Your first Uconn game

[storrsroars]

I don't recall who it was against, but would've been in the 76-77 season with the Hanson/Whelton/Weston/Abro/LaVinge crew.

I recall thinking the Field House was not all that much more impressive than the gym at Stamford High.

 

[J187Money]

89-90 season at Gampel. Don’t remember which game. But remember where I was for the shot. Buckley 511 North.

 

[UConnNick]

I'm sorry to have to say I had to consult the media guide to figure it out. It was the first game of the 1973-74 season at the FH, a 102-88 win over Yale. I will readily admit I remember absolutely nothing about that game, but give me a break. I was a UCONN student for the first time. Many of you know what that means. Diminished mental capacity is a given.

My first UCONN football game predates that by close to 10 years. My dad and I attended every Yale home game throughout the 1960's. One of those games was always against UCONN, always the first game of Yale's season. We were there when Gene Campbell intercepted a Yale pass and returned it for a TD and UCONN's first win over Yale in 17 games. The crowd of 40,000 went crazy. I was with a friend of the family UCONN co-ed I had a huge crush on. We were hugging and kissing. I was a not so little perv.

 

[Wise2]

I don't remember what the first game was, but it was in the Field house in the late 70's. I was at the last game at the Field house and the first game at Gampel...what a transition to make us the premier team for the next 25 years..

 

[Old school]

After listening to a few years on WTIC with George Ehrlich and bugging my dad to take me
to a game we finally in 1964 went to see uconn and UNH. Uconn won by 7 or 8, but the one thing I remember was Bill DellaSala heaving one from 3/4 court and banking it in, but it was just after the horn and didn’t count. Before the game was a preliminary freshman game and uconn was undefeated with Holloway, Bialosuknia, Penders,etc.
One of my other early games was seeing Bialosuknia scoring 50 vs. Maine. Would have been over 60 if there was a 3 point line!

 

[Waquoit]

79 UConn Cuse game at New Haven Coliseum with my brother who was at UConn at that time. Hooked ever since.

That was a heck of a game. Too bad the Morris Mountain never played that well again.

 

[Waquoit]

Early to mid 80s Syracuse at the Civic Center. Ball at mid court with seconds to go. Jeff King throws into the backcourt. Cuse steals and put in layup to win. Crickets at HCC walking out

That was the NIT Title year. Jeff King was able to make up for that bad pass later on.

 

[ClassOf2021]

I consulted the UConn oracle on the Twitter and here was his response:



Williams Hits Game-Winner To Send No. 2 Huskies Over LSU, 67-66

MBB: 1/7/2006 – #2 UConn vs. LSU (W, 67-66)

Ring any bells?

Hmmm I feel like I would have remembered that it was so close, but who knows lol. I think it was definitely that game or the Georgetown game, I'll probably never know for sure which one it was.

 

[Greenback]

January 1978 UConn defeated umass Hartford civic center

 

[Waquoit]

January 1978 UConn defeated umass Hartford civic center

So do you feel lucky to be alive?

 

[Greenback]

So do you feel lucky to be alive?

I definitely appreciate how lucky I was now.

 

[gtcam]

I was going since 1961 but the first game I remember a lot about was vs. URI 1965 when they had Art Stepheson and UConn had Wes B and Toby K. It was in RI at an arena in Providence and we went with Walt Dropo who was my fathers roommate and frat brother when they went to UConn (my Dad was a sophomore and Walt was a senior and became fast friends). My greatest memory of those early years was watching Wes B break a record for a game high which helped him be the nations leading scorer in the fieldhouse vs Maine in 1967. That was our second year of season tickets and we were in Row CC (amazing how you remember those kind of things).

 

[Excalibur]

February 20, 1988 vs. Syracuse. UConn inbounding at mid court, tie game. Jeff King throws it right to Stevie Thompson, breakaway dunk, we lose.

Edit: didn't read the thread. I see others got that great introduction as well . . .

 

[HuskyV]

Nov 1985 freshman year at the Fieldhouse probably Yale. Earl Kelley was the man. Cliff and Phil were freshmen. Tim Coles and GerryBesselink were undersized big guys.

Later that season UConn beat Pitt in the last BigEast game in the Fieldhouse. The BE minimum seating requirement went into effect 86-87, so all BE games would have to be played in Hartford for the balance of my years in Storrs.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't remember the exact game but remember it was 1980 in the Civic Center and thinking Mike McKay dunking was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was the first time I'd ever seen anyone dunk live before.

Mine was around then. My dad worked for The Hartford and they had a box. So we’d go to UConn and Whalers games whenever it was open. No real luxury like today. I cant recall a specific game but it was very late 70s or 1980. Loved those teams.

