Wednesday, March 13, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Houston takes top Washburn quits football in basketball poll
NEW YORK — (UPI) — The University of Houston turned the near impossible dream into reality.
Back in December the Cougars were faced with the unlikely prospect of derailing the UCLA express, bound for its second straight national championship.
This was a UCLA team riding the second longest winning streak in major college basketball history, a squad which created the second longest dynasty in ratings history by holding the No.1 spot through 22 straight ballots behind the efforts of All-America Lew Alcindor end three other players who gained All-America mention
Four months and 29 victories later, however, the United Press International's Board of Coaches crowned Houston major college basketball's regular season national champions for 1967-68.
Top score
Houston rolled up 25 first place votes Monday and 338 points in the 16th and final ballot of the season taken of the UPI board, UCLA, which always remained within striking distance of the No. 1 spot, received 10 first place votes and 325 points.
The turning point was the mid-January confrontation between the two giants at the Astrodome in Houston. With UCLA holding an overwhelming ratings lead and Houston nestled comfortably in second place, the Cougars scored the 71-68 triumph that propelled them to the top. They failed to shake loose from the Bruins, never holding leads of more than 17 points through the final six weeks of the campaign.
But behind Coach of the Year Guy Lewis and Player of the Year Elvin Hayes, the Cougars held the top rung by stretching their winning streak to 30, currently the longest among the nation's
major colleges, and obliterating several opponents by scoring over 100 points in their final nine regular season outings.
Just as they have all season long, the two powerhouses outdistanced the rest of the field by a wide margin in the final balloting.
Other leaders
Unbeaten St. Bonaventure wound up in the third spot it took over a week ago, 68 points behind. Atlantic Coast Conference champion North Carolina remained fourth and Southeastern Conference titlist Kentucky held onto fifth.
In the biggest move among last week's top 10, surprising Columbia capped its best regular season in 17 years, vaulting three places to sixth and thereby gaining a spot in the final rankings for only the second time in Lion history.
New Mexico fell a notch to seventh in the voting based on games played through March 9, Louisville retained eighth and Davidson moved up two spots to ninth. Marquette climbed four places to finish 10th.
The final ratings
Team Points
1. Houston (25) (29-0) ... 338
2. UCLA (10) (25-1) ... 325
3. St. Bonaventure (23-0) ... 257
4. North Carolina (25-3) ... 232
5. Kentucky (21-4) ... 205
6. Columbia (22-4) ... 159
7. New Mexico (23-3) ... 125
8. Louisville (20-6) ... 93
9. Davidson (23-4) ... 39
10. Marquette (22-5) ... 36
Second 10—11. Duke 23; 12.
New Mexico St. 21; 13. Vanderbilt 18; 14. Kansas State 13; 15.
Princeton 11; 16. Army 10; 17.
Santa Clara 6; 18. Utah 7; 19.
Bradley 6; 20. Iowa 5.
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“Are you dead serious?” he asked a reporter. “I don't know anything. I haven't been notified or asked to plead my case. It looks like they'd at least tell me. It's kind of important to me.
TOPEKA — (UPI) — Washburn University, a member of the Central Intercollegiate Conference, announced late Tuesday it will no longer participate in intercollegiate football.
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dumbfounded when first told of the decision.
Dr. John W. Henderson, Washburn president, made the announcement in a hurried news conference in his office. He said the decision was made by the Washburn University Board of Regents because of budget problems.
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Later, the coach was unavailable for comment.
The regents voted in a secret meeting Monday night to cut all money for football from the budget beginning this July. The decision meant the school will cancel its fall games.
"I don't think people would do something like this in such an underhanded way. It's a helluva way to do things—not give a guy a chance," he said.
The problem apparently facing the Board of Regents was the financial demands of entering the new conference and of making football pay by pouring in enough
Washburn had been a participant in the organization of the new Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
money to produce a winning team. The Ichabods finished 0-9 last season.
Charles Marling, chairman of the regents, told UPL, "it was a purely economic decision. It was a very difficult thing to decide, but we were confronted with increasing expenses in entrance to a larger conference with a higher level of play and greater distances of travel.
"We want to maintain a quality academic program, and we want to continue all other aspects of the athletic program. We want to continue basketball and the spring sports," Marling said. "They are not the consumers of resources that football is."
KSU on TV in NCAA
Football coach Bill Schaake was
TOPEKA—(UPI)—WIBW Television, Channel 13, Topeka, announced Tuesday it will televise the NCAA regional tournament basketball game between Kansas State University and Texas Christian University Friday at 9 p.m.
The station also will televise the second half of the Houston-Louisville game, beginning at 8 p.m. Friday.
He apparently was well under way with plans to beef up the losing team this season when the blow struck. He said "about 22" football players had transferred from other schools this year.
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