Augustana College Athletics

Thirty-nine seasons have gone by in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin since a men’s basketball team last negotiated the league schedule with an undefeated record. Coach Jim Borcherding’s 1972-73 Augustana Vikings hold the distinction of being the last to do so. The team’s 16-0 mark in conference play was a prelude to a post-season run which resulted in a third-place finish at the 1973 NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. The Vikings finished with a record of 29-2, which is still the school record for wins in a season.

Borcherding’s veteran crew featured four senior starters—center John Laing, forward Chuck Menzer  and guards Mark Brooks and Drew Boster—as well as sophomore Bruce Hamming, who at 6’ 11”, teamed with the 7’ 0” Laing to give Augustana twin towers on the front line. Borcherding and assistant Dave Langrock could also count on sharp-shooting senior sixth man Jim VanDeCasteele to provide offense off the bench.

The Vikings went through the season’s first nine games undefeated before falling 64-63 to powerful Sam Houston State in the finals of the Quincy College Holiday Tournament. That would be the team’s last loss for more than two and a half months.

As it rolled to win after win, the team continued to capture the interest of the Quad-City community. However, it wasn’t just the local media that was taking notice. Sports Illustrated ran a feature on the Vikings in its January 22, 1973 edition entitled “The Swedes are Meatballs No More.”

Along the way to its perfect CCIW record, the team spent an interesting weekend in Wisconsin in early February. On consecutive nights, both Carthage and Carroll attempted to slow the Augustana juggernaut by holding the ball. In an era before the shot clock, the tactics worked—to a degree. The Redmen, who had been throttled by 38 points in their visit to Carver Center, stayed close, but fell 37-34. The next night Carroll, which had suffered a 45-point beating in Rock Island, was even more successful at keeping the score down, but still dropped the lowest-scoring game in league history, 12-6.

A pair of lopsided wins over Quincy and McKendree in the NAIA District 20 playoffs earned Augustana its second straight trip to the national tournament in Kansas City. The Vikings advanced to the quarterfinals of the 32-team tourney with close wins over Hanover (66-65) and Defiance (64-61). A 63-46 win over Oklahoma Baptist put them in the semifinals against a Guilford team led by future NBA standouts Lloyd (later World B.) Free and M.L. Carr. The Quakers got the better of Augustana 77-69, but the Vikings rebounded to defeat Slippery Rock 96-93 in the third-place game for their 29th and final win of a remarkable season.

To this day, Laing remains the school’s all-time scoring and rebounding leader with Hamming ranking third in each category. Boster still stands as the Viking career assist leader and Brooks and Menzer still rank among Augustana’s top 10 all-time scorers.