Feature: Tales from the Magical 1979 Championship Season
In anticipation of the 25th anniversary of MSU’s 1979 championship basketball season, MSU alumni Fred Stabley, Jr., ’70, and Tim Staudt, ’71, two journalists who covered that team closely, have recently interviewed the former players, coaches, media personalities and assorted other people involved with the historic season and collected more than 200 fresh, previously-untold vignettes for their new book, Tales of the Magical Spartans(Sports Publishing LLC, 2003). Stabley is currently sports information director at Central Michigan University, while Staudt is sports director of WILX-TV (Channel 10) and host of the “Staudt On Sports” radio show on AM730 “The Fan.”
The following excerpts from the book are reprinted with permission of the publisher. For more information about the book, visit www.SportsPublishingLLC.com. –Editor.
From Fred Stabley Jr.:
“MA-JEEK! MA-JEEK!”
Earvin and Cookie Johnson take five vacations each year but their children only make four of them. Each August, Magic takes his wife on a three-week junket to the French and Italian Rivera. They travel in style on a 180-foot yacht that has a crew of 12. “I just love Italian food,” Earvin said. “I’ve never had any food like it.”
The Johnsons usually spend their time relaxing on the yacht or touring the quaint villages in both countries. Just like in the states, Earvin is unable to keep a low profile. “Ma-Jeek! Ma-Jeek!” holler the natives when his yacht anchors. And, when Earvin comes out on deck, they applaud and announce to the uninformed, “He plays the baskeets.” Every once in awhile, Magic has to pinch himself to make sure all this is real.
“Can you believe this?” Earvin asked Cookie once while the yacht cruised the Mediterranean Sea. “When I met you, I didn’t have any money in my pocket. But, I told you I’d take care of you.” He’s lived up to that promise, and then some.
FOR THREE PIGS IN A BLANKET
Gregory Kelser and Bob Chapman like to tell people that they recruited Jay Vincent for Michigan State with “three pigs in a blanket and two large milks.” The two were hosts for the 6-8 Lansing Eastern High standout on his official visit to MSU, and they took him to the International House of Pancakes for dinner. “Jay went into IHOP saying that you guys should be pretty good next year,” Kelser said. “When he left, he was saying that we’re going to be good next year. “I don’t think Jay was going to leave Lansing anyway. He didn’t like road trips. One of my biggest regrets was that he was hurt, and didn’t play much in our championship run because he was so valuable all season long.”
A TALL TEXAN
He owns a 90-acre ranch some 30 miles south of Dallas. He has season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks. He’s a middle man in a tire recycling company. And, he’s a strong Christian who tries to make a difference each day. Meet Jaimie Huffman, 25 years after throwing a shoe and becoming famous when the late Al McGuire dubbed him “Shoes” Huffman during Michigan State’s NCAA regional tilt with Lamar. Huffman came to the Lone Star state in 1985 where he built a successful check certifying company and sold it. He was married for 10 years before getting divorced. However, it was his former wife (still a good friend) who led him to church and a Christian life. “I’m motivated by being positive and constructive each day,” said Huffman who was born on May 8, 1958. “I want to be a good example for others.”
Huffman is now a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and is a facilitator for a divorce group at his church that helped him through some tough times. “It’s a matter of giving back,” Huffman said. “I went through it and now I want to help others.”
Huffman has Longhorn cattle on his ranch along with some Arabian horses and a Border Collie. “I love animals,” he said. “The Longhorns can walk right up and look at you through the window.”
He hasn’t lost his love for sports, either, and basketball in particular. “I have tickets about three rows behind Maverick owner Mark Cuban,” Huffman said. “It’s the best seat in the house. All of the teams run right by me. The only bad thing is that Cuban is on his feet so much that he blocks your vision.”
The one thing that Huffman would like to do in future years is travel. “There’s so much out there I haven’t seen,” he said. “I plan on traveling a lot.”
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NO. 1
My father, the late Fred Stabley Sr., surprised a lot of people in the early 1980s when he was asked about his most memorable moment in athletics after 32 years as the Sports Information Director at Michigan State. Some thought it could have been any of three Rose Bowls his beloved Spartans played in or the 10-10 football tie with Notre Dame in 1966. Others were sure it came when he worked the 1980 Olympics and watched the United States win the gold medal in hockey after the improbable win over the Soviet Union. Nope! It was Michigan State’s 1979 NCAA Championship in basketball.
“Nothing compared to the thrill and the drama of winning the NCAA title,” he said. “The anticipation, the excitement, the ‘Magic’ of the moment was like nothing else. “The tournament run was wonderful, and then you had two of the greatest basketball players ever in the finals and a captivated national TV audience watching college athletics at its best. The media demand was incredible. I loved every minute of it.”
