Sport: Oscar on the Loose

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The boys at Madison Square Garden waited to be shown, for sophomore basketball flashes too often became fumbling schoolboys on their first trip to Manhattan's big time. When he loped out on the Garden's floor last week, the University of Cincinnati's Oscar ("Big O") Robertson needed a big night to show the skeptics he could play in the big league.

Robertson showed them the biggest night, pro or amateur, in the history of Garden basketball. Floating through the defense of Seton Hall, the lithe, 6-ft. 4½-in. Negro from Indianapolis did everything right. He drove for layups, hooked from the foul line, jump-shot with either hand. He picked off rebounds, intercepted passes, set up teammates. When the Big O was done, Cincinnati had drubbed Seton Hall, 118-54, and the new boy in town had 56 points, a Garden record.

Long before game's end, the specialists in the press box were wondering whether Robertson did not look better in his New York debut than such greats as La Salle's Tom Gola, De Paul's George Mikan or even Kansas' Wilt Chamberlain. Robertson's points lifted his game average to 32.1, second in the nation only to Chamberlain's 32.2, led Coach George Smith to muse: "You know, this is the first time we ever let this guy loose." On the loose again two nights later as his team smashed North Texas State, 127-57, Robertson scored 35 points, squeaked past Chamberlain with a game average of 32.3. The New Yorkers were convinced. Said St. John's Coach Joe Lapchick: "This is the greatest sophomore I've seen."