Dwight Clay earned '15 minutes of fame for 50 years' with streak-busting basket to beat UCLA

The story of how Dwight Clay ended up making the long journey — geographically and culturally — from Pittsburgh’s Hill District to Notre Dame’s South Bend campus where he impacted college basketball like no one before him starts with Mary Clay, his mom.

“Everyone knew Mary Clay,” Dwight Clay said.

Mary Clay wanted more for her son, who in the early 1970s was a star basketball player at Fifth Avenue High School (now Brashear).

“My mom wanted me to go away for school. We lived in the Hill. She understood the street life,” he said. “She wanted me to experience something different. She convinced me not to go to Duquesne or Pitt.”

And that’s what led to Clay ending UCLA’s 88-game winning streak 50 years ago on Jan. 19, 1974, with what came to be known as “The Shot Heard ’Round The World.”

Clay, 70, was in downtown Pittsburgh on Thursday at the Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steakhouse on Smithfield Street, preparing to meet friends old and new, sign photos of one of the most iconic shots in college basketball history and relive a moment he has treasured all these years.

It was Clay’s corner shot with 29 seconds left inside Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion — two points in those days, but far enough out to earn three today — that completed a wild comeback and led the No. 2 Irish to a 71-70 victory against top-ranked UCLA. It was the only shot Clay, a point guard who led Notre Dame in assists for three consecutive seasons, attempted in the second half.

With a series of UCLA turnovers, Irish clutch shots and a steal by freshman sensation Adrian Dantley, Notre Dame rallied from a 70-59 deficit with 3:22 left in the game. Without the benefit of a shot clock or 3-point line.

“The crowd got into it. We got into it,” Clay said. “The next thing you know, it’s a three-point game. Then, it’s a one-point game.”

Clay, a WPIAL basketball referee who is retired from careers as a stockbroker and later as an investigator for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, carries a video of the game in his briefcase. “For the naysayers who say, ‘Ah, that wasn’t you.’ I plug it in. ‘Here’s the last six minutes of the game.’

“My 15 minutes of fame lasted 50 years.”

Clay remembers every detail of the shot, down to the green high-tops on his feet.

“It was after a timeout,” he said. “We took the ball out, and Ray Martin and I were in the backcourt. Ray passed the ball to Gary (Brokaw). I told Ray, ‘Clear out to one corner. I’m going to clear out to the other corner.’

“Gary Brokaw was having such excellent action against (UCLA’s) Keith Wilkes, scored three baskets in a row. I knew that. My man, (UCLA’s) Tommy Curtis, he knew that. So, he started cheating (toward Brokaw).

“Brokaw went through his legs, around his back. He was getting ready to go up for another J. Curtis came over and I’m waving my arm feverishly. ‘Gary, throw me the damn ball.’ I wish I could have coined that phrase before Keyshawn Johnson coined it.”

“Gary threw me the ball, and the rest is history. It was a catch-and-shoot type play. Once I caught it, I went straight up with it. It all felt good, the form and everything. As you can see in the picture, perfect form. I should have been a shooting instructor, according to that form.”

Still, there was time enough on the clock for UCLA to win, but a turnaround jumper by Bill Walton and two taps by David Meyers and Pete Trgovich were off target. It was the All-American Walton’s first loss in 144 games, dating to high school.

“They had three shots at it. Just none of them went in,” Clay said. “It wasn’t meant to be.”

Fans, who had inched close to the out-of-bounds line in the final dramatic minutes, stormed the court when the clock hit zeroes.

“We fought through the storm,” Clay said. “You can see me (on the video) coming through the crowd. I’m trying to dash, dash. I got through the crowd and gave my mom a hug (and said), ‘That was for you.’”

Notre Dame jumped to No. 1 in the rankings only three weeks after its football team finished No. 1 by beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Among the high school football recruits visiting campus that weekend was Ringgold’s Joe Montana.

The Bruins and Irish, actually, had a rematch one week after the historic game, and UCLA got revenge with a 94-75 victory at Pauley Pavilion. Notre Dame played four games in that week, winning at Kansas and defeating St. Francis (Pa.) before flying to Los Angeles.

After the victory in South Bend, a story in Sports Illustrated quoted coach Digger Phelps joking to UCLA’s John Wooden, “You don’t mind if we don’t show up next week, do you, John?” Wooden smiled and answered, “You better.”

Of course, none of this would have been possible if Clay had done what Pitt assistant coach Tim Grgurich wanted him to do.

“Pitt and Duquesne were hard on me,” he said. “Grgurich was trying to pull the coup of the city. If he could have pulled in (Schenley’s) Maurice Lucas, Ricky Coleman and Dwight Clay, Pitt would have won the national championship in years to come.

“We were young. We didn’t understand how dynamic that trio could have been. So, we all went our separate ways.”

At Notre Dame, Clay was labeled “The Iceman” by the South Bend Tribune for a series of last-minute shots, including one that stopped Marquette’s 81-game home winning streak and another that sent a Pitt game into overtime. Lucas was part of that Marquette team, and he told his teammates, according to Clay, “Don’t let that Clay shoot. He wants that type of action. He’s been doing it all his life.”

But nothing he did with a basketball in his hands rivals that day in South Bend.

UCLA’s staple play was a lob to Walton, whose turnaround jumper was usually good. Except at the end of the Bruins’ winning streak.

“Tommy Curtis was talking trash,” Clay said. “They’d throw the lob, and he said, ‘Deal with that, Clay.’”

After Clay made his shot to win the game, he trotted past the UCLA bench, turned and said, “Take that.”