14 Years Ago Today ...
by Nestor on Apr 3, 2009 4:30 PM PDT
in Basketball
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PrintThere was a Wizard in the stand and some magic on the floor.
Bruin magic to be precise courtesy of Tyus, George, Charles, Toby, J.R., Cameron and some towel wavers on the bench. But really it all started and ended with King Ed:
UCLA's Ed O'Bannon - 1995 NCAA Championship (via 805Bruin)
I never even heard the final whistle.
There was a dogpile of 25 Bruins in our living room at 403 Landfair Ave before we all rushed out on the streets and headed straight down to Westwood. I am getting goosebumps as I am just typing, thinking about those moments.
Where were you?
GO BRUINS.
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In Sproul Hall
It was my 2nd year at UCLA. I watched the game in my friend’s room on a CRT tv using rabbit ears. This was the year before the dorms got hooked up with cable. Anyways, there were a bunch of people in his room watching, because not everybody had a tv. After the game we all went to Westwood and you all know what happened…ohh…it was great!
Hey! I was in Sproul Hall too
It was my third year at UCLA. Although, I thought we already had cable in the dorms… I can’t really remember, it’s been a while. Good times! I also remember watching Tyus Edney’s 4.8 in the Dykstra Hall Fireside Lounge (I think it was in the middle of Dead Week and I was cramming for finals)
Go Bruins!
Tyus Edney's 4.8
We had a great thread going on that last year. I had two finals the next day. The roar heard all around Westwood … was simply incredible.
I'm a fellow Sproul Haller too!
I was a freshman in the lounge, I think on the 5th floor, watching the lounge big screen with everyone else, and can remember celebrating like it was no one’s business. Then we all rushed out of the dorms like a flood and ran into friends running out to Westwood down Gayley. I mostly hung out at the intersection of Gayley and Broxton outside Maloney’s. Won’t ever forget the co-eds climbing up the street light posts and taking off their shirts and then jumping into the crowd!! I was also guilty along with some other Bruins I had never met for tipping over the KIIS FM van and handing out championship shirts to everyone. Do y’all remember when the police came out with the bean bags? That was fun. And I’ll never forget the image of the students jumping and dancing at the intersection of Gayley and Strathmore outside the Beta house(is it Beta at the corner?) around a dumpster that was set on fire and pushed into the center of the intersection. Absolute raw, primal, unapolgetic joy and celebration. I’ll remember that day for as long as I live!
I was in the living room watching the game with my dad
and on the phone with my grandfather who was at the game. Never before have I heard my grandfather so happy.
An amazing day...
I was 8 years old in my living room jumping up and down as my mom got tears in her eyes ( ucla alum who got to watch coach in action while she was there). I remember, at times, it was too much for me and I had to go outside and shoot hoops during time outs. I remember when the ball got tossed up so high and the celebration began. I still have the VHS tape of that year and it always gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. In fact, I am going to go watch it right now.
GO BRUINS
At home
watching on TV with my then 13-year old son. We tossed nerf balls into laundry hampers to hone our shooting touches, during commercials. Nevertheless, I had to go outside at half-time, and shoot hoops in the driveway to work off my energy and nervousness.
When it was over, well let’s just say that my family got to see my unrestrained self.
The UConn game was pretty memorable, too. No one, not even UCLA, could run with UConn, they said. UConn was a running, scoring machine. Not even UCLA, they said…
p.s. My son went on to attend, and graduate, UCLA. I am a lucky man.
The celebration
Is it true you guys (students during the ’95 year) caused the crackdown on the Westwood bar scene?
Maloney’s and Brew Co. are the only ones left.
Any explanations/stories about the celebration that might have led to this?
I Was
in San Pedro, Belize, drinking cold Belikins at a great little bar—wearing a UCLA hat with my paero & a great tan.
Love My Bruins
I Spent
a lot of time in San Pedro Town in the last half of the 90’s. Lots of diving, and trips to Maruba on the mainland.
