MAY 2, 1971
NAHC SAYS FAREWELL TO A LEGEND
Quinton Pollack Announces Retirement The big news at the conclusion of the 1970-71 North American Hockey Confederation season was not surprising but still somewhat unexpected. The ageless wonder Quinton Pollack revealed that at the age of 48 he has finally had enough and decided to hang up his skates. Pollack leaves as the greatest player the sport has ever seen and quite possibly ever will see. He played more games, scored more goals, accumulated more assists and won more awards than any player ever to step on the ice. The fact that Pollack went out, at the age of 48, with a 106 point season that saw him finish second in scoring behind only linemate Ollie Perreault, makes his legacy even more magical, but also leaves us wondering just how many more seasons he could have performed at an elite level.
The 106 point campaign earned the Humboldt, SK., native his record 12th McDaniels Trophy as the NAHC's Most Valuable Player. Next on the list of McDaniels wins is former Chicago and Toronto star Tommy Burns, with 4. In addition to his 12 McDaniels Trophy wins, Pollack also won the McLeod Trophy as rookie of the year when he broke in with the Brooklyn Eagles in 1946-47. Three times he won the Yeadon Trophy for Gentlemanly play -although he certainly developed a mean streak later in his career. Pollack also won the Denny Trophy as league scoring leader a record 10 times. It is an award his father-in-law and former Toronto coaching legend Jack Barrell also won once. The trophy that Pollack will certainly cherish most is the six Challenge Cups he helped led the Dukes to during his 24 seasons in a Toronto uniform.
A glance at the all-time leaderboard for career games, goals and points, shows Pollack with a wide lead. Not shown below is the assist leaders but his 1,099 career helpers are nearly double that earned by Tommy Burns, who sits second on that list.
Quinton Pollack also is the only NAHC player ever to suit up for a game alongside his son. It did not happen much but for four games - two in each in the 1968-69 season and 1969-70- Quinton Pollack and his eldest son Jack Pollack were teammates on the Toronto Dukes. Young Jack is a highly touted prospect that the Dukes acquired the rights to draft after making a trade with Philadelphia for the first overall selection in 1968. Jack spent most of his first two pro seasons in the minors but did get the call-up to play alongside his father. What made Jack's debut even more special is that that game in March of 1969 came against the Detroit Motors and two of Jack's cousins in brothers Hobie and Benny Barrell.
Jack did not get to play with his father this season but did play against him as the younger Pollack was dealt to the San Francisco Gulls prior to the start of the season and would score 8 goals and 11 points in his first full NAHC season. One of Jack's goals came against his father's team in their first meeting in December. As usual, Quinton came out on top though, recording two assists to lead the Dukes to a 6-3 doubling of the Gulls.
So Quinton Pollack's career is over...or is it. Quinton's younger son Billy is a highly sought after youth player that is expected to join the Canadian Junior League next season at age 16. He will be eligible for the NAHC draft in a little over two years so Quinton joked at his retirement press conference that he may come back to play a game with Billy in the NAHC one day as well. At least, we think he was joking.
NAHC EXPANDS TO 14 TEAMS
The NAHC doubled in size just 3 years ago but, like most sports leagues these days, it is not done growing. Prior to the 1970-71 season the league added two more clubs, both based in Canada, to boost its membership to 14 teams. The newcomers are the Quebec Citadels, who joined the East Division with the original six clubs, and the Calgary Grizzles, who were added to the West alongside the six 1967-68 expansion teams.
Both teams fared well for newcomers as each avoided the cellar. The Citadels were especially impressive, finishing just a game below the breakeven point at 31-32-15 and their 77 points, while well out of the playoff hunt, was 16 more than the New York Shamrocks, who finished in their customary cellar spot once again, could muster.
