By Woodrow Carroll
With each passing season, those who follow college basketball are wont to point out that the last undefeated (National Collegiate Athletic Association) NCAA men’s basketball champion was the 1975-1976 Indiana University Hoosiers. Just how far in the past are we now? With the death of the late of Robert Montgomery Knight (aka Bobby) in November 2023, all the coaches who produced an undefeated NCAA National champion are no longer living.
Keep in mind that the first NCAA National champion was in 1939. Oregon was the victor back then when the championship and semifinal games were held at Northwestern University in Evanston.
The first coach to guide an undefeated team in the men’s tournament was arguably the least known of the group, Phil Woolpert who was calling the shots when the San Francisco Dons ran the table in 1955-1956. Call on the likes of Bill Russell and K.C. Jones certainly helped, although Jones was deemed ineligible for the tournament final in 1956. The Dons ended up with a final record of 29-0.
By the time Russell and Jones donned Dons’ uniforms, the school was known for its up and coming basketball. San Francisco had captured the 1949 NIT (National Invitational Tournament. The Dons beat Chicago Loyola in the 1949 NIT championship game. At the time the NIT was viewed as the equal of the NCAA Tournament and recognition was forthcoming. Pete Newell was the USF head coach in 1949 and Don’s title was just the start for him.
Woolpert and Newell, who were once classmates at Loyola of Los Angeles, had their way on the West Coast in the 1950s. Newell’s University of California team beat West Virginia and Jerry West for the 1959 NCAA men’s tournament championship. The following season Newell had California back in the championship game. Only this time, the Ohio State Buckeyes were too much and handed California a 75-55 defeat.
The championship won by USF in the 1956 tournament was the second consecutive for the Dons. The previous season, the SF Dons finished on top by defeating defending national champion La Salle in the 1955 championship game. No undefeated team this time, however, because the Dons suffered a regular-season defeat to UCLA when Russell and Jones were juniors. Care to guess who was coaching UCLA at the 1954-1955 season? Try John Wooden!
Even though Russell and K.C. Jones were gone, the Dons opened the 1956-1957 season with five wins to bring the school’s winning streak to 60. That string of 60 victories was an NCAA record until broken by UCLA which reached 88 before suffering a 71-70 defeat against Notre Dame in January 1974.
The defeat that ended UCLA’s winning streak has been well documented. The game that ended the San Francisco 60-game winning streak is not well known. So, let’s make amends.
The Dons at 5-0 played at Huff Gym in Champaign-Urbana, December 17, 1956 and suffered a shocking 62-33 defeat to the Fighting Illini. The defeat broke USF’s long winning streak at 60 victories. The Illinois victory did little to inspire the Illini to great heights, however. San Francisco regrouped and finished in third place in the 1957 NCAA Tournament.
Even in the 1958 NCAA Tournament, the Dons remained a force. A loss to Seattle, led by the fabled Elgin Baylor that was good enough to finish runner-up to Kentucky in the championship game, closed out another stellar season for the school.
Pressure and expectations eventually caught up with Woolpert. In time, and hurried along with what many observers thought was a nagging ulcer, Woolpert stepped down as USF head coach after nine seasons. He was driving a school bus in later years and died in 1987.