Basketball Legends Night on Feb. 7 (Latech game)

[SpaceRaider]

goblueraiders.com:

...This year the Middle Tennessee is doing a special recognition of the 40th anniversary of the 1974-75 Blue Raider basketball team; a squad that won MT's first conference championship and played in the school's first NCAA tournament.....

1974-75 Men's Basketball Team
Honoring the 1974-75 team (40-year anniversary) that won the school's first conference championship (OVC) and played in the first NCAA Tournament. The team won a record 33-straight at Murphy Center, a record that still stands today.

Some of the key players: The late Tim Sisneros, Sleepy Taylor, Fred Allen, Jimmy Martin, Steve Peeler, George Sorrell, and Jimmy Earle was the head coach of the 1974-75 team. Earle was the OVC Coach of the Year that season after leading the Blue Raiders to a 23-5 record overall and 12-2 in conference play. Sisneros, Taylor, and Earle are all in the Blue Raider Hall of Fame. Also, that season MT defeated WKU at Bowling Green, 102-95. It marked the first time MT had defeated WKU in BG since 1931-32 (43 years).....










This post was edited on 1/26 4:19 PM by SpaceRaider

Basketball Legends Night on Feb. 7 (Latech game)

 

[BlueRaider95]

Love the pic associated with that article. I hope that sometime in my lifetime I'll be able to see the Murph that full on a semi regular basis.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I went to school in the mid 80s, we had some good crowds night in and night out.

You will not see much bigger than we have now under current leadership. We are what we are - a good team. But you have to do something amazing to get folks attention these days.

 

[D-winns]

I was there for most of those home games in 74-75.



We MUST remember that things were quite different then. We didn't have the ESPN, FOX Sports, satellite stations and yes smart phones. We were a school of about 6500 vs 25000 now. Most were from fairly local towns and cities, some international but not many. Being a campus of a much smaller enrolment, most of the players were more openly known in and around campus.

The Murph was only in its 3rd season and going to a home basketball game was a primary form of entertainment then. Yes it helped that we had a winning team, but it was just FUN!

It was GREAT!!!



D-winns

Class of 75

 

[MTFNBY5]

D-winns: Can't disagree with any of your points

Some other factors: The OVC was really good BkB at the time rivaling the un-named conference known at the time for FB and Ky. BkB. The conference representative frequently was competitive in the NCAA tourney.

Playing TTU, AP, and WKU was always an event because so many of our students had gone to school with some of their students. Students (along with other fans) traveled to the opponents arena making games more exciting.

The local media (I'm including Nashville along with outlets throughout the mid-state in this) including the few sports talk shows along with print and electronic outlets covered the OVC to a much greater extent than now that Nashville has become a big-time city and pro city. Media in the pursuit of profits has pulled back coverage of "lesser" events and those which require more travel.

But, I wonder: Would we be excited any time we have a crowd of 5,000+ if we hadn't had 20+ years of mediocrity during the Farrar, Weil, and first years of Davis' tenure? I have to think there would be a few hundred more fans who would be loyal MT BkB fans (along with some casual fans who would make a few games a year) if we hadn't lost a generation of potential followers. (So few fans in the stands in their 20s, 30s, and 40s)

 

[blueboro007]

I was also Class of 75 and that was a great team. Never forget when Austin Peay came to town students would carry a toilet around the floor. During the Fly Williams era someone dressed as a big can of Raid. There were some GREAT players in the OVC back then and it was a fun league.

 

[D-winns]

Fully agree. Our rival teams in the OVC were close enough to drive to, even for us poor destitute students. It WAS a rival game and that held more importance then than now.

You are also very correct in that we have lost an identity we had in the 70's. After Coach's Earle and Simpson, we truly became almost non-existent.

Living in Chattanooga now I don't get to many games now, but would love to.

I truly hope we can re-vitalize our tradition and begin to fill the Murph again. It was so much fun then!!

GO Raiders GO!!



D-winns .

 

[ttuman4702]

Some really good players you had on that '74/'75 team. Those were extremely fun years to be an OVC fan.

 

[MTFNBY5]

Speaking of MT players during the era. A friend who was in MT at the time (I had already graduated - The first time) keeps asking who the player was with knee problems. He says it was a big deal on campus that the MT medical staff had contacted UCLA to find out how they dealt with Bill Walton's similar condition.

I remember MT had a player with chronic knee problem during the era but can't remember which one. Never knew or don't remember (at my age who knows?) the UCLA connection. Player was a 6'-5" to 6'-7" forward with serious hops . IIRC It probably wasn't Peeler but could have George Sorrell on this team or a player either shortly before or after this group.

Anyone help?

 

[SpaceRaider]

Originally posted by MTFNBY5:
Speaking of MT players during the era. A friend who was in MT at the time (I had already graduated - The first time) keeps asking who the player was with knee problems. He says it was a big deal on campus that the MT medical staff had contacted UCLA to find out how they dealt with Bill Walton's similar condition.

I remember MT had a player with chronic knee problem during the era but can't remember which one. Never knew or don't remember (at my age who knows?) the UCLA connection. Player was a 6'-5" to 6'-7" forward with serious hops . IIRC It probably wasn't Peeler but could have George Sorrell on this team or a player either shortly before or after this group.

Anyone help?

