Collision Course

by William Cook

  At the time of the 1959 NCAA tournament, Newell’s Golden Bears, ranked 11th in the final AP Top Twenty, had a record of 23–4 and were riding a 14-game winning streak into the tournament.

  Pete Newell was a defensive-minded coach who used a balanced attack. Two years before, Newell’s Golden Bears had almost beaten Kansas by cleverly pulling Wilt Chamberlain out of position. Now Newell knew that in order to defeat the Bearcats he would have to contain their one-man show Oscar Robertson. Newell had two quality players around the basket in 6′10″ center Darrall Imhoff and 6′5″ forward Bill McClintock. But the job of guarding the 6′5″, 205-pound scoring machine Robertson was given to 6′3″, 155-pound Bob Dalton, who was averaging 7.3 points per game. While Newell knew that Oscar Robertson was Mr. Everything, he was actually confident that Mr. Nothing Bob Dalton could do the job.

  Newell and the Golden Bears decided to start off by using a little psychology on The Big O. So, when the players were introduced before the game, grinning from ear to ear, Bob Dalton shook Oscar Robertson’s hand and said to him, “Hi, my name’s Dalton—what’s yours?”13

  Robertson was momentarily stunned! At that point in his career, he had been on the cover of magazines as much as Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Mantle. The Big O was virtually a household name.

  When the game started, Robertson was even more stunned by the pressing defenses and trappings the Golden Bears employed. In the end, California, led by the dominating performance of Darrall Imhoff who scored 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, defeated the Bearcats 64–58. California held Oscar Robertson to just 19 points. Also, California held the Cincinnati Bearcats to 26 points below their season average of 84 points per game.

  Oscar Robertson now asserts that he doesn’t remember the introduction incident or Bob Dalton doing a great job defending him. Nonetheless, the Dalton incident must have bothered The Big O. Pete Newell said Robertson cornered him a year later and said, “Coach, that guy knew what my name was, didn’t he?”14

  The following evening, The Big O would be back on his game scoring 39 points and grabbing 17 rebounds as Cincinnati defeated Louisville 98–85 in the consolation game to take third place in the tournament.

  In the championship final, Jerry West finished with 28 points, but West Virginia blew a 13-point first-half lead to lose to California. The winning goal was scored by center Darrall Imhoff with 17 seconds left in the game. Although Imhoff was left-handed he tipped the ball in with his right hand. Jerry West says Imhoff’s tip-in “was the ugliest play you could ever imagine.”15 West Virginia had one more chance to win the game when the Golden Bears missed a free throw with 2 seconds remaining; Jerry West grabbed the rebound but couldn’t get a shot off. California won 71–70.

  Following the 1959 NCAA Tournament, the Harlem Globetrotters offered Oscar Robertson a lot of money to forego his senior year at Cincinnati and join the team. But Robertson, a preseason pick for the 1960 All-American team along with Jerry West of West Virginia, Jim Hagan of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Minnesota, and Tony Jackson of St. John’s, decided to remain with the Bearcats.

  On February 8, 1960, as Oscar Robertson neared the end of his collegiate career, he set another record. In a 123–74 Bearcats victory over North Texas State, Robertson scored 62 points, a school record.

  The Bearcats won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship again in 1959–60 and entered the NCAA Tournament with a season record of 25–1 (13–1 MVC), their only loss coming on January 16 at the hands of Bradley 90–91. Out of a total of 40 MVC records, Oscar Robertson finished his college career holding 16 of them.

  It was now the last chance for Oscar Robertson to win a National Championship with Cincinnati and the Bearcats entered the 1960 NCAA Tournament ranked number one in the final AP poll.

  In the Midwest Regional Semi-Finals played in Manhattan, Kansas, Cincinnati quickly dispatched DePaul 99–59 with The Big O scoring 29 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.

  Then, in the Midwest Finals, the Bearcats defeated Kansas 82–71 after being down 42–40 at half-time. Oscar Robertson scored 43 points and hauled in 14 rebounds. It was the Bearcats 27th win of the season.

  The Bearcats then advanced to the Final Four in San Francisco along with California, Ohio State, and New York University.

