Galesburg vs Richwoods 1976- I Finally Watched It

Yesterday I had a journey through basketball history. In the morning, I had a chance to watch the video of the Galesburg vs Richwoods game for the first time. Then in the afternoon I went and watched Tulsa University men’s basketball practice. After watching both, I was totally struck about the changes that have taken place in the game of basketball in the last fifty years. Some changes are the result of rules changes, skill developments, and community interests.

Obviously in the Galesburg vs Richwoods game, there was a fantastic basketball atmosphere. Today, even for a “big HS game” like this one, the two teams would come out and they would both warmup to “bad teen music” with lyrics you couldn’t understand and wouldn’t want to understand. The cheerleaders stand in a corner talking to each other. The serious fans chat about how they think their coach will screw things up. And unfortunately, even for a “big game” only about 100 students will show up. 

On the night in 1976, the players came out to warm up, and both the cheerleaders and the fans were “warming up” as well. There was not music playing, instead each set of cheerleaders had their fans organized in chants- “We ARE Galesburg,” “Galesburg- Silver Streaks,” “Let’s Go Streak.” It may sound stupid but the tradition then was that everyone in the gym was there to have an active role. Twenty minutes of the tip-off, and for solid 20 minutes- the crowd was chanting and trying to out chant the other school. The message to the players was,”We are here, and we are going to be involved.” 

When we first went to State in girls basketball, that was the atmosphere in the early years. By the 2000’s, our team and the other team pretty much warmed up to silence from the crowds. 

The bench areas were in the bleachers, not on seats out on the floor. Back then each team could only dress either 10 or 12 players. That created a nightmare for the coach to have to tell someone who had dressed all year that they were no longer dressing. The bench area was nearly to half-court to accommodate the aisle. With Galesburg fans on the bench side, there were Galesburg fans in row behind Richwoods players and sitting right next to them. 

The bleachers went right up next to the floor, and there were very few aisles. As a result there were many more people and they were right on top of the floor. When the teams took a time out, they did not go sit on their bench, they went out onto the floor. 

There were only two officials. The film is blurry enough that is tough to objectively evaluate their job. There were two situations where the announcers pointed out that an official made a call while out of position. One was on a jump ball where there was a quick steal, and another was when the trail official called a foul inside. My reaction watching the game was what I have always felt- two man crews call a more consistent game. There are only two, so they are apt to be on the same page on to call the game. Whereas with three man crews there are too many times where as a coach you go,”Oh crap, so and so is under our basket, they won’t call anything.” The observation was that the two refs were much quicker in administrating jump ball, out of bounds plays, and free throws than refs today. It made it a faster game.

If people talk about the good old days when kids just played and didn’t bitch about calls- they were not talking about this game. I am biased but there were a couple Richwoods players who seemed to debate every single call. 

Home teams (Richwoods with higher seed) wore even numbered jerseys, and away team work odd numbered jerseys. 

What is the record for most three second violations in a game? They called more violations on this night than I have seen called in the last ten years. Sorry Richwoods, most were on you.

There was no coaching box at the time. Several times both coaches talking to refs were across the half-court line. The one technical called resulted in only one free throw. That had to make it more likely the refs would call technicals.

Alternate possession did not exist. Not only did a tie up result in a jump but each quarter began with a jump ball. I realize that is what I see when I watch an NBA game, but it really seemed weird. My guess is that both Richwoods and Galesburg throughout the year each got as many as 4 more possessions per game. 

There was no double bonus at this time where on the 10th foul teams shot 2 foul shots. After the 7th foul it was always one plus one. In one or both halves, teams got into the bonus in the first and in the third quarters. There were a lot of free throws shot. I realize it is tough to second guess calls based on the video quality but it seemed that anytime someone was close to a shooter- it was a foul. And with the penalty being 1+1, teams seemed to almost want to foul late in the game. Very few times did a shooter come away making both- many times they missed the first ft. It was as if both teams recognized fouling in the fourth quarter was really a decent strategy because it was only a 1+1. 

