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BOB BOYD
As I've said before, Bob Boyd deserves a statue at USC just for taking the coaching job. To really appreciate what he was walking into and what he had to deal with, we have to look at what Wooden accomplished at UCLA, which time seems to have blurred. Before Boyd got there, UCLA had won two straight NCAA Championships, going 58-2 in 64 and 65. That would be a HOF career as is for any coach, but it was just the start. From Boyd's first year, 1967, through his first nine years as SC's coach UCLA won eight national championships, seven in a row, with a record of 249 and 12, a .952 win %, with three perfect seasons. In nine years they lost 7 conference games, (two to Boyd) and this was in a conference where SEVEN other schools had been to the Final 4, and three had won the National Championship (four if you count SC's Helms Natty). Therefore, when you look at Bob Boyd's career at SC you have to factor in his accomplishments were in the shadow of the greatest sports dynasty in history.
Boyd was a 3-year letterman at SC (1950–52) and was most valuable player as a senior in 1952. Boyd then began his coaching career, first for five years in the high school ranks at El Segundo and Alhambra, and then for six years he coached at the junior college level. From there he moved up to Seattle University, where he went 41–13 in 2 seasons. He then took a year off working for Converse. USC's first choice to replace Twogood was Jack Gardner, the former player and future Hall of Fame coach at Utah who just took his team to the Final Four. Gardner, however, was 56 and chose to stay at Utah, with who was on the UCLA Frosh team a likely factor in the decision. Also mentioned were the three future hall of fame coaches that played for Sam Berry; Tex Winter, Alex Hannum, and Bill Sharman, who was just starting his coaching career at Cal State LA. It came down to Sharman and Boyd, who it was reported had SC as his dream job. A deciding factor may have been the support of the JC hoops coaches in the area, who wrote a letter to Athletic Director Jess Hill in support.
Boyd's first game ever as SC's head coach was also Lew Alcindor's first college game ever, the season opener at Pauley. They played the 30-0 Bruins four times that year, so that 13-12 first year record was a lot better than it looks. In the first two games against UCLA that year, both at Pauley, SC scored 90 and 83 points, which is pretty good without the three point line. The problem is UCLA scored 105 and 107. Boyd saw the problem, so in his first home game against UCLA at the Sports Arena, he would try something that really pissed off John Wooden. Boyd decided to play a stall and the Trojans didn't shoot for 2-3 minutes at a time. USC led 17-14 at halftime and the game was tied at the end of regulation before the Bruins won in OT before 14,417. In those days, every Monday featured a basketball writers’ luncheon with all the college coaches from Southern California. “Too many coaches think too much of basketball to do (what USC did),” John Wooden said. USC athletic director Jess Hill was next and stood up for his coach. “Bob had my support in everything he did. Any team that attempts to run against UCLA is doomed for devastation,” Hill said.
The next year in 67-68 Boyd added JC transfer Calvin Mack to go along with Bill Hewitt, the first true black hoops recruit, and SC finished 18-8, second in the conference. This was an unbelievable achievement, when you consider the previous four years they were sub 500, finished no higher than 4th in the conference, and their cross town rival had gone 105-11 with three national championships. SC started the year 5-5, but ended the year 13-3, with a one point loss to Cal and two losses to 29-1 UCLA. The coaching job Boyd did that year earned him an offer to be the Lakers head coach, which he turned down.
One of the reasons he turned it down is because he wanted to topple Wooden, and knew what was coming into the program. Paul Westphal from Aviation high was the top guard recruit the county, and was named Mr. Basketball in California.. Wooden was not shy about his disappointment in losing Westphal to Boyd: "In my career as a teacher and coach at UCLA, the most valuable recruit we ever lost was Paul Westphal". The next year SC without Hewitt was 15-11, but experienced one of the greatest wins in school history. Boyd and the team planned all year for how they would slay the dragon at the end, since their two games against UCLA came in the last two games of the year. Boyd knew he needed to slow the game, but not just stall. He came up with a shuffle cut, where the postman would set a pick up top and the guards would drive the lane, and if no shot was there, they would run it again. On Friday night USC scared the Bruins down to the final possession, but Lynn Shackleford hit a wild shot to send it to overtime, and UCLA won 55-51 for Wooden's 17th consecutive win against SC. The next night the two teams played again in Alcindor's last game at Pauley. He was 88-1 with two Natties up to this point, and had established himself as the greatest college player ever. The same plan worked to perfection, and USC won 46-44, ruining Alcindor's last home game and breaking Wooden's win streaks of 41 in a row overall, 45 consecutive in Conference play, and 51 straight at Pauley. Boyd told reporters "They are lucky we didn't beat them twice!" The next year SC ran out the core of Westphal, Layton, Riley and Mackey, and got to 6th in the AP poll after a 101-98 road win at 18th ranked LSU. They would be up and down from there, losing some leads late in conference games, but were on a three game win streak going into the 2 game end of season series vs #1 UCLA, who were 28-1. The first of the two were at Pauley, and this time SC didn't need any type of stall to pull out a 87-86 win, for an unheard of 2 game win streak at Pauley. They lost the next night at the Sports Arena, but the stage was set to finally topple the Giant in 70-71 with the entire core of the team coming back.
