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H O K I E G R E A T S
A season of firsts. A record-setting
year. A year to remember and to
be talked about throughout Virginia
Tech history. The 1966-67 basketball
team featured a star-studded line-up
that included two players who went
on to professional careers and a third
who was drafted into the ABA. The
Hokies were virtually unstoppable,
despite losing their leading scorer
and rebounder from the year before.
After reaching the postseason in
the 1965-66 season, fans thought
the Hokies would be good, but not
nearly as good as they turned out to
be. Opening up the season against
fourth-ranked Duke, Tech blew out
its opponent on a neutral court in
Charlotte, N.C. Hokie fans were so
stirred up after knocking off the Blue
Devils, a school-record 11,500 fans
filed into Cassell Coliseum to watch
Tech down Purdue the very next day.
Still to this day, it is the largest home
game attendance in Virginia Tech
history. At the time, it was also the
largest crowd to ever see a game in
the state of Virginia. The momentum
carried the team to seven more wins
over the next nine games, before
dropping a narrow loss to Clemson.
After losing to the Tigers, the Hokies
would win the next seven games
heading down the stretch, thanks
mainly to the sharp-shooting of Glen
Combs, who averaged 21.3 points
per game as a junior.
Tech averaged 78.8 points per
contestduringthememorableseason.
The potent offense contributed to its
run in the NCAA Tournament, where
it promptly knocked off Toledo in
Memorial Coliseum in Lexington,
Ky., after losing to the Rockets at
the end of the regular season. The
Hokies reached the Elite Eight before
succumbing to Dayton in overtime.
Despite being on the verge of the
Final Four and coming up just short,
fans remember the team as a run and
gun affair in the pre-shot clock era.
They also remember players like Ron
“Spider” Perry, Chris Ellis, Ted Ware
and Ken Talley.
This season marks the 50th
anniversary of this great team. This
group will always be etched in the
history books as one of the best
ever. There is simply no other way to
describe the 1966-67 Virginia Tech
men’s basketball team.
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HOK I ES
V I R G I N I A T E C H ’ S E L I T E E I G H T T E AM
It was a wonderful year. All of the starters could get out and run the
floor, and everyone complemented each other on the court. Some of the
players were interchangeable, and we were a good overall athletic team.
- Former Virginia Tech and ABA standout, Glen Combs
1 6 - 1 7 M E D I A G U I D E
#getB3 TTER #ThisIsHome
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