A Little Walk Down Memory Lane: UCLA's Amazing Run In The 1980 NCAA Tournament

Thank you so much for sharing this.

I didn’t get into school until fall 1981, but I was a huge fan growing up and had followed the Bruins since the Walton years.

That 79-80 team, Kiki and the Kids, under Brown, was so much fun to watch. Rod Foster, Michael Holton, Darren Daye, and Cliff Pruit comprised that freshman class and really gave the team a shot in the arm around mid season when Brown started Foster and Holton, moved Micheal Sanders to center, and sat the starting backcourt of Tyrone Naulls and Tony Anderson.

All of the college basketball world was sick and tired of Bruin domination at that point, and hoping for us to experience a downturn. The article in SI was scathing and celebratory if I remember correctly. When they expanded the field and the Bruins snuck into the dance, there was widespread bellyaching. Just the year before, the Bruins had fallen to DePaul in the regional final with the Greenwood-Hamilton-Holland team. Many felt that team could have made the final and won the whole thing. So the rest of the Bruin hating world was certain that we were down and would not make noise in March.

Note: I’m doing this from memory, many brain cells after college, so if I mixed up the 2nd and 3rd round participants, or confused a player’s class, or misspelled names, my apologies.

Old Dominion fell in the first round, then the powerful, Mark Aguire led Depaul Blue Demons in the second round (that was sweet revenge for their upset of us the prior year). Next up, the Big Ten Champ Clark Kellogg & Kelvin Ransey led Ohio State Buckeyes. Kellogg was a great college basketball player and Ransey was considered the top point guard in the senior class that year. The Bruins sent them back to the midwest, controlling the game from the outset.

Old Dominion was not a surprise, however, Depaul was top ranked and Ohio State was a top 10 team and was a big favorite. Those two teams were East Coast media darlings that year, and many “experts” had to eat crow when our star senior, a rag tag group of freshman and under appreciated upper classmen upset those teams.

In the regional final, the Bruins would face the Larry Nance led Clemson Tigers, who were more like Tiger Milk for our boys. That advanced us to the final four against Purdue and Joe Barry Carroll. Many experts felt our frontline would be too small and weak to deal with the Purdue frontline, however, Michael Sanders abused JBC, and the Bruins rolled. That meant Kiki and the Kids would play against the legendary Doctors of Dunk and Darryl Griffith in the Men’s final.

The final was a hard fought game and If Kiki hits the runner in the lane in the final minute perhaps we win that game and hang banner 11. However, it missed badly and what was a fantastic run ended on a down note. Later, that 2nd place finish was wiped from the record books due to an NCAA investigation. It would have been interesting to see if a title would have been stripped if we had won. All in all, a great season for the Bruins, one that provided me with fantastic memories. That team was such an underdog, and even though it was pre WWL, the east coast bias was very real. Kiki and the Kids shocked a lot of the college basketball world and shut up the biased college basketball pundits.

Also, I should note that Larry Brown was a magician that year. After our terrible start (I believe we were something like 8-6 at one point), every move he made was absolutely masterful. That team had no business going as far as it did. Brown did get caught for some infractions, but you can’t argue the man is a tactical and motivational genius when he’s focused.

Point of clarification; Don Carfino played for the TrOJans and was out of St. John Bosco High. The “ugliest human” from OSU, whom I think you are referring to, was Charlie Sitton (off color nickname Zitton, for his bacne). He was a heck of a player. I know he won some Pac 10 honors, and was part of some damn good teams that gave the Bruins fits. Back then OSU and ASU had some dominant teams. sc was pretty much justsc.

OMG… I was living at 518 Glenrock … the Mighty Glenrock .. Heather Locklear was a neighbor…. going through the tournament ….after we beat Ohio State … it was amazing … for the final game .. i had a house full of Alpha Chi Omega’s and we were going crazy … losing to Louisville .., if only Kiki had made that layup …. i rmember after we beat DePaul and then Ohio State .. Westwood Vilage went crzy !! god it was fun .. and CBS used the Kenny Loggins song ..“this is it” as their lead on for hte whole tournament and to this day .. whenver i hear that song .. it brings me back to those halcyon days at 518 Glenrock… the Mighty Glenrock … what memories.

OMG i remember sitting on the floor of Pauley Pavillion for hte SC game and the whole student section yelling " CARFINO … youre ugly"…. i was sitting on the floor of Pauley on the right side of the student section .. after the game .. we had a big ole party that we advertised in the PERSONALS section of the Daily Bruin .. it was :" TIE ONE ON" ….. everyone had to wear ties .. and rmember back then?? getting a personal in the Daily Bruin ?? how awesome was that ?

after that run in the 1980 tournament is when the UCLA Dance Team got discovered .. there was an article in SI the next year .. “Eight Beauties and a Beat” … it was a 8 page article/pictorial on the UCLA dance team .. i remember there was a blurb in either Time or Newsweek after the Final Game and in describing the game .. I remember they describe the UCLA Dance Team as " model actress starlet" girls … Julie Hayek was 10 feet tall .. so was Hazel Bracey ….and we had two hot blondes … Jayne Papac and Renee Gibson … we had Azeldria McCarne… beautiful black girl … KrisAnn Pulos… hot greek girl… geez again .. the memories

…..Rod Foster driving his black Trans Am with the license plate that read “ROD 10” on the inner campus with his X permit. My econ professor who didn’t have an X permit gave a lecture on how basketball players were more valuable than full tenured professors. Then the team was put on probation. Hmmmm.

Larry Brown’s stint as coach was around the time I was making shoebox dioramas for elementary school, so I had no idea the guy actually looked young once. Thanks for the photo!

Watching the game in the common area on one B/W TV that we had to hang a shoe on the tuner dial to get the channel.

Darren and Rod living on my floor.

Larry Brown bringing doughnuts while waiting for floor seats @ Pauley.

Going to the Chancellor’s residence and then to Westwood after the OSU game.

It was all good, even with finals.