  In order to reach the championship game, Cincinnati had to get by California again. But the Golden Bears just seemed to have The Big O’s number, holding him to 18 points and 10 rebounds, as they defeated the Bearcats 77–69. Cincinnati believed that this time they had the answer to containing Darrall Imhoff pairing him off against 6′9″, 240-pound sophomore center Paul Hogue. While Hogue scored 14 points and had 11 rebounds, Imhoff scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds.

  The following evening in the championship game, California was defeated by Ohio State 75–55. The key to the Buckeyes victory was a balanced attack, as they used twelve players in the game with All-American, 6′8″ sophomore center Jerry Lucas scoring 16 points and hauling in 10 rebounds while holding Darrall Imhoff to just 8 points and 5 rebounds.

  Ohio State coach Fred Taylor used his entire squad to defeat California. Besides Lucas with 16 points, Mel Nowell had 15 points; Larry Siegfried, 13; John Havlicek, 12; and Joe Roberts, 6. Even reserve Bobby Knight got in the game.

  In the consolation game, Oscar Robertson closed out his collegiate career in true Big O style scoring 32 points with 14 rebounds as the Bearcats handled NYU with ease in a 95–71 triumph.

  Although the University of Cincinnati Bearcats never won a National Championship during Oscar Robertson’s years on the team, his individual performance had been overwhelming. He finished with 2,973 points and his averages for points per game in each of his collegiate career years were 35.1, 32.6, and 33.7. The Big O had become the all-time major college scoring leader by surpassing Dickie Hemric of Wake Forest who previously held the record with 2,587 career points. However, it had taken Hemric four years to accumulate his points.

  The list of honors and awards that Robertson received during his college days were nearly as tall as his 6′5″ frame: three-time consensus All-American, three-time Sporting News Player of the Year, three-time UPI Player of the Year, and on and on. When Robertson left the University of Cincinnati, he had replaced Jack Twyman as the all-time career leader in scoring. The Big O would remain the all-time major college scoring leader until 1970 when bested by “Pistol Pete” Maravich of LSU.

  But going forward, Oscar Robertson would be more than just a basketball legend at the University of Cincinnati—he would become an ambassador of trust for the school. He would remain loyal to UC and promote not only its athletics program but also its academic programs.

  It was because of The Big O that talented players, both black and white, future All-Americans such as Paul Hogue, Ron Bonham, and Tom Thacker, Tony Yates, and George Wilson enrolled at the University of Cincinnati. It was their presence that would result in the Bearcats winning two consecutive NCAA National Championships in 1961 and 1962, defeating Ohio State twice, then narrowly missing a third National Championship in 1963, losing the final game to Loyola of Chicago in a controversial double overtime. For decades following those championship years, Cincinnati fans were thanking coach Ed Jucker for the Bearcats success when they should have been thanking Oscar Robertson.

  Future Michigan All-American Cazzie Russell out of Carver High School in Chicago had been courted by both Oscar Robertson for Cincinnati and John Wooden of UCLA. The reason Russell chose to enroll at Michigan rather Cincinnati was due to the personality differences between the coaches. Bearcats coach Ed Jucker had a propensity to be a sourpuss, whereas Wolverines coach Dave Strack was very charismatic.

  Reflecting on his decision to enroll at Michigan, Russell stated, “The way Dave Strack treated me and my family was the key to my coming to Michigan. I loved Dave Strack and his family. His wife, Miss Ruth Ann, was special. And I babysat for some of their girls.”16

  Had Oscar Robertson had a little more help from Ed Jucker in recruiting
Cazzie Russell, Cincinnati may have had a real dynasty in college basketball in the 1960s instead of a near-miss.

  In the 1959 basketball World Championships, the United States finished third, losing in the final round to both Brazil, who won the title, and the Soviet Union. Going into the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, the USA was bound and determined to reclaim its dominance in a sport native to the Stars and Stripes. To accomplish that feat, the United States put on the floor what is considered the greatest amateur basketball team ever assembled.

  The U.S. team would be coached by California’s Pete Newell, assisted by Warren Womble of Peoria who had coached the 1952 USA Olympic Championship Team.

  The Olympic trials were held in Denver in April 1960, 96 players from the NCAA, AAU, and United States Military tried out for the squad and 12 players and 12 alternates were chosen.

