MENS BASKETBALL

Tennessee basketball to honor '67 and '77 SEC champions

Mike Strange
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

On a March night in 1967, Tennessee clinched its first SEC basketball title since World War II in a three-overtime win at Mississippi State. The Vols celebrated by playing poker for matchsticks at a Holiday Inn in Starkville.

"The weather was so bad,'' Bill Justus recalled Friday, "we couldn't fly out. Probably the best celebration ever was going on back in Knoxville on Cumberland Avenue.''

Saturday, there will be a celebration for the '67 champs. They'll be honored on the 50th anniversary of their championship season when Tennessee plays host to Georgia at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tipoff is 4 p.m. EST.

Sharing the spotlight will be the 1976-77 SEC co-champs, observing the 40th anniversary of their title. Players will be introduced at halftime.

The '67 and '77 teams bear common threads besides SEC trophies. They made Stokely Athletic Center a raucous scene in which visitors feared to tread. They were led by singular talents, Ron Widby in 1967 and the "Ernie & Bernie Show" a decade later. Both magical seasons ended in heart-breaking NCAA tournament losses.

Most of all, they were the creations of coach Ray Mears.

Mears arrived in 1962 from tiny Wittenberg University in Ohio. His fifth team culminated his rebuilding project.

"His preparation throughout his career was second to none,'' said Justus, a sophomore guard in 1967.

The Vols rolled on into the 1970s, sharing the SEC crown with Kentucky in 1972. The advent of Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King brought the Mears era to a peak from 1975-77.

The 1976-77 team earned a share of the SEC crown by going 16-2 and sweeping Kentucky, accounting for the Wildcats' only league losses.

"Our practices,'' said Mike Jackson, "were so intense and so exhausting and our mental preparation was so great when it came to games, you'd almost feel like you hadn't broken a sweat. We were in such great condition and so mentally prepared. That came from coach Mears.

"They weren't just basketball lessons, those were life lessons and they're close to our hearts to this day.''

Neither King nor Grunfeld will attend Saturday. The '67 team will appear almost intact. Tom Boerwinkle died in 2013 but most of his teammates will be back. That includes Widby, the 1967 SEC player of the year.

"There's probably never been better chemistry than that team was,'' Justus said. "There are very few weeks go by I don't hear from somebody.''

Justus and Widby both came from Fulton High School. Bill Young was a football star and reserve in basketball. Widby is the only athlete to earn letters in four sports at Tennessee: football, basketball, golf and baseball.

"Nobody thought much about us at the start of the season,'' Justus said. "Widby and Tom Hendrix were the only returning starters. Boerwinkle hadn't played much. Billy Hann and I were sophomore guards, coming off the freshman team.

"Then Ron made the comment to the press that we were going to win the SEC. I remember we were thinking he'd gone crazy on us. If you know Ron, he never lacked for confidence.''

Widby was right. The 78-76 thriller at Mississippi State gave UT the outright title over Vanderbilt and Florida. Justus hit the clinching free throws. Widby scored 35 points, two days after hanging a school-record 50 on LSU.

When the team plane arrived back in Knoxville the following day, the football players from Gibbs Hall were at the airport.

"The first person at the bottom of the steps to greet us was Dewey Warren,'' Justus said.

The SEC title sent Tennessee to its first NCAA tournament. Back then only conference champions got an invite. The Vols flew to Evanston, Ill., where they lost 53-52 to Dayton, the eventual runner-up to UCLA.

Ten years later, Mears had probably the most talented team in UT history. King and Grunfeld were co-SEC players of the year. Jackson, a senior guard from Nashville, averaged 15.4 points. Reggie Johnson, a freshman and the only new starter, ranks fifth on UT's scoring list at 2,103 points. Point guard Johnny Darden remains the career assist leader.

"With Ernie and I being a senior,'' Jackson said, "and we knew it was going to be Bernard's last year, we had the intensity to do everything we can do. It was our last opportunity.''

Tennessee beat Kentucky in overtime in Lexington and then 81-79 in Knoxville. If not for a loss at last-place Georgia the Vols would have won outright.

As in 1967, the '77 team's NCAA tournament dream was cut short, a first-round overtime loss to Syracuse.

"I'm sure the '67 squad would say this, too,'' Jackson said. "I'm not being vain, but we are all good men. That has to do with our time at the University of Tennessee under coach Mears.''

Mears died in 2007. From time to time, his old players have their own reunion with him. Last month, Jackson was in town for the Kentucky game. He stopped by the cemetery.

"I stayed there quite a few minutes,'' Jackson said. "Some people saw me and said, 'Who are you? I know you're there for  a reason.' "

Yes. If they only knew.