Colorado State 67 - Rutgers 66

Fifty years ago playing in a Christmas tournament was the norm in college basketball.  While there were large scale events like the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden and the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, the more typical format was a four team tournament hosted by one school.  During the Bill Foster era, Rutgers teams never fared too well in these events and it wasn't until the beginning of Tom Young's long tenure that the Scarlet Knights won a Christmas tournament.  The 1969 team played in the Utah Classic, held in Salt Lake City and hosted by the University of Utah.  While Rutgers basketball wasn't well known in the West, the state of Utah was all too familiar with the Scarlet Knights after Utah State fell to Rutgers in the first round of the 1967 NIT.

That history probably at least partially explains why Utah didn't choose Rutgers as its first round opponent instead pitting the Scarlet Knights against Colorado State.  The game has to have been one of the most frustrating losses in Rutgers basketball history as Cliff Sheggog of Colorado State hit a thirty-foot buzzer beater to win the game by one point.  As it turned out there was no shame in losing to CSU as they went on to win two games in the NCAA tournament falling in the Midwest Regional Final to Drake.  Drake went on to lose to perennial national champion UCLA by three points and then defeated North Carolina by 20 points in the consolation game.  With the loss, Rutgers would face VMI in the Utah Classic consolation game.

Home News - December 28, 1968