Sports74 Gold: Hockey Early in '74-75

This retrospective, which mainly covers what happened in the '74 calendar year, is the penultimate entry in Sports74 Gold. How time flies.

After leaving Canada with a win, a loss, and two ties, the Soviet Union's national team defeats a team of WHA all-stars in three out of four games in Moscow; the other game is a tie. The squad that represents Canada includes all three Howes (of the Houston Aeros), Winnipeg Jets player-coach Bobby Hull, and '72 Summit Series hero Paul Henderson (a new arrival on the Toronto Toros). Hull scores nine points against the Soviets and Gordie Howe gets seven.

On the way to Moscow, the WHA stars defeat Finland in Helsinki and Sweden in Gothenburg. On the way home, they lose to Czechoslovakia in Prague.

In the NHL, this season is the debut of the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals. With this expansion, the league is realigned into the Wales Conference and the Campbell Conference, each of which has two divisions.

Franchises in Denver and Seattle are planned for the NHL in 1976-77, but for several reasons, neither one will materialize.

The Northlands Coliseum opens, and it will be the home of the WHA's (later NHL's) Edmonton Oilers for over 40 years.

The New England Whalers play games in West Springfield, Mass. -- where they had played their '74 playoff games -- for the season up to and including Jan. 4, 1975. They play their first game at the Hartford Civic Center on Jan. 11, 1975. Except for some time in the late '70s, the Whalers will keep calling Hartford home until 1997.

The WHA's third season is the first for which plus-minus figures are available. The best in that figure is Bobby Hull with 55. The worst, with negative 63, is defenseman Paul Curtis of the team that starts the season as the Michigan Stags and finishes as the Baltimore Blades.

Ken Dryden is back on the Montreal Canadiens. After a year of absence, he has the third-best GAA in the NHL (2.69). He led the league in '72-73 with 2.26.

Speaking of the Habs, they begin a streak of 23 road games without a loss Nov. 27.

Guy Lafleur of Montreal has his breakout season with 53 goals and 66 assists.

Gordie Howe's 99 points bring him to 2,008 combined for NHL and WHA games.

Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins scores his 500th goal Dec. 22 in his 803rd career game, played at the Boston Garden against the Detroit Red Wings. He is the sixth player in league history to reach the 500 mark.

Esposito and Bobby Orr play what proves to be their last season together and Orr's last season before his premature decline.

Also in Boston, Don Cherry is brought in to start a six-year run as head coach.

The playoffs that follow this NHL season will be different from how they had been in the last four years. From 1971 to 1974, East and West teams met in the semifinals. Now, the four division winners get byes and the second- and third-place teams play in the preliminaries, with matchups determined by points regardless of division or even conference.

In the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft, the Buffalo Sabres use their eleventh-round pick on made-up Japanese player Taro Tsujimoto. Among the real players drafted this year are two future Hall of Famers, both New York Islanders selections: Clark Gillies of the WCHL's Regina Pats and Bryan Trottier of the Western Canada League's Swift Current Broncos (who play in Lethbridge, Alberta, for 12 years starting in the coming season).

The Toronto Maple Leafs draft the Broncos' Dave "Tiger" Williams, who had 854 penalty minutes in 204 games with Swift Current, but also 108 goals and 133 assists. In '74-75, he has 202 penalty minutes in 39 games with the Central League's Oklahoma City Blazers and 187 in 42 games with the Leafs.

With the first pick, the Capitals select Greg Joly of the Pats. The second pick belongs to the Scouts, and they choose Wilf Paiement of the OHA's St. Catharines Black Hawks.

In the WHA, the Minnesota Fighting Saints acquire the players who will be made famous in the 1977 movie Slap Shot. They select Dave Hanson of the Midwest Junior Hockey League's St. Paul Vulcans in the '74 draft. From the USHL's Marquette Iron Rangers, the Saints draft two of the Carlson brothers (Jack Carlson and Steve Carlson) and sign the third, Jeff Carlson.

All told, there are eight different drafts for the two leagues in 1974. To wit:

·     In addition to the aforementioned, the NHL amateur draft involves the California Golden Seals selecting Joly's teammate Rick Hampton with the third overall pick.

·     The WHA amateur draft brings Real Cloutier of the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts to the Quebec Nordiques.

·     A secret amateur draft results in Cam Connor of the WCHL's Flin Flon Bombers going to the Phoenix Roadrunners.

·     That new franchise is one of two teams with picks to make in the WHA expansion draft; the Indianapolis Racers get Bob Fitchner from the Oilers.

·     The NHL also has an expansion draft, whose most important picks might be Seals left winger Gary Croteau for the Scouts and Pittsburgh Penguins blueliner Yvon Labre for the Capitals.

·     The expansion teams also take part in an interleague draft, each one choosing a player from the Hershey Bears of the American League. The Caps take Jim Hrycuik (who scores the team's very first goal Oct. 9), and the Scouts pick Hugh Harvey.

