1954-55

After opening the 1954–55 campaign with two quick wins, San Francisco lost its third game to UCLA (47–40, in Westwood) before running off 21 consecutive victories to finish the regular season first in the AP poll.

Led by guard K.C. Jones and center Bill Russell, the Dons edged PCC champ Oregon State, 57–56, in the West Regional final at Corvallis, Ore., then went on to meet Tom Gola and defending champion La Salle in the NCAA championship game in Kansas City. In a surprise move, USF coach Phil Woolpert assigned the 6-1 Jones to cover the 6-7 Gola and K.C. outscored UPI's first Player of the Year, 24–16. Russell, meanwhile, scored 23 and pulled down 25 rebounds as the Dons beat the third-ranked Explorers easily, 77–63, to end the year at 28–1.

No.2 Kentucky entered the NCAA tournament at 22–2, but was an eight point loser to Marquette in the semifinals of the East Regional. ACC champ North Carolina State, 28–4 and fourth in the final AP poll, was on probation for a year (recruiting violations) and ineligible for the NCAAs.

Sixth-ranked Duquesne, paced by first team All-Americans Si Green and Dick Ricketts, captured its first NIT in eight tries.

Final AP Top 20 (Writers' poll taken before major tournaments).

Consensus All-America (In alphabetical order)

First Team

·         Dick Garmaker, Minnesota

·         Tom Gola, La Salle

·         Si Green, Duquesne

·         Dick Ricketts, Duquesne

·         Bill Russell, San Francisco

Second Team

·         Darrell Floyd, Furman

·         Robin Freeman, Ohio St.

·         Dickie Hemric, Wake Forest

·         Don Schlundt, Indiana

·         Ron Shavik, N.C. State

AP POLL

1. San Francisco
2. Kentucky
3. LaSalle
4. N.C. State
5. Iowa
6. Duquesne
7. Utah
8. Marquette
9. Dayton
10. Oregon State

UPI COACHES POLL

1. San Francisco
2. Kentucky
3. LaSalle
4. Utah
5. Iowa
6. N.C. State
7. Duquesne
8. Oregon State
9. Marquette
10. Dayton

NCAA Results

First Round:
Marquette 90, Miami (Ohio) 79
Penn State 59, Memphis State 55
La Salle 95, West Virginia 61
Villanova 74, Duke 73
Canisius 73, Williams (Mass.) 60
Bradley 69, Oklahoma City 65
Seattle 80, Idaho State 63
San Francisco 89, West Texas State 66
Regional Semifinals
Marquette 79, Kentucky 71
Iowa 82, Penn State 53
La Salle 73, Princeton 46
Canisius 73, Villanova 71
Bradley 81, Southern Methodist 79
Colorado 69, Tulsa 59
Oregon State 83, Seattle 71
San Francisco 78, Utah 59
Regional Third Place
East:  Villanova 64, Princeton 57
 Kentucky 84, Penn State 59
West:  Tulsa 68, SMU 67
 Utah 108, Seattle 85
Regional Finals
East:  La Salle 99, Canisius 64
 Iowa 86, Marquette 81
West:  Colorado 93, Bradley 81
 San Francisco 57, Oregon State 56
National Semifinals
La Salle 76, Iowa 73
San Francisco 62, Colorado 50
National Third Place
Colorado 75, Iowa 54
Championship Game
San Francisco 77, La Salle 63

All-NCAA Tournament Team

Top 10

All-America Team

Leaders
Team

Offense: Furman, 95.3
Defense: San Francisco, 52.1

Individual Scoring

Rebounding

Note: From 1956 through 1962, title was determined by highest individual rebounds out of both teams’ total. Slack’s average of 25.6 rebounds per game is an all-time record.

Notes

• Si Green scored 33 points to lead Duquense to a 70-58 victory vs. Dayton in the NIT Championship game.

• USF won 26 straight games, en route to 55-game streak.

Apr 23 NBA adopts the 24 2nd shot clock rule.

1955 Jan 08 After 130 home college basketball wins, Georgia Tech defeated Kentucky 59-58. It was the first Kentucky loss at home since January 2, 1943.

