1948-49: Pete Newell's NIT Championship

USF Men's Basketball: 1948-1949

by Bernie Schneider, USF '59

When the 1947-48 basketball season ended, interest in the Bay Area intercollegiate teams in the post World War II era was high. Doubleheaders at a new site for the collegians, the Cow Palace, -- "the Madison Square Garden of the West" -- saw fans flocking to the games in record numbers. Over 12,000 fans had attended mid-season games involving Stanford, Cal, St. Mary's, and Santa Clara in a building that had been transformed from a big barn used to show off cows and horses during annual livestock expositions into an arena capable of showcasing intercollegiate basketball teams. Furthermore, thanks to the efforts of entrepreneur Frank "Bow-tie" Walsh (the San Francisco counterpart of New York's Ned Irish), the games not only matched well-coached local teams but also attracted highly touted Midwestern and Eastern opponents who previously were inclined to play as many games as possible at the much more elite Madison Square Garden.

Enthusiasm notwithstanding, when the '48-'49 intercollegiate basketball season began, absolutely no one predicted that USF, with a win-loss record of 13-11 the previous year, would emerge as a national power and win the National Invitation Championship (the "N.I.T.") at Madison Square Garden.

In the 1940s, the N.I.T., as a result of the work of Ned Irish, was the premier post-season attraction. The NCAA tournament was the lesser event, played for the most part in college gyms scattered around the country -- far from the bright lights of New York City. Point-shaving scandals, centered in New York and involving numerous players and teams, would flip-flop the preeminence of the tournaments within a few short years, but at this time the N.I.T. was the prime attraction. Curiously, though, no West coast team had ever been invited to the tournament.

In late 1948 the San Francisco 49ers, the City's first and only major league team, completed their third season with a commendable 12 wins and 2 losses in the All-America Football Conference. Across the Bay, Pappy Waldorf's Cal Bears were practicing for their Rose Bowl encounter with Northwestern. Against this exciting December football backdrop the 1948-49 intercollegiate hoop season inconspicuously tipped off .

The USF Dons -- an independent in those days, as were the other local Catholic schools -- opened with three easy wins. Then on December 8 USF edged Cal in a squeaker, 49-47.

Later in that second week of December, "Bow-tie" Walsh opened the maws of the Cow Palace for the first intersectional competition of the year. USF would play defending Big Seven champion Kansas State in the nightcap of a doubleheader that would also pit St. Mary's against first-year coach John Wooden's UCLA Bruins. In the opening game, UCLA edged the Gaels 61-58, and then the Dons rallied from a seven-point half-time deficit to knock off the powerful Kansans 55-53. The next night, however, the Dons would suffer their first loss of the season, bowing to the Bruins 61-57.

Meanwhile, Stanford, led by future Hall of Fame player George Yardley, was also drawing early-season attention by winning its first seven games. The seventh victory, at the Cow Palace on December 21, was over defending Big 10 champion Michigan, 53-51. The next night Stanford made it eight in a row with a convincing 78-62 win over a Yale team that boasted the leading scorer in the country, Tony Lavelli. Two days later, the Dons, back in action at the Cow Palace, defeated North Carolina State 54-47. The Wolfpack had lost only twice and had been averaging 70 points a game.

These victories over formidable intersectional opponents solidified local interest in USF and Stanford, but fans wondered how they would do if they had to play big-time opponents on the road. The answer would be forthcoming soon because USF was heading east the week after Christmas for games against LaSalle in Philadelphia and CCNY in New York City.

In these days, USF -- because of its standing as an independent (without a gym of its own for another ten years) and its remote West Coast locale -- was a mere David battling Goliaths. Incredibly, in the first game of the roadtrip the Dons beat previously undefeated LaSalle 51-45, and they followed that on December 30 with a 54-51 overtime win over CCNY before 17,000 spectators in Madison Square Garden. It was one thing to beat the visiting teams from the East and Midwest at the Cow Palace, but doing it against solid teams in both Philadelphia and New York City captured the attention of East Coast sportswriters and established the Dons as a national power. In addition, on the return trip to San Francisco, the Dons stopped in Peoria, Illinois, and handed undefeated Bradley its first loss of the season, 60-58. What a hat trick!

The importance of these wins on this roadtrip simply cannot be minimized. They laid the groundwork for the possibility of receiving one of the eight invitations to the post-season N.I.T. There were many games to be played, however, before the Dons could hope to become the N.I.T.'s first West Coast participant.

