In the pregame mass before the Jan. 19, 1974 clash against No. 1 UCLA, Notre Dame executive vice president Rev. Edmund P. Joyce C.S.C. delivered a message to the unbeaten No. 2-ranked Irish.
“This is not an ordinary day,” he told the team. “Chances are, you will look back on this days as one of the most memorable ones in you life.”
How clairvoyant he was. To this day, it remains the most defining moment in Notre Dame’s basketball history, at least for the men’s program.
Entering the contest, UCLA had captured seven consecutive national titles and not tasted defeat since three years earlier – an 89-82 defeat at Notre Dame in which senior Austin Carr tallied 46 points for John Dee’s squad. Not only had the Bruins won 88 consecutive contests, but its senior center, Bill Walton, owned a personal winning streak of 142 games, dating back to his days at Helix High in La Mesa, Calif.
Third-year head coach Digger Phelps had faced UCLA four other times and lost by an average of 82-54. This time, though, he featured three future first-round picks in the starting lineup – senior center John Shumate, junior guard Gary Brokaw and freshman forward Adrian Dantley – complemented by forward Gary “Goose” Novak and Dwight “Iceman” Clay, plus top freshmen reserves Bill Paterno and Ray Martin.
A record college basketball audience of 13.5 million tuned into TVS, an independent network picked up by NBC, to witness the showdown. Coincidentally, the contest was played on “College Basketball Day,” so named because the sport reputedly was first played on Jan. 19, 1892 in Springfield, Mass.
Enhancing the atmosphere was an aura of magic on the Notre Dame campus at the time. Twenty days earlier, Ara Parsghian’s football team vanquished No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to capture the national title. Then on the eve of the clash with UCLA, the Irish hockey team crushed No. 1 Michigan Tech, 7-1. Three wins over No. 1 programs in a span of 20 days would be unprecedented in collegiate annals.
Whereas the Irish football program was 5-2-2 in No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdowns from 1943-93, this was the first (and last to this day) time the basketball program engaged in a No. 1-No. 2 matchup.
Remarkably in the 71-70 victory, Notre Dame never had the lead until Clay’s corner basket with 29 seconds left. The Bruins took control from the outset, leading by as much as 33-16 in the first half, and held a commanding 70-59 cushion when the Irish called time out with only 3:22 left.
Think about it: No shot clock, no three-point line, the most dominant program in college basketball annals…and the Irish still pulled out the victory. That scenario could have been set up a thousand more times and it’s unlikely the same rally could have been achieved.
Brokaw finished with a game-high 25 points while Shumate matched Walton’s total of 24, but Clay’s game-winning shot for his sixth and seventh points remains the indelible image.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that someone doesn’t remind me about it or I don’t think about it,” Clay told Blue & Gold Illustrated several years ago. “It’s one of those stories where you know there were only 11,000 seats in the gym, but about 100,000 people have told me they were at the game – and a billion said they saw it on TV.”
UCLA had four shots at the basket in the end, including one by Walton who was 12 of 13 from the floor at the time. When Shumate cradled his 11th rebound after Pete Trgovich and Dave Meyers missed on tip-in attempts, he hoisted the ball toward the rafters.
To Irish faithful who watched the game, announcer Dick Enberg’s call in those closing, pulsating seconds resonates the way Al Michaels’ “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” does for the 1980 U.S. Olympics hockey team: “Trgovich…Meyers…Shumate…IT’S ALL OVER!”
The victory propelled the Irish to No. 1 for the first time in the AP’s 36-year history. The stay was short-lived, as the motivated Bruins pounded Notre Dame the following week at Los Angeles (94-75). The Irish finished the regular season 24-2 against an arduous schedule but were stunned in the second-round of the then 25-team NCAA Tournament that March.
Nevertheless, a No. 1 finish in football and No. 1 ranking in basketball in the same month was achieved for the first time in collegiate sports.
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