With the 2020 spring sports season canceled by the COVID-19 outbreak, we at Fordham have decided to dig back through our archives and provide our fans with content on some of the outstanding teams and student-athletes who have graced Rose Hill over the years
 
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Bronx, N.Y. – It was 49 years ago today that the best season in Fordham men's basketball history came to an end with a win over sixth-ranked South Carolina at the 1971 NCAA Eastern Regionals in Raleigh, North Carolina.
 
On March 20, 1971, Fordham closed out a 26-3 season with a 100-90 victory over the Gamecocks at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of N.C. State. With the win, the Rams moved to number seven in the final Associated Press poll of the year.
 
The Rams were led by senior tri-captains Charlie Yelverton, Jack Burik and Bill Mainor, who all ended their Rose Hill with a 20-point game. Yelverton led the way with 25, and he added ten rebounds, while Burik and Mainor each netted 23, a career-high for Burik. Sophomore Ken Charles also had a double-double for Fordham, scoring 22 points and grabbing ten rebounds.
 
Fordham used a sharp-shooting second half (the Rams connected on 57.9 percent of their shots in the half) to erase a six-point halftime deficit.
 

The 1970-1971 season was one for the Fordham history books as Richard "Digger" Phelps came to Rose Hill and took the Rams to new heights.
 
"I interviewed for the Seton Hall job and didn't get it," said Phelps at the 2010 Fordham Basketball Tip-Off dinner. "So I was at the Final Four and started hearing rumors that Holy Cross coach Jack Donahue, who coached Lew Alcindor at Power Memorial and was a Fordham graduate, would take the Fordham job, Georgetown coach Jack Magee would move up to Holy Cross and I would get the Georgetown job."
 
But when he returned from the Final Four his wife gave him a message. John Druze, a member of Fordham's famed Seven Blocks of Granite, had called and wanted to speak with Phelps about the Fordham position.
 
Next thing Phelps knew he was offered the job and was told that there was this assistant coach at Holy Cross, Frank McLaughlin, who wanted to come back to his alma mater to serve as his assistant.
 
Checking over his roster, the first thing Phelps did was name his three seniors, Jack Burik, Bill Mainor and Charlie Yelverton as captains. He noticed that he inherited a 6'8" sophomore who could play center, Paul Griswald. Unfortunately Griswald was lost to a season-ending injury in the first week of practice, leaving the Rams without a big man at center. Phelps adjusted, using three players who were about 6'5" at center: Tom Sullivan, Bart Woytowicz and George Zambetti. He also decided to play a lineup of three guards, a unique concept at the time.
 
The Rams used the smaller lineup to press early and often, a trademark of the 1970-71 squad.
 
A few games in to the season the Rams were playing Holy Cross and assistant coach Frank McLaughlin proposed an idea to Phelps, start four guards. So that night the Rams ran four guards and Yelverton out on the court and ran over the Crusaders, 102-78, Fordham's third 100-point game of the year.
 

The Rams were now firing on all cylinders, winning 20 of the first 21 games, including a victory over the University of Massachusetts, led by a guard who would go on to the NBA Hall of Fame, Julius Erving.
 
Fordham closed out the regular season with a 24-2 record and received the school's second NCAA Championship bid.
 
The Rams opened the tournament in St. John's Alumni Hall where they easily defeated Furman, champions of the Southern Conference, 105-74, Fordham's first NCAA win. Yelverton (30 points, 19 rebounds), Charles (18 points, ten rebounds) and Woytowicz (18 points, 13 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles.
 
Fordham moved on to N.C. State and faced Villanova in the first game. Yelverton, who scored 14 of Fordham's first 24 points, got into foul trouble in the first half as the Wildcats were able to increase a 26-24 lead to an eleven-point halftime advantage. The Rams got as close as five in the second half, 61-56, on a Woytowicz basket, but a four-minute scoreless stretch do Fordham in as the Rams fell, 85-75.