Honoring the 1968 Basketball Champions

Really nice event at halftime of the BG game against CMU.  BG honored the 50th anniversary of BG's last NCAA tournament team and the last team to win the MAC Championship in its final form....as in regular season until the tournament started.

A few things.  First, it was awesome that so many of the guys came back after such a long time.  Even I'm not old enough to remember this team,  (although not by much).  It was just great that they came back for the day.

Second, I did not realize some of the long-term basketball success enjoyed by members of that team.  Of course, BG fans are well familiar with the success of Bill Fitch, who coached the team in his only year at BG and went on to be one of the 10 winningest coaches in NBA history.  (Also is top 10 in losses).  His video tribute was really cool.  He showed genuine enthusiasm and memories for his team and said he hoped to make it when BG gets another title.

I did not realize Bob Hill was on that team.  While not a great player at BG, he went on to win over 300 games as an NBA Coach.

And then there's Rich Walker, a highly successful player at BG and then a college coach, most notably at Florida International.

And then there's Al Hairston, who ended up as one of the most successful HS coaches in the state of Washington.

There was All-American Walt Piatkowski who played in the ABA.

Anyway, really nice event by BGSU and I felt like the fans really responded to the team.  As our old saying goes, Honor the Past, Create the Future.  Those guys are champions forever and Falcons forever.