WVU-Notre Dame History 101
February 18, 2011 01:44 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – One of the stories Bob Huggins enjoys telling is the time in 1977 when he and Maurice Robinson were walking past some of the Notre Dame players and coaches who were about to begin practice on the Coliseum floor the day before their game against West Virginia.
Huggins and Robinson, somewhat intrigued by the sight of the 17th-ranked team in the country, stopped for a moment on their way out of the building to get a better look at what they were about to face the next day. Their moment of introspection was quickly interrupted by Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps.
“Hey boys,” Phelps yelled from across the floor, “we’re going to whip you tomorrow!”
Huggins and Robinson looked at each other, smiled, and then climbed the Coliseum steps on their way back to their dorm rooms at Towers. The next day, Huggins arrived about an hour and a half earlier than the rest of his teammates - as was his customary routine - to get some shooting in before the game. Expecting to enjoy the solitude of an empty arena, Huggins was surprised to see a line of students that had completely encircled the Coliseum. In fact, so many of them showed up that they had to be let in early an hour early.
“They broke the doors down,” Huggins recalled a few years ago. “The place was already half full when I got in there.”
West Virginia played a terrific game that afternoon, leading the Irish by 13 at halftime, and despite a Notre Dame run early second half run, the Mountaineers managed to maintain their double-digit lead for most of the second half. With about a minute left and West Virginia leading by 16, Robinson, remembering what Digger had said to them the day before, couldn’t resist walking past the Notre Dame bench. Phelps was down on one knee still giving it to one of the refs when Robinson yelled out, “We beat your ass today, boy!”
The final score: West Virginia 81, Notre Dame 68.
WVU coach Joedy Gardner was fully expecting a congratulatory handshake from Phelps, but instead he only got a quick look at the back of Digger’s plaid suit jacket as he took off toward the Notre Dame locker room. It was one of the most satisfying wins Gardner had at West Virginia – not because he beat Notre Dame, but because of the Phelps treatment he received the day before when Notre Dame arrived from New York City.
“He was coming into our gym to practice and he gave the impression that they were the hottest thing in basketball,” Gardner recalled.
“He did a good job at Notre Dame, but he had a persona that kind of rubbed you the wrong way,” added coach Sonny Moran, who preceded Gardner at WVU.
Phelps would try and draw attention to himself, says Lou Somogyi, longtime editor of Blue & Gold Illustrated and noted Irish historian, because he wanted to take the pressure off of his players. Wherever Notre Dame went fans always seemed to come out in droves to heckle them.
“He would be the lightning rod so the players could just concentrate on the game,” Somogyi explained.
Certainly the West Virginia fans did their fair share of heckling that Saturday afternoon in ‘77.
By the late 1970s, West Virginia-Notre Dame basketball games had become an annual happening. Before becoming members of the Big East Conference in 1996, the two schools had a pretty good series going in the ‘70s when both were independents.
In 1973, there were 81 independent basketball schools throughout the country with nine of them earning NCAA tournament at-large bids and 10 more being selected to the NIT that year. Just seven years later, the number of independents had dwindled to 21 with only three (Notre Dame, DePaul and Marquette) good enough to earn NCAA invitations.
Unlike Notre Dame, West Virginia’s brief foray into independence was much more difficult with access to the NCAA tournament really no longer an option once the Mountaineers left the Southern Conference. Moran isn’t sure how Notre Dame became a regular opponent on West Virginia’s schedule, but he said playing teams such as Notre Dame was something athletic director Red Brown always strived to do.
“Red put together games like that,” Moran said. “He did the same thing with Wisconsin. Red wanted those better ball clubs in the Coliseum. Once you got out of the Southern Conference where you played teams like VMI and The Citadel – no discredit to them, but it was quite a change.”
West Virginia first met Notre Dame in the 1969 Sugar Bowl tournament in New Orleans and Moran still smarts when he recalls the five-point halftime lead his team blew and the unfortunate circumstances they endured late in the game.
“We had that game won,” Moran recalled. “We were sitting at the end of the floor at that time on that stage and (Notre Dame) got frustrated and one of their kids came back with an elbow and hit (WVU center) Mike Heitz right square in the mouth and knocked him to the floor. Ralph Stout was officiating and I gave Ralph the devil many times after that and he said, ‘Well, I probably should have called it, but it was the other man’s call.’
“All they did was call a foul,” Moran said.
When the game was over and the two teams were heading to their locker rooms, for some reason Moran glanced back toward the middle of the floor where he saw the game’s other official (the one who didn’t make the call) and Notre Dame coach Johnny Dee embracing at midcourt.
“I thought to myself, ‘What in the heck kind of situation are we in today?’” Moran said.
Moran also remembered his telephone conversation with former Charleston Gazette reporter Skip Johnson afterward. Johnson asked Moran how his team lost the lead. “Hell, I had a hard time figuring out how we got the lead in the first place,” Moran replied.
In that game, West Virginia did a terrific job defending Notre Dame’s great All-American guard Austin Carr, who finished with only 27 points. It was one of the few times Carr, who averaged 38.1 points per game that season, failed to get at least 30. Moran thought a sagging 2-3 zone with some extra help was the answer to stopping Carr.