*** Valiants Again Lead Way ***
It should come as no surprise that the Montreal Valiants finished with the best regular season record in the NAHC. The Vals have now finished first in each of the last seven seasons. Montreal once more was led by its defensive play with their top defensive pair of Dewar Trophy winner Mark Moggy (17-54-71) and Gil Thibault (8-29-37) also partnering on the first all-star team for the second consecutive season and fifth time overall that they both made the first team. Moggy also won the Paddy O'Donoughe Trophy as the top player in the league as decided by the NAHC players themselves. Surprisingly, 40-year-old goaltender Nathan Bannister did not win the Juneau Trophy or be named to either the first or second all-star team. Bannister already owns a record 8 Juneau's and once more played all 78 games for Montreal this season. That is four consecutive seasons that he has played every minute of every game in net for the Valiants. His numbers this season, 48-16-14 with 8 shutouts and a 2.25 GAA were still the best in the league despite the all-star snub. Offensively, the Valiants are strong as well although production for leading scorer Scott Dueck (39-42-81) did tail off somewhat from the previous two seasons. The loss of Tim Bernard (16-27-43) to Calgary in the expansion draft, although he was dealt to Quebec at midseason, did hurt slightly.
The Toronto Dukes relied on the scoring punch of their big line for one final season as Quinton Pollack (40-65-105) will not be back next season after announcing his retirement at the age of 48. Someone new will have to step up and join Ollie Perreault (48-59-107), who led the NAHC in scoring, and Hank Knackstedt (32-65-97) to try and fill the big skates that will be left vacant by Pollock. Sam Schmidt (13-34-47) gives Toronto a solid number one defenseman and goaltender Pat Stephens (43-23-6, 2.47) had a strong season but the Dukes had to settle for second place as they could not keep up with the pace set by Montreal.
Defending Challenge Cup champion Detroit and the Chicago Packers battled it out for third place all season with the Motors needing a 5-2 win over the Packers on the second last day of the season to secure third. An injury suffered in the finals last spring kept Hobie Barrell (48-35-83) out of action until the end of November but Barrell averaged well over a point a game in his 58 outings. Playmaker Yves Dagenais (24-70-94) proved his breakout season last year was not a fluke and once more topped the league in helpers while Andrew Williams (29-61-90) continued to be an elite player in the 32-year-old's fourth season with Detroit after being acquired from Toronto. Detroit added Andrew Bomberry (19-13-4, 2.90) from Chicago and he split the goaltending chores with incumbent Sean Kempster (24-14-4, 2.35).
With Bomberry gone to the Motor City, traded in the summer for veteran defenseman Fred Gallatin who joined Chicago for training camp but then abruptly retired, left the Packers relying on Thierry Masse (39-25-14, 2.69) to handle the netminding chores and he played all 78 games for Chicago. Veteran Ken York (52-45-97) led the NAHC in goals and his 52 was the second highest total ever recorded in an NAHC season, trailing only Hobie Barrell's 63 from a year ago.
That left the Boston Bees in fifth place as they missed the playoffs for just the second time in 8 years. Boston relied on veterans Ray Dupuis (42-41-83) and David Bertrand (21-60-81) to lead the offense as age continued to gain on 36-year-old captain Neil Wilson (11-38-49), who dipped below 50 points for the first time since an injury plagued 1961-62 season.
Newcomer Quebec patched together a decent roster from the expansion scraps with long-time Bees center Carl Klaven (16-34-50) emerging as the offensive leader alongside Maurizio Corradi (27-17-44), a 26-year-old winger who finally got out of the minors after five years and won the rookie of the year award.
Milt Young (41-44-85) was one of the few bright spots on a New York Shamrocks team that has not made the playoffs since the spring of 1960 and suffered the embarrassment of finishing below an expansion team in the standings. New York does have a young local born player who took a nice step forward this season. That would be 24-year-old center Danny Cabbell, son of former Shamrocks great Orval, and the New York City born player hit a career high with 72 points on 14 goals and 58 assists.
