YouTube Gold: Patrick Ewing vs. Hakeem Olajuwon In The 1984 NCAA Championship Game

Big men were all over college basketball in the 1980’s and these were two of the greatest.

To follow up a bit on our You Tube Gold from Saturday which featured Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown highlights, consider this: in 1984, Ewing and Georgetown met Houston in the 1984 championship game.

And Houston, of course, featured a young Hakeem Olajuwon.

A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon didn’t play basketball until he was 15 but like Ewing, he benefited from playing soccer as a youth, which helped both big men with their footwork.

Olajuwon wasn’t highly regarded by Houston when he arrived; as a matter of fact, they more or less ignored him, telling him to catch a cab from the airport. He redshirted his freshman year and spent time playing against Houston Rocket Moses Malone, which accelerated his development dramatically.

In 1983, Houston lost to NC State in one of the most dramatic title games of all time and in 1984, the Cougars made it back to square off against Ewing’s Hoyas.

At this point in their respective careers, Ewing was farther along. However, you can see in this video that Olajuwon was gaining ground fast.

The Hoyas won with relative ease, 84-75, the last year before the NCAA expanded to 64 teams.

The two bigs would have legendary careers in the NBA and would meet again for a championship ten years later in 1994. This time, Olajuwon’s Rockets won.