Basketball: Say Hayes

Most years, the high point of the college basketball season comes in March, when the nation's top two teams fight it out in the N.C.A.A. playoffs. This year, the big night came early. Last week, in Judge Roy Hofheinz's Houston Astrodome, 52,000 fans, the biggest crowd ever to watch a college basketball game, turned out to see U.C.L.A. take on the University of Houston in the best game of the season. When it began, U.C.L.A., undefeated in 47 straight games, ranked first in the nation; Houston, unbeaten in 17 straight, was second. At the final buzzer, with the score Houston 71, U.C.L.A 69, the ranking was reversed.

For Houston, a school that only began playing major-college sports in 1946, it was the culmination of a building program that has already produced championship-caliber teams in golf, football and baseball. But basketball was luck. In 1964, Isaac Morehead, basketball coach at Texas Southern University, a predominantly Negro school, walked into the office of Houston Coach Guy Lewis and begged him to recruit a prospect from Eula Britton High School in rural Louisiana. The young man's name was Elvin Hayes; he played, said Morehead, like Bill Russell's younger brother. Morehead's reason for approaching Lewis was entirely self-protective. Hayes's two sisters had attended Southern University in Louisiana; his coach at Eula Britton was a Grambling graduate—and both of those schools were on Texas Southern's schedule. Lewis obliged Morehead, and last year the 6-ft. 8-in., 238-lb. Hayes led Houston's Cougars to the semifinals of the N.C.A.A. playoffs before losing 73-58 to U.C.L.A. and its 7-ft. 1⅜in. All-America center, Lew Alcindor. Even then, Hayes outscored Alcindor 25-19 and beat him in rebounding 24-20.

Last week was more of the same—much more. Granted, Alcindor was not at his best: he had injured an eye in a game the week before, and his shooting percentage from the field—four out of 18—was unbelievably low. But Hayes had the range. In the first half alone he scored 29 points (out of his team's 46), with delicate jump shots and driving, twisting lay-ups. Only the long-distance accuracy of U.C.L.A.'s Lucius Allen, who scored 16 in the first half and 25 in all, kept the Bruins in the game. At half time, the score was Houston 46, U.C.L.A. 43.

Three times in the second half U.C.L.A. fought back to tie—at 54-54, 65-65 and 69-69. Hayes broke that last tie with two free throws; then, with 12 sec. left to play, he dropped into the backcourt, dribbled the clock away to sew it up. Said Alcindor: "We lost to a better team." And right now, anyway, a better man.