Imagine Loyola’s men’s basketball team winning a national championship. Now believe it.
The 1945 Wolfpack team upset Pepperdine College of Los Angeles to capture the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball Championship. Loyola still stands as the first and only collegiate or professional team from New Orleans to win a national title in men’s basketball.
Loyola was also the first predominately white school in Louisiana to recruit a black athlete, according to Charles Young, A’64.
Charley Powell was recruited in 1967 and inducted into the Loyola Hall of Fame in 1993.
The ‘Pack continued its success appearing in both the NCAA Tournament and Sugar Bowl Tournament three times from 1953 to 1958.
Gary Hymel, A’54, said Loyola was pushing to establish a winning basketball program during his years writing for The Maroon.
“It was a high pitch because Loyola was reaching for the stars in trying to go big-time,” Hymel said. “Loyola was reaching to become a big basketball power.”
Loyola never did achieve the success it was shooting for, but former Maroon writer and editor Lucien Salvant, A’54, said that a number of high caliber players followed Coach Bill Gardiner when he was hired in 1960.
“The ’60 class was a terrific group of freshmen,” Salvant said. “They were legendary by mid-season. They broke 100 points in several games.”
However, with the influx of talented scholarship players, the school began to steer its focus back to education. With that, Loyola decided to discontinue its athletic program in 1972 citing economic reasons.
“If they had played one more year, I don’t think they could have dropped it, because they were loaded,” Young said. “In fact, three guys walked across Freret Street and started for Tulane and gave Tulane one of its better programs.”
The “Golden Era” of basketball was over. It was not until 1991 that sports were reinstated at Loyola.
Over the last 20 years, the program has had glimpses of its glory days. The 1995 team made an appearance in the NAIA Tournament. This year’s squad became the first divisional conference champions since basketball was reinstated and finished with the first 20-win season since 1949.
Garrett Galuszka can be reached at
