It was April 1, 2023 and millions of people around the world were watching. The entire city of San Diego held its breath as announcer Jim Nantz counted down the final moments with time running out. “It’s Butler with two seconds! He’s gotta put it up… and… he wins it!” Lamont Butler’s buzzer-beater was truly one for the ages. The 72-71 victory sent San Diego State’s basketball team to the National Championship. Never before had the team gone this far. Never had they created so much excitement in San Diego, right? Never. Except maybe once.
It doesn’t get noticed a lot, but among a string of banners hung high above the seats at Viejas Arena is one paying tribute to the Aztecs Basketball Team – National Champions of 1941.
To know what a big deal it was 84 years ago, it helps to understand that in each of the two previous seasons, San Diego State had advanced all the way to the title game, only to lose. But in that magical year of 1941 at the Kansas City Convention Center, the Aztecs, led by forward Milton (Milky) Phelps, beat Murray State to win it all, and within the campus community and beyond, the joy could be scarcely contained. The campus newspaper announced a triumphal homecoming. “Come down to meet the team at Union Depot tonight at 10:30. Beg, borrow, or steal a ride. Do what you have to, just get there!” Phelps and his teammates, including Mason Harris and Paul Fern, were gleefully hailed as heroes. Mayor P.J. Benbough led a civic delegation. Learned professors shook off their academic stoicism to join the raucous celebration. Milky Phelps was named a Helms All-American, a notable honor for any athlete, let alone one playing for what was, at the time, considered to be a small college.
Looking back, it is impossible to separate the accomplishments of that team from events which would follow. Only a few months later the nation would be plunged into World War II and nothing in the lives of any of those players or the students who cheered them would ever be the same. Team member Mason Harris went on to fight under General Patton and lost his life in Germany. Paul Fern was killed in action in the Pacific, and Milky Phelps, a true superstar and one of the most popular athletes on campus, lost his life during a Navy training exercise in 1942. Today, his jersey hangs in the rafters at Viejas, but generations later, it is likely few fans know of his heroics on and off the court – or of his Aztec team, that for the first time brought national attention to athletics on Montezuma Mesa.
No, it wasn’t Lamont Butler’s NCAA March Madness flashbulb moment. It was on the smaller stage of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Championship. But that team from 1941 made us proud, and their legacy is truly something worth remembering About San Diego.
