1978: At first Shootout, no one struck gold like Pepperdine’s Ricardo Brown

Originally published on Nov. 25, 2002. 

Memories of the first Great Alaska Shootout in 1978 have lasted longer than the tournament's original name — the Sea Wolf Classic. One of the most vivid is that of Ricardo Brown.

Brown was a junior guard for Pepperdine, a team out of Malibu that was supposed to be out of its depth in a tournament that featured basketball programs like Indiana, Louisville and North Carolina State.

More than anything else, it was the arrival of those teams on the eve of Thanksgiving that made the tournament seem real. Alaskans were slow to recognize that a basketball tournament of this caliber was about to happen here.

Dreamed up and brought to life by former University of Alaska Anchorage basketball coach Bob Rachal and former chancellor John Lindauer (the 1998 "Chicago John" gubernatorial candidate), the tournament's advance ticket sales were slow, even for the small venue of Fort Richardson's Buckner Fieldhouse, which seated about 3,800.

But on that Wednesday, there they were — coaches Bobby Knight of Indiana, Denny Crum of Louisville and Norm Sloan of N.C. State, a little jet-lagged but relaxed enough at an airport press conference to kibbitz with reporters. When Knight got impatient with one of them over a question about polls, it was clear we had the real thing.

Before that, the strongest independent proof that this tournament was actually happening in Anchorage came in agate type in the preseason basketball magazines, in the listing of team schedules: Nov. 24-26, Sea Wolf Classic. There it is, must be real.

Now, here are the coaches. Teams are here, too. Must be real.

There was a lot of speculation before the tournament about the limp sales. Serious basketball fans and recent Alaska arrivals wondered if the rubes in Alaska understood this wasn't chopped liver come to dribble away a weekend. Alaskans countered with their own speculation, that here was a community of doers, not watchers. Given a choice between a good ski trail and a session of watching college hoops, we'll wax and see you later.

There were other musings. One was that the venue, Buckner, was too small and out of the way, but the best we had available. Knight had the answer to that one in an interview. Asked about the facility as he sat there after practice, he shrugged and said "It's a floor," rattled off the court dimensions and dismissed the question.

He was right. Buckner wasn't Madison Square Garden or Pauley Pavilion. But it was arena enough, and a fine stage for some good actors — Lamar Coach Billy Tubbs, who made an art form of his drawl and country-boy bewildered act, Texas A&M's Shelby Metcalf, a self-effacing coach who steered his players to the limelight before himself, local heroes Rob King and Bo Jackson of the Seawolves, who had the pleasure of knocking off Division I Penn State, an achievement tainted only by the sorry state of Penn State, a team that East High probably could have beaten.

And come the championship game, the house was full.

Darrell Griffith of Louisville and Clyde "The Glide" Austin of N.C. State dazzled. The Wolfpack won by six, and walked off with the first Alaska trophy.

But no one struck gold like Ricardo Brown.

About 5 feet, 9 inches of shooting touch and hustle, Brown had the crowd on Pepperdine's side in its opening-night game against Indiana. Pepperdine jumped to a 12-8 lead, but the Hoosiers' height let them dominate the boards and take over the game. They led most of the way, until the Waves fought back in the final four minutes to pull within a point at 58-57.

Indiana had the ball with 35 seconds left, but turned it over. And Brown capped a night of all-out sweat with a 22-foot jumper. The Hoosiers couldn't find an answer in the last seven seconds, and Pepperdine's players went wild: 59-58.

How much of an upset was it? "Hell, I'd have been proud to come out of there with a 12-point loss," Pepperdine coach Gary Colson said. "This is strange standing here … Knight's my idol."

Colson wasn't alone on his cloud. Near the end of Friday night's final game, Pepperdine's players sat together on the bleacher seats near courtside, watching the last action. That team seemed to glow. Brown grinned when a reporter asked him about the winning shot.

"It felt right," he said.

His teammates around him, fresh out of a shower and serene with victory, Ricardo Brown was living those lovely minutes remembered forever. N.C. State would bring Brown and his mates back to earth tomorrow. But this night was his, and he knew it. It's a feeling everyone should have at least once.

It's out there to be had again this week.

Opinion pages editor Frank Gerjevic covered the first Shootout for the Anchorage Daily News. This story was first published on Nov. 25, 2002.