Name-dropping, NCAA Tournament style

By Mike Douchant
CBS SportsLine/College Sports Xchange
March 4, 1998

Basketball players -- so goes the axiom -- are the most versatile team sport athletes in the world.

What other sport demands such an abundance of speed, strength, stamina, coordination, quickness, jumping ability, teamwork, timing, guile and creativity?

And
Brad Johnson
Before becoming an NFL quarterback, Brad Johnson spent some time as a long-range bomber for the Florida State basketball team. (Allsport)
when it comes to basketball name-dropping, you'd be surprised at famous athletes who played in the NCAA Tournament before distinguishing themselves in various vocations off the hardwood:

  • Brad Johnson, a quarterback who received a four-year, $15 million contract from the Minnesota Vikings upon directing them to the 1996 NFL playoffs, was a part-time starting forward as a freshman for Florida State's 1988 NCAA Tournament team. He hit all three of his 3-point field-goal attempts in a 102-98 opening-round loss to Iowa in the '88 playoffs before playing sparingly the next year for a Seminoles squad that was upset in the first round by Middle Tennessee State.

  • Terry Kirby, Virginia's career rushing leader, was scoreless in two 1990 NCAA Tournament games with the Cavaliers' basketball squad before becoming a starting running back for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers.

  • Kenny Lofton, a substitute guard and integral part of Arizona's 1988 Final Four team, led the majors with 70 stolen bases in 1993 as an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians. In 1992, he led the American League in stolen bases with 66, a record for an A.L. rookie. Lofton, who appeared in the 1995 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, subsequently played for the Braves before returning to the Indians.

  • CBS analyst Billy Packer was the second-leading scorer for Wake Forest's only Final Four squad (1962). After earning a spot on the All-East Regional team, Packer scored a total of 39 points in two Final Four games for the national third-place Demon Deacons to finish the season with a 14.1-point scoring average. The previous year, the All-ACC first-team selection scored a total of just 16 points in three NCAA Tournament games by shooting 6 of 24 from the floor. He hit just 1 of 10 field-goal attempts in a 97-74 victory over St. John's in the first round of the East Regional, but Wake Forest still became the only team to ever trail by as many as 10 points at halftime of a tournament game (46-36) and then win the contest by more than 20. Packer had been averaging 18.5 points per game after earning a spot on the All-ACC Tournament first team.

  • Joe Kapp, a member of the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame who played 12 years as a pro football quarterback from 1959-70, participated in the 1957 and 1958 NCAA Tournament with California. Kapp, a 6-3 backup forward, was scoreless in three games for the Bears. College teammate Earl Robinson, who went on to hit .268 in four seasons from 1958 through 1964 as an outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles, averaged 15.5 points per game in the NCAA Tournament, leading the Bears in scoring in two of four playoff contests.

  • Dave Winfield, an outfielder who hit .285 in 20 seasons (1973-88, 1990-93) with five different major league franchises, was a starter for Minnesota's first NCAA Tournament team in 1972. Winfield, a 12-time All-Star Game player, reached the 3,000-hit mark during the 1993 season.

  • Sam Clancy, Pittsburgh's all-time leading rebounder when his basketball career ended in 1981, specialized as a pass rusher in an 11-year pro football career in the USFL and NFL. He appeared in two AFC championship games with the Cleveland Browns after playing in two NCAA Tournament games for the Panthers in the 1981 West Regional (22 points and game-high 13 rebounds in 70-69 overtime victory against Idaho and 16 points, six rebounds and game-high five steals in 74-57 defeat against national runnerup-to-be North Carolina).

  • Reggie Rogers, an All-American defensive tackle and NFL first-round draft choice of the Detroit Lions, played in a total of four West Regional NCAA Tournament games for Washington in 1984 and 1985. The 6-6, 260-pounder hit four of five field-goal attempts in the Huskies' 80-78 second-round victory over Duke in 1984 in Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski's first NCAA playoff game.

  • John Dick, who retired with the rank of Admiral after 32 years of service in the U.S. Navy, was a junior forward in 1939 for the first NCAA Tournament champion (Oregon). He led the Ducks in scoring over three playoff games, including a game-high 15 points in the final against Ohio State. Dick commanded the aircraft carrier Saratoga for two years and served as chief of staff for all carrier forces in the Western Pacific.

  • Dr. Denton Cooley, a world famous heart surgeon who has performed about 20,000 open-heart operations, saw action in both of Texas' games in the inaugural NCAA Tournament in 1939 after the Longhorns captured the Southwest Conference championship.

  • Dick Baker, managing partner and CEO of major accounting firm Ernst and Ernst from 1964-76, was Ohio State's second-leading scorer as a starting senior forward for a team that finished runner-up to Oregon in the first NCAA Tournament in 1939. Baker, who scored a game-high 25 points for the Buckeyes in their tourney opener (64-52 victory over Wake Forest), became a member of the Accounting Hall of Fame and served on the boards of directors of such firms as General Electric, Anheuser-Busch and Hershey Foods.