So two months later in South Bend when West Virginia played Notre Dame once again, Moran tried the same defense. This time things didn’t go as well, Carr setting a Convocation Center record with 55 points that is also the most points ever scored against West Virginia by an opposing player. Notre Dame won the game, 114-78.
“Somebody asked me one time how in the world he could score 55 on us and I told him to check with everybody else – he was scoring that many points on everybody,” Moran said. “He was just one hellacious player.”
Moran got another lethal dose of Austin Carr in 1971 when he scorched the nets for 47 – still the most points ever scored by an opposing player in the Coliseum. West Virginia’s Levi Phillips was responsible for guarding Carr that night.
“Curt Price is the reason he had such a good game,” said Phillips, only half jokingly. “Curt faked like he was going to go behind him and then he stole the ball. Curt was trapped on the baseline so he called timeout and our students gave Carr such a hard time. I mean they really ragged on him.”
Embarrassed, Carr returned to the floor after the timeout only to take his frustrations out on the Mountaineers.
“For about the next five or six minutes of the game I don’t think anybody scored but him – on either team,” Phillips laughed.
In 1972, with Carr off to the NBA and Johnny Dee no longer coaching the Irish, Moran was able to take a depleted roster out to Notre Dame and beat rookie coach Digger Phelps, 97-87.
After his first loss to West Virginia, Digger had much better success against the Mountaineers the following year in 1973, his team getting 24 points and 11 boards from All-American center John Shumate on the way to a 92-73 victory. In ’74, it was Adrian Dantley who did the damage, the forward scoring 41 points and hauling down 12 rebounds in a 28-point Irish thumping at the Convocation Center.
The two teams skipped a year before resuming action in 1976. Once again, Notre Dame took West Virginia out to the woodshed with a 20-point beating behind Dantley’s 26 points and 21 rebounds. Another 20-point loss followed in 1978, despite a 40-point performance from sophomore guard Lowes Moore – still the most points ever scored by a Notre Dame opponent in South Bend. The Irish went on to their only Final Four appearance under Phelps that season.
The decade concluded with the two teams playing once more at the Coliseum in 1979 – Gale Catlett’s first season coaching the Mountaineers. The third-ranked Irish overcame a three-point halftime deficit to defeat West Virginia, 70-54.
Eight years later in 1987, Catlett returned the favor in a made-for-TV game on CBS that West Virginia won 57-55.
The two schools resumed annual play in 1996, and since then, Notre Dame has won 16 out of the last 21 games heading into Saturday’s game, now No. 37 in the series. It will be televised to half of the country on CBS.
Huggins and Robinson, somewhat intrigued by the sight of the 17th-ranked team in the country, stopped for a moment on their way out of the building to get a better look at what they were about to face the next day. Their moment of introspection was quickly interrupted by Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps.
“Hey boys,” Phelps yelled from across the floor, “we’re going to whip you tomorrow!”
Huggins and Robinson looked at each other, smiled, and then climbed the Coliseum steps on their way back to their dorm rooms at Towers. The next day, Huggins arrived about an hour and a half earlier than the rest of his teammates - as was his customary routine - to get some shooting in before the game. Expecting to enjoy the solitude of an empty arena, Huggins was surprised to see a line of students that had completely encircled the Coliseum. In fact, so many of them showed up that they had to be let in early an hour early.
“They broke the doors down,” Huggins recalled a few years ago. “The place was already half full when I got in there.”
West Virginia played a terrific game that afternoon, leading the Irish by 13 at halftime, and despite a Notre Dame run early second half run, the Mountaineers managed to maintain their double-digit lead for most of the second half. With about a minute left and West Virginia leading by 16, Robinson, remembering what Digger had said to them the day before, couldn’t resist walking past the Notre Dame bench. Phelps was down on one knee still giving it to one of the refs when Robinson yelled out, “We beat your ass today, boy!”
The final score: West Virginia 81, Notre Dame 68.
WVU coach Joedy Gardner was fully expecting a congratulatory handshake from Phelps, but instead he only got a quick look at the back of Digger’s plaid suit jacket as he took off toward the Notre Dame locker room. It was one of the most satisfying wins Gardner had at West Virginia – not because he beat Notre Dame, but because of the Phelps treatment he received the day before when Notre Dame arrived from New York City.
“He was coming into our gym to practice and he gave the impression that they were the hottest thing in basketball,” Gardner recalled.
“He did a good job at Notre Dame, but he had a persona that kind of rubbed you the wrong way,” added coach Sonny Moran, who preceded Gardner at WVU.
Phelps would try and draw attention to himself, says Lou Somogyi, longtime editor of Blue & Gold Illustrated and noted Irish historian, because he wanted to take the pressure off of his players. Wherever Notre Dame went fans always seemed to come out in droves to heckle them.
“He would be the lightning rod so the players could just concentrate on the game,” Somogyi explained.
Certainly the West Virginia fans did their fair share of heckling that Saturday afternoon in ‘77.
