Hail to John MacLeod
Did you see our story in today’s paper on Clifford Ray, the old Oklahoma center who played in the NBA in the 1970s and now is an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics? Very interesting update on big Cliff.
And think about this. In the 1976 Western Conference Finals, Golden State played Phoenix in a great seven-game series. The Suns won, then went on to play the Celtics in a classic six-game series won by Boston. But in that Warrior-Sun series, three former Sooners played huge roles. Ray for Golden State, Garfield Heard and Alvan Adams for Phoenix.
That’s a wonderful collection of talent recruited by John MacLeod, who rarely gets the credit he deserves. MacLeod never made an NCAA Tournament in his six years as OU’s coach, but those were the days when only one team from a conference qualified. Put those MacLeod teams in today’s environment, and not only would the Sooners have qualified, they would have made a deep run or two in the tournament.
Think also about this. Kelvin Sampson coached 12 years for the Sooners and did an excellent job. But he placed just ONE player in the NBA, Eduardo Najera. Billy Tubbs coached 14 years at OU and put eight players in the NBA, including some stars. Mookie Blaylock and Wayman Tisdale.
But the shining moment of OU basketball’s contribution to the NBA were those 1976 Western Conference Finals.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Great article and thanks for reminding me finally how to spell John’s name. You have to go back 40 plus years, IMHO, to trace the entire development of OU basketball to the Top 25 program it is today (and yes, rated ahead of OSU by a notch or two).
I remember MacLeod coming into the Purcell locker room after a game to recruit Mike McCurdy and someone having to tell the great Boney Matthews who the hell it was that had the nerve to enter his sanctuary.
But MacLeod was smooth as silk and showed Boney the respect necessary. Mike took an OU football scholarship but the groundwork was laid for his later switch to starting guard for the Sooners.
Our Purcell gang at OU never missed a game at the old fireld house and then were rewarded with the chance to watch the incomparable Alvan Adams. Those were very good OU teams. Not Kansas good yet, but very good. And I say they laid the groundwork for Bliss, Tubbs and Sampson to later build OU into a respected Top 25 program despite the football rep.
Every year but one or two since OU hired MacLeod was OU coached by this impressive list of MacLeod, Bliss, Tubbs, Sampson and Capel. The sky is the limit for Capel thanks to those gents and their recruits,
Thanks again for the memories.
Way to pass on the Jarboe incident, why should we be suprised, it was only a stolen loaded gun, a loaded stolen gun, a loaded stolen gun,……..