*** Hollywood Takes To Hockey ***
In four short years the Los Angeles Stingrays have seen plenty of celebrities flocking to the LA Events Center to take in a game and that number escalated this season as the Stingrays finished with the best record in the West Division and more than held their own against the powerful clubs from the East. Los Angeles' 94 points would have tied them for third place in the East and the finished 9 points ahead of Vancouver, which had won a Challenge Cup and reached the finals twice in the last two years. The fan favourite in Los Angeles was goaltender Mike Connelly (41-24-10, 2.45), who almost singlehandedly won a number of games for the Stingrays while tying for the NAHC lead with 8 shutouts and winning the Juneau Trophy as top goaltender in the league. It was the third Juneau win of the 39-year-old's career as he also earned a pair while with Toronto before joining Los Angeles in the 1967 expansion draft. There was not an overabundance of offense, but former Montreal Valiant Charles Hamblin (22-22-44), homegrown David Friessen (17-27-54) and rookie Julien Ouellet (17-30-47) were the Stingrays leaders.
Vancouver dipped to second place despite another outstanding season from Alan Porter (29-46-75) and strong goaltending courtesy of Justin MacPhee (29-23-13, 2.78). Left on their own much of the final few months, the Totems finished 9 points back of first place Los Angeles in the West but also comfortably ahead of third place St Louis. The Sawyers had the most productive line out of any of the expansion clubs in the trio of Derek Post (44-42-86), Pat Valentine (21-64-85) and Alex Bates (17-51-68) with defenseman Hugh MacLaren (28-54-82)jumping into the offense regularly when partnered with the high scoring trio. MacLaren is a player who may win a lot of awards in the future. Just 23 years of age, he was the very first amateur draft pick of the franchise and has already played three full seasons in the league.
The Philadelphia Rogues and Minneapolis Norsemen went right down to the wire in the fight for fourth place and the final playoff berth. The Rogues clinched on the final day of the season with back to back wins on the Saturday and the Sunday over Calgary and Quebec while the Norseman were dropping both ends of a home and home series against St Louis. Philadelphia, which entered the final weekend 3 points back of Minneapolis, finished a point ahead and nabbed the final playoff berth. Neither club was loaded with much offensive talent and the top scorer for each- Billy Bradley (12-37-49) of the Rogues and Minneapolis' Ben Kantner (13-36-49)- finished with less than 50 points.
The expansion Calgary Grizzlies nabbed two players from the defending Cup champion Detroit Motors in the expansion draft to be their leaders. Both Benny Barrell (18-34-52) and Jack Dennyson (20-27-47) provided leadership and offense to Calgary with former Boston Bees forward Jake Stockman (13-48-61) also playing a key role. The San Francisco Gulls finished with the worst record in the NAHC for the second year in a row and were plagued by money issues as they did not draw well in the Bay Area.
NAHC PLAYOFFS
The opening round of the playoffs was now a best-of-seven series, just like the semi-finals and finals. In this case two of the four series went the distance and provided some outstanding hockey. The Montreal Canadiens finished with the league's best regular season record at 110 points, 18 more than the fourth place Chicago Packers but there was little to differentiate the two clubs in the playoffs. The series went the full seven games and each of the last four were decided by just a single goal. Chicago seemed ready for an upset when Ken York scored his third of the series in overtime to give the Packers a 4-3 win in game four and a three games to one series lead. With no margin for error the Valiants would not quit and took the series with tight wins in each of the next three games. Ed Halliday and Mark Milot each scored in the first period of game five and those early goals stood up in a 2-1 victory. In Chicago for the sixth game the result was also 2-1 for the Vals with Milot and Don Roeszler handling the scoring. That set up a winner take all seventh game at the Montreal Arena and once more it was Milot that came up big. The 33-year-old winger, who collected 17 goals and 64 points during the regular season, set up Clyde Raines tying goal and scored the winner himself with 5:46 left in regulation as Montreal completed the comeback with a 4-3 victory.
The other series to go seven games pitted the St Louis Sawyers against the Vancouver Totems. They split the first four games with St Louis taking game five 2-1 in overtime on a Cotton Hindmarch goal but Vancouver, behind some terrific goaltending from Justin MacPhee won game six 5-1 to force a seventh game. Matt Brophey opened the scoring for the hometown Totems midway through the first period but Nick Bartoli and Lou Turner scored five minutes apart in the middle frame to put St Louis up 2-1. Charlie Rodgers sealed the victory for the Sawyers with a third period marker and it ended in a 3-1 final setting up a second round meeting for St Louis against the Montreal Valiants.
