UA coach Bruce Larson.
1. The ’67-68 season didn’t begin until Dec. 1; this year’s UA schedule begins Nov. 10. The ’68 Wildcats played just 24 games; Arizona has averaged 35 games per year under Sean Miller.
2. No live TV. The UA opener in ’67-68, against San Jose State, was televised on tape delay on Channel 11 beginning at 11 p.m. Every UA basketball game has been televised live since 1985-86.
3. On the day of the ’67-68 opener, the two lead stories in the old Tucson Citizen sports section were (1) Pueblo High playing Mesa High in the state football semifinals; Pueblo won 13-8; and (2) the Tucson Turf Club — horse racing — had a betting handle of $57,000 at the Rillito race track. Attendance at the UA-San Jose State game was 3,618 at Bear Down Gym, which was referred to in the Citizen as “antiquated.”
4. College basketball didn’t have a “life or death” quotient to it in ’67-’68. When the ’68 Wildcats played at UTEP on Dec. 9 — UTEP had won the NCAA championship two years earlier — the Miners were without Mike Switzer. The UTEP student senate barred starting guard Switzer from playing from Dec. 1-15 because of unpaid parking tickets on campus. UTEP won 67-66 in overtime.
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5. UA coach Bruce Larson had just one full-time assistant coach, Cedric Dempsey, who would go on to be Arizona’s athletic director and executive director of the NCAA. Now college teams are permitted three full-time assistants.
