35th Anniversary of Marquette's '77 Championship

[Norm]

Thank you Al, Hank, Rick, Butch, Bo, Bill, Jim, Craig, Ulice, Gary, Jerome, Jim, Bernard, Robert and Mark for the greatest achievement in Marquette basketball history. You're the standard everyone has been chasing since. Go Warriors!!

[warthog-driver]

Thank you Al, Hank, Rick, Butch, Bo, Bill, Jim, Craig, Ulice, Gary, Jerome, Jim, Bernard, Robert and Mark for the greatest achievement in Marquette basketball history. You're the standard everyone has been chasing since. Go Warriors!!

Wait! According to Chicos the "standard everyone has been chasing" was exemplified when Tanned Tommy bolted to IU

[Sir Lawrence]

35 years ago today.   My freshman year, and I still have sweet memories.  I think 4ever was at the game.    God Bless you Butch Lee.

[Goose]

I was in 8th grade and watched game at my sisters house on 61st and wells. Went to the airport when team arrived back and seems like yesterday. The memories of that era is why I took the events of the last week so seriously. While I think Al was beyond one of a kind, I think Buzz is going to be awfully entertaining to watch in upcoming years.

[brewcity77]

35th anniversary of the day I was 35 days old! Suffice to say, the nets getting cut down with a switchblade is a cloudy memory at best.

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

35 years ago today.   My freshman year, and I still have sweet memories.  I think 4ever was at the game.    God Bless you Butch Lee.

Me too! Watched the game on McCormick's 7th floor lounge.

[dgies9156]

Oh, that's one day I'll never forget. I was a junior on campus and in the rainy streets that night. The 1977 championship had special meaning because I'd been following Marquette basketball since 1966, courtesy of an MU grad father.

We were so close, so many times. From the free throw that was missed in 1969 that would have sent us to the Final Four, to the Ohio State theft in 1971 (where the team later named the referees to their all-opponent team) to losing Jim Chones in what had been a perfect season up to that time to the 1974 double technical in the National Championship game, we were soooooo close so many times.

Oh, and there was that 1976 regional championship game with a great Indiana team.

The sad thing is that we didn't realize how special that night was until years later. I've watched as we struggled so hard to get back there... from the Miami of Ohio debacle the year later to all of the ensuing coaches and players... and you realize how shining a moment that was. We got close in 2003 but you instinctively knew that we weren't a two trick pony and either Kansas or Syracuse was going to kill us -- which they did.

That's why I am so pleased Buzz is here. I'm seeing a lot of what happened in the 1960s over again. Buzz aint Al, but Al wasn't Buzz either.

And, I have a deal with the Lord. He can't take me until Marquette wins it all again.

[MUMac]

I was a senior in High School and looking forward to matriculating at Marquette the next year.  Having been a 3rd generation MU alum, it was in my blood.  I could not believe the win.  I still remember pulling away from Wake Forest to get to the Final 4.  Beating Cornbread Maxwell on Jerome's dunk (kind of). Watching Al outwit Dean when Dean went to the 4 corners. 

After all the disappointments through the years (losing to Indiana in '76, OSU in '71, '74 Championship Game, early departures, winning the NIT and wondering if only ...).  Elation.

The only problem with that team, who would have been the traditional?  Rosey?

[Sir Lawrence]

Loved Marquette's championship game uniforms too.

[tower912]

My parents let me stay up late to watch the game.    I don't know why the 10 year old me was so fascinated by MU, since I lived in Michigan, but my love affair with MU started on the Saturday before with the win over UNCC.    Maybe it was the uniforms.    I don't know.    What I do know is that I was smitten with MU from then on and it took years for me to stop hating everything about UNC. 

[Goose]

I agree with the uniforms Tower. Everything about that program was exciting. MU basketball was the biggest game in town back then and winning NCAA was icing on the cake. I had been to about six tourney games prior to '77 and unfortunately I did not make travel squad for the game.

[Warriors4ever]

I still have that Sports Illustrated.
I was in law school at U of I watching in the grad dorm lobby.  Everyone agreed that the front-row seats went to two of us from Marquette and one who was from Milwaukee.  So wishing I was in Milwaukee that night.  For the Saturday game I was actually at a conference in Madison and had come back to the hotel to watch.  The apartment building next door exploded in cheers (yes, you heard that right) when that game ended.

[Slim]

Loved Marquette's championship game uniforms too.

I think that's Chicos in the balcony sporting the Quinn Buckner Jersey.

[dgies9156]

Somewhere in a box at home, I still have the Milwaukee Sentinel and the Milwaukee Journal from the next day. Yes, they were separate papers then.

Every now and then I take them out when I am nostalgic and when I want to show my children what Marquette was and WILL BE.

Enough musing about the past... lets concentrate on what's coming ahead! Buzz has us in the early stages of the next National Championship run. Hey Buzz, no waiting until you retire, OK!!!!!!

[MrSquido50]

Also a freshman that year and at the game in Atlanta as a member of the band.  Many memories but one that always frosts my chestnuts is after the game I was wearing my "Give em Hell Al" shirt and wound up selling it to some guy on the street for $25 thinking I'll get another one easy.  Nope.  Made all the tourney games that year.  What a ride.  Thanks Al!

[Daniel]

I think that's Chicos in the balcony sporting the Quinn Buckner Jersey.

I had a copy of this Sports Illustrated, and the year before Al passed away, I sent it to him and asked that he autograph it.  He did, and it is one of my cherished possession!

Go Marquette!  Let's do it again!

[Sir Lawrence]

Also a freshman that year and at the game in Atlanta as a member of the band.  Many memories but one that always frosts my chestnuts is after the game I was wearing my "Give em Hell Al" shirt and wound up selling it to some guy on the street for $25 thinking I'll get another one easy.  Nope.  Made all the tourney games that year.  What a ride.  Thanks Al!

$25.00 in 1977 equals $90 or so in 2012.  From a purely financial perspective, I think you did well.  Do recall how the band travelled then?  With the team?

[MrSquido50]

Band traveled with cheerleaders by bus.  Not with team, ever, but often times stayed at same hotel.  Famous cheerleaders that year included Connie/Coco (sp?) and Rondell Sheridan who went on to be a comedian (some say) and a TV sitcom personality.  Actually, as a freshman, I didn't make the cut for the trip down to Atlanta but got tickets through the band and paid my way and drove with 3 other guys down to the Final Four.

[Goose]

Loved Connie/Coco big time...fell in love with her first time I saw her. Will leave it at that!!!

[Hoopaloop]

Thank you Al, Hank, Rick, Butch, Bo, Bill, Jim, Craig, Ulice, Gary, Jerome, Jim, Bernard, Robert and Mark for the greatest achievement in Marquette basketball history. You're the standard everyone has been chasing since. Go Warriors!!

This

[Goose]

Thanks Buffalo Bob and William Guyshecker (sure spelling way off).

[Lennys Tap]

"When I was a boy growing up in northern Michigan, that 1977 Marquette team...or was it the 1979 Michigan State team...no wait, maybe it was the 1976 Indiana team...whatever, I'll never forget it"

[Hoopaloop]

[leever]

Who did you steal that from?  Or did Tan Tommy give it to you when he left?

[Skatastrophy]

Who did you steal that from?  Or did Tan Tommy give it to you when he left?

I saw a few that had popped up on ebay recently.