LOS ANGELES -- It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. That, more than anything, was why Gene Bartow accepted UCLA's offer to replace legendary basketball coach John Wooden in 1975.
After Wooden won 10 national titles over the previous 12 seasons, his eventual replacement always figured to be more of an anointment.
UCLA didn't so much call Bartow, as it called for him. So, after one 8-18 season at Illinois -- following a three-year stint at Memphis State, during which he guided the Tigers to an NCAA title-game loss against UCLA -- Bartow and his family were off to Southern California to live under a shadow so large it might as well have been night all the time.