Fifty years ago, two things happened in college basketball that shall never be duplicated: UCLA won its seventh straight NCAA championship, and Bill Walton made 21 out of 22 shots in the title game.
“That was a good day for us,” Walton tells Sports Illustrated. “I was the luckiest guy in the world."
Nobody knew it at the time, but a dynasty ended that night in St. Louis after the Bruins blitzed Memphis, 87-66. More significantly, the entire concept of a men’s college basketball dynasty died. Nothing since has approached the utter hegemony the Bruins exerted over the sport.