My dad had been there in late 1957 when the Spartans and Jumpin’ Johnny Green lost in a controversial, triple overtime game to North Carolina in the NCAA semis. MSU made no doubt about it this time around. Dad was pleased.
IN A SEA OF GREEN AND WHITE
Malcolm Moran had been at the New York Times less than three months when he was assigned to cover the 1979 NCAA basketball championships in Salt Lake City, Utah. “ll never forget the Friday afternoon shoot-around,” said Moran who now writes for USA Today and hasn’t missed a Final Four since. “There were probably five or six thousand people in the Special Events Center, and most of them were from Michigan State.”
The Spartans were finishing their workout when someone threw down a dunk. The Green and White faithful roared their approval. “Pretty soon, it became a dunk-athon,” Moran said. “The place was going crazy, and the players were feeding off the crowd.”
Moran was watching the spectacle with former Columbia University basketball coach Jack Rohan who was to write a scouting report for the New York Times before the championship tilt. Rohan pointed to the tunnel where Pennsylvania was watching while waiting its turn on the floor. ”If I’m coaching, I’d get them out of there right now,” Rohan said. “They don’t need to see that." Too late! The damage had already been done. Michigan State cruised to a 50-17 halftime lead the following night en route to a 101-67 win in the NCAA semis.
“I don’t know if Penn was intimidated or not but it was never in the game,” Moran said. “That’s too bad because Penn was a very good team, not your standard Ivy League team.” Moran also recalled that Michigan State and Indiana State were not the “big” stories entering the Final Four. “All of the interest was in Penn upsetting St. Johns and keeping Lou Carnesecca from reaching the Final Four, and the fact that Ray Meyer had made it to the Final Four with DePaul,” Moran said.
From Tim Staudt:
THE NICKNAME . . . MY VERSION . . .
When a story gets retold by people over a period of time different versions tend to emerge. In the case of Earvin Johnson becoming Magic Johnson, most all of the accounts I have seen are quite similar.
While Fred covered high school games directly, my workload prohibited leaving the studio most nights. I had to prepare late night sportscasts from my office while photographers along would shoot game clips. Hence I didn’t get to see Earvin Johnson play in person for the first few games at Everett High School.
Fred indeed did call me at my office one night to sound me out on calling him “Magic” and after a few seconds I replied that I thought the name was too corny. “It’ll never last,” I told him assuredly. I couldn’t believe some tenth grader possessed the skills worthy of such a name.
I’ve often wondered over the years how Earvin’s life might have been different had he not been known as Magic Johnson. Very few NBA fans ever referred to him as Earvin. The name Magic was perfect for marketing purposes and of course with Earvin’s personality the potential for growth beyond basketball was enormous.
His parents were never overly fond of the name, particularly his mother who is quite religious. She felt such a term implied that her son could do things humans otherwise could not do. As a basketball player such an implied term was clearly accurate!
I was never comfortable calling him Magic over all these years – I always told him that was a fan’s salutation. I met him as Earvin and I’ve known him as Earvin and that’s what I’ve always called him. He learned to accept people around the world refer to him as Magic and it never affected him at all.
It is arguably the most famous nickname in sports. And just think, my retort to Fred that night on the phone was “how about ‘The Franchise’? Even though he was clearly a franchise player for this entire sport, there was no “magic” in that name whatsoever!
TELEVISING THE MAGICAL SPARTANS
One of the great thrills I enjoyed early in my career was calling high school basketball games on the radio. And when the Everett Vikings and Magic Johnson were playing, fans listened to the games in the mid-Michigan area because the gyms were always sold out. In the middle 1970s local television stations were just developing their hardware. Video tape news cameras were not in use yet and neither were satellite trucks. There was no cable television yet either. The notion of a local television station airing its own version of live sporting events in a market the size of Lansing just wasn’t realistic.
But we had received permission to carry live the 1977 class A district tournament opening game from Eastern High School’s Don Johnson Fieldhouse. Because the old WJIM-TV studio was less than a mile away from the game site we found that we could get a live picture hook up with the equipment we did have. We had no trouble selling the broadcast to sponsors ad it was a big deal. Earvin’s team knocked Jay’s Eastern Quakers out on the opening night 63-41 and it was Jay’s final prep appearance. We had no technical glitches which was phenomenal in my mind since all of our people involved with the telecast had no experience with such a production.
The afternoon that Earvin announced he would attend Michigan State I raced into the office of my boss, WJIM-TV owner, Harold F. Gross. I suggested we should broadcast the MSU basketball games. He agreed.
