No. 11: N.C. State ends UCLA’s title run
Final Four, March 23, 1974 — For years, UCLA was unbeatable. The Bruins had won 7 straight titles and appeared poised for an 8th. But when an 88-game win streak was snapped in January, it opened the door for a new NCAA champ. North Carolina State, behind AP player of the year David Thompson, officially ended the Bruins’ reign with an 80-77 overtime win. The Wolfpack claimed the title two days later, but that was the easy part.
2nd OVT, final 14 mins. of the game and i added the famous hard dunk of David Thompson over 7’0’s Bill Walton (first 38 secs.).
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Wikipedia notes: Following his NBA career, Thompson continued a downward spiral with drugs and alcohol. With encouragement from a pastor, he became a committed Christian and put his life back in order. Thompson now devotes his time to working with young basketball players, helping them to aspire to his achievements and avoid his mistakes. His autobiography, Skywalker, charts the highs and lows of his eventful life.
Thompson was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player on May 6, 1996.
Thompson eventually returned to school at North Carolina State, and in 2003 nearly 30 years after his last game for the Wolfpack he finished his degree in sociology. In 2004 David helped make a movie about his life called “Skywalker”. Much of the movie was filmed at the Boys and Girls Club in Gastonia, NC with the assistance of Scott Jimison, a long time friend of David.
On September 7, 2009, It was announced that Michael Jordan had chosen Thompson to introduce him for his Basketball Hall of Fame induction.[1]
Check out the Top 10 plays from the career of David Thompson.
Network coverage of President Ronald Reagan being shot March 30, 1981. Part 2 of 11.
I have included the report from Fox News in Washington DC from reporter Paul Wagner:
30 years ago in March, surgeons at George Washington University Hospital ended up saving the life of the leader of the free world. A gunman shot President Ronald Reagan in the chest.
His condition on arrival so dire, doctors thought they might lose him. The minute-by-minute account of the trauma team in action is included in a new book called “Rawhide Down,” a play on the President’s Secret Service code name.
What follows is the account of the doctor who headed that team.
It took just three to four seconds after John Hinckley started firing his gun for Secret service agents to shove President Reagan into the armored limousine and roar off for the White House.
Although the President looked okay, Jerry Parr, the agent in charge of the Presidential Detail, began examining Reagan from head to toe.
“About Dupont Circle down here, maybe thirty seconds into the run, we’re moving pretty fast then, he started spitting up this bright red frothy blood,” Parr said.
Parr then made the split second decision to turn right on Pennsylvania Avenue and head directly to George Washington University Hospital.
As the president walked inside, he collapsed. It had only been three minutes or so since the shooting.
“In retrospect he was pretty close to, we have a term, he was pretty close to crashing, in other words his blood pressure would have dropped down to zero, he is a seventy year old man, that would have been a significantly serious event”.
Dr. Joseph Giordano was called to the trauma bay that day having no idea what was going on.
“The first time I knew it was the president I saw him lying on the gurney.”
Dr. Giordano headed up the trauma team and supervised the care the President was receiving.
“Initially he looked very concerned as you would expect, I mean here he is lying on this gurney with a bunch of four or five people looking over him, people totally unknown to him, but he handled himself extraordinarily well and as things began to improve, the blood pressure got better and so forth like that he relaxed a little bit more,” said Dr. Giordano.
That’s when Reagan began talking with the doctors.
“He was communicating with us. We asked him how he was feeling, what was going on, he said he was a little short of breath, that sort of stuff,” said Dr. Giordano.
But the X-rays showed there was a projectile in his chest and the decision was made to operate.
By then, feeling a little bit better, the President started joking.
“He was relaxed as could be and that was the time he looked at me and he said, “I hope you are all Republicans,” a quip you know, and I said, “Yes we are all Republicans,” but you know it’s amazing, how, what presence he had.”
Dr. Giordano says he stayed in the operating room and watched as Dr. Benjamin Aaron removed the bullet.
“Dr. Aaron could feel it and I always thought it was fortuitous to remove it because as you know it was a devastator bullet, not exactly sure of the name but it’s a bullet that on impact will explode, it has a charge in it.”
The minute- by- minute account is included in a riveting new book called “Rawhide Down,” written by Washington Post reporter Del Wilbur.
All these years later, Dr. Giordano still marvels at the split second decisions made that day to save the President’s life.
He gives all the credit to Secret Service agent Jerry Parr for changing course and heading to the hospital.
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Network coverage of President Ronald Reagan being shot March 30, 1981. Part 3 of 11.
The Daily Hatch 