes. That’s the same Tex Winter of Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball fame, pioneer of that Triple-Post offense – assistant coach to Phil Jackson in both spots.

Yes, the ex-Redlands High star from the 1920s, Gardner, coached against the greats. His Utah team, 23-3 in 1961-62, beat John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins, 88-79, at L.A. Sports Arena. Those were UCLA’s pre-dynasty days, in fact. In that same building a few years later, eventual NCAA champion Bruins, 28-2, posted a 30-point win over Gardner’s 17-9 Utes.

Times were changing.

Gardner had departed Manhattan, Kansas in 1953 for Salt Lake City. Over those 18 seasons, “The Fox” led his Utes to six NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching Final Four twice. Remember, this was an era when only 23 teams reached that NCAA field — not this current 68-team tournament.

“The Fox” concluded his Utah career at 339-154, leading the Utes to seven conference titles. Between 1959 and 1962, his teams won 51 out of 56 at home. Like his days in Manhattan, where Gardner’s influence helped create those Ahearn Field House vibrations, Gardner’s Salt Lake City presence led to construction of Utah’s new basketball facility.

Against intra-state rival Brigham Young University, coached by Stan Watts, Gardner’s Utes held a narrow 19-17 mark against the Cougars in what was considered a highly intense rivalry.

Gardner, whose overall lifetime coaching mark, 486-285, was inducted into 10 separate Halls of Fame throughout his years. Note this: He received a National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Golden Anniversary Award.

Southern Utah Hall of Fame
Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
Utah All-Sports Hall of Fame
State of Utah Basketball Hall of Fame
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
Helms Foundation Hall of Fame
Kansas State University Hall of Fame
Crimson Club (University of Utah)
Modesto (Calif.) Junior College Hall of Fame
Redlands High (Calif.) School Hall of Fame

He was a consultant for NBA’s Jazz from 1979, the year that team moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake City, through 1991. Gardner, who died on April 9, 2000, is credited with discovering Stockton while working for the Jazz.

That part of the story? Gardner wintered in Malibu, near that Pepperdine University campus. When Gonzaga (Wash.) University came to Pepperdine for a Big West Conference game, Gardner was watching. Stockton was a Zag.

498px-John_Stockton — Utah Jazz scout Jack Gardner, whose basketball life began a half-century earlier while in Redlands, was the man that recommended Stockton by drafted by the Jazz in 1984. An eventual Hall of Famer, Stockton was part of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team (Photo by Commons).

In 1984, Stockton’s selection as the 16^th player – the same draft as Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, among others – it was Gardner’s strong recommendation that left the Jazz with an eventual Hall of Famer.

That same year, 1984, was when Gardner himself was inducted into NBA’s Hall of Fame. At that point, he was in the midst of a record-setting attendance performance. Between 1939 and 1997, Gardner never missed a Final Four – whether it was coaching or attending.

Part 4 coming.

January 28, 2025January 31, 2025

PART 4: BLACK JACK SAYS, ‘ARE YOU SITTING DOWN, MR. BROWN?’

Redlands. USC. Alhambra. Modesto. Kansas State. Utah. U.S. Olympic team? The NBA’s Utah Jazz?

“Black” Jack Gardner’s basketball insight was apparently so keen that he was selected as 1964 tryouts coach for that U.S. Olympic team. Princeton’s Bill Bradley, North Carolina’s Larry Brown, UCLA’s Walt Hazzard and a few other future NBA players were on that gold medal-winning squad.

A few years earlier at Utah, 6-foot-9 center Billy McGill led the NCAA in scoring at 38.8 points in 1961, including a memorable 60-point game in a 106-101 rivalry win over BYU.

Gardner, also known as “The Fox,” knew how to coach against the biggest names in basketball – nearly against Kansas’ Wilt Chamberlain and went up against University of San Francisco’s Bill Russell. If Gardner hadn’t moved on to Utah from Kansas State, he’d have had to scheme against Wild twice a year.

Truth is, he tried to recruit Wilt while he was at Philadelphia Overbook High School. As for Russell, imagine that excitement in Utah when Gardner called Russell’s Dons “the greatest team ever assembled.”

BIll Russell (Photo by Commons) — University of San Francisco’s Bill Russell, who led the Dons to a pair of NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, went up against Utah in one of those tournaments. Unable to stop Russell, Utah coach Jack Gardner watched his team lose, 92-77 (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).

His top player at Utah, McGill, had scrimmaged in Los Angeles summer leagues against both Russell and Chamberlain. McGill was one of L.A.’s best players when he led Jefferson High to a pair of city titles. Scrimmaging against Chamberlain? Russell?

“That was a player I had to have,” said Gardner, referring to McGill.

