Houston Had Its Eyes on Ending UCLA’s Streak

Two giants of college basketball squared off in a historic game in Houston’s Astrodome 31 years ago, and the one with two eyes won.

That would be Houston’s Elvin Hayes, who had a career game, while UCLA’s Lew Alcindor--later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar--had maybe the worst of his college career.

Result: Houston 71, UCLA 69, before 52,693, at the time the largest crowd to see a basketball game in America.

Houston broke UCLA’s 47-game winning streak in a season when the Bruins would extract revenge at the Final Four in Los Angeles. There, in the semifinal, UCLA routed the Cougars, 101-69, then took apart North Carolina, 78-55.

But in the Astrodome that night, Hayes was magnificent. He made 17 of 25 shots, blocked four, took down 15 rebounds and was the difference at the finish, making two free throws with 28 seconds left.

UCLA shot 34%, Houston 46%. Although UCLA caught Houston at 54-54 in the second half, Houston never trailed after taking the lead midway through the first half.

Alcindor, who had sat out the two previous games because of an eye injury, wasn’t in focus. He shot four for 18 and finished with 15 points.

Also on this date: In 1980, it was Pittsburgh 31, Los Angeles 19 in the Rams’ only Super Bowl appearance. . . . In 1990, Bill Shoemaker won the 8,833rd and final race of his riding career. . . . In 1963, Dan Gurney scored the first of his five NASCAR victories at Riverside International Raceway. . . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would boycott the Moscow Olympic Games in protest of the USSR’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.