  • Longtime network broadcaster Curt Gowdy played in the 1941 NCAA Tournament for Wyoming. He was scoreless in two West Regional defeats (against Arkansas in regional semifinal and Creighton in regional third-place game).

  • Howard (Red) Hickey, a first-team All-Southwest Conference forward for Arkansas' 1941 Final Four team, was an efficient enough tackle in football to earn a spot on the Razorbacks' all-decade team. Hickey, a lineman for six seasons in the NFL with two different franchises from 1941 through 1948, was a member of the 1945 champion Cleveland Rams. He coached the San Francisco 49ers for five years from 1959 through 1963, compiling a 27-27-1 record.
    Kenny Lofton
    Before stealing bases in the major leagues, Kenny Lofton was a substitute guard for Arizona's basketball team. (Allsport)

  • Washington State forward-center Dale Gentry averaged 5.3 points per game for the 1941 NCAA Tournament runner-up. He was an end who played in the annual East-West Shrine Game. Following his discharge from the Navy, Gentry played three seasons with the Los Angeles Dons (1946 through 1948). He caught 74 passes for 1,001 yards and five touchdowns, earning All-Pro second-team honors his first two years.

  • Longtime prominent Kansas City bank official Ray Evans was the second-leading scorer for Kansas in two 1942 NCAA Tournament games. Evans, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, earned All-America honors in football the same calendar year he led the nation's major-college players in passes attempted (200) and completed (101).

  • Sam Mele, an outfielder with six different major league teams from 1947-56 and manager of the Minnesota Twins from 1961-67, was NYU's leading scorer with a total of 18 points in the 1943 NCAA Tournament (losses against Georgetown and Dartmouth). Mele led the American League with 36 doubles for the Washington Senators in 1951 and drove in six runs in one inning in a 1952 game for the Chicago White Sox. He managed the Twins in 1965 when they won the A.L. title. NYU teammate John Simmons, a starting guard for the Violets, played outfield with the Washington Senators in 1949.

  • John (Mo) Monahan, a football All-American at Dartmouth as a defensive end, was in the regular rotation for the school's basketball team that lost in the 1944 NCAA championship game to Utah. Monahan averaged five points per game for Dartmouth's undefeated EIBL champion.

  • Dick Wilkins, who scored a game-high 23 points for Oregon in a 79-76 loss to Arkansas in a 1945 West Regional semifinal, played several years of professional football as a wide receiver after being the top pass catcher with the Ducks for quarterback Norm Van Brocklin during their Cotton Bowl season in 1948.

  • Mel McGaha, the first player in Arkansas history to earn four letters in basketball and a sophomore backup guard for the Razorbacks' 1945 Final Four team, was manager of the Cleveland Indians (1962) and Kansas City Athletics (June 11, 1964-May 14, 1965). McGaha didn't play in two tourney games in 1945, but he was a swingman in 51 games in the 1948-49 season for the New York Knickerbockers of the Basketball Association of America.

  • Pete Elliott, the executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was a second-team pick on the Helms All-American team in 1947-48 when he scored a team-high 15 points in Michigan's first NCAA Tournament victory, a 66-49 decision over Columbia in the Eastern Regional third-place game. Elliott earned All-American honors as a quarterback for the Wolverines' 1948 national champion. He later became head football coach at Nebraska (1956), California (1957-59) and Illinois (1960-66), leading Cal and the Illini to Rose Bowl berths.

  • Sammy White, a catcher who hit .262 in 11 seasons with the Boston Red Sox (1951-59), Milwaukee Braves (1961) and Philadelphia Phillies (1962), was a 6-3, 195-pound forward for Washington. The two-time All-Pacific Coast Conference Northern Division team selection was the Huskies' second-leading scorer in two 1948 NCAA Tournament games.

  • Billy Wilson, a six-time Pro Bowl selection split end who caught 407 passes for 5,902 yards in 10 seasons (1951-60) with the San Francisco 49ers, collected two points and seven rebounds for San Jose State in a 68-61 opening-round loss to Brigham Young in the 1951 NCAA Tournament.

  • High jumper extraordinaire Walter (Buddy) Davis was a first five selection on the All-Southwest Conference team in 1951 when he helped Texas A&M make its first NCAA Tournament appearance (62-40 first-round defeat against Washington). Davis, the gold medal winner in the 1952 Olympic Games high jump with a leap of 6'-8 1/2", won AAU high jump titles in 1952 and 1953 and set the then world high jump record of 6'-11 1/2" in 1953.

