By Bill Koch
UC fans who watched Loyola of Chicago knock off No. 1 seed Illinois on Sunday know all too well what it’s like to lose to the Ramblers in the NCAA Tournament.
Fifty-eight years ago, on March 23, 1963 at Louisville’s Freedom Hall, Loyola upset the top-ranked Bearcats, 60-58, in overtime, in the national championship game, preventing UC from becoming the first team in college basketball history to win three straight national titles.
In 2013, while working for the Enquirer, I called Larry Shingleton, who missed a crucial free throw in that game, to ask him how long it took for him to get over it. I had never talked to Shingleton before and didn’t know how he’d react when I told him I wanted to write a story about it. He couldn’t have been more gracious as he described how he handled it then and how he used his failure in the clutch later in his life to help others who found themselves in a similar situation.
This is the story I wrote:
The media swarm was nothing like it is today. Larry Singleton doesn’t recall a single reporter waiting for him in the locker room after the game to ask him how he missed the free throw that would have clinched UC’s third straight national championship. Three was no Twitter as a vehicle for UC fans’ frustration, and no SportsCenter or YouTube to constantly replay the shot that slid off the side of Shingleton’s hand and bounced off the rim.
After the Bearcats blew a 15-point lead in the second half and lost, 60-58, in overtime to Loyola of Chicago, teammate Tony Yates walked over to Shingleton in the locker room and offered the simple consolation of a quick rub of his head, which was draped in a towel. Shingleton then got dressed, left Freedom Hall with his family and his girlfriend, and drove home to Madison, Ind.
That missed free throw has caused him to endure what he calls “my own stress and pain” over the years, but rather than allow that crushing moment to define him he found a way to turn it into a positive.
Shingleton has never tried to forget that shot. On the contrary, he has a picture of it from a Sports Illustrated cover hanging in the room of his Anderson Township home.
“It’s always been there and it’s going to stay there,” Shingleton said. “It reminds me that the Lord has blessed me in many ways. There’s life after a missed free throw.”
Less than three months after that game, Shingleton married his high school sweetheart, Mary. They have four sons and 13 grandchildren and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 15.
Shingleton earned a master’s degree in finance from UC and is retired after a successful business career, at one time serving as president of four trucking companies. He’s had four season tickets to UC football and basketball games since 1964, only recently cutting back to two that he shares with Bill Abernethy, one of his teammates on the ’63 team, which gathers every year at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, keeping intact the bond they’ve shared for so many years.
“We were as thick as thieves,” Shingleton said.
In the fall of 1962, UC was coming off two straight national championships, having knocked off Ohio State in both the 1961 and 1962 title game. All-American center Paul Hogue had graduated, prompting head coach Ed Jucker to shift George Wilson from forward to center and Tom Thacker from guard to forward. That opened a starting spot for Shingleton, a senior who averaged 3.7 points that year.
The Bearcats began the season as the top-ranked team in the country and maintained that ranking for the entire season. They were 23-1 as they entered the NCAA Tournament, their only loss coming by one point at Wichita State. They beat Texas, 73-68, in the first round of the West Regional, and knocked off Colorado, 67-60, in the regional final. They blew past Oregon, 80-46, in the national semifinals to set up the title game against Loyola, which was 28-2. It was the first NCAA championship game in which a majority of the starters were African-American - four for Loyola, three for UC.
When the Bearcats pulled out to a 45-30 lead with 13:56 left, they seemed well on their way to victory. But Wilson picked up his fourth foul with 10:21 remaining and UC leading by 10. Soon Thacker and Yates would pick up their fourth fouls, too, so Jucker ordered his team into an offensive slowdown.
The Ramblers, who forced the usually sure-handed Bearcats into 16 turnovers, chipped away at UC’s lead. With 12 seconds remaining, UC still led, 53-52, when Shingleton stepped to the foul line to shoot the one-and-one bonus after he was intentionally fouled.
