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Closing Shot: Shot Heard Round The World

Following the March 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, NCAA officials faced a tough decision: Should the title game go on?

Indiana coach Bob Knight and his players paused for a moment of silence for wounded President Ronald Reagan prior to facing North Carolina for the 1981 national championship.AP Images

When Mike Boykin, fresh out of Ohio University’s sports management program, arrived at his 16th-floor apartment in downtown Philadelphia in March 1981, what he found seemed too good to be true. 

 

He was starting an internship with The Spectrum that paid $800 a month and allowed him to work with the Flyers and 76ers in a major sports city. When he opened the apartment door to find a fully furnished unit and a stocked refrigerator, Boykin, now president of Bespoke Sports & Entertainment, thought he had the wrong key.

“I took the key back down to the front desk and said, ‘That’s somebody else’s place,’” Boykin said before learning that it was, indeed, his apartment for the next several months.

Just a week later Boykin found himself thrust into one of the most intense environments any event operator could imagine.

On March 30, the day of the NCAA Tournament’s championship game at The Spectrum between Indiana and North Carolina, President Ronald Reagan was shot while leaving a Washington, D.C., hotel in an assassination attempt by John Hinckley.

The nation stood still in the early afternoon hours as it learned that Reagan was in surgery for a wound that caused significant damage to his left underarm area.

About 140 miles up I-95 in Philadelphia, organizers from the NCAA and the building met in a conference room in The Spectrum to go over all of their options as the 70-year-old president fought for his life.

The NCAA’s top brass, including Walter Byers, Tom Jernstedt and Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke, met with arena and NBC officials to determine if that night’s games would go on, Boykin recalls. That was the final year of the consolation game, so a doubleheader was planned that would also include LSU facing Virginia.

Boykin was in the room throughout the tense afternoon. As the intern, his job was to keep the coffee fresh and to make copies.

“They broke down every possible scenario,” Boykin said. “They talked about, ‘What if the president passes away? When would the funeral be? Could we play the championship game later in the week? Should we move it to the Palestra if The Spectrum isn’t available?’

“It wasn’t a room full of panic, but you could definitely feel the intensity and urgency of the situation.”

Reagan had recovered enough by that evening that the NCAA decided to go forward with the games, which included the Hoosiers’ 63-50 win over the Tar Heels for the title. 

The president reportedly channeled late comedian W.C. Fields when he joked after surgery that all things considered, “I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”  

 

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