Magic Johnson's recruiting visit

[SkitchPatterson]

I just started reading the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird book "When The Game Was Ours", and was surprised to learn that Magic took a recruiting trip to the U. Mychal Thompson actually thought that we landed him, because of how well the trip went. He was shocked to hear when Magic committed to MSU. Magic said that the recruiting visit to the U was his favorite, but couldn't leave the state of Michigan for another B10 school.

I thought this was pretty interesting...Oh what could have been.

 

[Brew_recruit]

just like we almost had darius miles and c-webb too.

 

[leftyslefty]

And.....

Glen Rice and Tommy Hammonds

 

[Mulligan]

John Wooden

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

John Wooden

From Wikipedia: After the 1947-48 season, Wooden became the head coach at UCLA, after negotiating for a three-year contract. UCLA had actually been his second choice for a coaching position in 1948. He had also been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest. But inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.

would love to know who the idiot was that failed to make that phone call to wooden on time! talk about dropping the ball. hope the fool was fired.

 

[station19]

From Wikipedia: After the 1947-48 season, Wooden became the head coach at UCLA, after negotiating for a three-year contract. UCLA had actually been his second choice for a coaching position in 1948. He had also been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest. But inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.

would love to know who the idiot was that failed to make that phone call to wooden on time! talk about dropping the ball. hope the fool was fired.

The weather caused the phone lines to be 'down'.

 

[woohoo]

From Wikipedia: After the 1947-48 season, Wooden became the head coach at UCLA, after negotiating for a three-year contract. UCLA had actually been his second choice for a coaching position in 1948. He had also been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest. But inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.

would love to know who the idiot was that failed to make that phone call to wooden on time! talk about dropping the ball. hope the fool was fired.

Inclement Weather = Fool?

 

[Brew_recruit]

nope!!!!

Inclement weather=GOPHERS CURSE

 

[Friend Of Tubby]

John Wooden

2 reasons that Wooden succeeded at UCLA were #1 the huge talent pool in Calif HS and junior colleges (that provided the great majority of his UCLA talent) and #2 the huge $$$ paid by UCLA booster Sam Gilbert to help him acquire much of that talent.

Hard to say what might have been, but neither #1 nor #2 existed at Minnesota.

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

Inclement Weather = Fool?

yep. always have a back up plan. should have sent the offer to wooden via morse code!

 

[SelectionSunday]

Magic only seriously considered two schools, Michigan State and Michigan.

 

[Friend Of Tubby]

Magic only seriously considered two schools, Michigan State and Michigan.

100% correct. Kentucky had a great in-home visit with Johnson but realized (after talking with HS coach) that he was ultimately headed to 1 of those 2 schools.

 

[watertown 1987 guy n]

From Wikipedia: After the 1947-48 season, Wooden became the head coach at UCLA, after negotiating for a three-year contract. UCLA had actually been his second choice for a coaching position in 1948. He had also been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest. But inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.

would love to know who the idiot was that failed to make that phone call to wooden on time! talk about dropping the ball. hope the fool was fired.

That fool is probably dead - bet it doesn't bother him anymore.

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

That fool is probably dead - bet it doesn't bother him anymore.

geez, do you think? i mean it was only 62 years ago. anyways, my point wasn't about how the "fool" might have felt if he would have been fired. it was about how he failed to have a fail-proof plan to contact what ended up being the greatest coach in college basketball history.