In January of 1981, Boyd Grant was in his fourth season as Fresno State’s head men’s basketball coach. He was two years away from leading the Bulldogs to the NIT Championship.
In 1981, he led the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. They also did something else for the first time that year; they won 13 games in a row (a school record).
It began with a 64-51 win over UC Irvine on January 24th. (Ironically, that snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Anteaters.) The Bulldogs would blow out Pacific in their next game, and the rest, as they say, is history.
During the Bulldogs’ winning streak, they outscored their opponents, 839-615. That comes out to an average margin of victory of 17.2 points.
Two of those 13 wins came in the PCAA Tournament over Utah State and San Jose State. Fresno State won the Pacific Coast Athletic Association that season, before making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
And that is where the streak ended.
On March 13th, 1981, the Bulldogs lost to Northeastern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in El Paso, TX.
For local, national, and breaking news, and to get weather alerts, download our FREE mobile app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
