On this date
Twin Cities host basketball brawl, All-Star Game the same night
On Jan. 25, 1972, Minnesota was the center of attention for sports fans in the U.S.
The Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball team hosted Ohio State in an important Big 10 game at Williams Arena.
At the exact same time the 25th NHL All-Star Game was being played at Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington.
Basketball brawl
A basketball game matching the top two teams in the conference ended in an unimaginable fashion.
With 36 seconds remaining, Ohio State led 50-44.
Luke Witte, a 7-foot center for the Buckeyes, drove in for a shot and was fouled. He fell to the floor. Both referees rushed in to stand between Witte and Minnesota’s Corky Taylor, who had committed the foul.
Taylor walked around the ref, extended his hands to seem as if was going to help Witte to his feet. When Witte stood up, Taylor kneed him in the groin.
Chaos ensued.
Gophers’ center Ron Behagen, who had fouled out, came off the bench and stomped on Witte’s head.
Fans came out of their seats and onto the court. Minnesota’s Dave Winfield joined the fray.
Several media outlets, including the Minneapolis Star and Sports Illustrated, would report that Winfield pummeled an Ohio State player who was on the floor.
Directly from the Star Tribune:
“The game was promptly called off. Witte was removed on a stretcher, suffering from a concussion and a gashed chin that required stitches at the university hospital. Two of his Buckeyes teammates were also hospitalized.”
Williams Arena was packed. A game vs. Indiana two weeks earlier had drawn 19,121. The fire marshal would not allow that to occur again. Attendance was announced as 17,775 and there were another 10,000 fans in the adjacent hockey arena watching on closed circuit.
Ohio State forward Mark Wagar said looked up just in time to see Goldy Gopher strike him.
“I remember briefly rolling on the floor before being knocked unconscious,” Wagar told the Columbus Journal. “As I came to and tried to get up, at least one fan and the Gopher cold-cocked me under the jaw. The next thing I remember was I was on the bench after it had all stopped, and somebody gave me a towel to stop the bleeding over my eye. People could have died that day.”
Witte, Wager and Ohio State forward Mark Minor were taken to the hospital by ambulance. Minor was treated for cuts and abrasions and released, but Wagar and Witte spent the night in the intensive care unit. Witte required 29 stitches in his face and suffered a scratched cornea.
The game was televised, but things happened at a fast rate and in several spots, making it difficult to capture everything.
Here is some footage from the game:
Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke, who was in the stands, gave Taylor and Behagen season-ending suspensions.
Winfield, who would go on to have a Hall of Fame baseball career, escaped punishment. In fact, with two starters suspended, he became a starter for the Gophers.
Max Nichols, sports editor of the Minneapolis Star, wrote that Winfield apparently was not caught on tape assaulting Ohio State players. Nichols blasted the Big Ten and the university’s Assembly Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, which also issued suspensions of Taylor and Behagen.
That committee included three students. Winfield was one of the students, though he apparently did not take part in the vote.
Minnesota coach Bill Musselman came under scrutiny.
He already had a reputation as an intense coach. At his previous stop, Division III Ashland College in Ohio, Musselman’s behavior was frequently questioned by a philosophy professor at the school.
That professor? Wayne Witte, father of Luke.
While at Ashland Musselman had started a Harlem Globetrotter type of warmup that had his players dribbling and handling the ball in entertaining manners to the tune of “Sweet Georgia Brown”.
The fans went a bit wild and it carried over into their cheering in the game. Musselman adapted the same routine at Minnesota, even bringing his manager with him on a scholarship to lead the warm-up, juggling four balls and doing various dribbling routines.
That warmup routine can be found in this clip from 1975:
Musselman eventually coached in the ABA for the San Diego Sails and the Virginia Squires. He was later in the NBA for four seasons, two with the Cleveland Cavaliers and was the first coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, coaching the team for two seasons.
His son, Eric Musselman, has been an assistant coach with several NBA teams and was head coach of the Golden State Warriors for two seasons. At the college level, he has been the head coach at Nevada and Arkansas and is currently in his first season at USC.
Minnesota would win the Big 10 title with an 11-3 record. Ohio State finished second at 10-4. At the time, only the conference champion advanced to the NCAA tournament. Ohio State was offered a spot in the NIT but the Buckeyes declined.
The NCAA tourney started on March 11 and, in the Mideast Regjonal, Marquette defeated Ohio University, 73-49, and would meet Kentucky in Dayton.