A 62 percent free throw shooter that season, Shingleton calmly swished the first one. Because there was no 3-point shot in those days, one more free throw would have essentially clinched the win – and the national championship.
Shingleton remembers turning back to look at Yates after making the first shot.
“That’s where I made my mistake,” he said. “Instead of staying with my feet where they were planted, I was so happy I made the first one I turned around and Tony Yates was behind me. He’s giving me the fist, like ‘Attaboy.’ (When I shot the second one) instead of my fingers flipping toward the rim, my hand was sideways when I finished. That’s why it went off to the side of the rim. I don’t remember anything after that. It was just a blur.”
Loyola’s Les Hunter retrieved the missed shot and the Ramblers worked the ball to Jerry Harkness, who made a 12-foot jump shot with six seconds left to tie the score at 54-54 at the end of regulation. The score was tied, 58-58 with four seconds left in overtime when Hunter missed a shot. Vic Rouse rebounded and banked in the follow shot for the game-winning basket.
With his basketball career behind him, Shingleton figured it was time to embark on the second phase of his life. He went to grad school and took the lessons about competition that he learned in basketball into the business world.
For years, whenever he saw a player make a crucial mistake in a big game, he sent him a copy of the picture of him missing that crucial free throw along with a message of encouragement.
“I would say, ‘This was me in ’63. There’s life after a missed free throw,’” Shingleton said. “I knew those individuals got blamed for the loss anyway, just like me. I’ve been there and I knew you have to look to the future. I never really heard back from any of them. I didn’t really expect to. It made me feel good and I hope it made them feel better.”
Shingleton has been asked about the missed free throw countless times during the past 50 years. He says he always welcomes the questions because they give him a chance to answer critics who say he choked in Freedom Hall that night.
“No way I choked,” Shingleton said. “I wasn’t a bit nervous. The ball was spinning, but it went to the right. It didn’t go straight. It hit the rim and it was bouncing around and I was praying, ‘Lord, let it go in.’ I just flat missed it.”
UC fans who watched Loyola of Chicago knock off No. 1 seed Illinois on Sunday know all too well what it’s like to lose to the Ramblers in the NCAA Tournament.
Fifty-eight years ago, on March 23, 1963 at Louisville’s Freedom Hall, Loyola upset the top-ranked Bearcats, 60-58, in overtime, in the national championship game, preventing UC from becoming the first team in college basketball history to win three straight national titles.
In 2013, while working for the Enquirer, I called Larry Shingleton, who missed a crucial free throw in that game, to ask him how long it took for him to get over it. I had never talked to Shingleton before and didn’t know how he’d react when I told him I wanted to write a story about it. He couldn’t have been more gracious as he described how he handled it then and how he used his failure in the clutch later in his life to help others who found themselves in a similar situation.
This is the story I wrote:
The media swarm was nothing like it is today. Larry Singleton doesn’t recall a single reporter waiting for him in the locker room after the game to ask him how he missed the free throw that would have clinched UC’s third straight national championship. Three was no Twitter as a vehicle for UC fans’ frustration, and no SportsCenter or YouTube to constantly replay the shot that slid off the side of Shingleton’s hand and bounced off the rim.
After the Bearcats blew a 15-point lead in the second half and lost, 60-58, in overtime to Loyola of Chicago, teammate Tony Yates walked over to Shingleton in the locker room and offered the simple consolation of a quick rub of his head, which was draped in a towel. Shingleton then got dressed, left Freedom Hall with his family and his girlfriend, and drove home to Madison, Ind.
That missed free throw has caused him to endure what he calls “my own stress and pain” over the years, but rather than allow that crushing moment to define him he found a way to turn it into a positive.
Shingleton has never tried to forget that shot. On the contrary, he has a picture of it from a Sports Illustrated cover hanging in the room of his Anderson Township home.
“It’s always been there and it’s going to stay there,” Shingleton said. “It reminds me that the Lord has blessed me in many ways. There’s life after a missed free throw.”
