mbBear said:
SFCityBear said:
wvitbear said:
An aside. I believe in 1960, WVU travellled out tom the West Coast where they were manhandled by Cal. I believe a player named Candy Cummings held West down but I could be mistaken. I also think WVU lost to Oregon State on that trip and they had a guard named Terry Baker who was also a hell of a quarterback. This is asking a lot of my memory since that was 64 yers ago.
I loved your previous post on West Virginia and Jerry West. I looked up Ron Retton. 5'-7", played in 27 games and averaged 4 points and 2 rebounds. There were not many 5-7 guys playing minutes for a major basketball program even in those days. He must have been quite an athlete, like his daughter was.
You've got the right idea here, but I'd like to help you and fill in some details. In 1960, as you said, West Virginia came to Los Angeles, actually, where they played 3 games in the LA Coliseum. West Virginia (ranked #2 in the AP Poll), played 3 games in 3 nights, first beating Stanford by 19 pts, then beat John Wooden and UCLA by 14 points, but then lost to #3 ranked Cal by 20 points. To be fair to them, 3 games in 3 nights is a difficult test in any era. It was Cal's Tandy Gillis who was assigned to guard Jerry West that night. Later that season, in the Final Four, Gillis would be responsible for keeping Oscar Robertson from doing too much damage when Cal played Cincinnati. The previous year, 1959, it would be Bob Dalton who was responsible for keeping both Oscar Robertson and Jerry West from taking over the games against Cai in the Final Four.
In any case, I could find no evidence of West Virgnia playing Oregon State on that trip. What you might have been thinking of was in 1963, #5 ranked West Virginia did come west again, this time to Corvallis, where they played Oregon State. OSU did have the great Terry Baker, the Heisman trophy winner in 1962, playing point guard for the Beavers. Jerry West had graduated in 1960, but was replaced on the Mountaineer roster by the very capable Rod Thorn, and they beat OSU 70-65. Baker would go on to lead the Beavers into the Final Four that season. He is the only Heisman trophy winner ever to have played in the Final Four in basketball.
they played basketball in the Coliseum?!! I never knew that...
Very good. My mistake. The Sports Arena opened in July, 1960, and the Holiday Classic was played there as several have now said here.
The Holiday Classic must have been quite an event, with 4 AAWU teams, 3 Big Ten teams, plus West Virginia. It was played on 3 straight days in a row, and featured #2 West Virginia, #3 Cal, and #8 Illinois. (AP Poll rankings as of the dates of the games)
There was no crowning of a champion, just some good teams playing some others. The results:
Dec 28, 1960
#3 Cal def. #8 Illinois
USC def. Northwestern
UCLA def. Michigan
#2 West Virginia def. Stanford
Dec 29, 1960
#3 Cal def USC
#2 West Virginia def UCLA
Stanford def. Michigan
#8 Illinois def Northwestern
Dec 30, 1960
#3 Cal def #2 West Virginia
USC def UCLA
#8 Illinois def Stanford
Northwestern def Michigan
After the Holiday Classic, in some unusual scheduling, Cal remained in LA to play two more games against USC on USC's home floor, the LA Sports Arena. On Jan 2, 1960, USC defeated Cal in the Arena, 65-57. By Jan 4, 1960, previously unranked USC was now ranked #10 in the AP Poll. The teams met again that night in the Sports Arena, and this time Cal won, 60-45. Later in the season, Cal played USC at Harmon Gym, and won 57-46.
Cal's loss to USC after the Classic was Cal's only regular season loss. After that loss, as I remember, Pete Newell replaced Jerry Mann at point guard with Bobby Wendell, where he remained, and Cal would not lose another game until the loss to Ohio State in the NCAA Championship game.
