Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus #7 UConn on March 29, 2026 , Loss , 72, to, 73
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Final
Men's Basketball
72
vs #7 UConn
73
The First Golden Blue Devil
7/29/2016 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. – For Jeff Mullins, the chance to compete in the Olympics came as a wake-up call.
Literally.
“I got a call at 6:30 in the morning, the day after the national championship game,” Mullins said. “Obviously, I had not gotten a lot of sleep. The call was from Coach (Henry) Iba, inviting me to the Olympic Trials. If I said yes, I had two hours to make the plane.”
Mullins, who had just completed his stellar career at Duke with a loss to UCLA in the 1964 NCAA championship game, never hesitated, despite the inconvenience of the early call and the quick trip to the airport.
“Playing for the Olympic team was my only long-term plan,” Mullins said. “Growing up, I didn't dream of playing in the NBA … I dreamed of playing for my country in the Olympics.”
Mullins was lucky to be a college senior in an Olympic year. Under the rules at the time, all Olympians were amateurs — either college players or military personnel or players from amateur leagues. College underclassmen were rarely invited, so that for a college player to get an Olympic chance, they had to finish their careers at the right time. Mullins had to seize his chance in the spring of 1964 if he ever wanted to wear the USA jersey.
At the time, there was no structured selection process, no USA Basketball to carefully collect and train the best prospects to represent the United States.
Instead, candidates gathered at the Trials at St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. There were 94 players divided into eight teams — three NCAA teams, one of NAIA all-stars, two AAU groups and two military teams. Over a three-day period the teams played each other in a tournament.
Mullins' team ended up losing in the finals to a team of mostly AAU players, led by former UNC guard Larry Brown. After the final game, Mullins — and the rest of the candidates — had to sweat it out for several hours.
“They told us they would post the team at midnight on the bulletin board at the hotel where we were staying,” Mullins said. “You can imagine how we all crowded around to see the list. I was thrilled to make the team.”
The team included several familiar college stars, including Mullins, UCLA guard Walt Hazzard, Cincinnati's George Wilson, Oregon State's Mel Counts and the only undergraduate to make the team, Princeton's Bill Bradley. A couple of obscure collegians – Joe Caldwell and Luke Jackson – would later find fame in college basketball. Because the Olympics weren't held until October, undergraduates were at a disadvantage. But Bradley was able to take some independent studies courses for that semester.
Mullins' selection not only made him the first Duke basketball player to play in the Olympics, but he and UNC's Brown became the first ACC players to represent the United States.
WINNING THE GOLD
The 1964 team was under a lot of pressure.
Ever since basketball was introduced to the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, the United States had dominated the sport — not only winning five straight gold medals, but also 37 games without a loss.
When the 1964 team was announced, there were some skeptics who wondered if that domination would continue. “The 12 men selected yesterday for the October duty in Tokyo have the best chance in history to lose one,” George Meyers wrote in The Seattle Daily Times.
First-year coach Hank Iba admitted that his team lacked the star power of the '56 team, with Bill Russell in the middle and K.C. Jones at guard — or the '60 team which started Jerry West and Oscar Robertson in the backcourt.
But he was confident that his team's balance would prevail in Tokyo.
“Our big problem is that we have no one man who'll get us 20 points every game,” he pointed out. “So it has to be a team effort. But when a team has played together as short a time as this one has, it's bound to get sloppy at times.”
To reduce that sloppiness, Iba took his team to Hawaii — to Pearl Harbor to be exact — for a three-week training camp.
“We stayed at the submarine barracks,” Mullins said. “We practiced twice a day. We got a little time to visit the beaches and see the sights, but not much.”
After the Pearl Harbor boot camp, the team returned to the mainland for a series of exhibitions against NBA teams. Then they headed across the Pacific for the Tokyo Games, confident that they could keep the U.S. winning streak alive.
“Russia, Yugoslavia and Brazil were the only competitive teams,” Mullins said. “Australia was better than expected. They were a bunch of fun guys. I've been told that that's when interest in basketball took a big jump in Australia.”
As it turned out, the U.S. team had little trouble with anybody. Yugoslavia was competitive in an eight-point loss in pool play and Russia lost by “only” 14 in the title game, but every other win was by 20 points or more.
The top scorer on the team was the relatively unknown Jerry Shipp, who starred for the AAU Phillips 66ers. The number two scorer was Bradley, who averaged exactly 10.0 points a game.
Mullins was limited in Tokyo by knee problems.
“My knee bothered me my whole senior year at Duke,” he said. “But because I got such excellent care at Duke Hospital, we were able to manage it. I had been getting a cortisone shot once a month. When I got to Tokyo, my knee was bothering me, so I went to the hospital to get another shot. Dr. Lenox Baker sent them detailed instructions as to how to do it, but they decided to do it their way. My knee swelled up to three times the normal size and I ended up missing several early games.”
Mullins did return in time to play in the last half of the round robin. He scored 10 points in a win over Korea and appeared in both the semifinals and the gold medal game, becoming the first of five Duke basketball players to earn Olympic gold.
ENJOYING TOKYO
Aside from his knee issues, Mullins enjoyed everything about his Olympic experience.