There was less suspense in the quarterfinal round on the other side of the bracket. Hobie Barrell scored five goals in the series but it did little for the Detroit Motors, who succumbed to the Toronto Dukes in five games. Quinton Pollack had 4 goals and 4 assists for the Dukes. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Stingrays won the first three games of their series with Philadelphia. The Rogues battled back with victories in games four and five before Los Angeles ended the series with a 4-1 victory in the sixth game.
*** Quinton Pollack's Last Call ***
Only his coach and family knew it at the time but the Toronto Dukes loss in five games to the Los Angeles Stingrays would be the swan song on an incredible career for Quinton Pollack. The 48-year-old had hoped to go out on top with a 7th Challenge Cup but it was not to be as the Stingrays took the play to Toronto and won the series easily in five games. For Pollack, the final images of a legendary career would come on the ice at the LA Events Center, were he could do little to derail a young and hungry Los Angeles club that knocked off Toronto 5-1 in game five. Pollack had 3 assists in the first three games but would be held off the scoresheet in each of the final two and finish -1 without a shot on goal in the deciding game. It was an outstanding series for Los Angeles goaltender Mike Connelly, as Pollack's former teammate proved difficult for Toronto to solve. The other key player for the Stingrays was a 23-year-old defenseman by the name of Alain Ducharme, who scored four goals in the series including twice in the clinching game.
Montreal was pushed to the brink by Chicago in the quarterfinals and dropped the opening game of their semi-final series with St Louis, as the Sawyers prevailed 4-3 on a Charlie Rogers overtime goal - his sixth of the playoffs. The Valiants were a much stronger club in game two, taking a 5-1 victory behind a pair of Brooks Ivey goals. The momentum would continue and the Valiants won each of the next three games to return to the Challenge Cup final after a two-year absence.
*** Best of East vs Best of West in Final ***
Montreal was looking for its fourth Challenge Cup in the past eight years and 9th overall as they prepared to face the Los Angeles Stingrays - a team that did not exist four years ago- in the Challenge Cup final.
Mark Moggy and Pete Fortin each scored once and added two assists as the Valiants outshot the Stingrays 42-18 and outscored them 5-2 in the opener. Montreal again badly outplayed and outshot Los Angeles in game two but Mike Connelly, as he had often done during the season for Los Angeles, stole the game with a 44 save performance in a 4-2 Los Angeles win.
The series shifted to the west coast for the third and fourth game and Connelly was still terrific but even he could not steal another game. The Valiants blanked Los Angeles 3-0 in a third game that saw them fire 52 shots at Connelly while allowing just 21 against. The play was a little closer in the fourth game but the score was not as Montreal, with Moggy and Fortin each collecting 3 points, won by a 4-1 count. The Valiants would wrap up the series and hoist the Challenge Cup on home ice two nights later with a 3-2 victory. Despite being outshot 39-17 in the game the Stingrays took an early 2-0 lead but Clyde Raines got one back for the hosts with his third of the playoffs. Nate Asselin, also with his third of the postseason, would tie the game with a goal midway through the third and just 46 seconds into the third period Ed Halliday beat Connelly for his 8th of the playoffs. That put Montreal ahead for the first time in the game at 3-2, and that score would stand up giving the Valiants their 9th Challenge Cup, tying them with Boston. Only Toronto, with 12, has won more.
FEDERAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE GROWS AGAIN Professional Basketball continues to grow as the Federal League added three new clubs including a second team in Canada. The addition of the Vancouver Bears along with the Cleveland Bulldogs and Minneapolis Bobcats brings the Federal loop to 17 teams. There are also 12 teams in the now four year old Continental Basketball League.
The first question is whether or not there is enough talent to stock 29 pro teams and judging by the showing of the three newcomers to the Fed the answer remains in doubt. The existing clubs did not do the newcomers any favours with the talent, or lack thereof, that was available in the expansion draft and combined the three new clubs went 60-186 which ends up being a winning percentage of just .248.
