THE PALESTRA, PHILADELPHIA - March 17, 1956
The Sports Time Traveler is following the Temple University basketball team in 1956 because my dad was a junior at Temple that year. My dad was closely following every game because one of his best friends, and a fraterniy brother, was the starting point guard, Guy Rodgers.
70 years ago last night in the Eastern Regional semi-final NCAA tournament at the Palestra in Philadelphia was a historic game for the Temple Owls.
#15 Temple defeated Connecticut 65 - 59 to move on to the Eastern Regional Final.
That marked the first time that Temple had ever made it to the Regional Final in the NCAA tournament.
The game also featured 3 NCAA tournament records by 3 different Temple Owls players.
Temple's shooting guard Hal Lear scored a Palestra record 40 of Temple’s 65 points.
Lear had an astonishing 61.5% of Temple's points.
That was the NCAA tournament record for highest % of a team's points in a game by a single player until Wally Szczerbiak bettered it 43 years later in 1999.
Lear’s 61.5% of his team’s points is actually a higher percentage than Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game in the NBA. In that March 1962 game, Wilt only scored 59.2% of his team’s 169 points.
Also, in this same 1956 game, Temple's center Fred Cohen, grabbed 34 rebounds.
Cohen's 34 rebounds remains the single game NCAA tournament record to this day.
Not even Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain, who hold the top two rebound games in NBA history, and both of whom led their college teams to the NCAA Finals during the 1950s, ever had a higher rebound total in an NCAA tournament game.
It’s really hard to fathom that in NCAA Tournament play, 6'6" Fred Cohen holds the single game rebounding record and not a celebrated dominant center like Russell, Chamberlain, Alcindor, Walton, etc…
Cohen averaged just under 10 rebounds a game that year, his only year playing college basketball, and never played in the NBA.
Also, in the same 1956 game, Temple's point guard Guy Rodgers had 13 assists.
No official tournament records were kept for assists in those days, but it is likely that Rodgers' 13 assists were another NCAA tournament record at that time.
Temple won despite Rodgers having a horrific shooting game. He was 1 for 15 from the field.
In fact, the whole Temple team, except for Lear, had a terrible shooting night.
While Lear was 18 for 27 from the field, the rest of the Temple Owls were 9 for 54!
What an incredible game!
Here's the box score:
The Sports Time Traveler will continue following the Temple Owls.
They play the Eastern Regional Final TONIGHT in 1956!
600931 LENNY ................ THIS HOOP STORY .... THE BOX SCORE ... TERRIFIC ... THANKS