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About those TU basketball crowds
Published: 1/24/2008 3:23 PM
Last Modified: 1/24/2008 3:23 PM


I have watched with some amusement all of the hubbub about the crowds -- or lack thereof -- at the TU basketball games.

There is a magic bring-in-the-crowd formula, and it began in the mid 1960s. That's when TU coach Joe Swank recruited the first black players to wear Hurricane uniforms, and sometimes it seemed as though more people came to the Fairgronds Pavilion to watch the freshman games (freshmen weren't eligible back then) than they did the varsity. The next few years TU fielded exciting, crowd-pleasing teams and made the NIT when it was an elite postseason tournament.

In the early 1970s, Ken Trickey came to town, and the startling success of his ORU teams, coinciding with a slight dip at TU, led to the building of Mabee Center. Everyone who was anyone joined the Titan Club (ORU was the Titans then) and wanted to be seen at the Titan Club dinners before games. Those ORU teams made the NIT and NCAA tournaments when it was WAY more difficult to be invited than it is today.

I distinctly remember Trickey saying at the time, "Things are great now, but if we ever slip a notch and TU comes back with a big winner, then we are toast."

Which, of course, is what happened. ORU slipped a bit, not much, but enough to pave the way for TU and coach Nolan Richardson to retake the spotlight -- and the crowds -- with some of the most exciting teams in TU history, teams that spawned the most successful era in TU basketball.

So here's the formula, which all of those teams shared. At least one superstar player, effective role players with colorful personalities and big-time success on the court.

So it went, and so it will go.



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Tulsa World restaurant critic Scott Cherry is in his second tour of duty with the Tulsa World. He was a sports writer during his first stop, covering college football and basketball. Since returning to the World in 1992, he has been the food writer and now restaurant critic and wine columnist.

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