The Bells Must Ring - A Rutgers Basketball History Blog: Rutgers 49

Rutgers Targum

Looking back 50 years, it may be difficult to appreciate how important the Army game was at the time. There were very few conferences in those days, especially in the East, and Rutgers was rapidly outgrowing traditional rivalries with Lafayette and Lehigh. That left Princeton which was still the most important game on the schedule, but Army definitely was next. Part of the importance was because Rutgers had not defeated Army since 1952, losing 11 straight games in the process. It's unlikely there was much focus of the length of the losing streak, but everyone from the era was well aware that Army was the only regular opponent that Coach Foster's teams had never beaten. Among those losses was an embarrassing home loss in 1967 and a heartbreaking one-point defeat a year earlier at West Point. The latter game saw Army take 40 foul shots compared to only 10 for Rutgers, a hard discrepancy to explain given Army's style of play. Adding fuel to the fire, which probably wasn't necessary, was Army's coach - the one and only Bob Knight who took over the program for the 1965-66 season at the age of 24. For those familiar with Knight's behavior on the bench at Indiana, trust me, it was mild compared to what he was like at Army.

Army player, far right is Mike Krzyzewski

Bob Greacen remembers that "Playing against Army was sooo hard. The Bob Knight defense was physical, of course, but it was the pressure on the ball and the quickness of each player and the entire defense to react to dribble drives and recover on the pass that made them so tough. I think their offense was more physical than their defense. They ran a continuity offense with baseline screens and they ran it and ran it until they had a layup. No shot clock in those days. Well, we put the # 4 defense on them, [a combination of zone and man-to-man] minimizing those screens. It was a low-scoring and intense game, with neither team holding much of a lead throughout. We finally gained a two-point advantage and possession of the ball with [7] seconds to play. They were in a desperation full-court press and someone saw Brittelle alone under our basket and threw a long pass to him. As he attempted the game-sealing layup, he was tackled by one of their big men, Gyovai. As he struggled to get to the floor, Dougie was punched by the cadet, precipitating the fight."

Daily Home News - February 15, 1969

Watching safely from the balcony (I had graduated the prior year), it looked to me as if the incident was the last straw in years of physical abuse from Army players leading to a fight that involved players as well as students. From his floor level view, Greacen recalls that "Reacting to Brittelle's brutal treatment, RU fans poured on to the floor and engaged with Gyovai and the Army bench which had cleared and was sprinting into the fray. Maybe they were just protesting an unjust war in Southeast Asia, but the students had the cadets outnumbered and were doing quite well in hand to hand combat. I was at half court and had no interest in joining in, so I looked at Jim Oxley, the Army guard whom I knew from playing outdoors in the summers in South Jersey and we kind of danced with each other." Order was restored, Brittelle was ejected for throwing a punch (Gyovai had fouled out on the play) and although Brittelle's substitute was unable to convert either of the free throws, a desperation pass by Army was broken up. The losing streak was over and Rutgers had one of its most satisfying wins in program history. Although Army would win the following year at West Point, Rutgers has won the last five meetings including a first-round 1978 NIT game over an Army team coached by Mike Krzyzewski.

Rutgers Targum - February 17, 1969

Interestingly Knight mentions this game in his book, Knight, My Story, but not so much about the game itself. After incorrectly stating that Rutgers was undefeated at the time, the focal point is NFL Football Hall of Fame coach, Bill Parcells then on the Army staff and on the Army bench during the game. Supposedly while Knight and the Army team were heading downstairs to their locker room, a fan tried to hit Knight with a program, missed, only to be "cold-cocked" by Parcells. Worried that he faced imminent arrest, Parcells told Knight who had the Army players surround Parcells as they walked out their bus without further incident. That was, of course, of little concern to the Rutgers team which had now beaten both Princeton and Army in the same season. Unfortunately, there was little, make that no time for celebration as the following night Georgetown arrived in New Brunswick for a game with postseason implications.