I was in high school in 1982

Posted on: September 20, 2018 at 18:40:48 CT

My parents took me and one of my friends to the Louisville game. We were staying at a hotel in St. Louis the night before, and I recall listening to a static-filled broadcast of the Nebraska game on a clock radio. Think we were behind the entire game. I recall pacing around the hotel room all night while we listened, then throwing pillows and basically trashing the room when Bridges hit the buzzer beater. I didn’t even drink back then. Pure joy.

The next day, we played a Louisville team that featured seven future NBA players, including Milt Wagner and the McCray brothers. We fell behind early, then Michael Walker (a forgotten name in Mizzou lore) came off the bench and scored something like ten points in the final two minutes of the first half. We blew them away in the second half. Louisville went to the Final Four later that year. We were undefeated and ranked #2 in the nation at the time and would ascend to #1 a couple weeks later. Ended up with an unfortunate NCAA tournament draw and lost to Phi Slamma Jamma when Ricky Frazier scored 29 points but Cavener couldn’t hit free throws down the stretch. One of our greatest seasons.