  • Dave Sisler, the son of Hall of Fame first baseman George Sisler and pitcher for four major league teams from 1956-62, was a 6-5, 190-pound starting forward for Princeton's first NCAA Tournament basketball team in 1952. As a sophomore the previous year, he compiled a 7-1 pitching record for the only Tigers baseball squad to participate in the College World Series. He is now the executive vice president, vice chairman of the board and branch director for St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., the largest brokerage firm headquartered outside New York, with 5,300 investment brokers in more than 500 branch locations throughout 48 states and the District of Columbia.

  • Dick Boushka, who went on to become president of Vickers Oil Company, was a freshman member of St. Louis' 1952 NCAA Tournament team that was eliminated by champion-to-be Kansas.

  • Hal Patterson, a starting forward and second-leading rebounder for Kansas' 1953 national runner-up, was a two-year football letterman with the Jayhawks as an end and also lettered in baseball. Patterson, a member of the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame, scored 54 touchdowns in his 14-year CFL career and had 34 games with at least 100 yards in pass receptions.

  • Former Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey and former Massachusetts U.S. Congressman Joe Early were teammates for Holy Cross in two NCAA Tournament games in 1953. Early scored six points for the Crusaders in their 81-73 East Regional final loss to Bob Pettit-led LSU.

  • Robert Adams, the third-leading scorer (9.2 points per game) as a senior for Canisius' first NCAA Tournament team in 1955, retired with the rank of Major General after serving in the U.S. Army for 31 years. Later, he was appointed Commissioner of the New York State Office of General Services by Governor Mario Cuomo. Adams has been listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who of American Business Leaders.

  • Hank Nowak, who represented the Buffalo area in the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms (1975-93), was the leading rebounder for Canisius' only three NCAA Tournament teams. He averaged 19.4 points per game in eight playoff contests from 1955 through 1957.

  • Steve Hamilton, a 6-7 lefthanded pitcher for 12 seasons from 1961-72 with six different major league teams, averaged 18.5 points per game in four NCAA Tournament contests for Morehead State in 1956 and 1957. Hamilton, currently the athletic director at his alma mater, is the only athlete to play in a World Series (New York Yankees in 1963 and 1964) and an NBA Finals (Minneapolis Lakers rookie in 1959 when they were swept by the Boston Celtics).

  • Jerry Adair, who set three major league fielding records for a second baseman (highest field average and fewest errors in a season and consecutive errorless games) in his 13-year American League career with four different franchises, was the second-leading scorer for Oklahoma State's NCAA Tournament team that reached the 1958 Midwest Regional final.

  • Rollie Sheldon, a pitcher for five seasons with three different American League teams from 1961 to 1966, was the third-leading scorer with 13.5 points per game as a 6-4 sophomore forward for Connecticut's 1960 NCAA Tournament team that was eliminated by NYU, which advanced to the Final Four.

  • Paul Popovich, an infielder for 11 seasons with three different National League teams from 1964 through 1975, was a backup guard on the Jerry West-led West Virginia squad that lost to NYU, 82-81, in the second round of the 1960 NCAA Tournament despite Popovich's five of six field-goal shooting.

  • Carl Bouldin, a guard for Cincinnati's three Final Four teams from 1959-'61 and the Bearcats' leading scorer in two Final Four games for their 1961 national champion, pitched four years in the major leagues with the Washington Senators from 1961 through 1964.

  • Scotty Baesler, the former mayor of Lexington, Ky., represented Kentucky's Sixth District in the U.S. House of Representatives before running for governor in 1994. He scored a total of 13 points in four NCAA Tournament games for the Wildcats' Mideast Regional runners-up in 1961 and 1962.

  • Cornell Green, a five-time Pro Bowl defensive back during his 13-year career with the Dallas Cowboys from 1962-'73, was one of the leading scorers in the 1962 NCAA Tournament with a 24.3-point average in three games for Utah State. But the Aggies, despite Green's game-high 26 points, were eliminated, 73-62, in the West Regional semifinals by John Wooden's first Final Four team at UCLA. Green played in Super Bowls V (16-13 last-second defeat against the Baltimore Colts) and VI (24-3 rout of the Miami Dolphins).

  • Connecticut guard Dale Comey scored as many points (17) as NCAA consensus second-team All-America Rod Thorn of West Virginia in UConn's 77-71 first-round loss to the Mountaineers in 1963. Comey, earning more than $1 million annually, is an Executive Vice President of ITT, a global enterprise specializing in diversified services in three areas--financial and business, manufactured products and Sheraton Hotels.

  • The only football Heisman Trophy winner to play in the basketball Final Four was Terry Baker of Oregon State. Baker was a quarterback who won the Outstanding Player Award in the 1962 Liberty Bowl when he led the Beavers' football squad to a 6-0 victory over Villanova with a school record 99-yard run from scrimmage. He was the basketball team's No. 2 point producer the same academic school year (13.4-point average), but was held scoreless in an 80-46 loss against eventual champion Cincinnati in the 1963 national semifinals. Baker, a quarterback-halfback with the Los Angeles Rams from 1963 through 1965 before playing one season in the Canadian Football League with Edmonton, works as a litigator in a Portland law firm he founded in 1974.