After the successful roadtrip, USF had risen to ninth in the national rankings. Stanford, despite a loss in the championship game of the Pacific Coast Conference's pre-season tournament, was ranked eleventh. Bay Area fans were looking forward to the January 21 USF-Stanford game, but before that date USF gave them another eventful evening. Bow-tie Walsh had booked a particularly attractive doubleheader at the Cow Palace: USF against traditional Jesuit rival Santa Clara and St. Mary's against Notre Dame with its All-American Kevin O'Shea, a fabled product of San Francisco high school basketball. In the featured intersectional finale, the 11,000 fans saw Notre Dame beat St. Mary's, 70-66. The high scorers in this game, O'Shea for the Irish and Frank Kudelka for the Gaels, were overshadowed, however, by the Dons' Joe McNamee, who, in the opener, established a new Cow Palace scoring record while leading the Dons to a 57-47 triumph. McNamee poured in 38 points, eclipsing the previous record of 28 shared by Tony Lavelli of Yale and Bill Hagler of Cal.

So, who were these high-flying Dons? The star of the the team was a junior-college transfer, Don Lofgran, a 6'6" forward whose consistent scoring had earned him a starting position shortly before the East Coast swing. The record-setting McNamee was a skillful and tenacious center, but undersized, even for those days, at 6'6." John Benington, who later coached at Michigan State University and Saint Louis University for many years, was a spindly 6'4" forward. The backcourt featured the sparkling play of diminutive 5'9" Rene Herrerias, the great outside two-hand shooting of Frank Kuzara, the outstanding all-around play of Ross Giudice, the clutch shooting of Hal DeJulio in the wins over Bradley and Nevada, and, as needed, the blue-collar work of hatchet-man Jack Hanley, who, as Pete Newell once remarked, was often called upon to give the opponent's leading scorer "a shot to see how he would respond." Don Giesen and Frank Sobek were also invaluable contributors. Leroy Rice, Milan Metikosh, Dave Ahern, Walt Olson, and Rod Bambach rounded out the team.

This upstart team was coached by a young man who would turn out to be one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time -- the now-legendary Pete Newell. Back in January of 1949, no one knew that Newell was a basketball genius who, ten years later, would win an NCAA championship with an outmanned Cal team, and who, forty years later, would run the must-attend "Big Man" camps for future NBA stars.

Absolutely no one suspected that Newell was a genius while Stanford was routing USF 65-55 on January 21, 1949, before a standing-room-only crowd of 2,000 in the old Stanford Pavilion. However, USF did have an excuse. Don Lofgran had been in a Bay Bridge auto accident traveling from his Oakland home to Stanford. He had arrived five minutes prior to the game, "pale and shaken," according to the Examiner's Bob Brachman, and he made just two of nineteen shots. Nevertheless, the loss, while only the second of the season, was damaging: it jeopardized the Dons' hopes for the post-season. The upcoming February games with CCNY and Bradley at the Cow Palace would be even more critical than before. USF would need to show that its early-season wins over these teams were not flukes.

During the last week of January USF bounced back and defeated Arizona and St. Mary's in tuneups for the big games in February.

In the first week of February CCNY came to town to play Stanford on Friday night and USF on Saturday night, with both games scheduled for the Cow Palace. Bradley was due later in the month. In the first game on Friday night, USF would play a USC team featuring Bill Sharman, later a Hall of Fame player with the Boston Celtics.

It turned out to be quite a weekend, not all of it good for the Bay Area teams now ranked ninth (Stanford) and tenth (USF) in the country. On Friday night, before 10,000 fans, USF lost to USC by two points as Bill Sharman scored the go-ahead basket and the usually reliable DeJulio and Herrerias each missed shots that could have forced overtime. In the second game Stanford lost to CCNY 67-57. Bob Brachman was so impressed with the New Yorkers he called them "as classy a college cage quint as ever has been seen on the Pacific Coast."

The Dons destroyed CCNY the next night by sixteen points. This win was particularly significant because Nat Holman, CCNY's coach, was already a legendary figure in basketball history. He had played for the Original Celtics and had been coaching at CCNY for thirty years, where he had won 323 games and lost a mere 120. He had thirteen lettermen returning from a team that had gone 18-3 the previous year. This season he had lost just twice (once to the Dons). Make that twice to the Dons, and make that 121 career losses after the Saturday night game.

