Dec. 17, 2004

By Jeff Faraudo, Oakland Tribune

It wasn't during USF's 60-game basketball win streak, which began 50 years ago today, that K.C. Jones realized he and his teammates were poised to make history.

It was six days earlier that they saw what was possible. Six days earlier, during a defeat.

"We were playing UCLA and the night before they beat Santa Clara (74-39). We were a little afraid going in there," Jones recalled. "We thought they'd beat us by 20, maybe 25."

Instead, the Bruins managed just a 47-40 win over Jones, Bill Russell and Co., in Los Angeles, providing the Dons with unexpected confidence.

"It gave us a whole new outlook," Jones said. "We played them at our place the next week, and we knew we could win."

USF had another game to play first -- beating Oregon State 60-34 on Dec. 17, 1954, to begin a streak that would bury college basketball's existing record, net back-to-back NCAA championships and extend into the start of the 1956-57 season.

The rematch with UCLA was next, and the Dons were ready, despite the fact Russell suffered the night before from a cold. The 5-0 Bruins were no match for San Francisco, which led 54-29 with five minutes left and got 28 points from Russell in a 56-44 victory before 4,616 fans at the Cow Palace.

USF didn't lose again for two seasons, eclipsing the record of 44 consecutive wins set by Texas from 1913 through 1917. The Longhorns included wins by comic-book scores of 102-1, 70-7 and 80-7 in their streak, but the competition featured an assortment of high school, junior college and YMCA squads, in addition to collegiate foes.

The Dons' streak, unchallenged until UCLA ran off 88 straight victories from 1971 through'74, remains the second-longest in college basketball history. Not only did USF face the best the college game had to offer, but the Dons also revolutionized the sport.

Coached by the late Phil Woolpert, the Dons attacked opponents with the full-court, pressure defense, a tactic rarely used to that point.

"Later on, John Wooden took that press, changed it a little bit, andthat's when he became successful," said Mike Farmer, a sophomore on USF's second championship team, alluding to the 10 national titles Wooden won at UCLA in the 1960s and'70s.

It worked, of course, because the 6-foot-9 Russell was an inpenetrable last line of defense.

"Bill was a pioneer," said Paul Valenti, 84, an assistant coach for Oregon State at the time and later the Beavers' head coach. "He was big and quick, and he had a great instinct for taking care of everything around that bucket.

"They'd drive (the ballhandler) into Bill, and if you tried to shoot, he'd slap it back into your face or into the third row. But it wasn't just Bill Russell. He had some good people with him."

Jones became an All-America guard as a senior, as did Farmer in '58, two years after the second national championship season. Hal Perry was dynamite as Jones' backcourt mate, and Woolpert called Jerry Mullen the best all-around forward in the country in 1955.

When the '54-55 season began, the Dons were little-known nationally. They posted a forgettable 14-7 record the year before, finishing second to Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference. Even Russell, who averaged 19.2 points and 19.2 rebounds as a sophomore, was largely a non-entity elsewhere in the country.

"They started out the season, and no one had ever heard of him," said Burdette Haldorson, star of the Colorado team that faced USF in the Final Four. "Then they went back East and started wiping teams out. We became very aware of San Francisco."

The Dons won the All-America Tournament in Oklahoma City -- a major in-season event at the time -- and didn't have a game closer than 10 points in WCC play. They moved to No.1 in the national polls in January after a loss by Kentucky.

USF overcame all obstacles to win the 1955 NCAA Tournament. Russell scored 29 points in 29 minutes, and USF beat West Texas State by 23 in the opener at Corvillis, Ore. Then Mullen scored 24 points, and the Dons beat Utah by 19, even as Russell was ordered to the sideline at halftime because of a nasal infection.

Russell was spitting blood, according to an Oregon doctor who checked him during the Utah game, and he had to be cleared the next morning to face Oregon State in the regional final.

The Beavers were a much greater threat than three months before, armed with 7-foot-3 center Swede Halbrook, ineligible when the clubs met at the outset of the streak.

Mullen badly sprained his ankle in the opening minute -- he was hobbled the rest of the tournament -- and Halbrook helped keep the Beavers close, logging 18 points and 10 rebounds. But Russell had 29 points and 16 rebounds, and the Dons advanced to the Final Four with a 57-56 win when Ron Robins missed a shot in the final moments.

Colorado stood in USF's way of a title-game showdown with defending NCAA champion La Salle and its superstar player, Tom Gola. Haldorson, Colorado's standout center, remembers his team being somewhat in awe of Russell and the Dons.

"You were afraid almost. You're thinking, 'I wonder if he can block my hook shot?'" said Haldorson, who was matched against Russell. "Before the game, to be honest with you, Bill was not that imposing, looming figure like he played. I guess I expected to see someone 10 feet tall. He looked kind of like me."

Then the game started. Russell scored 24 points, Haldorson managed just nine before fouling out with 14 minutes left, and USF rolled into the championship game with a 62-50 win.

"Russell was a very astute basketball player," said Haldorson, later Russell's teammate on the 1956 Olympic team. "He anticipated so well and got off the floor so fast."

The final challenge was La Salle, and 6-foot-6 Gola, who had averaged 28.5 points in the Explorers' run to the 1954 NCAA title. Woolpert surprised La Salle by assigning Jones, 6-1 and quick, to defend Gola. Jones outscored him 24-16, and Russell contributed 23 points and 25 rebounds to a 77-63 victory.

A year later, USF rampaged through the regular season, threatened only by Marquette in a 65-58 victory and Cal, which tried stalling but lost 33-24.

Before the NCAAs started, with the winning streak at 51, Russell told reporters, "We've been playing mighty sweet music for a long time, and I don't see any reason for it to get sour now."

It didn't. The Dons beat four opponents by double digits, with four USF players scoring in double figures each game. Russell closed his college career by collecting 26 points and 27 rebounds in an 81-71 win over Iowa.

USF won five more games to open the 1956-57 season, pushing the streak to 60 games before Illinois emphatically ended it with a 62-33 victory.

Farmer, 68, still a part-time teacher at USF, believes he played for a team that could compete with the best in any era.

"We were pretty fast, we were a really good defensive team, and we could score," Farmer said. "And I would take Russell over any 7-footer."