for the 70-71 Season, SC was ranked 7th in the AP preseason poll, and then got to 3rd after beating 17th ranked Florida State on Dec 19, and 18th ranked LSU on Jan 2. SC then waxed 18th ranked Illinois 81-68 at a Chicago Stadium double header. Number 1 UCLA, however, lost at Notre Dame on Jan 23, so was ranked 3rd going into the game against 2nd ranked USC, first in the UPI poll, on Saturday, Feb 6th at the Sports Arena. They had no losses and UCLA had one, so if SC could win at home they were in control of their destiny. They had won two of the last four against UCLA, and a win in front of a sellout crowd of 15,307 would give them one foot in the NCAA tournament, breaking UCLA's champion streak of four straight. At the Sports Arena that year so far the average margin of victory had been 18, with a high of 47 when they hung 122 points on Alabama. The biggest game in SC history started out great, with SC in control through the first half. They grabbed their biggest lead at 59-50 with 9:30 left. Then, for lack of a better term, SC choked. Boyd said after the game, "we went dead in the water, I can't really tell what caused it. We got careless and took some ill advised shots". SC still held the lead 59-56 with 6:30 left, but then lost the lead 60-59 with 5:30 left. Westphal took some bad shots and had a couple of turnovers, but also Boyd for some reason had Mo Layton, who was the player of the game so far, on the bench. Once UCLA got the lead Wooden lost all interest in basketball- the-way-it-should- be-played, and went into a stall. The final score was 64-60, with USC scoring 1 point in the last 9 1/2 minutes. This game was the start of UCLA's 88 game win streak. Sydney Wicks scored 24 on 9-11 shooting, and Mo Layton led SC with 22 points. SC would have another chance at UCLA at the end of the year at Pauley, but would lose by 11, and finish the season 24-2. The fact that a 2 loss team didn't play in the NCAAT was a contributing factor in the tournament expanding later.
Boyd kept the ball rolling however, going 18-10 in 72-73, and ending up 17th in the AP poll. Led by Jr Dan Anderson and Sophomores Gus Williams, Clint Chapman and John Lambert, SC would finish 2nd in Conference, and lose in the NIT at Madison Square Garden. The next year the same group would go 24-5, finished 1 game behind UCLA in conference, and would play three rounds in NCIT, losing in the Final to Bob Knight and Indiana, with a core that would go undefeated two year later. In the last year together, Williams Lambert and Chapman were at one point 13-1, but finished the season 5-7. Williams had one of the best seasons at SC ever, averaging 21 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. SC would struggle the next two years, but got going again in 77-78 finishing third in conference. In the 78-79 season, Boyd's last, SC lost at #1 Duke, but beat #7 Kansas at home. They were 9-3 when they faced #6 UCLA at home, and lost by 3. They would finish the season on a six game win streak, 19-8, 2nd in the conference, and finally make Boyd's first NCAA tournament with an at-large bid. They won their first round game against Utah State, but lost in the second round against #8 DePaul. Both games were at Pauley Pavilion, and the UCLA fans booed SC both games.
My pick between Barry and Boyd is Bob Boyd. Taking on a near impossible task, in his 13 years UCLA won the Conference every year, but he finished second in the Conference six times, four times to a NC UCLA team, and third twice. Under the 1975 tournament expansion, that would have been at least 5 tourneys in 13 years, with at least two very high seeds, and under the 1980 expansion at least 7 appearances. Under the same criteria, Barry would have likely had 4 to 6 appearances, and Barry only had young Wooden to deal with, so the Boyd gets the nod.
