By Kelly Jones / Record Correspondent
STOCKTON — There was a time when the University of the Pacific men’s basketball team had to play in an opera house to accommodate crowds too large for its small gym.
Fans once resorted to making counterfeit tickets to enter rival games. Sports Illustrated dispatched legendary writer Frank DeFord — twice! — to see what all the fuss was about.
Longtime Stocktonians may have vivid memories of Pacific’s basketball prowess in the 1960s, when the team won three conference championships under energetic young coach Dick Edwards. But it distresses former player Tom Jones that younger generations had no idea.