  Among those joining Oscar Robertson on the USA team from the NCAA were future NBA stars Jerry West, West Virginia; Jerry Lucas, Ohio State; Darrall Imhoff, California; Walt Bellamy, Indiana University; and Jay Arnett, Texas. Chosen from the AAU were Bob Boozer, Kansas State; Allen Kelley, Kansas; Lester Lane, Oklahoma; and Burdie Haldorson, the 6′8″ star of the Bartlesville, Oklahoma Oilers, the champions of the National Industrial League. Chosen from the Armed Services team was Adrian Smith, who had played at Kentucky.

  The pool of NCAA and AAU talented former and current college stars available for the 1960 Olympics Team was so deep that many players chosen as alternates would go on to have notable professional careers: Wayne Hightower, Kansas; Tom Meschery, St. Mary’s of California; Thomas “Satch” Sanders, NYU; and John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried of Ohio State.

  Oscar Robertson, who would be the first player taken in the 1960 NBA draft as the territorial pick by the Cincinnati Royals, and Jerry West, who would be the second player chosen by the Minneapolis Lakers about to move to Los Angeles, were named co-captains of the USA team.

  Jerry West has always maintained that with him and Oscar Robertson on the 1960 USA Olympic team, the Russian team had no chance of winning the Gold Medal. “We both had chips on our shoulders,” said West, “[Robertson’s] had to do with race, beginning with the various struggles his Crispus Attucks High School team had in being recognized, whereas mine was fueled by anger toward a father who found fault with me at every turn, as well as a personal mission to fulfill a desire for perfection and a way of replacing my dead brother.”17 (West’s older brother, David, had been killed in action in Korea in 1951).

  The 1960 Olympic basketball competition was played between August 26 and September 10, and the Americans won all eight of their games, taking the Gold Medal. The Soviet Union took the Silver Medal and Brazil the Bronze.

  The USA team overwhelmed its opponents by averaging 101.9 points per game as opposed to allowing only 59.9 points per game. Pete Newell used every player on his squad liberally in defeating in succession—Italy 88–54, Japan 125–66, Hungary 107–63, Yugoslavia 104–42, Uruguay 108–50, Soviet Union 107–63, Italy 88–54, and in the championship game Brazil 90–60.

  Oscar Robertson was the leading scorer for the USA team with an average of 17.0 points per game followed by Jerry Lucas, 16.8; Jerry West, 14.5; Terry Dischinger, 11.5; and Adrian Smith, 10.9.

  7

  The Big O Comes to the NBA & the ABL Folds

  At the end of the 1959–60 season, the Cincinnati Royals exercised their territorial draft rights with the number one pick in the NBA draft to select Oscar Robertson, aka “The Big O,” who had just completed his spectacular collegiate career at the University of Cincinnati and won a Gold Medal in the Olympics in Rome.

  Jack Twyman remarked that before Oscar Robertson joined the Royals, the offense of the team depended on him. But in Oscar’s rookie season he went from averaging 31 points to 24 points per game. “In effect, I became a supporting player to him. But you could see right away that Oscar was a franchise player.”1 Robertson would add a new competitive edge to the Royals, as the year before he was drafted, they had won only 19 games, but in his first two years with the team, they would win 33 and 43.

  During the last three years, 1958–1960, the University of Cincinnati, with Oscar Robertson, had not won a national championship, but they had won three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference championships. During that period, Robertson had been a three-time All-American, three-time College Player of the Year, and won a Gold Medal in the Olympics.

  During the same period, Bob Cousy and the Boston Celtics had reached the NBA Finals three times, losing to St. Louis in 1958 and then winning back-to-back NBA championships in 1959 and 1960. Cousy had been an All-Star each year and led the NBA in assists each of the last three years. In one game in 1959, Cousy had 19 assists in one half.

  Now the time had come for the brilliant careers of Oscar Robertson, the 23-year-old rookie, and Bob Cousy, the 32-year-old veteran, two of the greatest guards in NBA history, to collide on the hardwood. A national sports magazine asked Bob Cousy about what he thought The Big O would do in the league. Cousy stated that “[Jerry] West could be the best. And Oscar could be a Royal letdown.”2

  Jerry West said that while Elgin Baylor was the player he studied when he first came into the league, Oscar Robertson was the player that he tried to emulate. While Robertson felt the press favored West, stating in his book, The Big O—My Life, My Times, My Game, “America looked at Jerry fondly,”3 West asserts that “Oscar was never a rookie, not even close.”4

  In addition to Oscar Robertson, the Royals had also acquired the draft rights in a trade with the St. Louis Hawks to one of his 1960 Olympic Gold Medal team members: 6′8″ forward Bob Boozer who had played his college ball at Kansas State. Also, the Royals had drafted Oscar’s underrated teammate from the University of Cincinnati, 6′4″ guard Ralph Davis.

