BOULDER — Rick George bolted from his arena seat in Los Angeles last week when the final buzzer rang. He called what happened next purely “spontaneous.” It was a moment caught on the television broadcast and replayed online by thousands.
The Colorado men’s basketball team completed a West Coast sweep — 84-73 at UCLA and 69-65 at USC — when George could no longer contain his excitement. CU coach Tad Boyle returned to his bench from the Galen Center handshake line to discover a hard-charging George on the hardwood. Then came a bearhug of epic proportions. George, 58, lifted Boyle, 56, into the air, turned him to the left and dropped him back to the court.