Less than three months after that game, Shingleton married his high school sweetheart, Mary. They have four sons and 13 grandchildren and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 15.
Shingleton earned a master’s degree in finance from UC and is retired after a successful business career, at one time serving as president of four trucking companies. He’s had four season tickets to UC football and basketball games since 1964, only recently cutting back to two that he shares with Bill Abernethy, one of his teammates on the ’63 team, which gathers every year at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, keeping intact the bond they’ve shared for so many years.
“We were as thick as thieves,” Shingleton said.
In the fall of 1962, UC was coming off two straight national championships, having knocked off Ohio State in both the 1961 and 1962 title game. All-American center Paul Hogue had graduated, prompting head coach Ed Jucker to shift George Wilson from forward to center and Tom Thacker from guard to forward. That opened a starting spot for Shingleton, a senior who averaged 3.7 points that year.
The Bearcats began the season as the top-ranked team in the country and maintained that ranking for the entire season. They were 23-1 as they entered the NCAA Tournament, their only loss coming by one point at Wichita State. They beat Texas, 73-68, in the first round of the West Regional, and knocked off Colorado, 67-60, in the regional final. They blew past Oregon, 80-46, in the national semifinals to set up the title game against Loyola, which was 28-2. It was the first NCAA championship game in which a majority of the starters were African-American - four for Loyola, three for UC.
When the Bearcats pulled out to a 45-30 lead with 13:56 left, they seemed well on their way to victory. But Wilson picked up his fourth foul with 10:21 remaining and UC leading by 10. Soon Thacker and Yates would pick up their fourth fouls, too, so Jucker ordered his team into an offensive slowdown.
The Ramblers, who forced the usually sure-handed Bearcats into 16 turnovers, chipped away at UC’s lead. With 12 seconds remaining, UC still led, 53-52, when Shingleton stepped to the foul line to shoot the one-and-one bonus after he was intentionally fouled.
A 62 percent free throw shooter that season, Shingleton calmly swished the first one. Because there was no 3-point shot in those days, one more free throw would have essentially clinched the win – and the national championship.
Shingleton remembers turning back to look at Yates after making the first shot.
“That’s where I made my mistake,” he said. “Instead of staying with my feet where they were planted, I was so happy I made the first one I turned around and Tony Yates was behind me. He’s giving me the fist, like ‘Attaboy.’ (When I shot the second one) instead of my fingers flipping toward the rim, my hand was sideways when I finished. That’s why it went off to the side of the rim. I don’t remember anything after that. It was just a blur.”
Loyola’s Les Hunter retrieved the missed shot and the Ramblers worked the ball to Jerry Harkness, who made a 12-foot jump shot with six seconds left to tie the score at 54-54 at the end of regulation. The score was tied, 58-58 with four seconds left in overtime when Hunter missed a shot. Vic Rouse rebounded and banked in the follow shot for the game-winning basket.
With his basketball career behind him, Shingleton figured it was time to embark on the second phase of his life. He went to grad school and took the lessons about competition that he learned in basketball into the business world.
For years, whenever he saw a player make a crucial mistake in a big game, he sent him a copy of the picture of him missing that crucial free throw along with a message of encouragement.
“I would say, ‘This was me in ’63. There’s life after a missed free throw,’” Shingleton said. “I knew those individuals got blamed for the loss anyway, just like me. I’ve been there and I knew you have to look to the future. I never really heard back from any of them. I didn’t really expect to. It made me feel good and I hope it made them feel better.”
Shingleton has been asked about the missed free throw countless times during the past 50 years. He says he always welcomes the questions because they give him a chance to answer critics who say he choked in Freedom Hall that night.
“No way I choked,” Shingleton said. “I wasn’t a bit nervous. The ball was spinning, but it went to the right. It didn’t go straight. It hit the rim and it was bouncing around and I was praying, ‘Lord, let it go in.’ I just flat missed it.”
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