Link: The Night Bama Shocked UCLA

ALA2262

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"The news reached Wimp Sanderson as his basketball team practiced on January 26, 1983.

In the midst of preparing to play No. 1-ranked UCLA in Pauley Pavillion in two days, word came that larger-than-life Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant had died. And for Sanderson and his players, just as for thousands of other Alabama faithful that day, time stood still.

Surely it couldn’t be true. Surely legends like Bryant didn’t die. Surely they just walk off into a beautiful sunset to wait for us on the other side. But it was true. Bryant was gone. Suddenly Tuscaloosa, the state of Alabama and the entire football world was in deep mourning.

Sanderson gathered his players together to break the news. Then his thoughts turned to more practical matters. Would the Crimson Tide still travel to Los Angeles for its matchup with one of college basketball’s most storied programs? Sanderson didn’t know for sure, and he had to find out.

“I wasn’t sure exactly what we needed to do with a national game against the No. 1 team in the country coming up,” Sanderson said. “I got in touch with Paul (Bryant) Jr., and he said, ‘Papa would have wanted you to play.’”

http://hallandarena.com/the-night-bama-shocked-ucla/
 

day-day

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There was little indication this Sanderson team would shock the basketball world. After opening the season 8-0 and climbing as high as No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 20 poll, the Tide had hit the skids and lost six of its next eight. That included a heartbreaker at home on Monday, January 24, when Carlos Clark hit a jumper from the deep left corner with 5 seconds left in a 64-63 Ole Miss win in what was then known as Memorial Coliseum.
Remember watching that shot by Clark while sitting in Memorial Coliseum; the guy could play but I didn't expect that one to go in...ugh.

Talk about a Jekyll and Hyde team, the 82-83 team had 5 or 6 really solid players, finished 8-10 in conference, lost in conference final for SEC Tournament and lost in first round of NCAA 73-50 to Lamar.


“We had one great play where Whatley came down court with the ball, and Bobby Lee was running down the lane behind him,” Sanderson said. “Ennis flipped it back over his shoulder, and Bobby Lee caught it and dunked it. It was really pretty.”
Sanderson praises a dunk. He'd of stomped a hole in the floor if Hurt had missed it.
 
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ALA2262

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[FONT=&quot]I am still po'd at Anthony Grant for not recognizing that team when Bama played UCLA in Tuscaloosa on 12/28/2014. What in Bama basketball history is bigger than that team going to Pauley Pavilion on the day the school buried Coach Bryant, and beating the #1 ranked UCLA Bruins!?[/FONT]
 

MOAN

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I played against Mark Farmer in high school, I went to school at DAR and Mark at Arab here in Marshall county. I was 6'6" and he was 6'11". Shot a lot of hook shots against him lol!!

I will never forget my junior year at DAR, '78-'79, we were ranked #1 in the state for a time in 2A, only had 4 classifications back then with 4A the largest schools which Arab was back then. We beat Arab both games, home and away, the Arab away game was 3 overtime thriller I played every second in. Arab beat Guntersville both games home and away and Guntersville beat us both home and away. We lost to Guntersville in the semi-final of the county championship as well, and if memory serves correct Arab beat Guntersville in the championship game. Guntersville went on to the state tourney and lost to Wetumpka in the semi's and Wetumpka won state in the 3A championship game.

Mark Thornhill, long time former news caster at WAFF 48 in Huntsville also played for Arab back then. That article brought back some good memories for sure!! :)
 

ALA2262

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[FONT=&quot]That was Mark's first start, and would be the first of eleven in his Bama career. Little known is that Bama was 11-0 in his starts. Primarily because with Bobby Lee Hurt moved to Forward, outside of Chapel Hill, NC when Dean Smith would start whoever with MJ at Forward, there was not another pair of forwards in the nation better than Hurt and Buck Johnson.[/FONT]
 