The Bears top scorer was a rookie, fourth overall selection Steve Snowdon, an AIAA champion with Noble Jones College a couple years back and a former third team All-American. The Bobcats ended up with the most productive expansion draft pick in Jim McDowell, who spent three seasons buried on the Boston bench before averaging 28 points per game as a starter in Minneapolis this season. The Bulldogs, who brought the FBL back to Cleveland for the first time since the old Cleveland Brawlers folded in 1951, are hoping the Roger Heginbotham, who averaged 10 minutes off the bench for the champion New York Knights a year ago, and averaged 19.6 for the Bulldogs can eventually become a key piece that Cleveland can build around. For now, the expansion clubs will simply have to take their lumps and hope they draft well over the next few seasons.
*** New Teams Mean New Divisional Structure ***
The expansion prompted the FBL to split into four divisions instead of the long standing tradition of two. What the league ended up with was three very powerful teams in the defending champion New York Knights and Boston Centurions in the Atlantic Division along with the St Louis Rockets in the Midwest Division. Each of those three teams won at least 60 games. No other club in any division won more than 47 contests so there were three teams at the top, a number of bad teams that included the three expansion clubs along with the Philadelphia Phantoms and a Toronto Falcons group that has endured three very bad seasons with the remaining nine teams competitive with each other in the middle.
The Atlantic Division featured an exciting battle between two teams that have a natural rivalry but rarely both been competitive at the same time. That has changed over the past few seasons as the New York Knights and Boston Centurions have combined for three of the last four FBL titles and both were outstanding ballclubs this season. The Knights, who won the league title a year ago and were led by All-League guard Bob Terwilliger and reigning playoff MVP Dick Van der Linden, finished at 63-19 which was the best record in the league. Boston was just two games back as the Centurions kept pace all year long and were led by veteran forward Art Owens. A third Atlantic team, the Atlanta Vipers, also qualified for the playoffs, which featured the two division winners plus the next two clubs with the best record in each conference. Atlanta finished with an identical record to the Washington Statesmen at 48-34 but advanced based on a better head to head mark.
The only club to make the playoffs out of the Central Division was the Chicago Panthers, who also were the only one of the four teams in the group to finish over .500. The Panthers 46-36 mark would have placed them fifth in the Atlantic Division but the Central Division crown earned the club that had reached at least the semi-finals in each of the past four years, another trip to the postseason.
The St Louis Rockets could have taken the last month of the season off and still finished atop the Midwest Division. The Rockets, who won it all two years ago and reached the championship series against New York last season, ended up with the second best record in the FBL at 62-20, which was 18 games better than the second place Houston Apollos. The Rockets had a powerful offense - only Atlanta averaged more points per game- and were led by league scoring champ and MVP John Brantner. It was quite a story for the 27-year-old out of Maryland State as many feared Brantner's career was over after a dreadful Achilles rupture cost him all but two games of last season. Instead the fourth full season of his career was his best yet and he was named the Most Improved as well as the Most Valuable Player this season.
Unlike the Eastern Conference, each division in the West sent two teams to the playoffs as the second Houston Apollos, a third year club, earned its first trip to the postseason after finishing second in the Midwest Division with a 44-38 record. The Pacific Division was represented by the first place San Francisco Miners and another club making it's postseason debut in the Seattle Emeralds. The Miners had the lowest offensive production out of all the playoff teams but their strong defense helped them win 47 games and finish first in the Pacific Division. Seattle, in its fourth year in the league, nosed out third place Los Angeles by a single game for the final postseason slot. The Emeralds are led by a rising star in third year forward Spider Forester, who finished third in the FBL in scoring at 29.1 ppg.
PLAYOFFS
The opening round of the playoffs featured a major upset and two series that went the full seven games. The upset came courtesy of the Chicago Panthers, who knocked off the Boston Centurions in just five games. The New York Knights had little trouble with Atlanta in the other Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, prevailing in five. It was the West that had all the drama as both series went the distance. In the end the Seattle Emeralds surprised top seed St Louis, winning game six at home by a single point before going to St. Louis and holding on for a 123-120 victory in game seven keyed by a 39-point showing from Forester. The other series saw the higher seed win the seventh game at home as San Francisco out scored Houston by 13 points in the fourth quarter to pull out a 92-75 victory.
