The 1967 UD men’s basketball team is still legendary 55 years later
“The national collegiate basketball championship is on the line in this final game of the NCAA tournament,” said Ed Herlihy, anchor for Universal Newsreel. “UCLA, in possession, goes against Dayton.”
Don Donoher, the University of Dayton men’s basketball coach, his gray hair (perhaps now grayer after the consecutive nail-biters the Flyers had just won to enter the NCAA finals) slicked to the right, his tall, thin frame pacing the floor, was preparing to face the Bruins at Freedom Hall in Lexington, Kentucky. (Donoher, now 90 years old, is the oldest living coach to appear in the NCAA finals.) But in order to cut the final net, UD, led by Don May, a future NBA player and Belmont High School standout, would need to defeat one UCLA player in particular: a 7’2” sophomore phenom from Manhattan. The sophomore, a center, had already led the Bruins to 29 straight wins on the ‘66-’67 season. And if Lew Alcindor—later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar—could topple the Flyers, he’d helm his team to an undefeated 30-0 season. (The Bruins, during Alcindor’s three seasons, went 80-2.)
It was March 25, 1967, and Dayton, the Cinderella team of the NCAA tournament, had recently upset No. 6 Western Kentucky, 69-67, in overtime; No. 8 Tennessee, 53-52, in the Sweet Sixteen; then Virginia Tech, 71-66, again in overtime, in the Elite 8. Spirits rose across Dayton as the city watched its sons make national headlines, each victory more thrilling than the last. And by the time UD took out Virginia Tech at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, the energy was so electric that team mascot Freddie the Flyer, played by junior Jack Hoeft, risked his limbs while celebrating the win. (Unlike Rudy Flyer, Freddie didn’t don a bomber hat atop a colossal foam head; rather, Hoeft wore a simple costume: khakis and a blue sweater with a giant red “D.”)
“My favorite memory, by far, is the scene after the Virginia Tech game, which sent us to the Final Four,” said forward Don May, one of the greatest UD players of all time. “Superfan and literal Flyer Jack Hoeft, attempting to cut down the net, was lifted up 30 feet when he hung on to the rim as the custodian raised the basket, trying to prevent him from doing so. After hanging on for over a minute, Jack and the basket were lowered amidst cheers from Flyer fans. Meanwhile, we players were being carried around the court, and Jack happened to land in my hand on his final descent.” (Photos of Hoeft, flying, his white sneakers dangling some 20 feet above the court, were featured in papers across the nation.)
The NCAA tourney’s first three Flyer games were far too close, achingly close, so UD fans welcomed the relatively painless upset over No. 4 North Carolina, 76-62, in the Final Four. But according to Donoher who, 55 years later, still lives in Dayton, the Flyers weren’t ready to face UCLA: one of the greatest teams in college basketball history. In 1967, the Final Four and the championship game were played on Friday and Saturday, back-to-back, and UD players, ecstatic over their championship berth, had a little too much fun on Friday night.
“That was a night of celebration,” said Donoher in an interview with the NCAA. “We celebrated too much. We should have worried about the next night.”
At the 1967 NCAA championship game, in front of a national audience, the Flyers, at least in their hitherto form, were nowhere to be found. UCLA, coached by John Wooden, who would win a total of 10 NCAA titles, cruised by Dayton 79 to 64 that late March evening. For the Bruins, this was the start of a seven-year NCAA championship run.
“Defending champ UCLA is after its third NCAA title in four years,” continued Herlihy, the announcer. “Seven foot, one inch Alcindor is the key reason they entered the tournament undefeated. Alcindor dominates the backboards, totaling 20 points.”
“I have a lot of regrets that we didn’t do more with the opportunity than we did,” said Donoher. “Of all the championship games, that had to be listed as one of the worst because we were definitely a no-show. We got beat 15, but that was out of the goodness of (Wooden’s) heart because it was more like 50. He called the dogs off with about six minutes to go and we played lights out to cut it to 15.”
But that final game was far from a total loss for Dayton; the ‘67 run was, ostensibly, the birth of Flyer basketball fever. Three years later, the University of Dayton Arena was built, which now hosts the NCAA First Four. (UD Arena has hosted more NCAA tourney games—125 total—than any building in America.)
While UD has never returned to the NCAA championships, the Flyers, in 1967, built a tremendous tower, one to be completed at a future date, by some future team. Here’s to hoping Don Donoher, Don May and the remaining members of that unmatched NCAA title game team, live to see that day.
