Bernard King's first college game. Who remembers? Where were you?

#52
#52
ClockworkOrange said:
A jaw-dropping performance against Pearl's old team, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in November 1974.

King poured in 42 points. I listened to it with my dad in the front seat of a Buick that was about 20 feet long parked in my granddaddy's gravel drive in Collierville, Tennessee. For some reason we always got much better reception out in the driveway than indoors. Talk about instant impact! I knew we were in for an unprecedented thrill ride from that moment on.
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I was at the game - and was in the same class as Ernie Grunfeld and Mike Jackson (played against him in high school), and Stanley Morgan, Mickey Marvin et al.. King was awesome from day one. But so was Ernie. I think Grunfeld had been injured in a preseason game - someone undercut him and he cracked a bone in his wrist. King went off without him in the lineup. Ernie returned a few days later and they made history.

Go look at the stats for those guys - King about 25 point per game for his career, led the conference in rebounding for all 3 years, Grunfeld 22-24 point per game for 4 years, Mike Jackson at 12-15 points per game, Rodney Wood at PG at about 10 points per game (and played center field on the baseball team) - with no shot clock, no 30 second clock. I can tell you Stokley was rocking EVERY night!!
 
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#54
#54
Neyland'76 said:
I was at the game - and was in the same class as Ernie Grunfeld and Mike Jackson (played against him in high school), and Stanley Morgan, Mickey Marvin et al.. King was awesome from day one. But so was Ernie. I think Grunfeld had been injured in a preseason game - someone undercut him and he cracked a bone in his wrist. King went off without him in the lineup. Ernie returned a few days later and they made history.

Go look at the stats for those guys - King about 25 point per game for his career, led the conference in rebounding for all 3 years, Grunfeld 22-24 point per game for 4 years, Mike Jackson at 12-15 points per game, Rodney Wood at PG at about 10 points per game (and played center field on the baseball team) - with no shot clock, no 30 second clock. I can tell you Stokley was rocking EVERY night!!
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I had several classes with Grunfeld and King, though King didn’t show up much. Stokely was hot and loud and rowdy and the most fun I ever had watching bb.
 
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#56
#56
I was 11 years old listening to the game with my brother...I was in disbelief at how good Bernard was...They use to show the replays of the games on channel 2 on game nights so we couldn't wait to see just how good he really was...I was so excited the next day in school my teacher had to tell me to calm down lol...Great memories.
 
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#57
#57
This was back in the day when clashes between big centers were all the rage, and as a kid sitting there listening to John Ward I remember thinking that King must be an absolute giant the way he was scoring with ease in that first game. And then when I actually saw him play I was astonished all over again at the things he could do for his size.

I remember slo-mo replays where you could see King snatch a rebound or a pass and he would bounce and instantly be going straight up for a shot, all the while everybody else was still crouching to leap. So you'd see all these bodies going DOWN while Bernard was already rising. Amazing quickness and smoothness.
 
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#60
#60
macrovol said:
So many memories of Bernard, but the one that sticks in my mind was his 30 points in the first half at Georgia.
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yes, listened to it in car .....only time to see him play in person was against duke. was visiting knoxville at time and couldnt believe those devils came in with spanarkel and got a W. if memory serves me well. there was a lot of f buzz that week as johnny came marching home
 
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#62
#62
We nicknamed him "Barnyard" due to his proclivity for acting like an animal and stealing TV sets. Or was it stereos? Or both?
 
#64
#64
Dumbledorange said:
We nicknamed him "Barnyard" due to his proclivity for acting like an animal and stealing TV sets. Or was it stereos? Or both?
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You're exaggerating it a bit. He was caught taking a TV/VCR from the basketball office. He claimed that he was going to show somebody his game videos. IIRC, UT Po Po caught him. Then later on he ran into trouble with local law enforcement over some substance abuse issues. No doubt KPD in 1977 would have enjoyed taking the star basketball player that was also black to lockup. Bernard was no angel, but his run-ins with Knoxviile police were over blown. If he was white they probably would have given him a ride home instead of to jail.
 
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#65
#65
Thunder Good-Oil said:
You're exaggerating it a bit. He was caught taking a TV/VCR from the basketball office. He claimed that he was going to show somebody his game videos. IIRC, UT Po Po caught him. Then later on he ran into trouble with local law enforcement over some substance abuse issues. No doubt KPD in 1977 would have enjoyed taking the star basketball player that was also black to lockup. Bernard was no angel, but his run-ins with Knoxviile police were over blown. If he was white they probably would have given him a ride home instead of to jail.
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30/30 Article

Arrested in 1977
 
#66
#66
Dumbledorange said:
30/30 Article

Arrested in 1977
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One thing to keep in mind about the 30 for 30 episode... Bernard was a credited producer of the program. He made it sound like he was treated very poorly by Knoxville law enforcement. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. He broke the law, was caught, and the rednecks in the KPD likely were unprofessional and racist. But he put himself into that situation. Some say that King's behavior contributed to Ray Mears having an emotional meltdown.
 
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#67
#67
Thunder Good-Oil said:
One thing to keep in mind about the 30 for 30 episode... Bernard was a credited producer of the program. He made it sound like he was treated very poorly by Knoxville law enforcement. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. He broke the law, was caught, and the rednecks in the KPD likely were unprofessional and racist. But he put himself into that situation. Some say that King's behavior contributed to Ray Mears having an emotional meltdown.
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This is truth. Were there racists on KPD? Probably. Could King be a mean and aggressive drunk. Absolutely. His anger issues when drunk didn’t just start once ha ecgot into the NBA. I respect him but blaming KPD for all his problems glosses over his drinking problems while at UT.
 