With two of the three teams with 60+ regular season wins out of the picture, things looked very bright for the New York Knights to repeat as champions. The Knights had no trouble with Chicago, sweeping the series in four straight games while Seattle's Cinderella run continued as the club with the fewest regular season wins out of the eight playoff teams, moved on to the finals by upset San Francisco in six games. The difference was Spider Forester who averaged more than 27 points a game in the series for the Emeralds.
Seattle met its match in the New York Knights as New York won each of the first two games at Bigsby Garden in convincing fashion, with a 124-99 score in the opener followed by a 116-89 victory. Spider Forester still led the way with 29 points in the opener and 32 in game two but the rest of the Seattle offense was pretty well extinguished.
Forester again led both teams with 29 points in game three as the series shifted west, but 28 from Mickey Benben, 26 from Dick Van der Linden and 20 from Elden Van Houten made New York a winner once more as the 118-108 result had the Knights on the verge of a sweep. Seattle avoided that thanks to Forester's 32 points in a 112-111 Seattle win in the fourth game and the Emeralds made things tense by following that up with a 114-109 victory in game five. They would get no closer as the series returned to the Big Apple and the Knights closed it out with a dominating 113-81 victory in which they led by 29 points at the half and held Forester to just 11 on the night. Dick Van der Linden, the New York forward who led the Knights by averaging 25 points per game in the playoffs, was named the postseason Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive year.
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PLAINSMEN SURPRISE CBL CHAMPS The Continental Basketball League entered its fourth season with the same 12 teams it debut with in 1967. The Dallas Drillers finished with the best record in the league for the fourth time but they only year they won the playoff title was in the league's debut campaign of 1967-68. No other CBL club has won as many as 60 games in a season but after going 62-16 to top the West Division in 1970-71, the Drillers have now accomplished that feat three times. And the fourth year they won 56 games, which is still more than any other CBL franchise has won in a season.
Dallas was led by playmaking guard Mark Robinson, who starred with the Chicago Panthers in the FBL before joining the Drillers in their debut season. Not only did Robinson top the loop in assists but he also averaged nearly 30 points per game and finished second behind only Louisville's Earl Arsenault in scoring.
*** AIAA Star Jenkins Chooses CBL ***
While Dallas ran away with the West Division, there was a close battle for second place between the Kansas City Plainsmen and San Diego Breakers. The Plainsmen finished 2 games ahead of a much improved San Diego squad that was led by first overall draft pick John Jenkins. Convincing Jenkins, who led Northern Mississippi to the AIAA title a year ago and won his record third consecutive Barrette Trophy as the College Basketball Player of the Year, to join the CBL instead of the long established Federal League was quite a coup for the CBL and the Breakers in particular.
Jenkins started 71 games for the Breakers, missing time only due to a broken finger, and finished in the top six in the league in both points and assists which helped earn him both Rookie of the Year and All-League First Team accolades.
The Portland Pioneers claimed the final playoff berth in the West Division while in the East it was two-time defending champion Louisville leading the way, followed by Cincinnati, Baltimore and Norfolk. Earl Arsenault, who won his second MVP award and was named All-League First Team for the third consecutive season, won the scoring title and was star of the first place Spirits.
*** Spirits Spooked Early ***
The opening round of the CBL playoffs was just a best-of-five affair and it provided a pair of early exits as both the best regular season team and the defending champion were eliminated quickly. The top regular season record of course belonged to the Dallas Drillers and they were in trouble even before the playoffs began when word came that Mark Robinson would miss the quarterfinals due to a late season injury.
Without their scoring and assist leader the Drillers were exposed and fell in five games to Portland, which had finished with 29 fewer regular season victories than Dallas. Portland took game four in overtime at home and then advanced to the semi-finals with a 129-117 road win in game five, a contest in which Deangelo Casey scored 44 points and Tom Barch added 35 for the victorious Pioneers.