“I think many people would enjoy listening to the games on radio,” he said. “We shouldn’t have any problem getting sponsors.”
But that wasn’t what I had in mind.
“No, I’m talking about television. We’ve shown we could do the Eastern vs. Everett game – let’s carry the Spartans on TV! We could do it!
We sold Michigan State on the idea for a very nominal rights fee because we told the school officials we were doing them a favor. Since Jenison would be sold out with 10,000 fans, many more would be unable to see the games. By televising them, we would be relieving some of the MSU officials’ ticket pressure.
We carried ten games during the 1977-78 season and eleven more the following year. We used our own crew of employees and we chartered a bus which took all of us to road games. Most of the telecasts were Big Ten games and our ratings were absolutely phenomenal. Remember there was no ESPN in those days and the number of college basketball games televised live across America in those days wasn’t anything close to what it is today.
We never had one on-air glitch. We didn’t have all the fancy picture equipment that is available and in wide use today, but we finally added a replay machine and I thought we looked pretty good.
I went on to broadcast Big Ten basketball for the conference’s network after cable television exploded in the 1980s and 90s – but I never enjoyed myself as much as I did those two years with the Magical Spartans.
My station was a hero to the community because we provided them free access to watching these marvelous Michigan State Players. And I’ve always believed that because more people got to watch them play on local television more fans were created and thus the frenzy for Earvin, Jay and Special K continued to grow through that marvelous two year period.
DICKIE V . . .
In 1979, the basketball world did not know Dick Vitale the way he is known today. In that year, Vitale figured he was just about finished with the game and was discouraged with his lot in life to say the least. He’d been fired as head coach of the Detroit Pistons after serving as head coach and later athletic director at the University of Detroit.
The ESPN network did not exist the year the Spartans won the national title – but it was on its way. The network was being formed and one of the producers had heard Vitale give a speech several years earlier before his U of D Titans were about to play in an NCAA tournament game.
Vitale’s enthusiasm as a speaker was noticed by others and he was invited to try out as an analyst doing college games for ESPN. He almost did not accept the invitation, but for the encouragement of his wife Lorraine. The rest, as they say, is history.
Today Vitale is 63 years old and is arguably the most famous broadcast personality in college basketball. He has worked for ESPN ever since it went on the air, shortly after the Spartans won in Salt Lake City. And he well remembers the 1979 championship game in which the Spartans beat Indiana State.
“That game, pitting Magic vs. Bird, created the unbelievable feeling for the world of college basketball on television,” Vitale says.
“It kicked off the unbelievable interest in March Madness. It set the tempo for the biggest growth in college basketball.”
Vitale, like so many others, was a huge fan of what Earvin Johnson did for his Spartans and for the game in general.
“He was Mr. Versatility.” He created the thought in other coaches that big guards could exist and distribute the ball. His kind of talent laid the groundwork for other players who were tall and also multi-dimensional. Other big guards who have come along haven’t been as talented as Magic, but they showed they could contribute big time.
“Earvin was so good with his passing and I loved his unbelievable unselfishness. He demonstrated that it is possible for a tall player to play three different positions well.”
The 1979 NCAA championship game still holds the record for the highest television rating for a college basketball game of all time. That year, 48 teams were entered in the tournament. In 1983, the field expanded to 64 and while ESPN does not hold the contract to cover the games live, its seemingly endless coverage during March clearly has helped lead to the continued growing interest among fans around America. And of course Dickie V has been the biggest cheerleader for the NCAA tournament of anyone on the cable network.
Vitale was the athletic director at the University of Detroit when I first met him during Earvin’s freshman year. The Spartans were scheduled to play the Titans at Calihan Hall in December, 1977, and Gus Ganakas and I called the game that night on local television.
We drove to the game together and arrived early enough to meet with Vitale, who Gus knew from his earlier coaching days. Vitale’s former assistant, Smokey Gaines, had taken over as the Detroit head coach and Vitale was trying any promotion he could think of to help fill his arena. Bringing Magic Johnson and the Spartans to town that night filled Calihan Hall with no problem.
Vitale couldn’t have been nicer and we shared a few laughs over a couple of hours of conversation in his office during the afternoon. Vitale’s enthusiasm and passion for his mission then was the same as it is when he describes a game on the air today. I made a comment to Gus after we left that he still tells others about today.
“How’d you like him, Tim?” Gus asked as we were leaving.
“My ears are horse!” I answered without even thinking about a line to use in describing that first acquaintance.