As I've said before, Bob Boyd deserves a statue at USC just for taking the coaching job. To really appreciate what he was walking into and what he had to deal with, we have to look at what Wooden accomplished at UCLA, which time seems to have blurred. Before Boyd got there, UCLA had won two straight NCAA Championships, going 58-2 in 64 and 65. That would be a HOF career as is for any coach, but it was just the start. From Boyd's first year, 1967, through his first nine years as SC's coach UCLA won eight national championships, seven in a row, with a record of 249 and 12, a .952 win %, with three perfect seasons. In nine years they lost 7 conference games, (two to Boyd) and this was in a conference where SEVEN other schools had been to the Final 4, and three had won the National Championship (four if you count SC's Helms Natty). Therefore, when you look at Bob Boyd's career at SC you have to factor in his accomplishments were in the shadow of the greatest sports dynasty in history.
Boyd was a 3-year letterman at SC (1950–52) and was most valuable player as a senior in 1952. Boyd then began his coaching career, first for five years in the high school ranks at El Segundo and Alhambra, and then for six years he coached at the junior college level. From there he moved up to Seattle University, where he went 41–13 in 2 seasons. He then took a year off working for Converse. USC's first choice to replace Twogood was Jack Gardner, the former player and future Hall of Fame coach at Utah who just took his team to the Final Four. Gardner, however, was 56 and chose to stay at Utah, with who was on the UCLA Frosh team a likely factor in the decision. Also mentioned were the three future hall of fame coaches that played for Sam Berry; Tex Winter, Alex Hannum, and Bill Sharman, who was just starting his coaching career at Cal State LA. It came down to Sharman and Boyd, who it was reported had SC as his dream job. A deciding factor may have been the support of the JC hoops coaches in the area, who wrote a letter to Athletic Director Jess Hill in support.
Boyd's first game ever as SC's head coach was also Lew Alcindor's first college game ever, the season opener at Pauley. They played the 30-0 Bruins four times that year, so that 13-12 first year record was a lot better than it looks. In the first two games against UCLA that year, both at Pauley, SC scored 90 and 83 points, which is pretty good without the three point line. The problem is UCLA scored 105 and 107. Boyd saw the problem, so in his first home game against UCLA at the Sports Arena, he would try something that really pissed off John Wooden. Boyd decided to play a stall and the Trojans didn't shoot for 2-3 minutes at a time. USC led 17-14 at halftime and the game was tied at the end of regulation before the Bruins won in OT before 14,417. In those days, every Monday featured a basketball writers’ luncheon with all the college coaches from Southern California. “Too many coaches think too much of basketball to do (what USC did),” John Wooden said. USC athletic director Jess Hill was next and stood up for his coach. “Bob had my support in everything he did. Any team that attempts to run against UCLA is doomed for devastation,” Hill said.
The next year in 67-68 Boyd added JC transfer Calvin Mack to go along with Bill Hewitt, the first true black hoops recruit, and SC finished 18-8, second in the conference. This was an unbelievable achievement, when you consider the previous four years they were sub 500, finished no higher than 4th in the conference, and their cross town rival had gone 105-11 with three national championships. SC started the year 5-5, but ended the year 13-3, with a one point loss to Cal and two losses to 29-1 UCLA. The coaching job Boyd did that year earned him an offer to be the Lakers head coach, which he turned down.
One of the reasons he turned it down is because he wanted to topple Wooden, and knew what was coming into the program. Paul Westphal from Aviation high was the top guard recruit the county, and was named Mr. Basketball in California.. Wooden was not shy about his disappointment in losing Westphal to Boyd: "In my career as a teacher and coach at UCLA, the most valuable recruit we ever lost was Paul Westphal". The next year SC without Hewitt was 15-11, but experienced one of the greatest wins in school history. Boyd and the team planned all year for how they would slay the dragon at the end, since their two games against UCLA came in the last two games of the year. Boyd knew he needed to slow the game, but not just stall. He came up with a shuffle cut, where the postman would set a pick up top and the guards would drive the lane, and if no shot was there, they would run it again. On Friday night USC scared the Bruins down to the final possession, but Lynn Shackleford hit a wild shot to send it to overtime, and UCLA won 55-51 for Wooden's 17th consecutive win against SC. The next night the two teams played again in Alcindor's last game at Pauley. He was 88-1 with two Natties up to this point, and had established himself as the greatest college player ever. The same plan worked to perfection, and USC won 46-44, ruining Alcindor's last home game and breaking Wooden's win streaks of 41 in a row overall, 45 consecutive in Conference play, and 51 straight at Pauley. Boyd told reporters "They are lucky we didn't beat them twice!" The next year SC ran out the core of Westphal, Layton, Riley and Mackey, and got to 6th in the AP poll after a 101-98 road win at 18th ranked LSU. They would be up and down from there, losing some leads late in conference games, but were on a three game win streak going into the 2 game end of season series vs #1 UCLA, who were 28-1. The first of the two were at Pauley, and this time SC didn't need any type of stall to pull out a 87-86 win, for an unheard of 2 game win streak at Pauley. They lost the next night at the Sports Arena, but the stage was set to finally topple the Giant in 70-71 with the entire core of the team coming back.
