By Craig Pinley

With every key North Park player returning to the roster, anything less than a title in 1980 would’ve been a disappointment and the Vikings knew it.

“That first year we won the championship was the year we worked the hardest,” point guard Mike Thomas said. The 1980 season was the toughest emotionally. My freshman year (1978) it was the unknown; we were trying to accomplish something we knew nothing about. In 1980, we were trying to defend our championship - anything less than that would’ve been a failure. And everybody that played us wanted to beat us because it would be a notch on their belt.”

North Park seemed ready for the challenge, scoring more than 100 points in winning its opening two games and running off eight consecutive victories to start the 1979-80 campaign. Road wins at Division I entry UC-Irvine and Puget Sound of Washington, then ranked first in Division II, were the biggest team highlights. Individually, a 37-point, 20-rebound performance by sixth man Keith French helped North Park beat conference rival Carroll College while Harper sat out with an injury.

The 1980 North Park celebration, All-Tournament team.

An 84-78 loss to Chicago State in a late December tournament at North Park ended any hopes of an unbeaten season, The Vikings got revenge a week later, however, beating Chicago State 107-73. The Vikings eventually went on a 13-game win streak, outscoring opponents by at least 25 points seven times and scoring at least 100 points on four occasions. Coach Dan McCarrell’s squad suffered through their first losing streak during the title run, dropping conference road games at Millikin University (66-63) and Augustana (61-55). But the team rebounded with a 91-64 win against Carthage College to win its third straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin title as they readied for the homestretch of the season.

North Park opened the playoffs with a 91-73 home win over Ripon College of Wisconsin as All-America center Michael Harper scored 26 points and Greer added 18. The Vikings led 25-10 early and overcame first-half foul trouble for the victory. At the regional finals in Chicago the next night, they avenged the loss to Augustana College with a 72-60 triumph as Harper scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. The game had added meaning as Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson (a North Park alum) attended the game.

In the quarterfinals, Thomas scored 24 points in an 86-63 dismantling of Jersey City of New Jersey. Six days later, French had his signature moment at North Park, scoring a late basket and blocking the potential game-tying shot at the buzzer as the Vikings edged Longwood College of Virginia 57-55 in the Division III semifinals in Rock Island, Illinois. In the finals, the Vikings (28-3) ended its three-year run with an 83-76 victory over Upsala College of New Jersey as Modzel Greer tallied 18 points and Thomas produced 17 points and 11 assists.

Thomas was named the tourney MVP after scoring a combined 37 points in the semis and finals. French also made the All-Tourney squad, although the color commentator for the televised games on ESPN, Dick Vitale, said that French should have gotten MVP honors. McCarrell wasn’t about to argue the point, but during a recent reunion dinner he cited French’s late-game heroics against Longwood as one of his most vivid memories.

“I have dreams about the blocked shot (by French against Longwood),” said McCarrell. “I’ll wake up and ask myself, ‘did he get it, did he get it?’ And he always does.”

Things changed dramatically for North Park and the senior standouts that finished their careers for the Vikings. Harper was the 56th pick in the 1980 draft and played two years with the Portland Trailblazers before heading to Europe to play basketball. Later in the draft, the Chicago Bulls picked Greer and the Phoenix Suns picked French. Both were cut, but Greer eventually had a long professional basketball career in The Netherlands. He still coaches in that country.

The key returnees from North Park’s third championship squad – Thomas (an All-America pick), Grant Grastorf, Jim Clausen and Scott Groot - led the Vikings to the 1981 Division III tourney, but this time Augustana was the better team in the playoffs, beating McCarrell’s squad 81-68. Augustana was later beaten 67-65 in overtime at the Division III finals by Potsdam State, which had lost to North Park two years earlier.

Thomas was drafted and cut by the Philadelphia 76ers later in 2001 and eventually entered the military, playing on All-Army basketball teams that traveled throughout the world. Although Harper was the lone North Park player to make the NBA, a former player during the title years, Rus Bradburd, said that given the right circumstances others could have competed at that level. Bradburd, now a coach in a professional basketball league in Ireland, thought of his talented teammates often as he coached at Division I schools University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) and New Mexico State University. In fact, his ex-teammates set the standard for the recruiting standards he held.

During Bradburd’s second year as an assistant at UTEP, he took Greer and French to watch a high school guard at a local YMCA. Although the three agreed that the guard wasn’t as good as their North Park teammate Thomas, Bradburd was impressed enough to recommend the player for a scholarship. That player, Tim Hardaway, eventually became an All-Star point guard in the National Basketball Association.

“My rule at UTEP for recruiting was to compare the Division I point guards to Mike Thomas, the forwards to Bud Greer and the posts to Keith French and Michael Harper,” Bradburd said. “It was my point of reference and it was a good measuring stick.”

Harper, who scored 1,880 points and grabbed a school record 1,184 rebounds as a three-time All-America player, recalled the talents of his teammates with similar respect.

“Bud Greer was an incredible leaper — he was Scottie Pippen before there was a Scottie Pippen — a 6-foot-6 guard that handled the ball exceptionally well and was a great shooter. Thomas was a great penetrator and an incredible leader. He was a Division I type guard, an excellent playmaker, one of the national leaders in assists. On the first team, he had a role and he knew whom to please (offensively). But at the same time he was able to step up when anybody was off.”

Harper continued, “Clausen had an incredibly soft touch from 8 to 12 feet out, and he was a good dribbler, an exceptional passer, a tough player and an excellent role player. He was a guy who kept us all calm. Grant Grastorf was always ready to play. He really worked on his craft. French was a role player that stepped up to the plate especially during the championship series. His game elevated the closer we got to the championship.”

Craig Pinley, who served as Director of Sports Information at North Park from 1988-90, has written for the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., among others.