It was George Sorrell. He was 6-5 and could jump through the roof - I suppose that ability was taking a toll on his knees. He averaged double digit rebounds on a very dominating team. I don't think we've had a team that was clearly much better than our competition conference wise. Sorrell was MVP or POY that season, Tim Sisneros, held that honor the following year. Sleepy Taylor, was one of the top 15 freshmen preseason, according to Street and Smith basketball year book. IIRC, he led that veteran dominated team in scoring as a freshman. Steve Peeler matched Fly Williams point for point in a couple of those classic MT vs Austin Peay battles (IIRC, for 4 consecutive years, the games with peay, drew packed houses, 10,000 plus). Peeler made all conference even though he did not start that 74-75 season. Allen and Martin were great as the guards.

 

[MTFNBY5]

Thanks Space; both your memory and resources are so much better than mine.

Wonder if there is an old DNJ article about the connection the UCLA or some other way to document it? Simpson in the HOF would probably know. Not that it's high on my priority list of things to do.

I was certainly at all of the Peay games during that era in The Murph, also a couple in The Little Red Barn but my memory, let's just say my focus has not been becoming a walking encyclopedia for MT sports.

I was taking one of Earle's coaching classes (picking up grad. hours) during that time and I remember how high he was on Peeler when he arrived on campus; and Sleepy, had he not been injured, would probably be remembered as "Mr MT BkB" and would have had a long career in the NBA. He had that kind of potential.

Still hate that there is no Street and Smith; It's the only annual I usually bought since it always seemed to give more coverage to %$&-majors - got several copies around somewhere going back to the 70s. Quit even looking at the annuals on the rack - just like so much of the media it seems they have become promoters of the "big time or it doesn't matter" mindset. So frustrated a few years back when a southeastern regional edition of one of the FB annuals included every D-1 conference which had a team in the SE except The Belt whose footprint was clearly centered in the SE.

 

[SpaceRaider]

...Wonder if there is an old DNJ article about the connection the UCLA or some other way to document it? Simpson in the HOF would probably know.

Pretty sure it was written about in the DNJ and/or the Tennessean and/or Nashville Banner at the time. Would think Simpson would certainly know as well as Coach Earle and Jim Freeman, the SID at the time who I would expect both to be there on Legends night.

...I was taking one of Earle's coaching classes (picking up grad. hours) during that time and I remember how high he was on Peeler when he arrived on campus; and Sleepy, had he not been injured, would probably be remembered as "Mr MT BkB" and would have had a long career in the NBA. He had that kind of potential.

Steve Peeler was 'show time' when it came to Peay and their All-American Fly Williams. Would have to say Peeler stole the show in Murphy Center against Fly.

A couple of things. I have the impression that with medical advances over the decades, that if those advances were in place in the mid seventies, Sleepy would have fully recovered and been 100% NLT mid season of his sophomore year. IIRC, Sleepy Taylor and Phil Ford were the top players in North Carolina in high school, the same year. Ford went on to become an All American at UNC. IIRC, Taylor picked MT over NC State, who had just won the national championship in 1974 with Monte Towe, David Thompson, and 7-4 Tom Burleson. Can you imagine today MT beating out Kentucky for a highly touted one and done prospect?

Back then players went home in the summers. No summer sessions and workouts or strength and conditioning. Taylor was playing softball when he hurt his knee.

 

[SpaceRaider]

found the midlander from the 1973-74 academic year on line, the link below picks up at the beginning of some photos of the team the year before the ovc championship year.

https://archive.org/stream/midlander50midd#page/64/mode/1up

 

[SpaceRaider]

here is a link to the 1972-73 midlander, the year Murphy Center opened, link takes you to the beginning of the sports section. You can see a young Jimmy Martin, sophomore, and a young Tim Sisneros, freshman.

https://archive.org/stream/midlander48midd#page/108/mode/2up

below is link to index for midlanders archived online...

https://archive.org/search.php?query=midlander&sort=titleSorter

 

[weatim]

What wonderful memories from that season. Earle had taken the Raiders from the doormat of the OVC to the Championship and there is nothing like that first title. I was fortunate to have been at WKU that season when, a few days after WKU won at LaSalle, then a top 10 team, MTSU went into Diddle Arena and won 102-95 in the best BB game I have ever seen. Peeler was flying high that night but dunks were not allowed then. Too bad. The late, great Monte Hale Sr. commented that night, as the Raiders had not won in Bowling Green in decades, that the Raiders 'had not won there since the invention of the jet airplane!'

Sleepy would probably have been the greatest to ever wear the blue had he not hurt his knee. He still played well and was especially good his senior year. But what a player to join a veteran team as a freshman and lead the team in scoring.

Some of us remember 'Little Johnny' who can be seen to Earle's left in the photo from the link Space provided. He was a super Raider fan and I recall him being on the court with the MTSU cheerleaders at VU's memorial gym the night the Raiders upset Kentucky 50-44.

That 74-75 teams top 6 players may have no equals in MTSU BB history. That Peeler did not start says a lot. The only thing lacking was poise in the NCAA tournament as the Raiders were probably better than the Oregon team they lost to but were plagued by stage fright being in the dance for the first time in school history.

Point guard Jimmy Martin led the Raiders to the decisive win over APSU in the OVC Championship game, using his 6-5 size to shoot over Peay's 5-11 guards and Martin was deadly that night.

Thrilling season I will never forget. Great to read others memories from that season.

 

[SpaceRaider]

bump.