“I roomed with Larry Brown and Bill Bradley,” he said. “Bill was tied down a lot, working on his independent studies courses. But Larry and I spent a lot of time as spectators, mostly at swimming and the track and field events. We didn't have tickets, we snuck in.”
Mullins remembers watching swimming heroes Don Schollander and Donna de Varona. He was at the track stadium to watch “Bullet” Bob Hayes — not yet a football name — dominate the sprints and to see Billy Mills pull off his incredible upset in the 10,000 meters.
The Duke All-America suggested that the modern NBA Olympic teams are missing something by separating themselves from the Games and from the other Olympic athletes.
“We marched in the opening ceremonies and lived in the village,” Mullins said. “It was a great cultural experience.”
Mullins and Bradley became caught up in the trading frenzy that surrounds the games. Every team is issued national pins that became popular trade items. But Mullins soon found an ever better trade item.
“Our official uniform included an 'LBJ' (cowboy) hat,” he said. “It was a great trade item. I got hats from several players and was able to make some great deals. I remember that the Norwegian team had these beautiful sweaters. I was able to trade a hat for one.”
Of course, Mullins' greatest prize was his gold medal, which he still proudly displays.
It's a prize he shares with four other Duke basketball players:
• Tate Armstrong won gold in the 1976 Montreal Games, playing for UNC coach Dean Smith. He scored 16 points and had two assists in six games.
• Christian Laettner won gold in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, playing for former Duke assistant coach Chuck Daly. Laettner was the only collegiate player on the original Dream Team. He averaged 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in eight games.
• Grant Hill won gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, playing for Lenny Wilkens. Hill averaged 9.7 points, 3.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in six games.
• Carlos Boozer won gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, playing for Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. He averaged 3.2 points and 2.5 rebounds in eight games. Boozer also won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, playing for coach Larry Brown. Boozer averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in eight games.
A number of Duke players have played in the Olympics for other countries, but only one has won a medal — Crawford Palmer won a silver medal in 2000, playing for France. Other participants include: Cameron Hall (1976 - Canada), Dan Meagher (1984 - Canada), Greg Newton (2000 - Canada), Luol Deng (2012 - Great Britain) and Marty Pocius (2012 - Lithuania).
Coaches aren't awarded medals, but two Duke coaches have played a significant role for American Olympic teams. Former Vic Bubas assistant Chuck Daly — a 14-year NBA head coach who won two titles and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame — guided the original Dream Team to gold in 1992. And Mike Krzyzewski, who was an assistant coach on the '92 team, was head coach in 2008 and 2012 when the United States won gold medals. He has a chance to become the first coach to guide Team USA to three gold medals this summer in Rio.
Literally.
“I got a call at 6:30 in the morning, the day after the national championship game,” Mullins said. “Obviously, I had not gotten a lot of sleep. The call was from Coach (Henry) Iba, inviting me to the Olympic Trials. If I said yes, I had two hours to make the plane.”
Mullins, who had just completed his stellar career at Duke with a loss to UCLA in the 1964 NCAA championship game, never hesitated, despite the inconvenience of the early call and the quick trip to the airport.
“Playing for the Olympic team was my only long-term plan,” Mullins said. “Growing up, I didn't dream of playing in the NBA … I dreamed of playing for my country in the Olympics.”
Mullins was lucky to be a college senior in an Olympic year. Under the rules at the time, all Olympians were amateurs — either college players or military personnel or players from amateur leagues. College underclassmen were rarely invited, so that for a college player to get an Olympic chance, they had to finish their careers at the right time. Mullins had to seize his chance in the spring of 1964 if he ever wanted to wear the USA jersey.
At the time, there was no structured selection process, no USA Basketball to carefully collect and train the best prospects to represent the United States.
Instead, candidates gathered at the Trials at St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. There were 94 players divided into eight teams — three NCAA teams, one of NAIA all-stars, two AAU groups and two military teams. Over a three-day period the teams played each other in a tournament.
Mullins' team ended up losing in the finals to a team of mostly AAU players, led by former UNC guard Larry Brown. After the final game, Mullins — and the rest of the candidates — had to sweat it out for several hours.
“They told us they would post the team at midnight on the bulletin board at the hotel where we were staying,” Mullins said. “You can imagine how we all crowded around to see the list. I was thrilled to make the team.”
The team included several familiar college stars, including Mullins, UCLA guard Walt Hazzard, Cincinnati's George Wilson, Oregon State's Mel Counts and the only undergraduate to make the team, Princeton's Bill Bradley. A couple of obscure collegians – Joe Caldwell and Luke Jackson – would later find fame in college basketball. Because the Olympics weren't held until October, undergraduates were at a disadvantage. But Bradley was able to take some independent studies courses for that semester.
Mullins' selection not only made him the first Duke basketball player to play in the Olympics, but he and UNC's Brown became the first ACC players to represent the United States.
WINNING THE GOLD
The 1964 team was under a lot of pressure.
Ever since basketball was introduced to the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, the United States had dominated the sport — not only winning five straight gold medals, but also 37 games without a loss.
