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Q: UCLA played Purdue for the national championship in 1969. Can you talk about that game a little bit? W: Well, I had the outstanding player in the country playing for us, Lewis Alcindor. One of my most underrated players on that team was a forward by the name of Kenny Heitz -- well, he played guard that year -- who’s now in one of the big law firms and a brilliant person. A tremendous defensive man. I believe that Rick Mount would tell you that he never had a better defensive player on him. He went a long time without getting a decent shot. He took some shots, but not the kind he wanted to get and didn’t get. There was a lot of talk about what a great job this Kenny Heitz did. You didn’t hear much about Kenny Heitz. You heard about Lewis Alcindor, Mike Warren, Lucius Allen, and Lynn Shackelford, the other forward, who had a high, arching shot that was sort of spectacular, and sort of attracted attention. But Kenny Heitz, the workman who did the job in there, you didn’t. And so I was very happy for him to get some recognition in a way -- but defensive men don’t normally get the recognition -- because he was defending against a great shooter and a great scorer and did such a great job until we had the game really, definitely won. Then I think Rick got a few. But when the issue was in doubt, our player did a tremendous job, and I remember that time, and I’m very proud of my player. Q: Was that particular game perhaps any more special for you than any other championship years since it was against your alma mater? W: No. I don’t think of it that way. I’ve said, of the 10 national championship years, there’s three that I think stand out more for me. All have something, of course, but there’s three. The very first one, which is your first one. And we had the shortest team to ever with the national championship, no one over 6-5. We had a complete undefeated season, didn’t lose a game. So that, when I thinking of the championship team, not that it’s a better team, but that one stands out. And then on the reverse, my very last one. I’d announced two days before that this would be my last team ever, that I’d ever teach. And we weren’t expected to [contend for the national championship]. That last year -- my first and last [championship teams] -- we weren’t expected to at all. Now, the last one we’d lost two superstars from the year before, Bill Walton and Keith Wilkes. We had also lost our starting guards, Greg Lee and Tommy Curtis, who had been starting guards for two years. And losing four starters and having only one back, David Meyers, we weren’t expected to win that year. But we improved, because we had talent. If that talent hadn’t been there, we couldn’t have. But it was unknown and unproven talent. But retiring, being my last year, you like to go out with a win, so I recall that. And then there’s a third team of the championships, and that’s the one that I think of with a lot of pleasure too. And that’s the one that I chose to call ‘the team without.’ And you might wonder what I mean by that. It’s without Alcindor. When we had Alcindor, I know we have our foot in the door. We can lose -- Kansas could never win with Chamberlain, and then there’s been some others were sure winners but never made it. But I knew with him we had our foot in the door, if we could just keep it from slamming on us. And I myself thought, I would expect it more than others. And it’s always better to do the unexpected, more pleasure in the unexpected than the expected. So the year after he graduated, I called that the ‘team without.’ And that team, they wanted to win so they could show they could win without him. And that was no reflection on him; he was very popular and the players liked him. But, when he’s with us, who’s getting the vast majority of the ink? He is. And deservedly so, and they realized that. But now they’re gonna get more. And they want to show they’re deserving of it. And that team, physically we weren’t as good, but mentally, emotionally, they weren’t gonna be beaten. And they showed it. So those three. But every one had some special significance to us. Every single one. Like I say, the second one, we win in ’64, we repeat in ’65. That only had been done two or three times. And then, in ’67 we won our third championship, and no one at that time had won three except Coach Rupp; he’d won four. So we’re, we’ve won second. And then the next year, well, we tied Rupp; it’s the fourth. Then the next year, we went ahead with five. And so on. So there’s something special about every team in every way. But I still, in thinking back, I think the first and the last, and the one the year after Alcindor have a little more significance in one way. |
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