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1988 Kansas Jayhawks

1988 Kansas Jayhawks: The Bracket Opens Up For Danny & The Miracles

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The senior season for Kansas forward Danny Manning wasn’t going as planned. Manning had arrived in Kansas as a highly touted recruit and helped lead the program to the 1986 Final Four. Manning, and head coach Larry Brown, had high hopes for the 1988 Kansas Jayhawks, but in early February they were just 12-8 and wondering if even making the NCAA Tournament was going to happen.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
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Kansas righted the ship, Manning won National Player of the Year honors, but the Jayhawks were still a #6 seed going into March Madness—there wasn’t a lot of reason to expect big things as they began play in the Midwest Regional.

The first game was against a good Xavier opponent, and Kansas won 85-72. From that point forward, it seemed as though fortune smiled on the Jayhawks. N.C. State was the 3-seed in the bracket, but Jim Valvano’s team suffered a shocking loss to Murray State in the first round.

It took everything Manning and Kansas had to survive Murray State, but they were able to cash in the bracket break with a 61-58 win and move on to the Sweet 16. The opponent was supposed to be #2 seed Pitt, who had an interior duo of Charles Smith (later of the New York Knicks) and Jerome Lane that could at least temper Manning’s effect on a game, and if that happened, Kansas was mediocre at best.

Only Pitt also stumbled, losing in a big upset to Vanderbilt and their own talented center Will Perdue. The Chicago Bulls would eventually draft Perdue and he would play on a role on the first round of Jordan-era championship teams, but he was no match for Manning in the regionals at the Pontiac Silverdome. Kansas won 77-64.

One final stumbling block remained and that was Purdue. The Big Ten champs and the regional’s #1 seed, the Boilermakers were playing as well as anyone in the nation when the tournament began. But head coach Gene Keady was often cursed in March and this year was no different—yet another favorite fell before Kansas ever faced them, as in-state rival Kansas State upset the Boilermakers.

Kansas and Manning upended K-State in the regional final 71-58. It was a most improbable ride to a Final Four. A #6 seed had gone through the bracket playing no one seeded higher than fourth (Kansas State).

There were no bracket breaks at the 1988 Final Four, where the opponent was 2-seed Duke and a pair of #1s, Oklahoma and Arizona were in the other semi-final. But there was a geography break—the Final Four was at Kansas City, where the Jayhawks played the occasional home game during the regular season. Could this have worked out any better for Manning, Brown & Co.?

Kansas dispatched Duke with surprising ease, a 66-59 game that the Jayhawks had under control from the outset. It set up an all-Big Eight (the forerunner of today’s Big 12) battle in the NCAA final against Oklahoma.

Manning had been brilliant throughout the NCAA Tournament, but on Monday night he went to a higher plateau. Against a talented opponent that could run, press and shoot better than anyone in the land, Manning scored 31 points, hauled down 18 rebounds, had five steals and blocked two shots. Kansas pulled off an 83-79 stunner.

The 1988 Kansas Jayhawks would be forever remembered under the nickname “Danny & The Miracles”, and their leading man’s brilliance on Monday night was one of the all-time great championship performances in any sport.

1988 Sports: A College Football Culture War, A Guarantee Made Good & A Super Bowl Drive

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A single college football game highlighted what was, top to bottom, a very good year in 1988 sports. That game took place in South Bend in mid-October and it defined not just that season, but became caught up in a national culture war.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 


The game was Notre Dame and Miami, and with the Fighting Irish perceived as the white hats and the Hurricanes perceived as the black hats, everyone was set for battle. Notre Dame won an epic game 31-30 and that game proved to decide the national championship.
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The state of California produced three championship teams at the pro level, two from SoCal and another from the Bay Area. Each was thrilling, but for different reasons.
The Los Angeles Lakers became the first NBA team in nineteen years to win consecutive championships. The Lakers got everything they could handle and then some from the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons, led by Isiah Thomas, had dethroned the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals—although not before Larry Bird first led the Celtics into the conference finals by winning an epic Game 7 scoring duel with Atlanta Hawks’ forward Dominique Wilkins.
It was Detroit’s time in the East, but Los Angeles still had Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. They trailed the Finals 3-2, but won came from behind in the closing minute of Game 6 and then held off a furious Piston rally to win Game 7, fulfilling head coach Pat Riley’s guarantee of a repeat NBA championship.
More last-minute dramatics were on display at the Super Bowl, as was a championship for a 1980s dynasty. The San Francisco 49ers, led by Joe Montana, scored the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left in their victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Montana’s drive culminated a NFL playoffs that was filled with interesting storylines, but for reasons both on-field and off, desperately needed this kind of an ending.
And in baseball, we’re back down in Los Angeles. The World Series itself was not thrilling. The Los Angeles Dodgers jumped out on the Oakland A’s and won in five games. But the manner it went down has still captured the heart of the nation to this day.
The Dodgers, heavy underdogs to the A’s of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco won a shocking Game 1. Los Angeles outfielder Kirk Gibson, barely able to walk because of an injury, came off the bench to pinch-hit and took the best closer in the game, Dennis Eckersely, deep for a home run. Los Angeles never stopped winning and took an unlikely World Series title.
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Lakers
Read more about the 1988 NFL playoffs
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers
College basketball didn’t lack for its own drama, this time in America’s heartland. Danny Manning led the Kansas Jayhawks on an improbable ride as a #6 seed, in which they combined catching bracket breaks with having a singular superstar and took a national championship.
The 1988 NCAA Tournament also saw two respected coaches, who never made the Final Four, have their best chances. John Chaney of Temple and Gene Keady at Purdue each had excellent teams and were #1 seeds. But Temple come up short to Duke in a regional final, while Purdue lost in the Sweet 16. Each would have other chances, but never a better one than existed in 1988.
In that, they shared a common bond with Michigan football coach Bo Schembecler. Bo never won a national title and while 1988 wasn’t his only shot, it was certainly one of his best. Michigan took both Notre Dame and Miami to the bitter end before losing heartbreakers. Sometimes, things just aren’t meant to be, as Keady and Chaney lived through at the NCAA Tournament.
Read more about the 1988 Kansas Jayhawks
The Edmonton Oilers won their fourth Stanley Cup in five years behind the leadership of Wayne Gretzky. The regular season didn’t go as smoothly as had been in the case in recent years, but the postseason was their most dominant. Edmonton rolled to a 16-2 record to add another jewel to their Gretzky-era treasure chest.
Read more about the 1988 Edmonton Oilers