I do indeed remember Tom Woods and he was an outstanding player and yes an excellent passer. If memory serves he shared the floor with Gordon Barranco who was himself a great guard and later an esteemed judge of the Alameda County Superior Court. Other outstanding players of those 60s teams were as I recall Al Steed, and John Frost among many others. These guys would now be in their 70s. I wonder how their lives went after UC Davis?

In 1968, the starting lineup (I still have some programs from those games) was Al Budde, John Frost, Gordon Baranco, Frank Stonebarger and Steve Schaper. At one game, Hamilton took them all out and put in Al Steed, Tom Larkin, Tom Wood, Bob Guild and Bob Johnson stunning the crowd. As I recall, Wood, then a sophomore, was not the passer or the shooter he later became. I don't know what happened to any or them except Baranco, but Al Steed was an RA in Bixby Hall in his senior year. I met him during RA training.

I heard Ham used that mass substitution more frequently?

I was attending the games from 1967 through 1974 and did not see him use it much after 1968. Maybe he lacked the depth or maybe he did it more after I left.

Bob Hamilton. I saw him once at a game at Hickey Gym call a time out and tell the team who he was very upset about to “go coach your selves” and then go into to the stands with his towel in his mouth. I actually thought I was seeing something, but no he never came back. Hamilton was a great person and coach. Who would do anything like that now?

I remember that. We must have been at the same game. He used to stop his feet so hard that I thought he might break a bone while he was nervously be chomping on a white towel. Occasionally, he would jump up in exasperation and throw it the back over his head and high into the crowd. He was certainly a colorful coach!

He also had an eye for a pretty girl too. I was at Mr B's one evening with a coed friend who was as cute as they come. Ham was sitting at another table all by himself having a drink and smoking a cigarette. As he got up to leave, he walked over to our table and introduced himself and we began chatting about the Aggies. He said we were going to build a big, first rate basketball arena and great things were in store for Aggie basketball. Finally, as he was about to walk away, he stopped and turned around and looked at me and said in that raspy voice of his, "She's a keeper. I can tell by that twinkle in her eye."

My room-mate got to know Coach Ham when he tried out for the team in fall 1970. He didn't make the final cut and Ham said, Sam, you have potential, maybe next year. Sam had to tell him, "Coach, I'm a senior."

Ham knew everybody, and had a clever way of addressing everyone. Do I have it right? "Hey Babe? How are you doing?"

(Friendly delivery, not pickup lingo. He loved his Coffee House coffee.)

Back in the day, the campus was small, 8000+ students, I think. I was able to make the acquaintance of a handful of the basketball players. One was Mike Murray, a skinny guard who lived in Bixby Hall his freshman year. He had a great sense of humor and was an all-around good guy. He got some playing time in his sophomore year, but he tragically died of skin cancer in 1971 (?). I remember that his fraternity sponsored a memorial game for him to collect for cancer research, but I don't know how long that continued. Does anyone else remember Mike or that charity game?

Back in the day, the campus was small, 8000+ students, — Toke69

I just saw that UCD had 115,349 applicants for the fall of 2024 which is a record high.

Tom Woods went on to be the coach of Humbolt State. He was a heavy smoker and died of lung cancer a few years ago. Tom Cupps and Bob Johnson both became physicians. You've mentioned Gordie who still attends Aggie games. Al Steed served in the Peace Corps, lost his wife to breast cancer, and I've lost track of him. Tom Larkin lives down in San Diego area.

And, yes, Tom Woods was a pinpoint passer. He'd have thrived in a Princeton Offense. He could really see the entire court.

Bob Hamilton was great. Excitable? Yep. Intense? Yep. But he NEVER got on the officials. Well, almost never. When I came back to Davis in '77 I'd see Ham after a game, maybe the next day, and I'd ask a question about a decision - and I'd realize he was watching the game at least three levels deeper than I even knew existed.

And there was the All Male Maverick Band in their white shirts and black floppy hats that would march through the locker room after games. And Bossy Cow Cow at a key moment in the game could really charge up both the crowd and the team. If I could bring one thing back from the old days it would be Bossy Cow Cow.