March Madness Memories: Loyola vs. Illinois, 1963

Sunday’s highly anticipated contest between Illinois and Loyola will be only the third game in the history of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament to feature a pair of Illinois schools. The first was a regional final game between the same two teams on March 16, 1963, in East Lansing, Michigan.  

    

The game took place less than 24 hours after Loyola’s physically and emotionally draining 61-51 victory over Mississippi State, an all-white team whose coach and players had defied the established conventions of their home state by agreeing to play the integrated Ramblers. (We will have more about that in a future article.)

     The Illini had arrived by defeating Bowling Green, thus denying Loyola a chance to avenge one of its two regular-season losses. They were 20-5, co-champions of the Big Ten, and ranked eighth nationally. But they were no match for the Ramblers, whose swarming full-court press forced a succession of Illini turnovers and turned the game into a blowout shortly after halftime. 

     Loyola led 40-34 two minutes into the second half. Only three minutes later, the score was 53-34, and the rout was on. Loyola piled up a 28-point lead late in the second half and coasted to the finish. The final score was 79-64. In a sensational performance, small forward Jerry Harkness scored 33 points. Power forward Vic Rouse grabbed 19 rebounds and center Les Hunter 15 as the Ramblers out-rebounded Illinois 57-35. “Loyola is the greatest offensive rebounding team I’ve ever seen,” said the venerable Illini coach Harry Combes.

     As usual, Loyola coach George Ireland made very sparing use of his bench. Four starters (Harkness, Rouse, Hunter, and guard Ron Miller) played the whole game, while guard John Egan went all the way until Chuck Wood replaced him in the final minute. 

     Forward Dave Downey led the Illini with 20 points. Exactly one month earlier, he had dropped 53 on Indiana for a single-game school record that still stands.

     The No. 3-ranked Ramblers defeated No. 2 Duke and the two-time defending champions, No. 1 Cincinnati, in their next two games to win the national championship. 

 

P.S.: The only other Division I Men’s NCAA tournament game (so far) between Illinois schools was DePaul’s 75-61 victory over Illinois State in a second-round game on March 18, 1984.

 

 

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