Duke Basketball Report · Jul 22, 2020
You Tube Gold: Spencer Haywood
Spencer Haywood as a Los Angeles LakerThe 1968 Olympics may be best remembered for Bob Beamon’s insane long jump record, Dick Fosbury’s revolutionary high jump technique and a boycott of the US team by prominent Black athletes.
Among the players who didn’t go were UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) and Lucius Allen, St. Bonaventure’s Bob Lanier and Niagara’s Calvin Murphy (we don’t know if they all boycotted but none were on the team).
A surprise star was Spencer Haywood, who accomplished something we don't think anyone else ever did when college players were on the Olympics team: he made it from junior college.