  • Lonnie Wright, a cornerback who had five interceptions with the AFL's Denver Broncos in 1966 and 1967, was the leading scorer for Colorado State's NCAA Tournament teams in 1965 and 1966. He collected a total of 25 points and 10 rebounds in two NCAA playoff defeats.

  • David Palacio, a backup guard for Texas Western's 1966 NCAA champion, became an executive vice president of EMI Latin, which is affiliated with Capitol Records in Hollywood, Calif.

  • James Cash, a starting junior center for TCU's 1968 Midwest Regional runner-up, became Harvard's first African American-tenured professor in 1976 before being named chairman of the Harvard Business School MBA program in 1992.

  • Drake center Rick Wanamaker, who blocked one of UCLA star Lew Alcindor's shots in the Bulldogs' 85-82 defeat in the 1969 national semifinals, won the decathlon title in the 1970 NCAA meet, 1971 Pan American Games and 1971 National AAU meet. He finished fourth in the National AAU event in 1972 and fifth in 1974.

  • Ron Widby, a punter who appeared in the Pro Bowl following the 1971 NFL season and played in the 1970 and 1971 NFL title games with the Dallas Cowboys, was the game-high scorer in Tennessee's NCAA Tournament debut. His 20 points weren't enough to prevent a 53-52 setback against national runnerup-to-be Dayton in the 1967 Mideast Regional semifinals.

  • Nolan Archibald, president and chief executive officer of Black & Decker, was Weber State's leading scorer with 14 points in the Wildcats' NCAA Tournament debut, a 68-57 defeat in the first round of the 1968 West Regional against Lou Henson-coached New Mexico State.

  • Bill Laurie, a 5-10 guard who averaged 3.9 points per game for the Memphis State team that lost to UCLA in the 1973 NCAA Tournament final, breeds and trains horses at Crown Center Farms, south of Columbia, Mo. In May 1996, he presented the University of Missouri with the largest single, private gift in the school's history--$10 million, which was earmarked as seed money for a new 17,000-seat, $50 million arena. His wife, Nancy, is the daughter of the late Bud Walton and niece of the late Sam Walton, the brothers who founded Wal-Mart.

  • Percy Howard, a wide receiver who failed to catch a pass in eight regular-season games for the Dallas Cowboys in 1975, caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Roger Staubach for their final TD in a 21-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl X. Howard had been a forward for Austin Peay State, averaging seven points and seven rebounds per game in four NCAA Tournament contests in 1973 and 1974 as a teammate of celebrated scorer James "Fly" Williams.

  • Tim Stoddard, a starting forward for North Carolina State's 1974 national champion, pitched in the 1979 World Series for the Baltimore Orioles, one of six major league teams he played for in 13 big league seasons from 1975 through 1989.

  • Leonard Mitchell, a 6-7, 260-pound defensive end, was a first-round NFL draft choice who played seven seasons (1981-87) with the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons. He played briefly as a freshman center for Houston in its 100-77 opening-round setback to Final Four-team-to-be Notre Dame in the 1978 NCAA playoffs.

  • Kevin Nash, known as "Diesel" when he won a championship on the World Wrestling Federation circuit in a record-setting eight-second match, collected a total of 19 points and 14 rebounds as a backup center for Tennessee in just 36 minutes in four playoff games in 1979 and 1980.

  • Roosevelt Barnes, a backup guard for Purdue's 1980 national third-place basketball team, also played college baseball and football. He was a linebacker who played four seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions after being their 10th-round draft choice in 1982.

  • Mike Whitmarsh, one of the top players on the professional volleyball circuit and a 1996 U.S. Olympian, scored a team-high 17 points for San Diego in its 65-56 loss to Princeton in the preliminary round of the 1984 NCAA Tournament.

  • Matt Blundin, a 6-7 quarterback who was a second-round pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL draft after passing for 2,696 yards and 25 touchdowns in his college career at Virginia, averaged 4.7 points and 5.6 rebounds in seven NCAA Tournament games from 1989-91.

    Mike Douchant is a writer for College Sports Xchange.

    Return To College Sports Xchange index.

    COPYRIGHT (C) 1998 COLLEGE SPORTS Xchange All Rights Reserved. Reprints, duplication or redistribution is prohibited without written permission from College Sports Xchange.

    		•       A look at the evolution of the NCAA Tournament

    The 60 greatest NCAA Tournament games

    Conference tournament results:

  • Men
  • Women

    1998 NCAA Tournament berths

    		•