‘Boise State Warriors’: How recently honored 1976 basketball team made history
Playing in just the second game of the 1975-76 season, Boise State guard Terry Miller went flying through the air to meet an opponent from UC Santa Barbara at the rim.
Sending the ball bouncing away after a big block, Miller thought it was a job well done — until the foe came down hard on Miller’s leg, forcing his knee to hyperextend.
The injury forced Miller to the bench, and as he stood there, leaning on crutches, he watched team leader Pat Hoke also go down injured, requiring a second pair of crutches to be fetched from the team bus.
The Broncos went on to lose that game 81-60, but there was no time to sulk. They had to pack back onto the bus, ice their wounds and prepare for a game the following night against Fresno State.
That was followed by a commercial flight to the Midwest to take on the Kansas Jayhawks just five days later, and then another game at Arkansas just 24 hours after that.
But injuries be damned, everyone on the team was ready to go.
“Instead of the Boise State Broncos, our team. ... I look at it as the Boise State Warriors,” Miller told the Idaho Statesman.
Sitting in a back room at ExtraMile Arena last weekend, Miller clasped hands with old teammate Steve Barrett, who helped pull him to his feet after an hourlong interview with the Statesman.
The pair were back in town to be honored on the 50th anniversary of Boise State men’s basketball’s first-ever conference championship, with both Miller and Barrett playing key roles in securing the 1975-76 Big Sky title, which earned BSU its first NCAA Tournament berth.
It was a scene you would have seen half a century earlier, when Barrett would help Miller off the hardwood floor after a bang-bang play. This time Barrett was helping him climb off a plush couch that provided a bit too much resistance when it came to Miller’s well-beaten knees.
“I would really like to do it again. All the pain, all the heartache, all the blood, all the sweat, all the broken bones,” Barrett said with a smile.
He had to stand up mid-interview to help his own creaky knees.
“And I would really like to do it again with the guys that I did it with.”
Reaching the pinnacle at Boise State
Over the first seven seasons of its existence, Boise State basketball enjoyed just two winning seasons. And in the early days of that 1975-76 hoops calendar, it looked as if a streak of nonwinning seasons since joining the Big Sky would stretch to six.
The Broncos lost all five games in their season-opening road trip, with Miller describing the team as “cannon fodder” and the games as a tool to earn some money.
But as soon as the team returned to Bronco Gym to regroup, wins started to flow. The Broncos beat Cal State Fullerton at home, and then won two huge road games, at Montana and Montana State.
“I think the key to that whole season is the first two conference games on the road at Montana and Montana State,” Barrett said. “Back at that time, it was very difficult to win on the road.”
The team featured some names that still stand in the Boise State record books.
There was Steve Connor, who sits fourth in all-time scoring (1,927 points) and assists (385). He was the son of head coach Bus Connor, who passed away last month.
The Broncos also featured Trent Johnson and Pat Hoke, who sit fifth and eighth, respectively, in career rebounds.
Picked to finish seventh in the eight-team Big Sky, Boise State went on to tie for first place with a 9-5 record. But a regular-season title wouldn’t be the end of the fairy tale for these Warriors.
The season-ending tiebreakers didn’t fall the Broncos’ way, forcing them to face Idaho State in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals in Ogden, Utah.
“We hadn’t beaten them in several years. ... They had a really sound team,” Miller recalled.
The Bengals boasted three future NBA players: Steve Hayes, Jeff Cook and Greg Griffin. But against the odds, Boise State churned out a 93-81 victory to set up a championship date with tournament hosts Weber State.
Down by six points with 90 seconds to go in the championship game, the Wildcats crumbled under pressure at the free-throw line, Miller said. Miss after miss were countered by a couple of 15-foot bank shots from Miller, and a big rebound from Barrett helped send the game to overtime.
Miller said Weber State suddenly becoming very “tentative” as the surging Broncos sent the fans inside Swenson Gym into a hush. By the end of two overtime periods, Boise State had a 77-70 victory.
The thick wooden championship trophy that team earned, adorned with a silver model of a basketball player, was greeted by cheers at halftime of Boise State’s 84-69 win over San Jose State last weekend.
“We reached our potential, and then shortly after that (win), we realized how good it was to reach that pinnacle,” Miller said. “But now that we’re older, it means that much more.”
‘We were part of it together’
The 1975-76 team’s reward for the Big Sky Tournament win was being able to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
Things were different then. Way different. There was no Selection Sunday TV show, no wall-to-wall TV coverage, and the tourney was only 32 teams.
The Broncos wouldn’t make another tournament appearance until 1988, when the field had expanded to 64. They still have yet to win a March Madness game — 10 losses in 10 bids.
The first of those tournament losses came in 1976 when the Broncos were paired against No. 4 UNLV. Future Hall of Fame coach and 1990 champion Jerry Tarkanian led a Rebels squad that featured seven future NBA players, including two-time NBA All-Star Reggie Theus and 1979 NBA champion Jackie Robinson.
“Every team we played had All-Americans and 7-footers and NBA guys,” Barrett said. “We didn’t have that, but we competed because we all did it together.”
The Broncos battled UNLV with all they had, trailing by nine points at halftime and hanging within a few possessions with just five minutes left in the game. Miller said he recalled Barrett flying across the court to dive for a loose ball, sending the mostly Oregon-based crowd into a frenzy in Eugene.
Ultimately, though, the Rebels’ depth and talent won out. A frantic final five minutes saw UNLV pull away to a 103-78 victory.
“How many people in the last 50 years can say that they played in the NCAA Tournament?” Barrett said. “That number is pretty small in relation to the number of players, and I was one of them.
“That, to me, is pretty cool. Win or lose, we were part of it together.”
