Urban legend has it that the whole thing was a mistake. The idea must have been to schedule Virginia — as in the University of — and something must have gone haywire along the way.



After all: Why else would Minnesota, an ancient Big Ten program with a future NBA player on its roster travel so many miles to punch so far down? Why would they schedule a tiny NAIA Independent program that had existed for exactly two seasons? Why would a team that played at Williams Arena agree to suit up in a gym that held 1,500 people when it was full, which it often wasn’t? They weren’t on a holiday trip, picking up another random tune-up game. They played at Evansville on Dec. 26 and Notre Dame on Jan. 2. What on Earth were they doing at Virginia Commonwealth?



On Dec. 28, 1970, Fred Jeter was in the building, wondering as much himself. “I remember nobody could believe they were playing us,” Jeter said. “You were sitting there expecting some...