Reusse: 60 years later, Eric Magdanz still shares Gophers men's basketball scoring record

[BleedGopher]

per Pat:

The 1961-62 Gophers played Ohio State for two losses in a 14-game Big Ten schedule. They also had two games with Indiana near the end of the Hurryin' Hoosiers Era with coach Branch McCracken. The Gophers scored 104 points in both games, and split them.

On that first Monday in March, a crowd counted (not merely announced) at 4,975 showed up at Williams Arena to see the finale with Michigan. The Gophers won 102-80 in a game still notable for this reason:

Magdanz scored 42 points to set a single-game Gophers record. The record had been held by the great George Kline, who scored 40 in a 102-81 home victory over Iowa on Feb. 25, 1957.

The 42 was tied by guard Ollie Shannon in a 104-98 victory over Wisconsin on March 6, 1971, also at Williams. It should be pointed out this was the second-to-last game before Bill Musselman brought defensive devotion to the Gophers, and 24 years before Dick Bennett did the same with the Badgers.

Magdanz was 16-for-25 from the field and 10-for-10 on free throws with his 42. To get his 42 points, Shannon was 17-for-42 from the field.

"I thought Ollie's arm was going to fall off," said Magdanz, then following the Gophers as the boys' basketball coach at his high school alma mater, Minneapolis South.

60 years later, Eric Magdanz still shares Gophers men's basketball scoring record

Magdanz scored 42 points to set a single-game Gophers record. Ollie Shannon tied the record in 1971.

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

Shooter chimes in:

“I didn’t know it was 60 years — it goes by fast,” Magdanz said.

Magdanz lives in south Minneapolis. After graduation, he coached and taught at his alma mater Minneapolis South, then became athletics director at Minneapolis Roosevelt. He has had two hip replacements, a knee replacement and another knee replacement is forthcoming.

“I can hardly walk,” he said. “At least I can sleep at night.”

Magdanz’s 42-point game was the last of his junior season. There was no 3-point field goal in college basketball then.

Magdanz, 6-foot-6, was part of coach Johnny Kundla’s first recruiting class.

“I was going to go to Wisconsin because I didn’t want to play for (Gophers coach) Ozzie Cowles,” he said. “Then they fired him. Kundla took the job. He came over to our house — I think my grandma asked for his autograph. Sat down in that eight-by-eight living room we had. My mother was raising four kids as a single mom.

“We didn’t have a TV — we were really poor growing up. We’d make a batch of popcorn, then turn the radio on and listen to the old Lakers — (George) Mikan, (Vern) Mikkelsen, (Jim) Pollard, Whitey Skoog and that crew.”

After graduation, Magdanz considered playing for Minnesota’s American Basketball Association teams, the Pipers and Muskies.

“I found out I was making more money teaching and coaching, so I said forget it,” he said. “There wasn’t any money in it. I wasn’t going to take a cut in pay as a fifth-year teacher. I didn’t need that kind of ego trip. I felt I made the right move.”

Magdanz is a fan of first-year Gophers coach Ben Johnson.

“Done a great job,” he said.

Magdanz wasn’t a fan of the previous Gophers team coached by Richard Pitino.

“I got tired of watching that (Marcus) Carr just standing and dribbling the ball for 10 seconds till the clock ran down,” he said. “And then he had to shoot it or pass it.”

Charley Walters: It’s been 60 years since Eric Magdanz set a Gophers’ record

It was 60 years ago Saturday that Eric Magdanz set a University of Minnesota men’s basketball single-game scoring record with 42 points at Michigan. “I could have kicked it and it would have gone i…

www.twincities.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving]

“I got tired of watching that (Marcus) Carr just standing and dribbling the ball for 10 seconds till the clock ran down,” he said. “And then he had to shoot it or pass it.”

The whole world agrees with that.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Ah, the 60's and early 70's, when offense reigned supreme in college hoops.

I loved that era. Pete Maravich, Rick Mount, Elvin Hayes, Lew Alcindor (he did OK after he changed his name...)

The philosophy was "if we score 90 points, you have to score 91 to beat us."

Then the new group of defensive-oriented coaches came into the game in the 70's, and the philosophy shifted to "If we hold you to 60 points, we only have to score 61 to win."