Bradley arrived a week later sporting a 20-4 record. Their only losses, besides the one to USF, had been to the teams then ranked first, second, and third in the country: Kentucky, St. Louis, and Oklahoma A&M. Knowing this was a key game in their bid for the post-season, the Dons forged ahead by one at the half, but then faltered and fell behind by ten points midway through the second half. But USF fought back and tied the game in the last minute, only to lose by two points when Bradley scored on a spectacular shot with six seconds left.

The regular season now built up to a final weekend in Eugene, Oregon, where the Dons would play the University of Oregon on successive nights. Pete Newell felt that if his team could split with Oregon it still had a good chance for the N.I.T., but if USF could win both games, the bid would be a cinch. The split was all they could manage, as they doused the Ducks 62-58 on Friday only to have the Ducks recover on Saturday and upset the Dons, 56-51.

The Dons still had one remaining regular season game with the pesky St. Mary's Gaels. USF won that game by four points, ending the regular season with 20 wins against 5 losses. Then began the wait to see if the New York powers-that-be would look as far as the West Coast for one of the eight teams to play in their renowned post-season tournament. By now USF was the only Bay Area contender; Stanford had slumped badly down the stretch, losing key games to rivals from the Southland.

The regular season for USF ended on February 23. The N.I.T. wasn't scheduled to begin until March 12. The Dons were fairly hopeful for one of the eight bids, but if certain high-profile teams were sought after and accepted bids, there could be a problem. In another year, Kentucky, as defending NCAA champion (and 1948 Olympic champion), might have preferred to concentrate on the NCAA tournament, but this year the NCAA sectional games were in Madison Square Garden the week after the N.I.T. Consequently, Kentucky (25-1) gladly accepted the first bid to the N.I.T. However, Oklahoma A&M, the champion of the Missouri Valley League, declined in favor of the NCAA, so the runner-up, Saint Louis University (19-3), the defending champ of the N.I.T. and the only team to defeat Kentucky all year, was offered and accepted a bid. Two days later, Bradley (25-5) and Western Kentucky (25-3) accepted. Then word came out of New York that the local schools, rather than accepting the single bid that had been offered CCNY, wanted two spots. An Examiner headline proclaimed: Dons May Be Victims Of Gotham Freezeout. That didn't occur. On March 7 the Dons became the first West Coast team ever selected for the tournament. David would once again have the chance to battle Goliath. In Gotham!

Interestingly, the committee solved the sticky problem of whether to invite one more New York team or another team from around the country by increasing the field to twelve teams, inviting Loyola of Chicago (22-5), Bowling Green of Ohio (21-6), and three other New York teams, Manhattan College (18-7), St. John's (15-8), and NYU (12-7). The four New York teams would play four of the visiting teams, USF included, in a first round of competition. Four teams, Kentucky, Saint Louis, Western Kentucky, and Utah (selected at the same time as USF) would be seeded into the second round. It's puzzling why Utah (24-7) was seeded into the second round because Bradley (#7), USF (#8), and Bowling Green (#10) were all ranked in the Top Ten Associated Press poll whereas Utah was not. The selection of these three teams plus Kentucky (#1), Saint Louis (#3), and Western Kentucky (#5), meant that the N.I.T. had garnered six of the top ten teams.

All four New York teams lost in the first round. The Dons routed Manhattan, 68-43, behind what sportswriters were calling the "Mutt and Jeff combination of Don Lofgran and Rene Herrerias." Lofgran had a team-high 17 points and Herrerias 10 points. At the same time, Herrerias drew acclaim for his defense because he had held New York City's leading scorer, Bob Kelly, to 10 points. Frank Kuzara was the other big contributor for USF with 13.

Surprisingly, Loyola of Chicago, steadily pulling away in the second half behind Jack Kerris's 26 points, easily defeated CCNY, 62-47. The other games saw Bradley's Paul Unruh score 22 points in an 89-67 victory over NYU, while Bowling Green's Chuck Share poured in 23 points as his team blasted St. John's 77-44.

Although the Dons had a higher national ranking, they now had to face the rested and favored Utah. Coach Vadal Peterson called his Utes "the finest team I have ever taken to a post-season tournament." On paper, this game seemed to hinge on how well Joe McNamee could contain Utah's All-American center, Vern Gardner. As it turned out, McNamee couldn't hold Gardner down. The All-American scored 23 points, including a basket that put Utah ahead 63-62 with less than a minute to play. But with five seconds remaining the Dons' Frank Kuzara hit a desperation thirty footer -- while nearly falling out of bounds -- for the thrilling upset victory. Joe McNamee had 20 points himself, Lofgran 14, and Benington and Kuzara 12 apiece in a well-balanced attack. Herrerias, who, more than any other Don seemed the epitome of the biblical David, continued to delight the huge crowd at the Garden with numerous steals and assists.

