My first Final Four was in Portland, Oregon, 1965, between UCLA, University of Michigan, Princeton and Wichita State University. It was held in the Portland Coliseum that seated 13,000 and change. I am not sure it was even sold out. A return engagement for John Wooden’s Bruins (1964 Champs). Michigan was a power in the Big Ten and Princeton and Wichita State, newcomers.

I was an assistant at Cal State, LA and car-pooled to the event with coaching friends from Northern California. Of course, flying was totally out of the picture as our budgets were non-existent. There was no loss of enthusiasm for the trip and we all found it totally enjoyable. The NCAA Championship was the cornerstone of the Basketball Coaches convention that was attended by anywhere from 8 to 900 of coaches from across the country. The original field of contending teams was 24.

Today, in 2017, 68 teams begin the trip to the Final Four and there will probably be 8 to 9,000 coaches at the convention. Television rules the roost and I am sure that most of the coaches have no idea about who the coaches were that represented those teams in 1965. Let’s take a look at some of the greats of the game that were plying their trade in that tournament.

East Region:

In the East Regional St. Joseph’s was coached by Jack Ramsey who returned to Portland to coach the Portland Trail Blazers to a NBA championship. Butch von Breda Kolf and Bill Bradley brought Princeton to the dance and Joe Mulaney ran the show at Providence and later with the LA Lakers.

Mideast Region:

In the Mideast Regional Hall of Fame, Coach Ray Meyer had his DePaul team in contention. Ray coached 43 years at DePaul. You won’t see those numbers today. The Midwest Regional had one of the greatest basketball minds ever in Oklahoma State’s Henry Iba. Coach Iba had back-to-back champions in the late 1940’s. Also, there was Guy Lewis and his University of Houston Cougars. The first of many visits to the playoffs.

West Region:

Out West, Coach Wooden led a group of Hall of Famers. Stam Watts, Brigham Young University, Jim Williams (Colorado State) and the best after-dinner speaker ever, Abe Lemons(Oklahoma City) were there giving their best to unseat the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins were not to be denied and led by Gail Goodrich’s 42 points beat Michigan in the Finals. The crowd was also entertained by Bill Bradley’s 53 points in the game for 3rd place that is no longer played today. The losers from the semis did not want to play that one anyway.

The thing you might want to notice about these men is their longevity as coaches and for many of them all the years they spent at the same school or advanced to the NBA. This is not usual in today’s “big bucks” era. I think what moves me the most about them is my good fortune to call many of them friends.