  One of the unique aspects of the 1960–61 Cincinnati Royals was the team’s regional makeup. While it wasn’t unusual for NBA teams of the time to have a few regionally known players, six of the twelve members of the Royals, fifty percent, had played on college teams located within fifty miles of Cincinnati. From the University of Cincinnati, there was Oscar Robertson, Jack Twyman, and Ralph Davis. From just across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky was Larry Staverman from Villa Madonna College (Thomas Moore College), Arlen Bockhorn had played at the University of Dayton, and Wayne Embry at Miami (of Ohio) in Oxford.

  While the Royals’ management and coach Charlie Wolf may have been catering to the house, hiring players with local connections, having the trio of Oscar Robertson, Jack Twyman, and Wayne Embry on the 1960–61 edition of the Cincinnati Royals looked to make them a much-improved team.

  Of course, speculation was still being advanced in Cincinnati about what Maurice Stokes could have added to the team playing with Robertson, Twyman, and Embry rather than lying in a hospital bed in a horrible, hopeless, vegetating physical state. There is no doubt that a Robertson-Stokes combination would have been a considerable force to be reckoned with in the NBA for several years to come and would have been a major threat to the Bob Cousy—and Bill Russell—led Boston Celtics dynasty of the early 1960s.

  In 1960–61, the NBA was an eight-team league with two divisions. The Eastern Division consisted of Boston, Philadelphia, Syracuse, and New York. The Western Division consisted of St. Louis, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Cincinnati.

  On October 19, 1960, The Big O made his NBA debut playing against the Lakers who had just relocated from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. The Lakers featured high scoring Elgin Baylor and rookie guard Jerry West.

  When Bob Short moved the Lakers to LA, he wanted Bill Sharman of the Boston Celtics to coach the team. Sharman was still on the Celtics’ active player list. Red Auerbach was willing to let Sharman go to the Lakers, but in exchange, he wanted Jerry West. Short quickly broke off negotiations and hired West Virginia coach Fred Schaus.

  The Royals vs. Lakers game was played before 8,176 people at Cincinnati Gardens, the largest crowd to see the Royals play at home in their his
tory at that time. To the absolute delight of those fans, the Royals won a shoot-out with the Lakers 140 to 123.

  While veteran Jack Twyman led the Royals in scoring with 30 points and Arlen “Bucky” Bockhorn added 20, Oscar Robertson was spectacular in his first professional game finishing with a triple-double scoring 21 points with 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

  For the LA Lakers, Elgin Baylor had 35 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 assists. It was also Jerry West’s first game in the NBA, and he debuted with 20 points, 5 assists, and 2 rebounds.

  The Cincinnati Royals’ front office was all smiles about Oscar. In the previous season, the Royals’ home attendance at Cincinnati Gardens for 31 games was 58,244 (1,879 per game). But just five home games into the 1960–61 season the Royals, with a record of 5–3, had drawn 35,241 (7,048 per game). It was no surprise that most of those fans had come to see The Big O.

  In the 1960–61 season, the Cincinnati Royals and Boston Celtics would meet nine times. The first meeting of the clubs would be a three-game series with a single game played at Boston, Cincinnati, and New York over the course of six days, November 5–11, 1960.

  The first of the three games between the Royals and Celtics would take place on November 5 at Boston Garden and be a huge media event in that it was the first meeting of Bob Cousy, the old pro, vs. Oscar Robertson, the rookie. The Big O was coming into the Cooz’s town and there were plenty of doubting Thomases among the Celtics faithful that weren’t sure the Royals rookie would be able to rise to the challenge. Sports Illustrated even did an article on the game titled “The New Kid on The Block Takes on The Champ,” the “new kid” being Oscar Robertson and the “champ” referencing Bob Cousy.