The solution to the difficulty in deciding whether a foul was a block or charge was solved by the rules and by refs in this era. At least twice in the game, a player drove to the basket, scored but was called for charging. The player was still credited with two points. And there certainly was no charge circle. On one drive, Galesburg drew a charge and it looked like the defender was almost out of bounds to draw the charge.

The mid-range two was alive and well in 1976 with no three point arc. By my estimate, if you throw out end of quarter heaves, Richwoods took no three point shots and Galesburg may have take 2 three point shots.  Unless posts made a quick move, they were double teamed because the guard defenders didn’t have to worry about the threes. At 70 years old, even I could double team a post if my person was only 17 feet from the basket. And because fewer long shots were taken, there were fewer long rebounds. The combination of fewer long rebounds and two teams with big rebounders, resulted in very few offensive rebounds.

Both teams created problems for the other team with their presses. Galesburg stuck with mm pressure almost the entire game. Richwoods started 2-2-1 but seemed to get out of it after Wilder threw long vs the pressure to Campbell or Kelley who got open 15 footers then. Probably the most effective press by either team was Richwood’s 1-2-1-1 with an immediate trap, but they only used it after FT’s and late in desperation.

All four post players showed an uncanny ability to score with their back to the basket, even though they were guarded by another equally big defender. The difference was that Campbell and Kelley could score from 15-17 feet and the Richwood’s defenders were not anxious to come out on that play.

When Mike Campbell fouled out, the description of Campbell and Mike Owens hugging seems such a fitting call by the announcers. Campbell as a player, and Owens as coach had over the three years weathered ups and downs in the post-Thiel era. Whether either of them thought about that as they embraced- it seemed like they were showing each other mutual respect and recognition of what they had gone through to get to this tremendous high!

Shaka Smart has his managers chart EGB’s- Energy Giving Behaviors. Scott Kelley was general a quiet, unassuming, modest student and player. I was impressed the number of different times in deadball situations- free throws, time outs, ob’s- that Scott exhibited an EGB. He went up to different players and gave them a pat on the back or wrapped arm around a play. That stuck out to me. (But he did need to work on his fist pump celebrations- not impressive, Scott!)

Interesting that this was an era where the visiting team picked out which basket they wanted to start the game going to. As a result in first half, Galesburg came to their bench on offense. In the second half, Galesburg went away from their bench. The NBA does this but in college and HS it is the opposite today.

On this night, Carl Finley was the master of the mid-range 2 pointer. If they let him get one dribble going right (and they did), he did not miss. Mike Wilder could not make a shot, in the first quarter his passes vs the press were the difference. Rance Berry would be great in today’s game of dribble drive- his ability to get to the basket and to finish was incredible. Finley and Berry were incredible on this night of poking a ball away from Richwoods and getting it out on a break. 

It was VERY impressive to see a HS player sit the entire first three quarters and come into the fourth quarter and appear to be so calm and composed as Eric Doss was when he came in. It was obvious that Richwoods wanted to go after him with pressure but he did not rattle (minus on the one inbound). He handled the pressure and moved the ball. If I did my blog over, the one question would be whether he intended to bank the one shot or not?!?

The celebration was absolutely awesome. All the Galesburg students appeared to be on the north side and it appeared they were on the main floor. I am betting the old guard season ticket holders were not happy to be stuck in the balcony if this was true. The student rush of the floor was very impressive in how fast they got down to the floor and how many of them got onto the floor.

This was a game that any HS player would have dreamed of being good enough to have played in. And any fans in America would have loved to have had a team like the ‘76 Streaks to have rooted for. Sadly, some Streaks fans struggled with the changes that had occurred during the 1970’s. To quote Norman Dale,”I would hope you support who we are, not who we are not.”

So after almost 50 years, I can now say that I saw the Galesburg vs Richwoods game. It was exciting to watch the TV version, but it was not as exciting as listening to WGIL on top of the overpath at Brimfield as Jim Wyman and Jimmie Carr described the ending.