Bill_McGill_basketball (Photo by Commons) — Billy McGill, one of Utah’s greatest players during the era when Redlands’ Jack Gardner coached in Salt Lake City, led the NCAA with 38.8 points. He scored 60 in a narrow win over BYU as a senior. While in high school, McGill scrimmaged against the likes of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).

Scheming against Chamberlain and Russell was another matter.

During a 1998 phone chat, Gardner asked, “Are you sitting down, Mr. Brown?”

As a matter of fact, I was. He was about to offer insight toward background in coaching against two of basketball’s greatest icons. Sitting down? I should’ve called for some oxygen. Or sedation. This was a dream for a small-town reporter: Moments like these.

“Is it possible in anyone’s thinking out there,” mused Gardner, “that Mr. Russell and Mr. Chamberlain could be considered as equals in this sport?”

Russell’s 1956 USF squad, which took a 29-0 record into the NCAA Tournament, knocked off ranked teams – No. 8 UCLA, Gardner’s 18^th-ranked Utah, No. 7 Southern Methodist and No. 4 Iowa – and the Dons beat them all by at least 11 points.

Iowa, the Big Ten champ for the second straight year, came into the NCAA final on a 17-game win streak of its own before losing, 83-71. Utah lost, 92-77, to the Dons in the West Region final.

“You had to figure a way to score against Mr. Russell,” said Gardner. “What’d we have – 77 points? It’s not bad, but their defense led them to score a lot of points.”

Hal Perry, an All-Tournament player, along with future Boston Celtic guard K.C. Jones was part of the Dons’ mystique, not to mention Russell. “No one plays this game alone,” said Gardner.

“Regardless of what anyone else says, including Mr. (Red) Auerbach in Boston. It’s a team game, always has been a team game and, for the winning teams, always will be a team game.”

Include Chamberlain on that discussion.

Wilt Chamberlain (Photo by Commons link) — Wilt Chamberlain, who left Kansas one year early to play for the Harlem Globetrotters before settling in on an NBA career, played against L.A. school phenom Billy McGill in summer leagues. Redlands’ Jack Gardner recruited McGill to Utah, saying, “That was a player I had to have.” (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).

“Anytime you played a team with Mr. Chamberlain on it,” he said, “you had to draw up a defense to stop him – just like you had to devise a good offensive game plan against Mr. Russell. You see the similarity there? Practice time would’ve been vastly different.”

Playing against Russell was mythic. Gardner’s teams never had a chance to play against Wilt.

But Russell versus any other team, or Chamberlain against other teams posed remarkably similar problems, reflected Gardner. “You really have to be good at both ends,” said that Redlands-based Hall of Famer, “no matter who you were playing against.

“If you’re going to be a good team, you’ve got to be able to score and you’ve also got to be able to stop the other team. Coaches have to have defense and offense in the court.”

He came close to coaching against Chamberlain, a Kansas sophomore, in 1957. Utah finished 16-8 overall in 1956-57. “You had to win your conference to get into the (NCAA) tournament,” he said, “which was only 32 teams then.”

The headline was this: Chamberlain, still at Philadelphia’s Overbrook High School, had been promised to Kansas back in the days when Gardner was still coaching at Kansas State.

“Yes. I was after him,” said Gardner. “I had my ways. KU was better than Kansas. They hid him from me. I couldn’t get to him. I think you know what I mean, Mr. Brown.”

That 1957 season, though. Lost some close Mountain States Athletic Conference games – by five to Denver, by four to BYU, plus a four-point loss to Utah State.

“Turn those games around,” Gardner said, “which we should’ve won – I remember all of them – and we’d have gone up against Kansas. I can tell you that.”

Out of the blue, I asked Gardner a fairly personal question, basketball-related, of course. “You’re a USC guy. Did you ever think of coaching there?”

The answer was quick. “Never had a chance,” he said. “Things didn’t work out. I was a USC guy … you’re right about that.”

“Black” Jack coached against his Trojans – 3-8 against them, in fact.

gardner_jack (Photo by Utah Jazz) — “Black” Jack Gardner, who started playing basketball at Redlands High School in 1928, capped his hoops career working for the NBA’s Utah Jazz in 1991. (Photo by Utah Jazz).

Gardner-at-Utah was legendary. There was another Redlands Connection. Shortly after serving his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, onetime Long Beach State recruit Jon Hansen, a 6-foot-5, sharp-shooting Redlands High alum, transferred to Utah.

For years, Hansen saw Gardner at Utah – heard the stories, even met that man. Years after graduation, Hansen learned something new about Gardner. They were both Terriers. He seemed overwhelmed by such a notion. Said Hansen: “He graduated from Redlands High School?”

It was a surprising revelation about a man he’d only viewed from afar – having graduated 56 years apart from the same high school campus. It was in 2000 that Gardner died, age 90, in Salt Lake City.

There was a list of Top 100 college coaches released in 2011. Most basketball fans would know those names. Gardner was slotted in at No. 27, one spot ahead of Kansas legend Phog Allen and four spots behind Tarkanian.