Kansas City, led by forward Dick Waters who average 27.3 points in the three games, swept Jenkins and San Diego in the other quarterfinal in the west. Louisville, winners of each of the last two CBL playoff titles, lost league MVP Arsenault with a sprained wrist in game three and ending losing in four games to the Norfolk Mariners while second place Cincinnati needed the full five games but nipped Baltimore with each club winning on home court including the Steamers 141-126 game five victory keyed by a 37-point, 12 rebounded outing from forward Johnny Darr.
The Steamers had little trouble with Norfolk in the best-of-seven semi-finals, downing the Mariners in five games. Kansas City and Portland went the distance in the other series with the Plainsmen reaching the league finals for the second time in three years following a 128-109 victory in game seven.
Neither Kansas City nor Cincinnati had won a league title before as they prepared to meet in the finals. Cincinnati had the better regular season record and the highest scoring offense in the league and they opened the series with two decisive victories on their homecourt. Game One was a 146-125 final that saw Steamers guard Phil Brouwer score 43 points and three other Cincinnati starters top twenty. The second game saw Brouwer hot once more, scoring 37 in a 128-99 victory.
The series shifted to Kansas City for three games and the Plainsmen drew first blood with a slim 125-124 victory in a third game that saw the Steamers Johnny Darr miss an attempt for a game-winning bucket as time expired. The Plainsmen had a little less tension in game four as Dick Waters scored 39 points and Kansas City evened the series with a 125-113 victory. However, Cincinnati stole game five on the road, blowing out the Plainsmen 132-110 with Darr scoring 27 to lead the way.
Up three games to two and heading home the Steamers were just one win away from the title. It did not come in game six despite the fact that the Steamers led most of the way before Kansas City finally pulled even with just under three minutes left. It went back and forth until, tied at 124, the Plainsmen had the ball with 11 seconds remaining. They worked for the final shot, which came from guard Jeff Foust with just a couple of second left. Foust had 25 points on the night but this shot did not drop. However, forward Wesley Williams was there for the put back, giving him 23 points and as time expired Kansas City a 126-124 victory to force a seventh game.
Game seven was close until the visiting Plainsmen went on a big run in the third quarter to blow it open. Foust would score 31 points while his backcourt mate Joe Williams added 21 and Wesley Williams (no relation) chipped in with 20 to lead Kansas City to a 136-121 victory and their first CBL title. Wesley Williams, a 27-year-old who forward who is one of the rare pro basketball players who did not play college ball, was named the playoff MVP after averaging more than 17 points and 10 rebounds in the post-season.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL RECAP
DEEP SOUTH SHINES AGAIN
Mississippi A&M Makes It Three Straight AIAA Titles For Conference
The Deep South Conference is flying high in collegiate basketball. Long known for its dominance on the gridiron, the hardwood had been a different story for the Deep South. Formed in the early 1920's, only three times prior to 1968 had a Deep South Conference member won the collegiate basketball tournament. That would be the 1926-27 Opelika State Wildcats, the undefeated Noble Jones College Colonels team of 1949-50 and the 1960-61 Mississippi A&M Generals.
That all changed two years ago when the Colonels, after reaching the title game only to fall short each of the previous two years, won their second AIAA basketball tournament. A year ago the Northern Mississippi Mavericks made it back to back titles for the Deep South and this year the state of Mississippi and the Deep South Conference won it all again as Mississippi A&M claimed its second title a decade after the Generals celebrated their first tournament championship. To make it even more impressive for the Deep South, the team the Generals defeated in the semi-finals was their Deep South rivals from Baton Rouge State. It marked the first time the Red Devils had won a tournament game since their surprise run to the semi-finals back in 1928.
The tournament itself was one with the fewest surprises in recent memory. Each of the semi-finalists -the Generals and Red Devils from the Deep South Conference and South Atlantic rivals Carolina Poly and North Carolina Tech- were the number one seed in their respective regions and the only team lower than a three seed to reach the regional finals was Richmond State, a 7th seed in the East Region out of the Middle Atlantic Conference that surprised two seed Lane State 62-61 in the opening round.
Next up will be the review of the 1971 baseball season.