BATON ROUGE — The members of one of the greatest teams in LSU men’s basketball history will be back on campus this weekend for a 20th anniversary reunion of LSU’s 1981 NCAA Men’s Final Four team.
The weekend will be capped off with an appearance by the team and players at the Saturday Southeastern Conference game at the Maravich Assembly Center between LSU and Arkansas. The game has an early start time of 4 p.m. because of television as the game will be carried on SEC-TV (Fox Sports Southwest in Louisiana, Channel 26 in Baton Rouge). Tickets are available at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The 14 living members of the team are expected to be in town for either part of all of the activities of the weekend, along with all four coaches, the two managers, the trainers and the team’s sports information director. Mark Alcorn, who fought a long battle with cancer diagnosed early in the 1981 season, died in 1982.
For five seniors, the 1981 season was the culmination of everything a basketball player longed four. Together, those five helped LSU basketball to three NCAA Tournament bids, two SEC regular season championships, one SEC Tournament title and a 98-26 record over that period, including the famed 31-5 mark in 1981.
The season would start in average fashion with LSU splitting its first two games in the Great Alaskan Shootout, beating Colgate by 18 and losing to Arkansas by 10 in a game in which Coach Dale Brown took out many of his starters for the majority of the second half because he was disappointed in their play.
The next day, LSU would defeat Georgetown, 76-67. Nothing special you might say, but it would be the start of a winning streak that would extend for over three months.
LSU would come home and win and win and win. The Tigers started out winning in the league and kept winning. Howard Carter hit a 20-footer at the buzzer to get LSU a win at Athens. LSU downed Texas A&M in a non-conference game on national television.
The Tigers would win the Southeastern Conference becoming the first team to win 17 consecutive games in the league in one season. The Tigers were NCAA Tournament bound, where they easily handled Lamar in Austin, Texas, 100-78. The Tigers were heading to the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinals in, of all places, the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
Crowds of over 30,000 watched in a frenzy as first LSU beat Arkansas and then Wichita State to go to the NCAA Final Four for the first time since 1953, this time in Philadelphia. The slogan, “Let’s Get Silly in Philly” became an anthem around Baton Rouge.
What made the team so special was the way they captured the imagination of the people of Baton Rouge and the state. The honors for Coach Brown and his players were many. Brown was named a national coach of the year. Durand “Rudy” Macklin was a first-team All-American. The starters and sixth man were linked together forever ? Macklin, (Ethan) Martin, (Leonard) Mitchell, (Howard) Carter, (Greg) Cook and (Willie) Sims.
All excelled in some special part of the game and when they were all put together on a basketball court, they became a cohesive unit that produced some very special memories that people haven’t forgotten 20 years later and probably won’t forget 20 or 30 more years down the line.
The reinforcements as Brown called the subs all contributed as well, including Brian Bergeron, Tyrone Black, Andy Campbell, Joe Costello, Matt England, Johnny Jones, Brian Kistler and John Tudor. All were important and it showed in the diversity of the season stats.
It was a team and a time all LSU basketball fans will remember. It’s good they are coming back to allow us all to remember one more time. Although a year like the 1981 Tigers had should be and will be very hard to forget.