Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of looks back at the highlights of Durand “Rudy” Macklin’s career at LSU in preparation for his jersey retirement ceremony at halftime of the LSU-Kentucky game on Saturday, Feb. 6, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Today, we will look back at his freshman year and Tuesday, besides reactions from him and Coach Brown at a press conference that day, we will review his sophomore season. Thursday the series resumes with a look at what would be two junior seasons and on Friday, a look at his final senior campaign that concluded with LSU reaching the NCAA Final Four.
FRESHMAN YEAR (1976-77)
Two games do a lot to summarize Macklin’s first year as a Tiger out of Shawnee High School in Louisville, Ky., as part of a national top 10 recruiting class brought in by Coach Dale Brown. The first came in Macklin’s first game as a Tiger in the LSU Assembly Center. Macklin smashed the school record for rebounds in a single game with 32, a record that hasn’t come close to being touched in the almost 35 years since that game.
Tuesday – A sophomore season featuring No. 1 falling in Baton Rouge.
The date was Nov. 26, 1976. The Tigers were meeting rival Tulane in the Assembly Center. It turns out Coach Brown had some inspiration for the freshman from Louisville. All these many years later, let’s have Rudy Macklin pick up the story.
“That night against Tulane, the locker room was quiet, with my teammates and I realizing that the arena was nearly empty and rumors circulating that Dale Brown, the coach I had come to admire, may be fired if we lose to our cross-state rival.
Coach Brown walks in the locker room without saying a word and posted an article on the bulletin board that read: ‘Carlos Zuniga, a high school star from New Orleans, was a better player than me and that coach Brown made a mistake choosing me over Zuniga.’
Of course the article got my blood boiling, and I said to myself that I have something to prove as the top recruit for the Tigers. Coach wanted to see how I was going to react without saying a word to me, and it worked! Facing a front line of 6-11, 6-9 and 6-7, I knew my job would be tough. But I remembered what coach Ron Abernathy taught me in high school: ‘Every rebound that comes off the glass belongs to you.’ And that night all of them literally did belong to me.
“I had no idea how many rebounds I was hauling down during the game. I had one thing in my mind — go after Zuniga and prove my worth and protect my reputation. At the end of the game the announcer told the small but faithful crowd that I had grabbed 32 rebounds. A huge roar went throughout the building and I was in shock- all of us were.
“The next day, media outlets from all over the country were calling and everything changed. Sport Illustrated did a piece on me and the whole basketball world had focused their attention to LSU basketball. LSU basketball was officially on the map!”
And yet, the year would have more highlights, including an Assembly Center record of 40 points scored against Tennessee on Jan. 15, 1977.
Again, Rudy Macklin:
“The night I scored 40 points was against the highly-ranked Tennessee Vols with the Ernie and Bernie show. Bernard King was my favorite college player at that time and I copied his style of play which was the quick turnaround jump shot from the low post.
“The arena was packed, and the game was at a fast pace. My shot was falling every time I let it go. I was hot, and I wanted to have a good game against my favorite player. He congratulated me on a great game and I was star-struck. As it turned out many years later, I was traded from the Atlanta Hawks to the New York Knicks and played alongside the guy I patterned my game after. But more important, LSU was now becoming a basketball power.”
Rudy and his teammates were accomplishing exactly the goal that Rudy came from Louisville to accomplish – put this basketball program on the map. He would score over 20 points six times and grab 10 or more boards 19 times. He was named the “Freshman of the Year” in the SEC, the first of many honors to come. He was the national freshman leader in rebounds at 11.8 a game and scored the first 385 points of his career, averaging 14.8 a game.
The Tigers were 15-2 and 8-10 in the SEC. They had taken several steps forward in 1977 and oh what awaited Rudy Macklin and the Tigers in the years ahead.