When the 1964 team was announced, there were some skeptics who wondered if that domination would continue. “The 12 men selected yesterday for the October duty in Tokyo have the best chance in history to lose one,” George Meyers wrote in The Seattle Daily Times.
First-year coach Hank Iba admitted that his team lacked the star power of the '56 team, with Bill Russell in the middle and K.C. Jones at guard — or the '60 team which started Jerry West and Oscar Robertson in the backcourt.
But he was confident that his team's balance would prevail in Tokyo.
“Our big problem is that we have no one man who'll get us 20 points every game,” he pointed out. “So it has to be a team effort. But when a team has played together as short a time as this one has, it's bound to get sloppy at times.”
To reduce that sloppiness, Iba took his team to Hawaii — to Pearl Harbor to be exact — for a three-week training camp.
“We stayed at the submarine barracks,” Mullins said. “We practiced twice a day. We got a little time to visit the beaches and see the sights, but not much.”
After the Pearl Harbor boot camp, the team returned to the mainland for a series of exhibitions against NBA teams. Then they headed across the Pacific for the Tokyo Games, confident that they could keep the U.S. winning streak alive.
“Russia, Yugoslavia and Brazil were the only competitive teams,” Mullins said. “Australia was better than expected. They were a bunch of fun guys. I've been told that that's when interest in basketball took a big jump in Australia.”
As it turned out, the U.S. team had little trouble with anybody. Yugoslavia was competitive in an eight-point loss in pool play and Russia lost by “only” 14 in the title game, but every other win was by 20 points or more.
The top scorer on the team was the relatively unknown Jerry Shipp, who starred for the AAU Phillips 66ers. The number two scorer was Bradley, who averaged exactly 10.0 points a game.
Mullins was limited in Tokyo by knee problems.
“My knee bothered me my whole senior year at Duke,” he said. “But because I got such excellent care at Duke Hospital, we were able to manage it. I had been getting a cortisone shot once a month. When I got to Tokyo, my knee was bothering me, so I went to the hospital to get another shot. Dr. Lenox Baker sent them detailed instructions as to how to do it, but they decided to do it their way. My knee swelled up to three times the normal size and I ended up missing several early games.”
Mullins did return in time to play in the last half of the round robin. He scored 10 points in a win over Korea and appeared in both the semifinals and the gold medal game, becoming the first of five Duke basketball players to earn Olympic gold.
ENJOYING TOKYO
Aside from his knee issues, Mullins enjoyed everything about his Olympic experience.
“I roomed with Larry Brown and Bill Bradley,” he said. “Bill was tied down a lot, working on his independent studies courses. But Larry and I spent a lot of time as spectators, mostly at swimming and the track and field events. We didn't have tickets, we snuck in.”
Mullins remembers watching swimming heroes Don Schollander and Donna de Varona. He was at the track stadium to watch “Bullet” Bob Hayes — not yet a football name — dominate the sprints and to see Billy Mills pull off his incredible upset in the 10,000 meters.
The Duke All-America suggested that the modern NBA Olympic teams are missing something by separating themselves from the Games and from the other Olympic athletes.
“We marched in the opening ceremonies and lived in the village,” Mullins said. “It was a great cultural experience.”
Mullins and Bradley became caught up in the trading frenzy that surrounds the games. Every team is issued national pins that became popular trade items. But Mullins soon found an ever better trade item.
“Our official uniform included an 'LBJ' (cowboy) hat,” he said. “It was a great trade item. I got hats from several players and was able to make some great deals. I remember that the Norwegian team had these beautiful sweaters. I was able to trade a hat for one.”
Of course, Mullins' greatest prize was his gold medal, which he still proudly displays.
It's a prize he shares with four other Duke basketball players:
• Tate Armstrong won gold in the 1976 Montreal Games, playing for UNC coach Dean Smith. He scored 16 points and had two assists in six games.
• Christian Laettner won gold in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, playing for former Duke assistant coach Chuck Daly. Laettner was the only collegiate player on the original Dream Team. He averaged 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in eight games.
• Grant Hill won gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, playing for Lenny Wilkens. Hill averaged 9.7 points, 3.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in six games.
• Carlos Boozer won gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, playing for Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. He averaged 3.2 points and 2.5 rebounds in eight games. Boozer also won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, playing for coach Larry Brown. Boozer averaged 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in eight games.
A number of Duke players have played in the Olympics for other countries, but only one has won a medal — Crawford Palmer won a silver medal in 2000, playing for France. Other participants include: Cameron Hall (1976 - Canada), Dan Meagher (1984 - Canada), Greg Newton (2000 - Canada), Luol Deng (2012 - Great Britain) and Marty Pocius (2012 - Lithuania).
Coaches aren't awarded medals, but two Duke coaches have played a significant role for American Olympic teams. Former Vic Bubas assistant Chuck Daly — a 14-year NBA head coach who won two titles and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame — guided the original Dream Team to gold in 1992. And Mike Krzyzewski, who was an assistant coach on the '92 team, was head coach in 2008 and 2012 when the United States won gold medals. He has a chance to become the first coach to guide Team USA to three gold medals this summer in Rio.
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