San Francisco comes of age

When Bill Russell and Hal Perry first met at the University of San Francisco, they discovered they had much in common. Not only were the two both black and both Baptist in a predominantly white, Catholic environment, but the school's basketball coach, Phi l Woolpert, had seen neither freshman play a game. Furthermore, the scholarship offer from the Jesuit institution was the only one each had received.

The fall of 1952 was not a time of great athletic vitality on the USF campus, which crowned a hilltop near Golden Gate Park. The school recently had dropped its football program and the basketball team, a National Invitation Tournament champion in 19 49, had lost more games than it had won in its first two seasons under Woolpert. And the Dons were handicapped by the absence of a campus gym.

Practice was conducted at nearby St. Ignatius High School or at a neighborhood boys club or sometimes at a parish hall. It was to the high school that Russell and Perry had reported the previous spring for what amounted to a one-day audition.

Neither youngster knew anything about the university beyond its location -- and even that proved elusive to Russell, who got lost trying to find it.

Russell was a gawky athlete, a 6-foot-7 young man going on 6-9 1/2. He had been a late bloomer at Oakland's McClymonds High School, excelling on defense but serving as little more than a role player on a team of championship caliber. Indeed, Russell scored more than 10 points only once in his scholastic career.

Fortunately for the player and the school, USF alumnus Hal DeJulio was in the stands for a game between McClymonds and Oakland High. He enjoyed scouting area high School games for prospects, and he attended this particular game to assess Truman Bruce , the star of the Oakland team. Russell not only did a fine defensive job on Bruce but also scored 14 points.

DeJulio recommended Russell to Woolpert, who set up a tryout that Russell almost missed because he got lost.

"When I finally got there," he said, "I was in a daze from frustration and nervousness, which was probably good because it numbed me.

"I don't remember anything about the workout except that I ran and jumped without the ball a lot."

Afterward, Woolpert was noncommittal. The coach said he would be in touch.

Perry was a small man, just under 5-11. He was a star of his team in Ukiah, north of San Francisco, but the school and the community also were small and the level of competition nothing like that which abounded in the Bay Area. His high school coach wrote to a number of college coaches in Perry's behalf. Only Woolpert responded.

And so the guard, accompanied by his father, made the 125-mile trip to San Francisco to display his skill with a basketball. Woolpert greeted him and introduced him to a USF freshman named K.C. Jones, who proceeded to demonstrate Perry's limitations.

"He reversed everything I tried to do," Perry recalled. "I don't think I got a shot off."

After the workout, Woolpert sat with Perry and his father and patiently listed seven or eight reasons why he would be unable to offer a scholarship. The youngster was not intimidated. In addition to being a five-sport athlete, he was the senior class president as well as the student body president at Ukiah High School.

First, Perry rebutted all of Woolpert's arguments and then, standing to his full height, he said, "Before you make this decision, please pray for guidance."

On the way home, Perry's father attempted to console him after his subpar performance.

"It doesn't matter," Perry replied. "I'm still going to get the scholarship."

Two days later, he was offered tuition, room and board to attend USF. Russell received a similar invitation in the mail. Those two non-recruits, along with the 6-1 Jones, would form the nucleus of the greatest college team assembled to that time.

But first, while Russell and Perry worked hard to develop their skills on the freshman squad, Woolpert and the Dons struggled through a third successive losing season in 1953. The pressure on the coach mounted the next year when Jones, after one game , suffered a ruptured appendix. He did not return that season.

Furthermore, Woolpert and Russell were at odds over the sophomore's attitude, particularly in practice. And the Dons' other starters appeared more interested in individual statistics than winning. The record of 14-7 was an improvement, yet a disappoint ment.

It wasn't until the 1955 season that the team pulled together. Jones and Russell, who had grown to an intimidating 6-9 1/2, both were in the starting lineup. But the Dons weren't firing on all cylinders.

After trouncing Chico State in their season opener, the Dons didn't exactly blitz Loyola of Los Angeles (USF won by nine) and then lost at UCLA. Woolpert's solution was to elevate Perry to the first team.