·     In the reverse draft, the AHL's Nova Scotia Voyageurs get Al Hangsleben back from their parent club, the Canadiens, but he plays the season with the Whalers and their NAHL affiliate, the Cape Codders.

·     Finally, there's the NHL's intraleague draft, in which the New York Rangers claim Walt McKechnie of the Golden Seals as compensation for losing Seals pick Jeff Neilson, only to immediately send McKechnie to the Bruins in what appears to be a pre-arranged, three-team trade.

Soviet defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov plays a single game this season that begins a distinguished 15-year run with CSKA Moscow.

The finale for Sports74 Gold involves front office problems, free throw problems, and a moment that caused problems for some fans in Vermont. Pro and college roundball will round out the series Oct. 18.

[EDITS 4:58-5:03 a.m: Making it look better on mobile devices.]

[EDIT 5:21-23 a.m.: Moving the entire post to a new URL. The title was wrong as originally posted at 4:28.]

[EDIT 5:24-25 a.m.: Taking out an extra space before potentially going back to bed.]

[EDITS 1:29-34 p.m.: It didn't turn out right, just copying and pasting. Back to the original post. But I'll be changing the title.]

[EDIT after unpublishing by mistake Dec. 16, 2025 10:51-54 a.m.: Removed reference to advertisement placed for '75-76 season.]

Sports74 Gold: College Basketball '73-74

From stars being made to dynasties on the wane, here's the college scene and a little more of amateur hoops.

North Carolina State wins the NCAA tournament. En route to a 76-64 win against Marquette in the championship game, the Wolfpack defeats the powerhouse that is UCLA 80-77 in double overtime. N.C. State's record for the season is 30-1.

The Bruins' loss to the Wolfpack is one of four that season; the first, against Notre Dame Jan. 19, brings their 88-game winning streak to an end. The Fighting Irish, playing at home, overcome an 11-point deficit in the last 3:30 to win 71-70.

The next two are on consecutive nights: Feb. 15 against Oregon and Feb. 16 against Oregon State. The Bruins hadn't practiced on a Sunday before, but there's a first time for everything, and that time is Feb. 17.

Bill Walton wins three of the five outstanding player awards he had swept in '72 and '73 (namely: UPI, U.S. Basketball Writers' Association, and the Naismith Award). At the end of his time at UCLA, his total is 1,370 rebounds. He has 398 in '73-74 and averages 19.3 points per game, but those marks aren't as high as the ones for his sophomore and junior years.

Instead of giving Walton the outstanding player award for a third time, the AP and the Helms Foundation both choose David Thompson of N.C. State. Thompson averages 26.0 points per game this season with 245 rebounds (7.9 per game). He is also the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, with a .514 field goal percentage, a .786 free throw percentage, 17 rebounds, and 49 points in two games. Walton and Thompson tie for the Helms Foundation award according to the '91 Information Please Sports Almanac; Sports-Reference.com says Thompson alone won it.

In fact, Thompson is the runner-up for the AAU's prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, covering all sports.

The consensus All-America team is as follows: Walton, Thompson, Keith Wilkes (later Jamaal Wilkes) of UCLA, John Shumate of Notre Dame, Marvin Barnes of Providence.

Who is the Coach of the Year? UPI says Digger Phelps of Notre Dame, the USBWA and the AP say Norm Sloan of N.C. State, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches says Al McGuire of Marquette. In '75, all of those awards will go to Indiana's Bobby Knight.

Indiana, despite being good enough to be ranked No. 9 in the AP poll, does not make the NCAA tournament, but the Hoosiers do win the end-of-season Collegiate Commissioners' Association tournament, narrowly defeating Tennessee and Toledo before dominating USC in the finals.

Larry Fogle of independent, 14-12 Canisius leads the NCAA with 33.4 points per game, or, by another set of standards, it's William Averitt of 8-18 West Coast Athletic Conference member Pepperdine with 33.9.

Barnes has 597 rebounds in 32 games, the top NCAA mark for that category. He had 571 in 30 games the year before, but finished second on the leaderboard.

The per-game rebound leader, for the second time in a row, is Kermit Washington of American, a 16-10 Middle Atlantic Conference team. His average was 19.8 last season and an even 20.0 this season.

Al Fleming of Arizona finishes the season with a .667 field-goal percentage, tying Kent Martens of Abilene Christian in 1972 and Lew Alcindor of UCLA in 1967, the former two having attempted exactly 204 field goals each and the latter having gone 346-for-519.

Lute Olson, future Iowa and Arizona coach, coaches this year at Long Beach State after a year at Long Beach City College. He takes over for Jerry Tarkanian, who will begin the first of many years at UNLV next season.

