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What: “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel”

Where: HBO (tonight at 10)

The story of the 1968 basketball game between UCLA and Houston has been told many times, and HBO tells it about as well can be in the featured segment on this edition of “Real Sports.” The game, which changed the landscape of college basketball, was played Jan. 20, 1968, and drew 52,693 to the Houston Astrodome.

The game was the brainchild of Houston Coach Guy Lewis, whose Cougars had lost to the Bruins the previous season. But the game wouldn’t have happened without Eddie Einhorn, whose TVS network televised it to 120 stations in 49 states. Dick Enberg did the play-by-play, which introduced him to the nation, and the commentator was former NBA star Bob Pettit.

Enberg says because the court was placed in the center of the Astrodome and he was put in a hole, he could barely see. “We called the game with only our heads above ground,” he said. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor, said, “With no stands around the court, it felt like we were playing in a prairie somewhere. We were deserted out there.”

John Wooden’s Bruins came into the game riding a 47-game winning streak, but with Elvin Hayes scoring 39 points and Alcindor nursing an eye injury, Houston won, 71-69.