3/26/2012

March Madness

On this day in 1979, the most-watched NCAA Men's Basketball Championship was played between Magic Johnson's Michigan State University and Larry Bird's Indiana State.  They met for the first time the previous summer during the 1978 World Invitational Tournament for Team USA, throwing no look passes at each other.  So while they were certainly aware of each other, this was the first time they'd face each other as opponents.  Magic had a great season, landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated and leading the Spartans to a 26-6 record.  Bird had an even better year, taking the Sycamores to their first ever NCAA tournament sporting a perfect 33-0 record.  This was before the days of ESPN (although they would go live later in the year), accordingly not many fans had seen Indiana State, who lived in the shadow of Indiana and Purdue.  So few people had seen Bird play prior to the championship that some were surprised he was white.  It's difficult to imagine today that a team would get that far in the season with so little known about them.

The game itself wasn't the best ever.  MSU focused their defense on Bird, holding him to a meager 7-21 from the floor, and won 75-64.  Magic may have won the title, but Bird won the awards, snagging both the Wooden and Naismith Player of the Year trophies.  But this was the start of something big.  College hoops would never be the same.  Consider the explosive revenue growth alone:  in '79, NBC paid $5.2 million for the broadcast rights to the game;  by 1982, CBS outbid them and paid $48MM and by 1985, it would go up to $96MM.  Interestingly, though, this game remains the gold standard for viewership.  More than 35 percent of all TV sets were tuned into Magic and Bird.  That record still stands.

This game began a classic rivalry of truly fierce competitors who ultimately became the closest of friends.  (When Magic announced he had AIDS in 1991, the first call he took was from Larry Bird.)  Many sports pundits credit their play for reviving the NBA in the 80s and making the month of March as mad as it is.  These two men are rightly recognized as pillars of the game and are still celebrated today...  on Broadway, even

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