This Day in Buffalo Sports History: First time's a charm
Mar. 7, 1970 - For all of the talk of the great basketball tradition at Niagara, one thing was missing in 1970: an appearance in the NCAA tournament. The Eagles had played in the NIT several times, but had never made it to the national championship tournament.
That changed in 1970. Niagara finally got to play in the so-called Big Dance. What's more, it won.
March Madness was a little different then. The first-round was played not in some huge building like HSBC Arena, but in Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J. The Purple Eagles were rated as underdogs in the game against Penn, but they captured a 79-69 win.
Calvin Murphy had 35 points in the game. Murphy had been one of the great players in college basketball history, but this was his first postseason game. Bob Churchwell added 14. For Penn, Dave Wohl -- a future Buffalo Brave -- had 11 points.
It would be 37 years before Niagara would win another NCAA game.
---- Budd Bailey
