Editor’s note: Long-time Bowling Green resident Scott Gillespie, now of Grand Rapids, reached out to BG Independent News about the upcoming anniversary of a basketball game that lives on in the memory of Bowling Green State University sports fans. Here’s what Scott has pulled out of his memory bank, those of players, old newspapers, and the reminiscences of a fan who was there.
By SCOTT GILLESPIE
Part I
Showdown with the Bobcats
The Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio, brought in its largest crowd on February 28, 1970, when 14,102 fans were in attendance to watch the Bobcats men’s basketball team defeat the Bowling Green Falcons 77–76, an attendance record that remains the largest gathering ever to view a Mid-American Conference regular season game.
That year Ohio finished 20–5, winning the Mid-American Conference and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. This coming February 28, 2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of that game.
OU had built arguably the nicest basketball facility in the region – the Convocation Center, and the paint had barely cured when the #3 Purdue Boilermakers and Rick Mount arrived in early December. Fresh off their win over Northwestern, the Bobcats took out Purdue. Next were #16 Ohio State and another Bobcat win…then Indiana and Miami (Fla) fell to the ‘cats.
As a result the Bobcats were rated as high as #5 AP and possibly higher in other polls. When the MAC season began everyone was talking about the Bobcat 5 and when they came to Memorial Hall in early January 1970 to open the MAC season, the Falcons were ready.
I remember that first game played in BG that January. I was a sophomore at the high school and was sitting down on the floor. What sticks out in my memory was the doubt I had in the Falcons being able to match up with Ohio given their incredible pre-season dominance over top rated teams. But we killed them in Anderson Arena. Not even close, the place was hysterical.
The second meeting in Athens, “the rematch” was highly anticipated and meaningful. The winner was assured post season activity. Talking with the BG News just days prior to the late February game a relaxed coach Bob Conibear stated with a wry smile, “We’ll show up Saturday. … We match up well with them”.
“Man, does that bring back memories”, said former Falcon and ’69-’70 MAC Player of the Year, Jim Penix.“If we would have played them another ten times we would have won them all.”
Rich Walker, another Falcon on that team said: “Our seniors played like warriors that day – Jim (Penix), Danny Mc (McLemore) and Sid (Rodeheffer).”
He continued: “The pain of that loss surfaces in me every late season at NCAA tournament time. We were better than them, but not that day. It was a great game and I recall the officials constantly having to move the huge crowd off the out-of-bounds line”.
Danny McLemore, another key member playing for the Falcons in Athens that day recalls: “Coach Conibear and his assistant, Jim McDonald, had us very well prepared when we traveled south to Athens for that game. In fact, I would say our preparation was very good. The bus ride to Athens was a normal one; quiet and business-like, we were concentrating on our mission and to play our best. The game itself was very competitive and fierce. It could have gone either way. It was a heart breaking loss. The 14000 fans didn’t bother me at all. I was somewhat used to it. We always had big crowds at home games and when I was at Libbey HS (Toledo) we played in the state final in Columbus in front of 15000 people.”
A jubilant Jim Snyder, OU’s coach from 1949 to 1974, tongue in cheek, remarked in the post game: “It looks like we have already outgrown the place.”
Part II
OU Trip 2-28-70
All Roads Lead to Athens
Gus Sonnenberg Remembers
I don’t remember the germ of the idea, or how we even got tickets, but six of us Bowling Green boys determined to go to the OU/BG game in Athens on February 28, 1970. At that time, we were all freshmen in college: Joe Glasmire and Steve Todd at BGSU, Marty Smith at Defiance, Bill Culbertson at Muskingum and George Riker and myself at Ohio State.
Of course, growing up in BG, we were all Falcon fans. At that time all the gyms at the university were open to us and we got to know the players, sometimes playing in pickup games with them, chiefly at Men’s Gym and even Anderson Arena. Practice sessions were also open and we could just hang around and watch.
Jim Penix and Dan McLemore hailed from Rossford and Toledo Libbey, respectively, so we knew all about them from Blade or Sentinel stories as well as the local television news. Rich Walker and Jim Connally were Detroit area guys Coach Conibear had recruited from his hometown, while Sid Rodeheffer, the team’s “Super Sub”, was a BGHS grad who’d lit it up at Bobcat Gym.
Even though many of us had left BG, we still followed the team closely. In fact, George and I had the Sentinel-Tribune delivered to our dorm room in Columbus, so we could read sports writer Dean Roach’s accounts of Falcon games. And the team was having a good season, with first place in the MAC and a possible NCAA or NIT bid to be determined at OU.
All this, and the undeniable allure of the bar scene in Athens (18-year-olds could buy low beer), brought us to the biggest MAC basketball game ever. Marty, who always had a car, (and who’s father Al Smith was the local Chrysler dealer and Falcon booster) came solo from Defiance to Athens. Joe and Steve drove to Columbus in the Glasmire family sedan and picked up George and me for the ride to Muskingum to grab Bill.
We headed south from New Concord through the rolling hills (What’s a hill?) of SE Ohio and somewhere along the way the u-joint failed. It must have been close to Athens because somehow we made it to the Convo before the 1 o’clock game time.
Well, the place was rockin’ and jam-packed; most likely the biggest indoor crowd any of us had ever experienced. My memories of the game are faint, but refreshed by reading an account in the March 3, 1970 BG News. Somehow we all had seats together way up high in the arena, across from the team benches. We probably stood and hollered more than sat and watched as the game was a true barn burner.
I don’t remember any OU fans giving us a hard time, just the usual partisanship. We were amazed at the arena; Anderson seemed huge to me, but the Convo was, of course, way bigger. Falcons would fall behind, but OU couldn’t pull away. Hard fought all the way with lots of blocks and fouls. Bear (Bob Conibear) did a great job of not letting it get out of hand. McLemore, Connally and Walker played their asses off!
Down by one, with less than a minute Bear had them holding for the last shot, but there was a miscommunication and we threw it out of bounds. Damn! I don’t remember the guilty party or parties. It happens.
Sadly, BG went down. However, all was not lost. Church Street, Athens welcomed us with open arms and we partied into the early morning hours. No one really had a place to stay, but we all landed somewhere. Think my bed was in a stranger’s dorm room, maybe on the floor. Somehow, Joe’s Dad’s car was repaired and we all returned to our respective homes. Sure don’t remember how that all went down.