By the late 1970s, West Virginia-Notre Dame basketball games had become an annual happening. Before becoming members of the Big East Conference in 1996, the two schools had a pretty good series going in the ‘70s when both were independents.
In 1973, there were 81 independent basketball schools throughout the country with nine of them earning NCAA tournament at-large bids and 10 more being selected to the NIT that year. Just seven years later, the number of independents had dwindled to 21 with only three (Notre Dame, DePaul and Marquette) good enough to earn NCAA invitations.
Unlike Notre Dame, West Virginia’s brief foray into independence was much more difficult with access to the NCAA tournament really no longer an option once the Mountaineers left the Southern Conference. Moran isn’t sure how Notre Dame became a regular opponent on West Virginia’s schedule, but he said playing teams such as Notre Dame was something athletic director Red Brown always strived to do.
“Red put together games like that,” Moran said. “He did the same thing with Wisconsin. Red wanted those better ball clubs in the Coliseum. Once you got out of the Southern Conference where you played teams like VMI and The Citadel – no discredit to them, but it was quite a change.”
West Virginia first met Notre Dame in the 1969 Sugar Bowl tournament in New Orleans and Moran still smarts when he recalls the five-point halftime lead his team blew and the unfortunate circumstances they endured late in the game.
“We had that game won,” Moran recalled. “We were sitting at the end of the floor at that time on that stage and (Notre Dame) got frustrated and one of their kids came back with an elbow and hit (WVU center) Mike Heitz right square in the mouth and knocked him to the floor. Ralph Stout was officiating and I gave Ralph the devil many times after that and he said, ‘Well, I probably should have called it, but it was the other man’s call.’
“All they did was call a foul,” Moran said.
When the game was over and the two teams were heading to their locker rooms, for some reason Moran glanced back toward the middle of the floor where he saw the game’s other official (the one who didn’t make the call) and Notre Dame coach Johnny Dee embracing at midcourt.
“I thought to myself, ‘What in the heck kind of situation are we in today?’” Moran said.
Moran also remembered his telephone conversation with former Charleston Gazette reporter Skip Johnson afterward. Johnson asked Moran how his team lost the lead. “Hell, I had a hard time figuring out how we got the lead in the first place,” Moran replied.
In that game, West Virginia did a terrific job defending Notre Dame’s great All-American guard Austin Carr, who finished with only 27 points. It was one of the few times Carr, who averaged 38.1 points per game that season, failed to get at least 30. Moran thought a sagging 2-3 zone with some extra help was the answer to stopping Carr.
So two months later in South Bend when West Virginia played Notre Dame once again, Moran tried the same defense. This time things didn’t go as well, Carr setting a Convocation Center record with 55 points that is also the most points ever scored against West Virginia by an opposing player. Notre Dame won the game, 114-78.
“Somebody asked me one time how in the world he could score 55 on us and I told him to check with everybody else – he was scoring that many points on everybody,” Moran said. “He was just one hellacious player.”
Moran got another lethal dose of Austin Carr in 1971 when he scorched the nets for 47 – still the most points ever scored by an opposing player in the Coliseum. West Virginia’s Levi Phillips was responsible for guarding Carr that night.
“Curt Price is the reason he had such a good game,” said Phillips, only half jokingly. “Curt faked like he was going to go behind him and then he stole the ball. Curt was trapped on the baseline so he called timeout and our students gave Carr such a hard time. I mean they really ragged on him.”
Embarrassed, Carr returned to the floor after the timeout only to take his frustrations out on the Mountaineers.
“For about the next five or six minutes of the game I don’t think anybody scored but him – on either team,” Phillips laughed.
In 1972, with Carr off to the NBA and Johnny Dee no longer coaching the Irish, Moran was able to take a depleted roster out to Notre Dame and beat rookie coach Digger Phelps, 97-87.
After his first loss to West Virginia, Digger had much better success against the Mountaineers the following year in 1973, his team getting 24 points and 11 boards from All-American center John Shumate on the way to a 92-73 victory. In ’74, it was Adrian Dantley who did the damage, the forward scoring 41 points and hauling down 12 rebounds in a 28-point Irish thumping at the Convocation Center.
The two teams skipped a year before resuming action in 1976. Once again, Notre Dame took West Virginia out to the woodshed with a 20-point beating behind Dantley’s 26 points and 21 rebounds. Another 20-point loss followed in 1978, despite a 40-point performance from sophomore guard Lowes Moore – still the most points ever scored by a Notre Dame opponent in South Bend. The Irish went on to their only Final Four appearance under Phelps that season.
The decade concluded with the two teams playing once more at the Coliseum in 1979 – Gale Catlett’s first season coaching the Mountaineers. The third-ranked Irish overcame a three-point halftime deficit to defeat West Virginia, 70-54.
Eight years later in 1987, Catlett returned the favor in a made-for-TV game on CBS that West Virginia won 57-55.
The two schools resumed annual play in 1996, and since then, Notre Dame has won 16 out of the last 21 games heading into Saturday’s game, now No. 37 in the series. It will be televised to half of the country on CBS.
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