for the 70-71 Season, SC was ranked 7th in the AP preseason poll, and then got to 3rd after beating 17th ranked Florida State on Dec 19, and 18th ranked LSU on Jan 2. SC then waxed 18th ranked Illinois 81-68 at a Chicago Stadium double header. Number 1 UCLA, however, lost at Notre Dame on Jan 23, so was ranked 3rd going into the game against 2nd ranked USC, first in the UPI poll, on Saturday, Feb 6th at the Sports Arena. They had no losses and UCLA had one, so if SC could win at home they were in control of their destiny. They had won two of the last four against UCLA, and a win in front of a sellout crowd of 15,307 would give them one foot in the NCAA tournament, breaking UCLA's champion streak of four straight. At the Sports Arena that year so far the average margin of victory had been 18, with a high of 47 when they hung 122 points on Alabama. The biggest game in SC history started out great, with SC in control through the first half. They grabbed their biggest lead at 59-50 with 9:30 left. Then, for lack of a better term, SC choked. Boyd said after the game, "we went dead in the water, I can't really tell what caused it. We got careless and took some ill advised shots". SC still held the lead 59-56 with 6:30 left, but then lost the lead 60-59 with 5:30 left. Westphal took some bad shots and had a couple of turnovers, but also Boyd for some reason had Mo Layton, who was the player of the game so far, on the bench. Once UCLA got the lead Wooden lost all interest in basketball- the-way-it-should- be-played, and went into a stall. The final score was 64-60, with USC scoring 1 point in the last 9 1/2 minutes. This game was the start of UCLA's 88 game win streak. Sydney Wicks scored 24 on 9-11 shooting, and Mo Layton led SC with 22 points. SC would have another chance at UCLA at the end of the year at Pauley, but would lose by 11, and finish the season 24-2. The fact that a 2 loss team didn't play in the NCAAT was a contributing factor in the tournament expanding later.
Boyd kept the ball rolling however, going 18-10 in 72-73, and ending up 17th in the AP poll. Led by Jr Dan Anderson and Sophomores Gus Williams, Clint Chapman and John Lambert, SC would finish 2nd in Conference, and lose in the NIT at Madison Square Garden. The next year the same group would go 24-5, finished 1 game behind UCLA in conference, and would play three rounds in NCIT, losing in the Final to Bob Knight and Indiana, with a core that would go undefeated two year later. In the last year together, Williams Lambert and Chapman were at one point 13-1, but finished the season 5-7. Williams had one of the best seasons at SC ever, averaging 21 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. SC would struggle the next two years, but got going again in 77-78 finishing third in conference. In the 78-79 season, Boyd's last, SC lost at #1 Duke, but beat #7 Kansas at home. They were 9-3 when they faced #6 UCLA at home, and lost by 3. They would finish the season on a six game win streak, 19-8, 2nd in the conference, and finally make Boyd's first NCAA tournament with an at-large bid. They won their first round game against Utah State, but lost in the second round against #8 DePaul. Both games were at Pauley Pavilion, and the UCLA fans booed SC both games.
My pick between Barry and Boyd is Bob Boyd. Taking on a near impossible task, in his 13 years UCLA won the Conference every year, but he finished second in the Conference six times, four times to a NC UCLA team, and third twice. Under the 1975 tournament expansion, that would have been at least 5 tourneys in 13 years, with at least two very high seeds, and under the 1980 expansion at least 7 appearances. Under the same criteria, Barry would have likely had 4 to 6 appearances, and Barry only had young Wooden to deal with, so the Boyd gets the nod.
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