Tom Gola and No. 1 La Salle

The 1954-55 season was my second year at Utah. We posted a 24-4, 13-1 record and won the Skyline title behind a trio of "B's": Art Bunte, Gary Bergen and Morris Buckwalter. We also earned a bid to a postseason tournament for the first time in five years.

But the highlight of the season was not playing in the tournament nor winning the conference. No, the highlight was traveling to New York City to face the La Salle Explorers in the Madison Square Garden.

La Salle's Tom Gola

La Salle was an incredible team. They were the defending National Champions and were ranked Number 1 in the country at the time. Their top player was Tom Gola, one of the greatest players in college basketball history. Gola was the reigning national player of the year and was in the midst of his fourth All-American season. Thinking back now, I'm surprised Utah was only an eight-point underdog.

I assigned Bergen to defend Gola. Unfortunately, Bergen picked up three quick fouls and I had to sit him out. Gola kept driving the ball straight up the middle and there wasn't much we could do about it. He had 17 points by halftime. Somehow we only trailed by three at the half, 41-38.

We changed our defense at halftime in order to draw some fouls from Gola's charging. He was called with two quick charging fouls and soon stopped driving down the middle. Gola only got one basket in the last half and this was the main reason we were able to build up a substantial lead. We went on a 14-0 run in a six-minute span and led 58-47 with twelve minutes remaining.

At that point we slowed things down and coasted to a 79-69 victory. Tom Gola fouled out with two minutes left, but not before he earned nineteen points and thirty-three rebounds! 

Bergen, Buckwalter and Bunte

Our Art Bunte was the star with 23 points on the night. But I was more impressed with Morris Buckwalter, who seemed to nail shots at the most crucial times and finished with 20 points. I was also very pleased with DeLyle Condie, who played admirable defense on Tom Gola in Bergen's absence.

The win lifted us to a #2 national ranking; we would finish the season at #7. La Salle, meanwhile, got back on track and returned to the national championship game, where they fell to Bill Russell and the San Francisco Dons.