Speaking of Long Beach State, the 49ers' home winning streak ends at 75 sometime in '74. Their 94-84 loss to San Francisco ends a run that began in 1968. Another home-court winning streak begins this calendar year: the UNLV Rebels' 72 times defending their home.

Duke leads by eight with 17 seconds left in the March 2 game against hated rival UNC, a much mightier team against which the Blue Devils have put up a fight. The Tar Heels rally back, culminating in a long shot by Mitch Kupchak. Duke goes on to lose in overtime, having fallen apart. Pete Kramer's free throw in the fourth period would have been the difference.

Purdue wins the NIT with a 97-81 win over Utah in the final. The Utes' Mike Sojourner is the tournament MVP.

Morgan State wins the College Division (later known as Division II) title.

Alcorn State, a future NCAA Division I school, loses the NAIA final to West Georgia.

Lloyd Free, later to be known as World B. Free, is an NAIA All-American. The Guilford guard also makes second team AP Little All-America.

This is the first year that freshmen are eligible for varsity teams.

In the school's last year before the shuttering of its doors, Englewood Cliffs College (N.J.) sets a record Jan. 20, losing to Essex County Community College by 143 points. The victorious Wolverines also set a record with their 210 points, with the official scorecard and game ball going to the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Immaculata University wins the AIAW title for the third year in a row in the third edition of the women's tournament.

OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE GAME

Moses Malone leads Petersburg High to a second consecutive state championship in Virginia high school basketball. His 896 points in 25 games (for an average of 35.8) is a single-season total-points record that will stand for 19 years. Malone's career scoring average of 27.2 remains one of the best in state history.

The Soviet Union wins the FIBA championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Yugoslavia finishes second in this tournament, which is the last of the quadrennial world championships with a round-robin to decide the champion instead of a single final game.

From the A's to the whys, division races to drunken rabble, fastballs in California to baring it all in Chicago, stars at play to disputes over pay, it's a deep dive into the American League, coming March 1.

[EDIT 5/2/2024 1:55-1:56 p.m. EDT: It's not "the" UPI. Is it?]

FIBA World Championship

 With FIBA's Basketball World Cup beginning today, here's a look back at how it was in 1974.

Puerto Rico hosted 13 other teams from across the globe. Of these teams that gathered in three Puerto Rican cities, eight advanced to the final round. All teams that won medals finished 6-1, points scored divided by points allowed breaking ties (or so USA Basketball says).

The Soviet Union featured Aleksandr Belov, the man who "scored" the "basket" that "won" the gold medal two years prior. That team's leading scorer in 1974 was a future two-time Olympian, Aleksandr Salnikov, who scored 38 points in the last game July 14. Salnikov made his first international tournament appearance that summer, but Modestas Paulauskas (a Lithuanian) was one of the five players from the 1972 Olympic team, as were Sergei Belov, Aleksandr Boloshev, and Ivan Yedeshko.

Despite a three-point loss to the United States, Yugoslavia (having defeated the Soviets by three) finished second, with a young Drazen Dalipagic making the first of four world championship appearances in his Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame career. One of his teammates was a Croatian named Zeljko Jerkov.

Wouldn't you know it, the USA was undefeated in the tournament until the Stars and Stripes faced the Hammer and Sickle on that second Sunday of July. This was a clear-cut, 11-point loss that put Team USA in third place, even though Yugoslavia's ratio of points scored to points allowed was 1.107 and the USA's was 1.182 (the Soviets led with 1.228).

Guards John Lucas of Maryland and Luther "Ticky" Burden of Utah led the team in scoring for the tournament, and they along with forward Tom Boswell of South Carolina made the all-tournament team according to USA Basketball, but Land of Basketball has it that no Americans did.

Seven U.S. players got called for four fouls or more in the game against the Soviets, including Lucas, Burden, guard Steve Grote of Michigan, and guard Quinn Buckner of Indiana (an Olympian in 1976). Boswell fouled out, as did center Joe Meriweather of Southern Illinois and forward Myron Wilkins of Northwestern Oklahoma A&M Junior College (the team's oldest player).

Rounding out the selection of 12 collegians: forward Gus Gerard of Virginia, center Rich Kelley of Stanford, guard Frank Oleynick of Seattle, forward Rick Schmidt of Illinois (playing for his school's head coach, Gene Bartow), and forward Eugene Short of Jackson State.

EDIT, 3:26 p.m.: For perspective, Team USA finished fifth in 1970 and fifth in 1978, and fourth in both '63 and '67. This was the first U.S. medal in the worlds since 1959 and only one in the '60s or '70s. The Americans medaled at every world championship held in the '50s, '80s, and '90s.

EDIT 8:51 p.m., 10/26/24: Had originally spelled Salnikov's name "Salinkov" in the first reference.

SOURCES
FIBA hub for tournament information
USA Basketball PDF on team history, with 1974 on Page 41
Land of Basketball hub for more on the tournament format, possibly