Men's Basketball 1.13.19 by Mike Kern/OwlSports.com writer
Temple's run to the 1969 NIT title will always be one of the most memorable snapshots in the timeline of one of the country's more storied programs. Yet the irony is that the Owls almost never got the opportunity to make that moment happen. Not once, but twice.
"When people look back, that's the part they don't remember," said the team's best player, senior forward John Baum. "But it's the truth."
The landscape was much different back then. Only 25 teams made it into the NCAA Tournament, which UCLA and senior Lew Alcindor – who took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar three years later – would win for the third straight season in the middle of the John Wooden dynasty.