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#68
#68
Thunder Good-Oil said:
One thing to keep in mind about the 30 for 30 episode... Bernard was a credited producer of the program. He made it sound like he was treated very poorly by Knoxville law enforcement. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. He broke the law, was caught, and the rednecks in the KPD likely were unprofessional and racist. But he put himself into that situation. Some say that King's behavior contributed to Ray Mears having an emotional meltdown.
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I've always thought King's actions contributed, at least in part, to Ray Mears emotional collapse. There was a lot of pressure Mears put on himself on future expectations after guiding Tennessee to the most exciting period of Tennessee basketball up to that point.
 
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#69
#69
Thunder Good-Oil said:
One thing to keep in mind about the 30 for 30 episode... Bernard was a credited producer of the program. He made it sound like he was treated very poorly by Knoxville law enforcement. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle.
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Yes, I thought I remembered that he was picked up walking with the "stolen" TV/VHS after being seen exiting with them out a window. Memory could be faulty.

He broke the law, was caught, and the rednecks in the KPD likely were unprofessional and racist. But he put himself into that situation. Some say that King's behavior contributed to Ray Mears having an emotional meltdown.
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Bi-polars can be like that. Stress triggers. I doubt Stu Aberdeen, another on-the-court crazy, helped Mears' dispositions. Side note: I was recruited by Aberdeen then Mears in 1970, only b/c they had seen me play against Larry Mansfield. Aberdeen found me on the basketball courts across the street from The Presidential Complex after Rudy Kinard ended his season with a severe lower leg injury. I watched one practice and I knew the best I could hope for was loooooooong bench time sitting behind Dickie Johnston (parade All-American), Jimmy England and others more talented, taller and more tolerant of Mears' rants and raves.

If Aberdeen doesn't land Ernie Grunfield, I doubt Aberdeen's BK would have ended up at UT.
 
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#71
#71
Tennesseefan2019 said:
Here's a game from Bernard King's last season at Tennessee

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We loaded up a car with four of us and drove from Knoxville to the Omni to see that game. We pretty much were controlled by UCLA the entire game. Seems we always were down 10, which back then was like being down 25 now. It was a scheduled made for TV Sunday game which they did back then. We didn't play our normal Saturday SEC game because of this game. So our last game was 6 days before on a Monday.
 
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#73
#73
ZZ13 said:
We loaded up a car with four of us and drove from Knoxville to the Omni to see that game. We pretty much were controlled by UCLA the entire game. Seems we always were down 10, which back then was like being down 25 now. It was a scheduled made for TV Sunday game which they did back then. We didn't play our normal Saturday SEC game because of this game. So our last game was 6 days before on a Monday.
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I went with a friend from HS to that game, somehow his Dad got some tickets to the game. I remember UCLA wore TN out, repeatedly getting good shots and hitting many shots. Bernard got in foul trouble and wasn’t much of a factor, but I remember early in the second half we cut into the lead. Then Ernie basically bulled his way to the basket thru 3 defenders for a three point play, but then UCLA scored like ten in a row. I think Reggie Johnson was our leading scorer in that game, UCLA had Marques Johnson, David Greenwood, Jimmy Spillane ( who wore us out), Henry Bibby and had future stars like Kiki Vandeweghe coming off the bench. We lost something like 104-89.
 
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#74
#74
BigorangeBoy said:
I went with a friend from HS to that game, somehow his Dad got some tickets to the game. I remember UCLA wore TN out, repeatedly getting good shots and hitting many shots. Bernard got in foul trouble and wasn’t much of a factor, but I remember early in the second half we cut into the lead. Then Ernie basically bulled his way to the basket thru 3 defenders for a three point play, but then UCLA scored like ten in a row. I think Reggie Johnson was our leading scorer in that game, UCLA had Marques Johnson, David Greenwood, Jimmy Spillane ( who wore us out), Henry Bibby and had future stars like Kiki Vandeweghe coming off the bench. We lost something like 104-89.
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Actually Roy Hamilton wore us out. Greenwood and M Johnson were spectacular players and drew the attention of TN's defense which left the door open for Hamilton. Darden had a bad game. King and Grunfeld scored a bunch in the 2nd half to keep TN close until players started fouling out and UCLA stretched the lead. UCLA was lights out from the perimeter. TN had way too many turnovers. Possibly 25. Johnson didn't have a very good game. Jackson came on after a slow start.

It's an interesting watch. No alternate possession, so there were almost 10 jump balls (including the start of the 2nd half). There were only 2 refs and they were pretty generous to defenders on a couple of charge calls. It's also interesting how few substitutions were made. TN maybe used the same 5 until Bertelkamp came in for Darden late. Chuck Threeths subbed for Reggie Johnson when he fouled out. Terry Crosby also went in late. No TV TOs every 4 minutes either.

The final score wasn't reflective of how good TN was. TN played a bad game that day and UCLA's outside shooting was spot on. Too much to overcome especially when TN had a freshman center and UCLA had 2 all time great forwards in Greenwood and M Johnson.

Interesting comment made, Mears had the highest winning percentage of all active coaches at that time (10 years minimum iirc). Also interesting was the halftime interview of the San Francisco coach. I'd never heard of him before and he had them as the last undefeated team in 1976-77. Bob Gaillard. He coached at Lewis and Clark until 2010-11. 530 wins. I think that he got caught cheating and the program was shut down. Looks like quite the a lounge Lizard in the halftime interview.
 
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