Love My Bruins
I Remember
that name…but I cannot place the guy. I dove with Billy Leslie at Hustler…this was before Hustler tours was sold, when the Leslie brothers ran he whole thing. Billy did all the diving, they still had the Beaver (seaplane) and Gerald was flying it, the Me Too sailed to Caulker, and Martin ran trips to The Hole and he also did the fishing charters. They didn’t have that cool bar at the end of Hustler’s dock back then—that came after one of the hurricanes. (Mitch, maybe.)
Love My Bruins
Very nice
Great diving there, and even better in the outer keys like Turneffe, Lighthouse, etc.
Barefoot Skinny was a local musician in San Pedro (who was originally from the Denver area). He played typical beach music at the various bars. Jimmy Buffett was staying there with his family the same time we were, but we couldn’t talk him into playing.
(sorry we’re way OT mods, but this is fun)
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
One Of The Best
things about going out to the Blue Hole is diving in Half Moon and Lighthouse Cayes on the way home. On one trip we stopped at this miniature island (two crossed palm trees and white sand, that’s it), where they had filmed a Budweiser commercial. The shoreline was so gradual there, you could float with just your elbows touching the sand and drink your cold beer. (Sigh.)
Sorry guys…memories of paradise can do that to you… :-) Thanks, Greg.
Love My Bruins
Moondoggie's . . .
. . . in downtown La Jolla. The crowd was definitely pro-Bruin, although not quite like a sports bar in L.A., I’m sure.
That old bar next to Carl's Jr.
Sitting on the floor in front of the big screen (pull down for the projector). What a great night… Did anyone else buy the UCLA “just did it” shirt, with the typo?
Redondo
At my best friends’/old roommates’ apartment. I had a month off from school in Texas and came west to study for Part I of my boards, and was shacking up with my girlfriend in her beachside condo (she later succumbed to my charms and became my wife). Several other Bruins were there with us. What a great night, though I really can’t remember anything about the end of the last minute of the game – it was such a rush.
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
Family friends' house
I was 7 years old at a pool/ncaa party with my UCLA parents. After the game, I remember pretending I was O’Bannon during some pool basketball. I lived in norcal but my parents made a socal beach trip that year so we could go on campus and get a 1995 Championship banner for my room. It is now hanging above my bar in my fraternity room at UCLA. I was hoping I could have put another one up while I was here.
by podas okus Achilleus on Apr 3, 2009 8:12 PM PDT reply actions
Ackerman grand ballroom
Wow, just had to register after years of just browsing this blog.
I was a freshman at the time. They had the game playing in Ackerman Grand Ballroom – and my roommates and I went to go watch the game. Awesome game, awesome memory. Walked around Westwood for a bit afterwards with all the chaos.
I was taking a treating doctor's depo
He insisted that we start after his regular office hours, and the stupid plaintiff’s lawyer kept making stupid objections and the time kept getting stretched out. I packed my briefcase and told him the depo was over and he could explain his obstreperous behavior to the judge, but the doctor’s personal lawyer made me stay, and assured me that she would keep the plaintiff’s lawyer in line. I made it home in time for the last minute or so. But that last minute was worth it.
wow that must have been agonizing.
glad you at least caught the last bit.
i was at home watching as a high school sophmore. but the game I’ll forever remember was tyus’ 4.8. as a fan you always envision your team making that type of shot. to see it in real life (on tv anyways) was sooooo much better. after that game and his halftime buzzer beater against uconn, I knew we were going all the way. I guess the final game was just a given in my mind…
Tyus Edny's shot
Don’t remember why I missed most of the UCLA Mizzou game, but my roommates and I in the dorms turned on the TV literally moments before Edny hit that shot. The second he hit that shot, the whole dorms LIT UP and it was loud. I remember jumping up and down and hugging some of my friends (women) once he hit that shot.
