Supreme team: Lopes won 1st national title 50 years ago

The 1974-75 version of Grand Canyon boasted fewer buildings than basketball players on a barren campus.

A hoops team assembled on a $275 recruiting budget packed fans into a gym/chapel/banquet hall with a stage and a seating capacity of 500 to 1,000, whether the fire marshal was the one asking.

With guards as deft as the jackrabbits darting by dorms and a 6-foot-10 star who spurned John Wooden and Bobby Knight to play for God at his parents’ humble alma mater, Grand Canyon captivated its 1,036 students and Phoenix with a season that culminated in Arizona’s first basketball national champion 50 years ago.

 

50th anniversary reunion at GCU



The Lopes rolled to a 25-3 record before adding five tournament wins over five days to hoist the 1975 NAIA championship trophy in Kansas City.

 

“We reminisce about those days quite a bit,” said Mike Haddow, a slim 6-foot-5 guard dubbed “The Blade.” “It’s an experience that I wish everyone could have, and I was very fortunate.”

GCU is now a basketball brand and March Madness regular drawing sold-out crowds to 7,000-seat Global Credit Union Arena, where three NAIA championship banners hang.

The first national title could have come a year earlier, but a 24-0 team lost its regular-season finale and its NAIA tournament second-round game.

 

                     Ben Lindsey



Ben Lindsey, a 35-year-old in his 10th season as head coach, returned four starters for the 1974-75 season. The former Lopes star player (1959-62) warned media, “I feel this is our best team ever, but there is no way we can go 28-2 again.”

No, just 30-3.

The makings of a title team were largely formed when Forrest, who grew up in Prescott, Arizona, followed his older brother to Grand Canyon and ultimately played on the Lopes’ title team with both brothers, Jon and Truett.

“I guarantee, if you come here and play four years, we will win a national championship,” Lindsey said in recruiting to Forrest, whose father, Nelson, played on the first Lopes basketball team in 1949-50.

 

                 Bayard Forrest



Forrest, whose back issues ended a two-year NBA career with the Phoenix Suns, averaged 18.0 points and 12.7 rebounds over four Lopes seasons despite a dunking ban in college basketball at the time. He set GCU career records for points (2,195) and rebounds (1,544) that are as out of reach as the arena rafters.

He was complemented by David Everett’s playmaking and 39-inch vertical jump, Haddow’s shooting (“He saved our bacon so many times; he was a Jordan,” Forrest said) and Rodney Hightower’s all-around ability.

After the Lopes lost that season’s second game to snap a 19-game home winning streak (“That was scary,” Forrest said), sturdy 6-8 forward Bob Stout became the fifth starter and the team won 16 consecutive games.

“We had to play within the team,” said Everett, a 6-foot-1 guard from Rochester, New York, who paid Athletic Placement Bureau $20 to interest Lindsey into offering the Lopes’ first full-ride scholarship. “If we wanted to be individuals, we would’ve never won the championship. It was like a family. We did everything together.”

 

  Forrest block vs. Alcorn State



Once awed by larger schools, they turned awesome, winning when Forrest posted a monster game of 24 points, 24 rebounds and 13 blocked shots or when he fouled out.

With fast-and-furious defense and calm-and-cool offense, Grand Canyon played methodically to lower turnovers and wear down opponents.

The buzz built a following, filling Antelope Gymnasium to the point that late-arriving visitors were turned away.

“We were the biggest thing in Phoenix,” Forrest said. “That became an insane gym. The energy there was incredible.”

The capacity was not. Grand Canyon earned the right to host the district tournament, but the NAIA required a larger venue 4 miles away at Brophy College Prep.

 

                    Mike Haddow



Haddow still pushed the Lopes to the national tournament with 26- and 28-point district tournament games. Forrest was MVP at the NAIA Championship, averaging 20 points and 14 rebounds to get the Lopes through a couple close calls.

“I can’t stop him,” Forrest told Lindsey of future seven-time NBA All-Star center Jack Sikma, who led Illinois Wesleyan to a seven-point halftime lead in Grand Canyon’s second-round game.

“We’ll take care of it,” Lindsey said in his deep, trusting voice.

Lindsey asked Everett or Hightower to double-team Sikma on defense and moved Haddow and Hightower to the post on offense, allowing Forrest to move Sikma’s defense out of the paint.

With Haddow scoring 16 second-half points, the Lopes rallied to win 66-63. They routed Wisconsin Parkside 70-54 in the quarterfinal, a goal win for the Lopes because it ensured the NAIA would pay for them to stay in Kansas City through the weekend.

 

                     Ben Lindsey



Lindsey expected more, as his team ended the season on a 13-game winning streak.

“I’d run through a brick wall for him,” Forrest said of Lindsey, who remains GCU’s all-time wins leader with a 317-137 record over his 21-year Lopes tenure.

But run-and-gun Alcorn State’s 93-point average and defensive pressure shook Forrest, who told Lindsey prior to the semifinal game, “These guys are too good. We can’t beat them.”

“Bay, just watch,” Lindsey told Forrest. “We’re going to play our game and slow things down. They’re going to get frustrated and mad, and they’re going to lose it.”

Trailing 16-8, the Lopes patiently made at least five passes per possession and pulled away to an 88-68 win with Forrest tallying 34 points, 15 rebounds and 10 blocks and Haddow adding 19 points in front of 8,526 fans at then-new Kemper Arena.

A day later, a similar crowd watched Forrest record 16 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and four blocks for the Lopes’ 66-54 title game victory against Midwestern State, whose coach said in the pregame lead-up that he preferred to play Grand Canyon instead of Alcorn State.

 

                      David Everett



“We were trying to celebrate, but we were too exhausted from five straight days of playing,” said Everett, who was carried off the court by teammates. At 72, he is pursuing a GCU doctorate after a career of running his hometown neighborhood youth center.

Haddow, who coached in Arizona high schools and colleges and the Australian pros, said, “It was an amazing way to end your college career. There aren’t many players who get to win their last game.”

The Lopes toasted with pink lemonade and sang the Doxology hymn, “Praise God, from whom all blessing flow,” as the NAIA gave the tournament’s sportsmanship award to the national champs for the first time. The same team that won games by an average of 12 points shook the hand of each opposing player who fouled out.

“It’s the fulfillment of my dreams,” Lindsey said upon delivering the first of two national championships he won at Grand Canyon.

When the Lopes returned to Phoenix after the 1975 title game, their dream seemed to continue with about 2,000 fans chanting “We’re No. 1” and holding purple balloons on sticks in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport terminal. Sports Illustrated chronicled the feat, stating, “While Grand Canyon’s victory was divine, it was definitely by his design.”

“We were looking for an opportunity to honor God,” said Forrest, who runs FOCUS Ministries and lives on 35 acres in Colorado. “I never take off my (championship) ring. It’s such a valuable thing in ministry to share my testimony.”

Grand Canyon’s 1975 NAIA national championship team returned to a Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport celebration with about 2,000 fans.

Players from Grand Canyon’s 1974-75 NAIA national championship team reunited at a Lopes game in February.