Don Owen: NKU to face basketball royalty in San Francisco Dons

 (This column was originally published on Sept. 27, 2012)

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Under normal circumstances, these story links at nkunorse.com are reserved for Northern Kentucky University sports news and recaps.

I also never give myself a byline on stories or recaps. Just ask my assistants. Having entered the twilight of my career as sports information director at NKU, I'm not looking for clips or Internet links for resume' fodder.

I had to for this one, though.

A simple phone call from a friend – and several emails, too - made it necessary to provide a history lesson today about the University of San Francisco men's basketball program. Yes, the two-time NCAA Division I national champion (1955 and '56) University of San Francisco Dons. The team that featured future NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell, one of the greatest centers to ever play the sport. A program that later produced All-Americans in Bill Cartwright, Winford Boynes and Quintin Dailey, all of whom were first-round NBA draft choices in the late 1970s and early 1980's.

Don't tell that to anyone under 30, though.

After releasing NKU's 2012-13 schedule on Monday, I expected fans to be impressed by the fact the Norse would face Ohio State and San Francisco, two programs that have combined for three NCAA titles, numerous All-Americans and a lot of NBA players. College basketball royalty.

Was I ever wrong. At least, assuming younger fans knew about the great USF teams.

Having already made a major mistake by taking my cell phone inside a department store, I received a phone call later that evening after releasing the schedule. Caller ID is a wonderful toy, so I knew I had better answer this call.

“You made a pretty bad mistake in the schedule story,” the youthful friend informed me with a loud laugh. “You wrote San Francisco is a two-time national champion. I think you meant Ohio State.”

Now in a full sprint out the door to my car, I stopped. “San Francisco did win the NCAA title twice, back-to-back years. Ohio State only won it one time. It's right.”

His response stunned me.

“You had to mean in Division II,” he replied.

After taking a deep breath, I proceeded to enlighten him about San Francisco's program. Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Bill Cartwright, etc. I even told him about the 1977 San Francisco team that started 29-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation – more than 20 years after the Dons won two straight NCAA championships in 1955 and '56.

As the heckling continued, I told him that San Francisco even made the cover of Sports Illustrated in the 1970s. Not a chance, he said. “I'm not buying it.”

In this age of search engines and easy access to such information, you would think going to Google would have been his first move before calling me. As he would say, not a chance.

It gave me great joy later to email him a graphic I found – through Google, of course! - from a 1977 Sports Illustrated cover. There they are: San Francisco's Dandy Dons and 7-foot center Bill Cartwright scoring against Loyola Marymount.

After emailing him the graphic, I received his response. Something about 'Who cares about a team that won it 50 years ago?' and 'No one knows that stuff today.'

Someone does now.

To his defense, I also received other emails telling me that San Francisco is not a two-time national champion, including one that informed me that Ohio State won two straight titles in 1960 and '61 (I did not have the heart to reply to the person with the fact Cincinnati actually beat Ohio State in '61 – just Google it!). I ignored those, and figured if they read this column they will indeed realize NKU is playing a two-time national champion in men's basketball this season.

And Ohio State, too.

(Don Owen served as NKU's sports information director from 1993-2014)