CajunCrimson

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Mar 13, 2001
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[FONT=&]"The news reached Wimp Sanderson as his basketball team practiced on January 26, 1983.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&]In the midst of preparing to play No. 1-ranked UCLA in Pauley Pavillion in two days, word came that larger-than-life Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant had died. And for Sanderson and his players, just as for thousands of other Alabama faithful that day, time stood still.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&]Surely it couldn’t be true. Surely legends like Bryant didn’t die. Surely they just walk off into a beautiful sunset to wait for us on the other side. But it was true. Bryant was gone. Suddenly Tuscaloosa, the state of Alabama and the entire football world was in deep mourning.[/FONT]

[FONT=&]Sanderson gathered his players together to break the news. Then his thoughts turned to more practical matters. Would the Crimson Tide still travel to Los Angeles for its matchup with one of college basketball’s most storied programs? Sanderson didn’t know for sure, and he had to find out.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&]“I wasn’t sure exactly what we needed to do with a national game against the No. 1 team in the country coming up,” Sanderson said. “I got in touch with Paul (Bryant) Jr., and he said, ‘Papa would have wanted you to play.’”

http://hallandarena.com/the-night-bama-shocked-ucla/[/FONT]
Well written article, thanks.

Some of the big boy sports outlets could learn something about how to write an article you don't want to end....
 

teamplayer

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I played against Mark Farmer in high school, I went to school at DAR and Mark at Arab here in Marshall county. I was 6'6" and he was 6'11". Shot a lot of hook shots against him lol!!

I will never forget my junior year at DAR, '78-'79, we were ranked #1 in the state for a time in 2A, only had 4 classifications back then with 4A the largest schools which Arab was back then. We beat Arab both games, home and away, the Arab away game was 3 overtime thriller I played every second in. Arab beat Guntersville both games home and away and Guntersville beat us both home and away. We lost to Guntersville in the semi-final of the county championship as well, and if memory serves correct Arab beat Guntersville in the championship game. Guntersville went on to the state tourney and lost to Wetumpka in the semi's and Wetumpka won state in the 3A championship game.

Mark Thornhill, long time former news caster at WAFF 48 in Huntsville also played for Arab back then. That article brought back some good memories for sure!! :)
Hey, nice history there for another DAR b-baller here. I wish both DAR and Alabama basketball would get back to their good old days.
 

MOAN

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Hey, nice history there for another DAR b-baller here. I wish both DAR and Alabama basketball would get back to their good old days.
Yeah that would be nice!! Seems DAR basketball went down around the time DAR started football lol!! I was born in Guntersville and actually went to school there through the 6th grade before we moved to Gunters mountain. I was looking forward to playing football as a kid and then when I got old enough to play we moved lol!! ;)

My dad was a brick mason and worked for Joe Chorba, Guntersville's legendary coach that their stadium, Chorba/Lee stadium is named after. I had begged dad to let me play pee wee football but coach Chorba told dad it would be best if I waited till I was in the 8th or 9th grade for reasons such as needing to be coached by experienced coaches as well as my growing body did not need the abuse. Well we moved to the mountain at the end of my 6th grade year and of course DAR had no football. ;)

When I got to DAR the high school principal was none other than Percy Lee, the other half of Guntersville's stadiums name, Chorba/Lee, who was Joe Chorba's assistant coach back in the 50's and 60's there. I finally hit my growth spurt around the 9th grade and played basketball but my dream was always playing football. I was ok at basketball, All county, all area, my senior year and was invited to come to a combine at Jacksonville State but had not the desire to play basketball as I did football and declined the invite.

Wound up following in my dads footsteps doing masonry work, heck I was a brick/stone mason by the time I was 15-16 years old, so college wasn't in the cards for me. Would have been if I had been a football player though, especially if I could have played for coach Bryant! ;)
 

imauafan

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Very good article. I don't remember this game at all and I had already started following the basketball team at that point. I wish that I had watched it or at least listened to it.
 

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