Went to UConn in 1984, so many games in the Field House. Had student tickets (courtesy of my sister and an illegal student sticker) when Gampel opened just as I had graduated. So I was behind the basket, row 2-3 for St, Johns on game #1.

 

[Dibbie]

I don't remember the first game, but I had season tickets my first year at Storrs in 1989. That was their first big season where they went 31-6. I grew up a St John's fan, loved Mullin and Louie C., so I evolved to the Husky Blue that year.

I admit it, I was torn when they played StJohns that year at Gampel, but not so much afterwards. I always tell people Uconn is the only team where I change loyalties.

 

[UConnNick]

I don't remember the exact game but remember it was 1980 in the Civic Center and thinking Mike McKay dunking was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was the first time I'd ever seen anyone dunk live before.

You were actually brave enough to face the mean streets of Hartford? Was it daytime or nightime?

 

[UConnNick]

That counts. I meant just the first game you watched. In the '50s games were not on tv, it was all so small time compared to now you young guys can't imagine. I never thought I would see Uconn achive what has transpired the last 20 years.

If TV counts my first game was likely an NCAA tourney game around 1963-64. I was too young to remember much about it. We watched every game that was on TV through the 60's and early 70's. I distinctly remember watching the first round NCAA loss to BS College in Bialosuknia's senior season (66-67). We lost to those turds 48-42 at Keaney Gym on the URI campus. I believe Kara Wolter's father Willie played on that Beagles team.

Channel 8 in New Haven, with Dick Galiette and "Tiny" Markle. Most of the games in those days were only on WTIC radio, with George Ehrlich. We spent many cold winter nights watching or listening to those games.

 

[UConnNick]

We never went to many college games when I was a kid. Couldn't make it on weeknights and I was always playing basketball on Saturdays. Plus my old man had Jets season tickets (woof) so that was where our money for sports tickets went. First game was Donyell's sophomore season at the HCC. I think we played Seton Hall but I can't remember. It was a victory. It took me a very long time to get up to Gampel, first game was vs Notre Dame in 2009. Still only been there four times. Stating the obvious but it's so much better to watch a game there than the XL Center.

Jets season tickets...you truly know what suffering really is.

 

[Giscombe12]

Sometime during the 81-82 season. Lots of games between then & the mid-2000s.

I was at the Jeff King-Cuse game as well. Brutal. Being at the VCU game a month later made up for that.

One of my favorite memories was being at the final home game in 86-87 against Seton Hall. The CC was dead & I moved down from our seats in the 200s & sat right two rows behind the bench. In the row in front of me were the suspended Phil Gamble & Cliff Robinson. They signed my program but that’s been lost over the years.

Going to so many games in the mid-80s, I will never not be amazed at how far this program has come, even if it falls all the way to the bottom. I don’t think it will but who knows what can happen.

I can’t wait for the Hurley era to begin.

 

[TRest]

Freshman year in the Fieldhouse fall 1979, went to most games but can’t remember first opponent.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

2005 vs. St. John's at Gampel. All I remember is Marcus Williams and eating a pretzel.
I think my dad saw them sometime in the 1700s or something.

 

[TheChamps990411]

My first game was Jan. 15 1990 against Syracuse. I was in middle school and and my friends had been going on about Uconn for a bit but i had never watched a college game in my life nevermind a Uconn game. They kept going on and on about a big game so i decided to tune in that night and i was hooked!!! I couldnt believe i was completely into it from the opening tip. It was just an exciting game that Uconn ultimately won which made it one of the most exciting sporting events id ever seen. Ive been hooked since. Sometimes i wonder what wouldve happened had Syracuse blown us out in that game. I might not have become a fan or an even worse thought maybe id of been so impressed by Cuse i mightve become a fan lol! I was an impressionable 13 year old after all.

 

[BigV3032]

1988-1989 UConn vs Georgetown @ The Civic Center. Sat on the floor behind the basket with my Dad and some of his friends that he worked with at Hartford Distributors(HDI). Alonzo Mourning dunked and came over and touched my head. Pretty cool for a first game.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

My first game was the first game ever at Gampel Pavilion against St. Johns. The team had just cracked the Top 25 for the first time in who knows how long after beating Georgetown and Syracuse. St. Johns had taken UConn behind the woodshed earlier in the season, but played great that night against St. Johns to get the win.

I hadn't been a UConn fan as a kid, so when I got to UConn, I didn't get what the big deal was about the team's success that season. I figured it would always be like that. And for most of the program's next 24 years, it was.