Minnesota was to meet Florida State, an 83-81 winner over Eastern Kentucky.
However, Marquette was ruled ineligible because Bob Lackey would not sign a statement regarding a lack of an agent or having signed a pro contract; this was done on advice of Coach Al McGuire.
The Warriors had already lost first team All-American Jim Chones, who had signed a contract with an agent with five games to go in the season and was immediately ineligible.
NCAA president Earl Ramer, the faculty representative of the University of Tennessee, stated that “The NCAA intends to let the American people know that we stand for honesty and integrity”. If Marquette were to be declared ineligible, then Ohio University would take their place in the next round of the tournament, but the next day, Marquette was re-instated when Lackey signed the required document. The crisis was over and basketball, not legal issues, would take center stage, at least for a while.
In the opening round on March 16, Florida State defeated Minnesota 70-56 and Kentucky topped Marquette 85-69.
At the time, there was a third-place game that was played on March 18 with the Gophers beating the Warriors 77-72 behind 25 points by Turner.
Florida State defeated Kentucky 73-54 for the region title and the Seminoles were 79-75 winners over North Carolina in the Final Four before falling to UCLA 81-76 in the national championship as the Bruins won their sixth straight title on their way to seven in a row.
NHL stars come to Minnesota
At the same time the Minnesota-Ohio State game was being held at Williams Arena, the NHL’s best gathered at Met Sports Center in Bloomington for the 25th anniversary All-Star game.
The North Stars were the second of the league’s six expansion teams from 1967 to be awarded an All-Star game. St. Louis was the first in 1970.
The format for the game matched the Western All-Stars, coached by Billy Reay of Chicago against the Eastern All-Stars, coached by Al MacNeil. MacNeil had led Montreal to the Stanley Cup as a rookie head coach in 1971 and was now coaching the Nova Scotia Voyageurs, the Canadiens’ American Hockey League affiliate.
MacNeil’s season at the helm in Montreal was a rocky one to say the least. He was the first Canadiens coach in recent memory who could not speak French.
In the Stanley Cup Final vs. Reay’s Blackhawks, MacNeil benched star Henri Richard, who publicly criticized the coach, calling him incompetent. MacNeil received death threats and had to get police protection.
The death threats were taken seriously because of the politically volatile environment in Montreal shortly after the October Crisis that saw Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoke the War Measures Act for the first time in Canadian history during peacetime. Sports writers noted and praised MacNeil's calm coolness in the wake of Richard's comments.
The host North Stars had four players in the game, forward Bill Goldsworthy, defensemen Ted Harris and Doug Mohns; and goaltender Gump Worsley.
The East won 3-2 on a power play goal by Boston’s Phil Esposito with 44 seconds remaining. Orr and Dallas Smith were credited with assists on the game winner.
Other East goals were scored by Jean Ratelle (New York Rangers) and John McKenzie (Boston). Scoring for the West were Bobby Hull (Chicago) and Simon Nolet (Philadelphia).
West goaltenders were Tony Esposito (Chicago) and Gump Worsley (Minnesota). Between the pipes for the East were Ken Dryden (Montreal) and Gilles Villemure (New York Rangers).
The East outshot the West 30-27.
The 1972 game was also the first time since 1956 that Gordie Howe didn't appear in the All-Star Game.
On that date
Here’s what was happening on Jan. 25, 1972.
No. 1 TV show: All in the Family, CBS
No. 1 Movie: Diamonds Are Forever
No. 1 song: American Pie, Don McLean
No. 1 book: Wheels, Arthur Hailey
Governor of Minnesota: Wendell Anderson
U.S. President: Richard Nixon
Significant news story: President Nixon announces a public plan to end the Vietnam War on behalf of the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments. The plan includes an offer to withdraw all American forces within six months of an agreement and to return all prisoners of war to their countries. He urges the enemy to seek immediate peace negotiations.
We are the champions
Here are the reigning champions in each sport on Jan. 25, 1972.
Super Bowl: Baltimore Colts
World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates
NBA: Milwaukee Bucks
NHL: Montreal Canadiens
College football: Nebraska
College basketball: UCLA
Masters: Charles Coody
Daytona 500: Richard Petty
Indy 500: Al Unser Sr.
Sources: Columbus Dispatch, hockey-reference.com, Minnesota Star Tribune, Murry Nelson, Wikipedia.