There were upsets in every other game too, as all the teams required to play on the previous Saturday defeated teams seeded ahead of them. Loyola beat top-seeded Kentucky, 67-56; Bradley continued its high-scoring ways with a 95-86 win over Western Kentucky; and Bowling Green knocked off the defending champs, Saint Louis, and its All-American center, "Easy" Ed Macauley, 80-74. It was anybody's tournament. The individual stars of the first round continued with hot hands: Jack Kerris had 23 points for Loyola, Paul Unruh and Gene Melchiorre each had 28 for Bradley, and Chuck Share had 15 for Bowling Green to complement teammate Mac Otten's 22.

The Dons' next opponent, Bowling Green, winner of fifteen straight games, with 6'11", 235 pound Chuck Share, 6'6" Mac Otten, and 6'4" guard John Payak, was now the tournament favorite. Saint Louis coach Ed Hickey, after his team's loss, called Bowling Green "the best college basketball team in the country." "My boys," he said, "played one of their best games, and Ed Macauley [the AP "Player of the Year"] was as good as I've ever seen him." Despite Macauley's outstanding play, Bowling Green won by six points after trailing by three at the half.

Bowling Green may have been the bettors' favorite, but the scrappy Dons were the crowd's favorite. With 18,300 excited fans jammed into old Madison Square Garden, the Dons held Mac Otten to one basket; and while the monstrous Share tallied 20, it wasn't enough to match the 24 posted by USF's Lofgran as he paced the Dons to a 49-39 victory. USF had led by nine at the half but let Bowling Green narrow the lead to three points midway through the second half. A scare arose when the crowd's darling, Rene Herrerias, fouled out early. However, veteran guards Ross Giudice and Frank Kuzara steadied the play, allowing the Dons to pull away for the ten point win.

In the other semi-final game, Loyola, after trailing by nine points at the half, rallied behind the play of big Jack Kerris to sneak by Bradley, 55-50.

The championship game, then, would match two surprise teams, two urban schools located in Chicago and San Francisco -- thousands of miles from Manhattan. Once again the Dons were underdogs, but this was their chance to win the school's first national basketball championship, and they took full advantage of it. They doggedly pulled out to a twelve-point lead early in the second half, only to allow Loyola to charge back for a tie at 47 with a little less than a minute to play. Then, with forty seconds left on the clock, Ross Giudice was fouled. Giudice had scored the Dons' previous four points, and he calmly sank his smooth underhand free throw. Three times after that, Loyola fouled the Dons, but in those days the fouled team could refuse the shot in favor of maintaining possession. Without a shot-clock to worry about, the Dons successfully stalled out the game for the one-point victory, 48-47. Nineteen-year-old Don Lofgran, who had scored 20 points and had outplayed numerous All-Americans, was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and the following year he was designated an All-American himself.

Thirty-three-year old Pete Newell had won his first national championship. He would leave USF in 1950 for the head coaching position at Michigan State after the Dons made an unsuccessful return trip to the N.I.T. The Dons that year lost in the first round to CCNY, the team that would post the only double in the history of college basketball, winning both the N.I.T. and the NCAA championships. A tragic footnote to this remarkable double is that every player in the CCNY starting five was incriminated in the college basketball point-shaving scandal that rocked the country in January, 1951.

Meanwhile, Newell coached at Michigan State for four years before returning to the Bay Area to coach Cal. With the help of his able assistant, Rene Herrerias, Newell guided the Bears to the NCAA title in 1959. Incredibly, his team defeated Cincinnati with Oscar Robertson in the semi-final game and West Virginia with Jerry West in the final. The following year Pete Newell's Bears would return to the Final Four, only to lose in the championship game to the Ohio State team that starred John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas. In the summer of 1960, Newell coached the US Olympic basketball team with the above-mentioned stars, to an Olympic gold medal in Rome. Pete Newell, most deservedly, is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

USF, under Phil Woolpert, Newell's 1949 assistant coach and former Loyola teammate, fared even better. With N.I.T hero Ross Giudice as Woolpert's assistant, the Dons won sixty consecutive games en route to the NCAA Championships in 1955 and 1956, and a third-place finish in 1957. Phil Woolpert, too, is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Copyright, Bernie Schneider, 1999