inside LMU points, averaging 18.8 points in his career at LMU. The 1960s ended with the final curtain call of the football team as they went on to win the 1969 National Club Football National championship with an 8-1 record.
1960s In 1960, Loyola men’s basketball tied for first with a 9-3 record in the West Coast Athletic Conference. The title was shared with Santa Clara, who defeated the Lions in a playoff game to end the season. The Lions closed the regular season with eight straight wins. Then in 1961, LMU basketball had a record breaking season for the Lions, earning their second 20-win season, finishing 20-7 overall and earning their first-ever out-right WCAC title with a 10-2 mark. Loyola started the season 3-4, but responded with 17 wins in their final 20 games, including a nine-game winning streak. It was the Lions’ first trip to the NCAA tournament, a date in the Far West Regional at Portland. The Lions fell to Utah, 91-75 in the first round, and fell to the consolation bracket. Utah, who Loyola defeated in exhibition play 85-64 earlier in the season, went on to the Final Four. Loyola defeated USC, 69-67, to earn their 20th win of the season. It was head coach William Donovan’s final year at the helm of the Lions. In his eight years as coach, he earned 107 wins, the most among all LMU coaches. In 1964 Hugh Miller Foley rowed in the 1964 Olympics. He was a member of the Rowing Eight with Coxswain Team that won the Gold Medal. In 1968, NBA coach Rick Adelman finished his three-year playing career with 1,425
1970s The University merged with Marymount College to become Loyola Marymount University and in 1971 women’s athletics begins to appear as the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women is formed to plan, govern and promote the growing number of college tournaments for women athletes. That same year the fiveplayer, full-court game and the 30-second shot clock is introduced to women’s basketball. And then one year later one of the most important pieces of legislation for women’s athletics is put into place as Congress passes Title IX, setting into motion the Lions success to come in women’s sports. Title IX officially went into effect on June 21, 1975. In 1973, Marv Wood’s baseball squad brought LMU its first West Coast Conference Championship after a 13-game win streak allowed the Lions to clinch the title on the final weekend of the season over second place Santa Clara. USC knocked off the Lions and Cal State Los Angeles in the NCAA District 8 regionals and eventually won its fourth consecutive national championship. In 1976 the first full scholarship for a female is given and LMU adds its first varsity program in Women’s Tennis as alum Jamie Sanchez begins the program with a 13-6 record. They went on to win a conference championship (AIAW), the first in women’s programs at LMU. They went 10-0 and won the title in 1977 and 1978 as they combined for a record of 28-2 in conference play. 1980s The decade started with men’s basketball earning a bid to the NCAA West Regional, losing to Arizona State in the first round, 99-71.
Women (AIAW) is dissolved. In Women’s Tennis, the Lions finished 12th in the nation in their division as Debbie Delgado is first recipient of All-American status. Paul Sunderland, who played both volleyball and basketball at LMU, went on to earn All-America honors in volleyball at LMU and then played 10 years of the U.S. National Volleyball Team, earning U.S. Player of the Year honors three times (1978, 79, 82). He played in the 1978 and 1982 World Championships and then as a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team, he helped the team to the Gold Medal. Paul Westhead is hired as head coach of the men’s basketball team, replacing Ed Goorjian, who coached from 1980-1985. In his first season, he leads the Lions back to the postseason for the first time since 1980. In 1985, US International and LMU begin a four-year series that would result in the highest scoring games in NCAA history. After defeating USIU 84-65 in January of 1985, the “track meets” would begin. In Westhead’s first season in 1985-86, the Lions would defeat USIU 151-107. The 1986 LMU baseball team had the best season in program history. It was also one of the best overall seasons of all time for LMU Athletics. Following a 1985 season in which the Lions did not have a winning record at 27-28, the program performed one of the best turnarounds in LMU athletics history. They finished the season with a program-best 50 wins and wrapped up the season at 50-15, a 23-game improvement from the previous year. LMU produced a 13-game winning streak from March 21 through April 11, and won 20 of 21 games in the middle of the season. With the winning streak came the nation’s top ranking by the ESPN/Collegiate Baseball National Poll. The Lions never looked back, finishing tied with Pepperdine for first place in the West Coast Athletic Conference at 19-5, setting up a one game playoff to determine the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regional. Played at Jackie Robinson Stadium on the campus of UCLA, the Lions defeated the Waves 14-9 to earn the bid to the NCAA West Regional. LMU would reel off its next four games, fighting through four separate elimination games to earn a bid to the school’s first appearance in the College World Series. On May 30, the Lions opened up their first World Series trip with a 4-3 win over perennial power LSU, to earn a two-day rest and play in the winner’s bracket. The Lions played the University of Arizona on June 2 and lost a heartbreaker 7-5 to drop to the elimination bracket to face Oklahoma State. The Cowboys were too much for the Lions, as they went on to an 11-5 win. Tim Layana was a member of the 1990 World Series Champion Cincinnati Reds. The Lions would return to the postseason in 1987, 1988 and 1989.
Then in 1981, with the opportunity for women to compete at the collegiate level, LMU athletes waste no time in making their mark. Therese Kozlowski ran a time of 17:34.9 to win the 1981 AIAW Individual National Championship in cross country while women’s volleyball begins as a varsity program at LMU with the NCAA hosting as a championship in 1981. The banner year continued as the Women’s Rowing Varsity Four team won the 1980-81 National Championship and the brand new Gersten Pavilion opened as home to the Lions and went on to host events with the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The year prior to the Olympics, the NCAA takes over women’s sports as Concluding the 1985-86 season, men’s basketball the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for found themselves in the NIT for the first time in school LMU Women’s Volleyball
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