Question from the 80s

[Bill in Sinton]

We had a great basketball player who did great for us during that time. When he played we had the best team in the country and looked great but he got hurt in mid season and then we lost most of the rest of the games. Can anyone help? A big shame that happened to that team.

 

[mojo17]

Wacker

 

[Bill in Sinton]

Thanks mojo! For some reason my old age memory failed me on that.

 

[ShinerTX]

Mike Wacker. When he crushed his knee it killed Men's Basketball at UT for the rest of my time at the 40. So sad. That was a great young team. Luckily we had the Lady Longhorns back then. Clarissa Davis was the truth.

 

[orangecat1]

...and I believe Mike Wacker is still coaching HS basketball today, can't remember where.

 

[recycle bin]

Pretty sure he's coaching at Judson in San Antonio. It was actually at Baylor - their old crappy place - that he blew out his knee. They won only one more game that season.

 

[Third Coast]

Another thing that speaks volumes about Wacker. He rehabbed that knee for over two years and came back to play his last year for Bob Weltlich with the biggest leg brace I've ever seen a basketball player wear. Not only did he play, but he made all conference.

 

[blonthang]

IIRC, it was a dimly lit BU arena with Tartan flooring, kind of rubbery.

I think Texas was #2 at the time, undefeated at about 14-0. I also think Abe Lemons was attending his mother's funeral in Oklahoma and listened to the game from his car radio on the way back to Central Texas.

LaSalle Thompson and Mike Wacker were the best combo of big inside men in the country that year.

Before "the knee".

Stuff happens.

 

[Branyon]

The Horns were legitimate NC contenders that year, but the Thompson-Wacker combination was the key to the Texas team defensively and offensively. There were studs. The entire team had great chemistry and court savvy. Remove the keystone and the arch falls.

That injury adversely affected Texas basketall for more than a decade. Lemons had the program on the cusp of greatness and nearing the point of being able to recruit competively against Arkansas and UH the SWC powerhouses.

 

[HornsForever'93]

The injury was catastrophic for sure. But Bob Weltlich as his bore ball offenses killed basketball here

 

[wadster]

LaSalle was a big dude, but didn't have the hustle Mike had. I was a student then and played in Gregory all the time. Sometimes the players would play some pickup games and it was great fun to watch them play. We had just beaten Houston in Houston moving to #2 and then Wacker goes down in Waco and we lose all but 2 of our remaining games. Worse collapse then what we did in football last year.

 

[Horn69]

Wacker's injury was beginning of end for the great Abe Lemons. He had the greatest weekly coach's show. Him rising out of a coffin to the music of Christopher Cross. Ha!! Loved that!

Hook'em!!!

 

[ProdigalHorn]

That happened around when I first remember following the Horns. Weltlich gets a lot of heat for "wrecking" the program, and he probably deserves a lot, but the fact is, when a team collapses that completely when one guy goes down, I'm not sure that's the sign of a healthy program.

I remember that next year, there was a walk-on former cheerleader on the roster (I can't remember his name, bonus points for someone there!) And at one point I think they were down to like seven or eight guys on the roster. We had 6-2 Carlton Cooper guarding Hakeem Olajuwon one night - now THAT was something to see

 

[Third Coast]

That walk-on former cheerleader was Lance Watson.

I remember Carlton Cooper well. The guy couldn't hit anything beyond a couple of feet out, but he sure could jump through the roof.