Morgan Wootten, the future Hall of Fame basketball coach, arrived at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville in 1956. Two years later, due in large part to the great Archbishop Carroll teams, local interest in high school basketball was exploding. The city championship game between the Catholic league and public high school champions had drawn more than 10,000 fans to Cole Field House at the University of Maryland. Wootten dreamed of DeMatha being a part of it.
By 1961 that dream was becoming reality. The John Austin-led Stags played Spingarn in the championship game before 10,600 fans. Spingarn, behind Dave Bing, won the game, but DeMatha was on its way to national prominence. They won their first Knights of Columbus tournament later that year playing against the best Catholic teams from all over the country. The followed up with both the city and the Knights titles in 1962 and 1963. The Stags had arrived.
Wootten knew that the city championship games in basketball were out-drawing Maryland in their own building. The record crowd (50,498) for an event in Washington had been set and broken by two high school teams, St. John’s and Eastern, in a stadium the Redskins had never sold out. Wootten had played Landon in a match of the top two schools in the area in 1961 and drawn 6,400 fans to Cole Field House. He knew a similar event would succeed with a worthy foe. In 1964, that foe arrived. Power Memorial in New York had the number one high school player in the country, a 7’1” center named Lew Alcindor. Power was in the midst of a 47 game winning streak and was the top rated high school team in the country.
Wootten had been told of Alcindor’s exploits by the father of former Carroll star Monk Malloy. He called Jack Donohoe, the Power coach, that very day. Power played most of their games in a small on-campus gym and although they occasionally were invited to play in a preliminary game at Madison Square Garden, Donohoe liked the idea of a clash of the titans where two great high school teams were the main attraction. He agreed to play DeMatha for traveling expenses to the game.
One obstacle remained however. Trinitarian Father Louis D’Amico, the president of DeMatha, was not sure the game could cover expenses at cavernous Cole Field House. He suggested that it be moved to a smaller venue, Catholic University, where the rent was more reasonable and the school would not be exposed to such a large loss. Tickets would be sold at all Catholic schools and the Maryland box office. Father D’Amico could not imagine a huge sale through those means.
Wootten had 24 hours to find a sponsor for the game. He got Rod Breedlove, a Redskin player and college buddy to put up half the money and promised the other half himself after investigating the possibility of mortgaging his house. He went back to the priest and told him. When Father D’Amico found out Morgan was offering to put up his own money, he said “Morgan, if you think it’s that good a deal, then I’m not about to let you buy the game. It’s still DeMatha’s game, and it’s still at Maryland.”
In 1964, Power won that game, 65-62, in a tense matchup that saw eight lead changes in the second half. Alcindor scored 35 points on 16 of 24 shooting and grabbed 17 rebounds. Bernie Williams made a shot to give DeMatha their last lead with 1:17 to play, but Power Memorial’s Charlie Farrugia, the smallest player on the court, made a jumper and then stole the ball and scored again to seal the victory.
Power agreed to a rematch in 1965. Their winning streak had reached 71 games by the time the game was played. Wootten completely changed his strategy. He would try to bottle up Alcindor and make the other Power players win the game. The plan worked as Alcindor, guarded closely by Bob Whitmore and Sid Catlett, got off only 14 shots, making 7 for 16 points. The other Power players could not rise to the occasion and looked tentative. DeMatha, led by Williams with 12 points and Catlett with 11, scored just enough to win 46-43.
The rest is history. The two games were both sellouts and there were plenty of scalpers getting $25 for the $2 ticket. The Power win streak ended at 71 and marked the only defeat of Lew Alcindor’s high school career. Alcindor would later go on to win three NCAA championships at UCLA as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The win gave DeMatha national recognition and Morgan Wootten’s dream had finally come true.
(On Jan. 30, DeMatha will mark the 50th anniversary of its famous win over Power Memorial, with a brief film before the Stags’ 7:30 p.m. game vs. Bishop Ireton. At halftime, Morgan Wootten will offer remarks, and members of the 1965 team will be introduced. Tickets to the game cost $5 and will be available at the door.)