At the top, of course, was John Wooden.

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022

PART 1: VILLANOVA PLAYED TEMPLE, GEORGETOWN, SIENA … AND REDLANDS?

A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown

Villanova University basketball coach Jay Wright seemed perfectly content to discuss why the Wildcats were playing at Redlands – a major college program with full-ride athletic scholarships against a small-college team that isn’t allowed to offer athletic scholarships.

As open-minded as anyone, Wright spoke openly and honestly about the Wildcats’ trip to Redlands. Nineteen years later, Wright is still coaching the Wildcats. Villanova has since won two NCAA championships (2016, 2018). This past Sunday, Villanova outlasted Ohio State in lifting itself to a 2022 Sweet 16 spot.

Philadelphia-based Villanova University, way back in November 2003, showed up to play a 10 a.m. Saturday matchup at Currier Gymnasium. It’s the home court of the University of Redlands.

In a rarely-seen duel between a major-college, athletic scholarship-backed program against a small-college, non-athletic scholarship team, Villanova beat the Bulldogs in that showdown. But it was close and memorable. That game had since taken on additional significance. Four of the Wildcats’ starting five played prominent roles in that game at Currier Gymnasium.

The Wildcats, who would be the No. 1 seed one season later at the Minneapolis Region (eventually losing to fabled North Carolina in the Sweet 16), seemingly had a strong shot at a national championship. It was a far cry from that Nov. 22, 2003 showdown at Redlands.

For a Redlands-Villanova game to have taken place at all was an unlikely scenario.

“It was,” said Bulldog senior Carson Sofro, then a sophomore, “the craziest, most memorable time I’ve ever had in basketball.”

“That was my first college game,” said Amir Mazarei, who scored 15 against Villanova, third highest among the Bulldogs. “I didn’t know what to expect going in.”

“I’ve played in a few big games,” said Bulldog player Donald Brady, “and I’ve been to The (Anaheim) Pond (site of high school’s championship games). But nothing compared to playing Villanova.”

Adding to the flavor was major media coverage – TV, radio and large daily newspapers.

“We brought eight kids,” Wright told me that day. “Five are on scholarship. The other three are walk-ons (non-scholarship players).”

At Redlands, every Bulldog player is a “walk-on.” There are no athletic scholarships.

Yes, it was a game completely out of the ordinary, a middle-of-the-road small college team taking on a powerful presence in college basketball.

For visiting Villanova, it was a glance at small college basketball. Mazerai himself noted that Redlands plays in a 1,100-seat gymnasium – “nowhere close” to the 10,000-plus seat arenas that normally house Wildcat games.

For Redlands, it was a chance to rub elbows against a major college, Big East Conference program.

“They needed to dial up a win,” said Gary Smith, Redlands’ coach through 2007. “Originally, they were going to play Claremont (one of Redlands’ SCIAC rivals) on Friday and then us the next day. But Temple was on their schedule and they forced Villanova to play that game. Claremont got aced out of a chance to play them.”

The game had come about due to a strange set of circumstances. Some Villanova players had unauthorized use of a telephone, making calls that were deemed “extra benefits” by an NCAA ruling. Sanctions were imposed. Some players had been suspended for six games. The school chose to take those suspensions over a six-game stretch – the final three of 2002-2003 and the first three games to start 2003-2004.

Wright spoke to me as if we were old friends – charming, personable, honest, you name it. If there’d been classes for dealing with the media, he’d probably get an A-plus.

“They had asked us to bring a representative team to Maui,” said Wright, meaning a competitive team to that season-opening tournament in the islands. “A lot of our alumni and boosters had bought tickets to that. It was up to us to field a decent team.

“All because of the phone issue.”

In order to carry its full roster in Maui, Villanova needed to get rid of that six-game sanction and clear its suspended players.

When Villanova’s undermanned roster blasted Temple in a late Thursday night game back east, it seemed as if Redlands might be in for a worse beating early on Saturday.

Gary Smith (Photo by NorCal WIldcats) — Former University of Redlands basketball coach Gary Smith — wearing a Wildcats’ T-shirt — led his Bulldogs up against powerhouse Villanova at Currier Gymnasium in Nov. 2003. Redlands lost, but it wasn’t an easy win for the eventual NCAA champions. (Photo courtesy of the NorCal Wildcats.)

“A Big East team, of all things,” said Smith, who coached Redlands over a thousand games between 1971 and 2007. “For them to be (competitive) in the game (against Temple), I think, was just amazing.”

Smith, said Sofro, “had warned us we could blown out of the gym.”

They played at Currier Gymnasium on Nov. 22, 2003. It was, said Smith, “the first time we’d ever played a D-1 (Division 1) school in our gym.”

Nineteen years later, Villanova’s still the only D-1 team to show up and play Redlands.

Part 2 to follow.