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Exit
ing the team in scoring, Rutgers
reached the 1976 NCAA Tournament with an unblemished regularseason record and advanced to the
Final Four. After beginning 31-0,
the “Unforgettable Season” closed
with a loss to Michigan in the national semifinal and then a loss to
UCLA in the third-place game.
“Dick was certainly instrumental, the key guy,” Dick Lloyd — the
head coach at Rutgers when Vitale
was hired and during the recruitment of Dabney and Sellers — told
The Huffington Post. “His role primarily was recruiting. He went out
on the road and got those two kids.”
SPORTS
After recruiting them, Vitale accepted the head coaching job at the
University of Detroit in 1973. One
year after Rutgers’ memorable run,
Vitale would coach the Titans to
the Sweet 16. But that would be his
last foray into the tournament as
a coach, and Vitale wouldn’t reach
the Final Four until this year, by
very different means.
THE BEGINNING
On Dec. 5, 1979, Wisconsin visited No. 10 Depaul at Alumni Hall
in Chicago. A fledgling cable outfit
headquartered in Bristol, Conn.
— a town perhaps best known at
that point for the manufacturing
of spring-driven door bells — was
broadcasting the game. For its first
HUFFINGTON
04.07.13
Vitale surfs
the crowd with
the Cameron
Crazies before
the start of a
game between
the North
Carolina Tar
Heels and
Duke Blue
Devils in 2010.