The Dynasty Extended Beyond the Court to TV and Film in the 70’s
March 23, 2023
By: Denny Lennon, @SportsStoriesDL
Los Angeles (Hollywood) - With a run of 10 NCAA championships between 1964 and 1975, the UCLA mens basketball team and Coach John Wooden were not only center stage with whatever TV coverage that was provided locally and nationally, but they also took over basketball themed TV shows and movies that made their way to network and the big screen in the 1970’s and 80’s. To be clear, Coach Wooden stuck to coaching, but his players used the notoriety of being a champion to ascend to the little and big screen after they graduated.
As a young, hoops addicted kid growing up in Los Angeles, I was fortunate to come up in the 70’s when the UCLA basketball dynasty was in full swing. Being the last of seven siblings had its advantages. I not only had my own room, but I also inherited the “extra” TV. It was one of those Zenith models, black and white with the rabbit ears. The front room had gone big time, color TV with an oversized clicker that changed the channel. This arrangement worked out perfect for me. When UCLA had home weekday evening games, usually an 8:00pm tip time, they were not shown live, they were taped and replayed at 11:00pm on KTLA channel 5 in Los Angeles. Given these were school nights, after I “went to bed”, I would until 11:00pm, then trun on the TV and watch with the sound real low while my parents were asleep. Legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg would call the games, and in those days, he stood as tall as Dodger announcer Vin Scully in my eyes.
The rationale behind the 11:00pm delay was that if these games were broadcast live, that would somehow affect the ticket sales at Pauley Pavilion. While that may have been small minded thinking, what happened ended up making UCLA athletes, and Dick Enberg, bigger stars than they might have imagined. “Those 11 o’clock telecasts developed a cult following. They got higher ratings that Johnny Carson”, Enberg told the LA Times Larry Stewart in 1973,. Endberg’s distinct style was discovered by L.A. based sports network executives staying up late to catch the dominant Bruins. Enberg was quickly hired to work at NBC in 1975. “Oh My!”
Also staying up late to watch the Bruins roll up a 149-2 record at Pauley Pavilion (yes, 149-2, so many of the Wooden coached UCLA teams records are absurd) were television and movie executives in the entertainment business. "Hollywood” knows a winner when they see one, and given the rise in popularity of basketball in the American culture, UCLA players and graduates were locally based for production concerns and had “brand identity” both locally and nationally. Being part of a dynasty that won 10 NCAA titles in 12 years, including seven straight, and put together an 88-game winning streak will raise ones profile.
“Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up down the court for 48 minutes!”
Lew Alcindor, who in 1971 changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (KAJ), was the greatest collegiate baller ever. In three seasons (freshman were not allowed on varsity back in those days) he complied a 88-2 record, won three NCAA titles and three NCAA Most Outstanding Player of the Year awards. Pretty good run.
While still a rookie in the NBA, before changing his name, he appeared on an episode of the hit TV detective show “Mannix”, which starred Mike Connors. Connors, by the way, was a UCLA basketball player under Wooden before he was “discovered”. KAJ made an iconic appearance as “Hakim”, fighting opposite Bruce Lee in the 1974 feature film “Game of Death”. Kareem would go on to appear in multiple roles on film and TV, none funnier than his appearance as Co-Pilot “Roger Murdock” on the Jim Abrahams and Zucker Brothers hit movie “Airplane” in 1980.
(See video “Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up down the court for 48 minutes!”)
Ken Reeves 10, Bobby Magnum 8
One of KAJ’s (then Lew Alcindor) teammates at UCLA was two-time champion Mike Warren. The shifty guard made his shift to acting soon after graduation. After a couple TV appearances he was hired by director and film star Jack Nicholson to consult with the basketball scene in the 1971 film “Drive, He Said”, which lead to an on camera feature role in the film. Warren would make it big as Officer “Bobby Hill” on the huge hit of the 80’s, “Hill Street Blues”, but not before he appeared in 1979 as “Bobby Magnum” in an episode of the most underrated TV show of all time, “The White Shadow” (1979-1981).
