Wiedmer: Bert Bertelkamp still relishes Vols' 1979 SEC tourney title

March 3, 1979. Jimmy Carter was in the White House. Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" was atop Billboard's Hot 100. Regular unleaded gasoline was 75 cents a gallon. ESPN was still 188 days away from going on the air for the first time.

And by 10 o'clock that long-ago Saturday night, the Tennessee Volunteers were cutting down the nets inside the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center as SEC tournament champs, a feat they have yet to repeat heading into this week's tourney in St. Louis.

At least UT radio color analyst Bert Bertelkamp thinks they cut down the nets following that 75-69 overtime victory over Kentucky.

"That was a long time ago," the former Vols guard said by phone Tuesday morning, one day before he was expected to fly with the team to the Gateway to the West. "It's not like it is now with television cameras and confetti and all. I know I never got a piece of those nets. We didn't plan that out too well, I guess. I think one of our players may have taken home a whole net."

To put these past 39 years into perspective regarding the Big Orange and the SEC tourney, the other nine schools that made up the league at that time have all cut down the nets at least once since the Vols' title.

It's also not as if Tennessee often has gotten back to the title game only to finish second. On only two other occasions - 1991 and 2009 - have the Vols reached the final.

"I'm not sure there's one answer," Bertelkamp said when asked about the drought. "We've had some turnover in coaches (nine total since 1979) and I think sometimes we overlooked an opponent when we had a high seed. But it's tough to pinpoint one reason we haven't won more."

The Vols won that year against the defending national champion Wildcats at least partly because regular-season champ LSU and runner-up UT got byes until the Friday night semifinals while the other two semifinalists - UK and the Vols' opponent, Auburn - each was on its third game in three days.

Recalling for whom he was rooting in the LSU game, Bertelkamp said, "Kentucky. LSU wasn't a good matchup for us. We'd already beaten Kentucky twice that year and we had a tremendous advantage playing our second game while they were playing their fourth. They were worn out. I really wanted Kentucky to beat LSU."

Still, the game went to overtime only because a Kyle Macy eight-footer in the lane bounced off the rim at the end of regulation. But once in the extra period the Vols rolled, at least in part because UT guard Terry Crosby "did a tremendous defensive job on Macy," Bertelkamp noted.

So how did Bertelkamp, Gary Carter, Crosby, Steve Ray, Reggie Johnson and Co. accomplish what no other Big Orange bunch has been able to achieve?

"We didn't start going good until way after Christmas," said Bertelkamp, who played at Knoxville's Bearden High, then followed in his father Hank's footsteps in playing for the basketball Vols. "That was Coach (Don) DeVoe's first year and it took us a while to figure out what he wanted us to do."

But because the tournament hadn't been played since 1952 heading into that spring of '79, there also wasn't any pressure to succeed.

"The fact that there hadn't been a tournament in so long just made it seem like a fun opportunity for us," Bertelkamp said. "No one knew what to expect that first year. You didn't have all the media and hype you have today. We just showed up and played.

"We stayed in the same hotel as Kentucky, and probably most of the other schools. We actually walked to the arena for the games. I remember riding up an elevator with (UK coach) Joe B. Hall one day. And the Kentucky fans were everywhere. They'd hang out in the hotel lobby all day just to get an autograph."

Yet the civic center was far from full that first title game. TV coverage was limited. So, too, the postgame celebration.

"When we won it, we didn't even stick around and celebrate with our friends and families and girlfriends," Bertelkamp recalled. "We were kind of upset with Coach. We just got on a plane and flew back to Knoxville."

The Vols beat Eastern Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA tournament the next weekend but fell to Notre Dame by three in the second round. But they've never again entered March Madness as SEC tourney champs.

Bertelkamp believes that could change this weekend on the banks of the Mississippi River.

"We've got a good chance," he said. "We're very well-coached by Rick Barnes. His attention to detail is unbelievable. We've got excellent chemistry and depth. We've got two excellent players in Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield. And we've got a group of guards who can all get hot. If Lamonte Turner hits his first couple of 3s, he can get 25 on you."

But could he ever have imagined on that damp March night in 1979 that the Vols could possibly go at least 38 years without a second tourney title?

"I think most people would probably be shocked," he said. "Most people wouldn't believe it."

Thirty-nine years later, today's Big Orange Nation might be just as shocked if this year's Vols don't at least play for the title come Sunday. And this time, if they win, expect all of them to take home at least one strand of net.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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