The promotion proved to be a significant step, and not just in terms of on-court success. It also meant San Francisco would have more black starters than white starters, a most unusual arrangement at the time.

"It was never said, but you knew as a coach that you had to be aware of the quota thing," Woolpert said.

The coach gambled that any ensuing criticism among alumni, boosters and the media would be negated by winning. The Dons won immediately.

That very weekend, in a two-game series at the Cow Palace, San Francisco handily defeated Oregon State and the same UCLA team it had stumbled against the previous week.

Then the Dons left for the All-College Tournament at Oklahoma City and a test of character. Upon arrival, they were informed that the blacks could not stay at the downtown hotel reserved for the team. A meeting ensued at which every player was granted a chance to speak.

Should the Dons be split, half at a hotel and half on the Oklahoma City University campus? In what he termed his "crowning moment," Perry advised against it.

"We are going to hang together as a team," he said. And that's what USF did. The Dons' entire party stayed at the university.

And after it was over, after USF had won the holiday tournament, the Dons celebrated at the otherwise empty dorm.

"Tonight," Perry said, "is the beginning of the dynasty."

No one was quite sure exactly what that meant, but it sounded good. United as never before, and with Russell's well-timed leaps reshaping the sport, San Francisco rolled over all opponents for the rest of the season, climbing slowly in the national p olls.

When Kentucky, the early-season leader, was upset twice in January by Georgia Tech, the Dons moved into the No. 1 position to stay.

Still, San Francisco was not an overwhelming favorite as it prepared for its first Final Four. Even the elimination of No. 2-ranked Kentucky by Marquette in Eastern Regional play offered no guarantees. Third-ranked La Salle had devastated competition in its half of the Eastern bracket and boasted the premier player in the country, Tom Gola.

Iowa and Colorado rounded out the field, the Hawkeyes accompanying La Salle into the Eastern final and the Buffaloes joining USF in the Western title game.

Of the four national semifinalists, the Dons had survived the greatest scare in the tournament. After rolling over West Texas State and Utah, USF was severely challenged by Pacific Coast Conference champion Oregon State.

There were two major differences from the first meeting between the teams back in December, a game the Dons won by 26 points. Swede Halbrook, a 7-3 center, was in the Beavers' lineup, and the NCAA regional game was scheduled for Oregon State's home cou rt in Corvallis.

Jerry Mullen, USF's forward and captain, was hampered by a sprained ankle in the rematch and USF did not dominate on the boards in its usual manner.

Despite timely shooting by Stan Buchanan, the Dons' other forward, Oregon State had a chance to win at the end of the game, but Ron Robins' shot from the corner hit the back rim. The top-ranked team escaped with a 57-56 victory.

La Salle struggled to beat Iowa in the first semifinal at Kansas City, but San Francisco ended the suspense in the second game by taking a six-point lead in the final three minutes of the first half and then coasting past Colorado, 62-50.

Now the NCAA Tournament had the ideal East-West matchup between the defending champion and its primary challenger. While observers speculated on the outcome, Woolpert planned a surprise.

Reasoning that Jones could compensate for a five-inch height differential with his speed and quick hands, he assigned his best defensive player to Gola.

Such an alignment also enabled Russell to spend more time near the basket rather than be drawn outside by the smooth La Salle star. It turned out to be a masterful strategy.

Jones, a high-school football star and a marvelous athlete, disrupted the Explorers' five-man rotating offense. He limited Gola, a three-time consensus All-American, to 16 points and, displaying some uncharacteristically accurate shooting from long r ange, scored 24. For all that, Russell was the major difference.

Russell blocked shots time and again, grabbed 25 rebounds and scored 23 points, including 18 in the first half when the Dons broke open the game. Russell played above the rim, steering some of his teammates' errant shots into the basket and tipping i n others. USF won its first NCAA championship with consummate ease, 77-63.

An obscure high school athlete three years earlier, Russell was honored as the Final Four's outstanding player. Phog Allen, the Kansas coach who thought he had seen everything in basketball, shook his head at the junior's performance.

"I'm for the 20-foot basket," Allen decided.