Davis - When March went mad : the game that transformed basketball

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WHEN MARCH WENT MAD

THE GAME THAT TRANSFORMED BASKETBALL

SETH DAVIS

TIMES BOOKS HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY NEW YORK

CONTENT

Times Books

Henry Holt and Company, LLC

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New York, New York 10010

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Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Copyright 2009 by Seth Davis

All rights reserved.

Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davis, Seth.

When March went mad : the game that transformed basketball / Seth Davis.1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-8810-6

ISBN-10: 0-8050-8810-5

1. NCAA Basketball TournamentHistory. 2. BasketballUnited StatesHistory20th
century. 3. Michigan State UniversityBasketballHistory. 4. Michigan State Spartans
(Basketball team)History. 5. Indiana State UniversityBasketballHistory. I. Title.

GV885.49.N37D38 2009

796.323'630973dc22

2008047628

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First Edition 2009

Designed by Kelly Too

Printed in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

For Sweet Melissa

Head coach: George M. (Jud) Heathcote

Assistant coaches: Bill Berry

Dave Harshman

Fred Paulsen

Trainer: Clint Thompson

Head student manager: Darwin Payton

Head coach: Bill Hodges

Assistant coaches: Mel Daniels

Terry Thimlar

Trainer: Bob Behnke

Assistant trainer: Rick Shaw

WHEN MARCH WENT MAD

On Sunday evening, March 25, 1979, the NBC Sports production team gathered in a conference room at the Hotel Utah in Salt Lake City to go over the game plan for the following nights NCAA mens basketball championship game. George Finkel, the game producer, spoke first. He laid out the manner in which he and his broadcasting team of Dick Enberg, Al McGuire, and Billy Packer would be presenting the contest between Michigan State and Indiana State.

The next person to speak was Don McGuire (no relation to Al), who produced the pregame, halftime, and postgame segments that were hosted by Bryant Gumbel. Before beginning a career in television, McGuire had worked as the sports information director at the University of New Mexico, where the associate athletic director was a man named Bob King. King had since moved on to become head basketball coach at Indiana State University, but before the start of the 197879 season, he developed an aneurysm in his brain and had to undergo emergency surgery. That forced King to hand over the reins to his young assistant, Bill Hodges, who despite having no previous head coaching experience had guided the Sycamores to a stunning 330 record and a berth in the national championship game. Now, McGuire told the group that he wanted to air a story on King, the incapacitated head coach, during NBCs pregame segment on Monday night.