Hermosa Beach
in my apartment…ALL ALONE! I couldn’t stand to watch it with anyone in case we lost. I just knew that year was our year and it just HAD to turn out right…right? I had my windows closed and shades drawn because I knew I would act like a lunatic. I paced and rocked and yelled and eventually cried. I called my best friend who was in Northridge at the time and said “GET OVER HERE”. She missed a midterm (which the teacher allowed her to make up because of the occasion) and she came down to party. We then proceeded to Sharky’s in Manhattan beach and consumed WAY too many Vodka cranberries…
When the team came back to LA, we went to the airport to welcome the team home. What a fun day watching them get off the plane, one by one…Ed O with his video camera to capture every last moment, I was actually on the NBC news at 4pm and 6pm leading an 8-clap and I was interviewed. I was so delirious I had no idea what I was saying but I know I said “I’ve been waiting for this since I was born!!!” LOL
GO BRUINS!!!
Homecoming at LAX
I was there, too. I originally went to the main terminal (was it Terminal 5 for Delta?) but airport personnel said the flight wasn’t coming there. I ran into some other Bruins who were looking for the flight too, and we shared a cab over to the charter terminal on the south side of LAX on El Imperial, and arrived just as the plane was taxiing up. I have photos of the trophy coming out the front door down the steps, and at one point high-fived someone of the other side of the fence – though I never could see who it was due to the crowd. I’ve always just assumed it was King Ed – ha
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
As were we!!!
Hahahah. We went down to the main terminal too. But as soon as the airport terminal folks told us what was going on … you could see a whole crowd of Bruins rushing to the parking lot and heading over to the other terminal. We had no idea where we were going but we just kept following other cars with UCLA license plates. lol
Also In Hermosa
Watched at home with my girlfriend of that time. She was in a UCLA residency program and not into sports. OT, she was also a bit of a prig and took great offense at Ed having a child out of wedlock; never mind that he was being an involved Dad. No matter what I said, she just huffed and puffed about it.
Anyway, after we won, I just had to hit the bars by the pier to celebrate with other fans.
I was in the Kingdome... bought my ticket for only $20 minutes before tip-off
The day the tourney started I bought a plane ticket to Seattle. If it wasn’t for Tyus Edney’s heroics, I would have been in Seattle with nothing to do for Final Four weekend. I traveled alone (which I always advise if you are trying to get a ticket into anything) and hung around one of the main hotels until someone was ready to sell me a single ticket (about half an hour before the game started). It was a dream come true and I still have the shirt I wore which was signed by Ed O’Bannon, on the floor of the Kingdome during the net cutting ceremony.
LIttle did we know, at that time, just how much of an ahole the AD would turn out to be.
403 Landfair?
Nestor-
Small apartment building, with a path on the other side of the street which you could use to climb down the hill to get to campus?
This may be the same apartment building (we were 2 bedroom corner unit) I lived in senior year (1971). What a small world.
I was at my parents' house
I was a junior in high school and was on spring break. I had gone out with my friends earlier that day to celebrate my friend’s birthday (and also found out one of my classmates was pregnant).
I remember sitting on the stairs. Somehow, it had become my lucky spot from the Sweet Sixteen on (I know it wasn’t the Missouri game because I watched that at my aunt’s house). I was devestated when Tyus Edney couldn’t play, but everyone came through.
As wonderful as that was, I’m still waiting for my first championship as a full member of the UCLA family.
In my apt. in NCal
Had a work presentation the next morning so I watched alone. I remember letting out a huge yell out of my balcony window when we won. Wish I didn’t have that work thing or I would have been partying all night.
In the house where I grew up to a Bruin
Likewise, work prevented me from going up to Seattle, never again I make that mistake. But at least the UConn game was in Oakland which I saw in person. Thanks for the memories on this weekend I have a feeling we should be doing something else.
In 6th floor Dykstra
Freshman year, heard the final whistle, say the crowd gathering at the intersection of Strathmore and Gayley. Between the rubber bullets and the burning dumpsters it was a helluva night!
I was at Stratton's
Anyone remember that place? After the game, we poured outside just in time to see some crazies flipping over a car!
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