by Kent Lowe
Special to LSUsports.net
I enjoy the chance to get in a good conversation about college basketball. I really enjoy the sport and wish I had one one-hundredth of the talent the people who play the sport have in their body.
That’s why Friday night at the Faculty Club was so special. There was plenty of conversation about college basketball. The conversation was about LSU basketball. A very special collection of basketball players returned to the LSU campus to remember a time 20 years ago when they were the class of the sport. The 1981 team had returned to Baton Rouge to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their special season which ended at the 1981 NCAA Final Four.
Some of the players were easily recognizable. Others had changed a bit, but all played a part and still had great memories of a very special time at LSU. Three seniors, a sophomore and a freshman started in the lineup for the Tigers, whose season started with a not so impressive 2-1 performance in the Great Alaskan Shootout. There was another senior who was the sixth man. Plus a bench of quality reinforcements, as Coach Dale Brown likes to call them, who would provide quality minutes night after night, game after game.
The cover of the 1981 media guide shows the team on the old Tartan floor of the Maravich Assembly Center surrounding a beautiful Rolls Royce. Little did anyone know that would be so appropriate for this team. The 1981 LSU basketball team was a Rolls Royce of basketball teams and it ran on all cylinders almost all season long.
The starters are names people are familiar with ? Durand “Rudy” Macklin, Greg “Cookieman” Cook, Ethan “E” Martin, Howard “Hi C” Carter, Leonard “Swat” Mitchell along with “The best sixth man in college basketball,” Willie Sims.
There was J. Brian Bergeron, Tyrone Black, Andy Campbell, Joe Costello, Matt England, Johnny Jones, Brian Kistler and John Tudor. All had a role and all played it beautifully. Also on the team was a guy named Mark Alcorn who had to leave the team early in the magical season to fight his own personal battle with cancer. He left us all way to soon, but he was around to join the celebration as the Final Four trip reached its zenith.
Part of the ride with Dale Brown were his coaches Ron Abernathy, Rick Huckabay and Jordy Hultberg along with night after night of pack houses cheering the Tigers on to victory after victory.
Maybe it was appropriate that the Midwest Regional semis and finals were held in the Louisiana Superdome in front of over 30,000-plus fans as LSU took the measure of Arkansas and then Wichita State to send the state into frenzy as the Tigers advanced to the NCAA Final Four for the first time since 1953.
I was a grad student at the time and I remember the games very well of the 1981 season. There was something special about this team. There was something special about these guys individually, but when you put the collective group on a basketball court, there was magic in the air.
I tried to find my “Lets Get Silly in Philly” t-shirt from the Final Four, but it probably grew too small many years ago. But I still have the memories of a wonderful year that will never be forgotten.
Friday night at the Faculty Club, it was wonderful to hear the stories again from those who lived a very special time in LSU athletics. It was good to learn that they not only still carry the friendships of many of the people they knew then, but also continue to have a love affair with LSU and the basketball fans for a season which won’t soon be forgotten.
It’s been 20 years. We’ll still remember another 10 or 20 years down the road about the 1981 team which took us on a magical college basketball ride to the top echelon of the sport.