College Basketball: California, Here I Come

“I have always been captivated byCalifornia,” sighed Lew Alcindor—and instantly broke the heart ofevery college basketball coach east of Los Angeles. The mostsought-after high school player in the U.S. (TIME, Jan. 22), Alcindor,18, stands 7 ft. 1 in. and weighs 235 Ibs.; over the course of threeseasons at Manhattan’s Power Memorial Academy, he scored 2,067 pointsand pulled down 2,002 rebounds. He had scholarship offers from some 60colleges, and when he made his choice last week, newsmen crammed thePower gym to hear the announcement. “I have chosen U.C.L.A.,” intonedAlcindor. “It has the atmosphere I wanted, and the people out therewere nice to me.”

Coach Johnny Wooden’s U.C.L.A. Bruins have already won the N.C.A.A.championship two years running. Last month the Bruins flew Lew out toLos Angeles for a weekend, put him up in a two-room suite, drove himaround town in a red Mercedes, fed him hamburgers, took him to a dance,a rock ‘n’ roll concert, and to Bel Air’s St. Martin of Tours RomanCatholic church.

Lew’s parents were dubious about sending their little boy to a school2,500 miles away. But after a lecture from Lew on Los Angeles’ balmyclimate and healthy attitude toward Negroes, they untied the apronstrings. At U.C.L.A., Lew will get just what N.C.A.A. rules’ allow:room, board, tuition, and $15 per month “laundry money.”