Vitale has been a loyal friend of mine ever since. He lives in Sarasota, Florida, where my family spends the winter and whenever I am there we try to get together. Whenever he calls a Spartan game I’ll try to help him with some advance notes that he might not otherwise come across. And he’s been great to me with countless guest spots on my daily radio shows.
The night the Spartans played at Detroit, Vitale decided to have a wild introduction of the Titans’ players complete with a darkened gym, laser lights, wild music and all that goes with current NBA introductions of today. And he indeed did fire up the crowd. But the Spartans put on a clinic that night and blew the host team out of the game early. Earvin showed the Detroit area fans that indeed a magical college career had been born in East Lansing.
ANNOUNCEMENT DAY!
Earvin Johnson’s college announcement day was the most notable sports day in the greater Lansing area that I can ever remember. Michigan State basketball had been down. The Spartans were coming off a 10-17 season with a grumpy coach named Jud Heathcote in charge and no one in town really knew whether this was the guy to change the team’s fortunes around or not. But they all knew about Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
In those days there weren’t as many media people around chasing the big recruiting story as there are today. It was pretty well figured that Earvin would choose Michigan or Michigan State – but it was a much tougher guess for everyone to pick which one of those two was going to get this prized player.
Earvin kids me to this day that I always said he would end up at Michigan. The truth is I thought he might end up there but I never said so on the air – anywhere!
The night before his announcement, Jud attended a dinner at Walnut Hills Country Club in East Lansing where I was present and I couldn’t read his body language to figure where Earvin was headed or if Jud even knew himself.
Driving back to the office that night to prepare the 11 o’clock sports, I heard Johnny Orr, the Michigan coach, being interviewed on Detroit’s WJR radio.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow,” Orr said. “We think we’ve got a good shot. We’ve recruited him well.” Orr sounded to me like he might know something.
The plan the next morning, a Friday, was for Earvin and his family to make the big announcement in the Everett High School auditorium. The microphones were piped around the entire school, but there was no live television or radio coverage. As soon as I got the word, I would call WJIM-TV and radio and they could spread the message.
Earvin sat down and asked, “Are there any questions?”
After the laughter died down he simply said that, “Next year, I will be attending Michigan State University.” With that I ran down the hall to a telephone and Michigan State basketball was about to change forever.
Earvin had actually signed the papers with the University the previous day. And he had made up his mind on Wednesday after a visit from departing MSU assistant coach Vernon Payne.
Payne had recruited Earvin hard, but right after the Spartans’ season ended, Payne landed the head coaching job at Wayne State University in Detroit. On that Wednesday, he had come across Michigan assistant coach Bill Frieder in an East Lansing restaurant, busy of course chasing Earvin Johnson for the Wolverines.
With that Payne headed for Everett High School and told George Fox he wanted to see Earvin right away. He told Earvin that he was leaving Michigan State, but that Jud Heathcote was the guy he still out to play for in college.
To the surprise of most, Earvin agreed right there on playing for Michigan State and Vern called Jud and told him to get the signing papers ready.
To this day people say Earvin never would have played for Michigan, but I do not agree with that. Earvin would have signed with Michigan State in short order had Gus Ganakas remained as the Spartans’ head coach. He and Gus had become friends early in his high school career.
Michigan knew there was an opening when Ganakas was let go and jumped on the opportunity. Plus the Heathcote personality was in mark contrast to what Earvin had experienced with Gus.
I thought Michigan did a tremendous job on Earvin during his senior year. Earvin wore Michigan clothing and he liked the Michigan players and coaches. Those in the Lansing area say Earvin never would have left and disappointed all of the area fans. We’ll never know but I believe Vernon Payne’s meeting two days before his actual announcement sealed the deal for Michigan State. Vernon Payne may have been the real hero for Michigan State in the recruitment of Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
BIG MONEY!
Jud Heathcote never coached to make money. If he had, who knows how much loot he could have pocketed. As a speaker he could have commanded sums that others could only dream of. His ability to ad lib, to improvise, to charm, to cajole and to make people laugh was as famous as his head thumping routine on the sideline during games.
But money was never a big issue with Jud. He lived in the same upper middle class home in East Lansing for his entire career. He had a country club membership and a car, but very few other perks.
When he arrived at Michigan State, his four year contract covered all of one piece of paper. He accepted a $25,000 annual salary, plus control of the summer camps for additional income and any money he could make from a television show. Except there was no Jud Heathcote in the early stages of his career.
“My salary was a bigger issue to my wife Bev than it was to me.” Jud says today. “I often felt I was getting paid more than I should. I felt like I was a professor, because I taught classes as well as coached and my salary, I felt, should remain in line with comparable professors’ earnings.”