“I told your friends not to bring that stuff fin here!”
Ken Howard played “Ken Reeves”, the lead character that had played pro ball for a few teams, including the Chicago Bulls, before a knee injury changed his career path. Kenny Reeves, good old #14 in your Bulls program, took a job coaching at Carver, a L.A. City section high school team in South Los Angeles. Reeves, who played his collegiate ball at Boston College, spots Bobby Magnum, played by Mike Warren, at a local park and beats him in a one-on-one game so he will attend school at Carver. Ok, look, no matter how many seasons he had in the NBA, no ex-B.C. guy is gonna beat a UCLA guy. The magic of TV, I guess.
(See video Ken Reeves 10, Bobby Magnum 8)
Keith Wilkes, who changed his name when he started his pro career to Jamaal Wilkes, never played with Kareem at UCLA, but he certainly must have seen his moves in “Game of Death” against Bruce Lee. Wilkes, a two-time champion and all-American in ’71 and ’72 at UCLA (everyone who played for coach Wooden then seems to have pocketed at least two national championships), starred in the title role of the 1975 influential film “Cornbread, Earl and Me”. In one scene, Nathaniel “Cornbread” Hamilton fights off two local hoods with some martial arts he must’ve lifted from “Hakim”.
(See video “I told your friends not to bring that stuff fin here!”)
Yes, that is a young Laurence Fishburne that plays Cornbread’s cousin. And yes, that is “Curtis Jackson” that played for Coach Reeves at Carver High School. Speaking of Carver High School and “The White Shadow” (the most underrated TV show of all time), it’s time to talk about the Farmer, Larry Farmer that is. Farmer played three season at UCLA, won three NCAA titles and went 89-1 as a player, the best winning percentage in NCAA history.
Bobby Selridge 15, Ken Reeves 12
So, when the record needed to be set straight with that Boston College boy Kenny Reeves, the Bruin faithful just need to leave it to Larry. Playing “Bobby Selridge” in a season two episode, Farmer goes one-on-one against Reeves to determine who would get a short term contract with the Portland Trailblazers.
(see video Bobby Selridge 15, Ken Reeves 12)
Down Goes Hollis!, Down Goes Hollis!, Down Goes Hollis!
Farmer destroyed him with those opening and closing dunks! Farmer had a quick turnaround from pro player to coaching with UCLA. He turned out to be the main connection for TV and Film casting agents looking for basketball talent. For the 1979 feature film “Fast Break”, Farmer hooked up former Bruin Mike Warren in a key role as “Preacher” and his best friend and UCLA JV coach Craig Impleman in the role of “Hollis”.
If Impleman’s name sounds familiar it may be from his two part interview on Sports Stories, or maybe because he would later marry John Wooden’s granddaughter and launch the Wooden’s Wisdom newsletter. Farmer played the opposing teams best player, Benton (#32 in red), in the climactic game, and he destroyed his “best friend” Hollis (#22 in blue) worse than he did Ken Reeves!
(see video Down Goes Hollis!, Down Goes Hollis!, Down Goes Hollis!)
I must give a shout out to the recently released book “Role of a Lifetime: Larry Farmer and the UCLA Bruins”, that was the catalyst of this walk down 70’s lane, if you’re a fan of the college game during those years, it is a must read. Also have to give credit to the newly launched “MeTV+” (because “MeTV” was just not enough), which has been running “The White Shadow” in its early morning programming. It may appear as this article is a call to the “good old days”, which it may be, but that doesn’t diminish the place that college basketball still holds in our collective sports memories. After all, one of Coach Wooden’s favorite quotes was “not all change is progress, but progress requires change.”
Go Bruins.
Denny Lennon is the President of Sports Stories, Inc.. and the Director of the AAU James E. Sullivan Award.
“Sports Stories with Denny Lennon” airs weeknights at 7:00pm (PT) on LA36 cable TV in Los Angeles and on CAN TV in Chicago.
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