Notre Dame’s Golden Era? Branning Could Tell You : Ex-Marina Guard Led Irish Giant Killers of the ‘70s

Where to begin? There were so many things Rich Branning could have told the kid.

That he was the starting point guard on the only Notre Dame basketball team to play in a Final Four?

That the Fighting Irish accomplished what was then the unthinkable, winning all four games at UCLA during Branning’s four-year career (1976-80)?

That the Irish stunned then-No. 1 San Francisco, Marquette and DePaul during Branning’s days in Indiana?

That 10 players from that 1978 Final Four team were eventually drafted by NBA teams? That maybe the current Notre Dame team could use some blue-chippers, such as Branning and the guys he played with, Kelly Tripucka, Bill Laimbeer, Bill Hanzlik, John Paxson and Orlando Woolridge?

Yeah, Branning, who averaged 27.4 points as a senior at Marina High in 1975-76 before becoming the consummate, pass-first point guard at Notre Dame, could have pinned back the kid’s ears with stories.

Instead, he laughed.

You have your fraternity houses and student unions. Whenever former Notre Dame basketball players return to campus, they wander over to ‘The Rock’--an old building, the Knute Rockne Memorial Gymnasium.

It was there, a couple of years ago, where Branning ran into this kid.

Branning, in his early 30s, saw a college-aged kid on the sidelines at The Rock, eyes scanning the sidelines to fill out a team to take on the winners in a pick-up game.

“Need a fifth?” Branning asked.

The kid looked at Branning. His gaze scanned Branning up and down, and finally focused on an old pair of scruffy basketball shoes Branning was wearing.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so,” the kid answered back.

Branning laughed at the memory over the telephone late last week from his office in Palo Alto, where he is a vice president of the Staubach Co.

“That’s how far I’ve sunk!” Branning said.

Was Branning sure the kid needed a fifth player?

“Oh yeah, he was looking for a player,” Branning said. “He just didn’t think I looked like the kind of player he needed.

“I gotta tell you, I was dying to get in there and ‘D’ him up.”

For 10 years now, Branning’s basketball has mainly been pick-up three-on-three games. He plays on the occasional recreation league team, and it isn’t even close to what he once did.

For one thing, he’s usually the center.

“I’m the 6-3 guy,” he said. “I don’t have any need to go to the A leagues, so the rest of the guys on my team are usually a bunch of CPAs and attorneys. I’m still only about 175 or 180 pounds, but I’m the center.”

As Indiana’s John Mellencamp sings, days turn to minutes and minutes to memories. And memories have been the best part of Notre Dame basketball for, oh, at least a decade or so.

Winners? Excitement? Yes, Branning could have told the kid in The Rock that every home game during Branning’s four years was sold out. He could have told him that once basketball at Notre Dame was on a par with football, and he could have used the UCLA game in December of his senior year as an example.

That was the time the student body was whipped into a frenzy, first by Coach Digger Phelps walking out along to midcourt before the game and waving his arms madly, then by the uncanny entrance of the Irish players themselves. A minute after Phelps went out, suddenly there were co-captains Branning and Hanzlik running down two aisles of the Athletic and Convocation Center, through the student section, toward the court, with teammates behind them.

“You don’t really realize until the years go by what a special moment (playing college basketball) is,” said Branning, who ranks fourth on Notre Dame’s career assist list (466) and 20th in scoring (1,232 points). “Sometimes you wish you could have captured it.”

Moments? Branning had plenty.

“Probably the thing that hits me the most are three or four special moments,” he said. “The first one I remember vividly, I had probably been on campus only a week or two, and I went over the The Rock--my dorm was next to it--and I remember going out and looking at these guys who were going to be my teammates. I had seen these guys on TV, and it is very strange to throw yourself into that environment from halfway around the country.

“And then my first college game, against Maryland at Cole Fieldhouse. They were in the top five preseason then, and Brad Davis was their starting point guard. I remember dribbling down the court and having this thought, ‘Brad Davis is guarding me now.’ We upset them, and it was kind of like you had arrived. It was a very special moment.

“I just remember playing against great players. Michigan State with Magic (Johnson), Walter Davis and North Carolina. It was exciting--when we would come to town, the place was packed. It was very electric.”

And then there was the Final Four.

“Oh boy,” Branning said. “What I do remember is that Jimmy the Greek picked us to win it all. That was probably a curse in disguise. We were playing magnificent ball through the playoffs. We had played Kentucky earlier in the year and I fouled out with eight minutes left and we lost by only three (actually, five, 73-68). I felt very strongly we could beat them.

“It looked like we were headed to beat them. The unfortunate thing is that, as a team, we underestimated Duke.”

Indeed, the Irish lost to Duke in the semifinals, 90-86. They had nearly everyone back from that team for another run at the Final Four the following year but, in the Mideast Regional, the Irish ran into Magic’s Michigan State team and were eliminated, 80-68. And the next year, the Irish were upset by Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

It was the end of the line for Branning. He was drafted by the Indiana Pacers, cut before the first preseason game and then he decided he was through with basketball. Although the Detroit Pistons showed some interest in signing him the following year, Branning decided he had had enough.

“I kind of made a decision that I was not going to be one of these guys who hung on forever,” Branning said. “I applied to graduate school and, in all honesty, I didn’t suffer withdrawals other guys do. It was time to move on.”

He went to graduate school at USC, of all places, and worked under Stan Morrison as a graduate assistant for one season. It helped him pay for his schooling and, when he earned his degree (sports management/business), he was hired by IBM. From there he went to work for Trammell Crow, and then to the Staubach Co., which handles commercial real estate.

Thirteen years later, Branning the vice president is still handing out assists.

“For example, if a company is looking for new headquarters, we assist, negotiate the purchase of land, help with the construction of the building or with working with the landlord of an existing building.”

He has been back to Notre Dame for football games, but there hasn’t been much to go back to in the basketball buildings.

“I’m very adamant about the idea that if you’re going to run with horses, you’ve got to have horses,” Branning said. “They just haven’t been able to attract the blue-chip players. I’m talking about the country’s top 25 players--even if it’s just one a year. You need that to compete with the schedule they play.”

Besides, Branning and his wife, Dianna, a former volleyball player at Golden West College, now are busy with Hannah, who was born on Nov. 30; Richard Jr., 4 1/2, and Kelli, 2. Maybe one day when the kids are a little older, Branning and Dianna will take them back to the Notre Dame campus, show them around, tell them that their ol’ dad used to play a little basketball.

For now, though, Branning only sees the Irish in person when they play on the West Coast. And these days, it is usually a depressing experience.

Last year, Branning and his neighbor went to see the Irish play at Stanford.

And at halftime, after watching 20 minutes of sluggishness, Branning’s neighbor had a question.

“Rich,” he asked. “When you played, was Notre Dame any good?”