The 1974–75 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

in the

1974–75 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 1974–75 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began in November 1974, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the 1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Championship Game on March 3 ...

as members of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. They played their home games at

Jenison Fieldhouse Jenison Fieldhouse (alternately referred to in university publications as Jenison Field House) is a 10,004-seat, later reduced to 6,000-seat, multi-purpose arena in East Lansing, Michigan. The arena opened in 1940 and was named for alumnus Fre ...

East Lansing, Michigan East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, although a small portion extends north into Clinton County. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 47,741. The city is located immediate ...

and were coached by

Gus Ganakas Augustus George Ganakas (July 3, 1926 – January 11, 2019) was an American sports broadcaster, athletics administrator, and coach of the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team. Early life Ganakas was born on July 3, 1926, in Mount Morri ...

in his sixth year as head coach of the Spartans. MSU finished the season 17–9, 10–8 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place.

Previous season

The

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

finished the 1973–74 season 13–11, 8–6 in Big Ten play to finish in a tie for fourth place.

Player walk-out

The season stands as one of the ugliest moments in MSU athletics history as 10 players, led by captain Lindsay Hairston, followed by Bob Chapman, Pete Davis, Terry Furlow, Bill Glover, Thomas McGill, Cedric Milton, Lovelle Rivers, Benny White and Edgar Wilson, walked out of a team meeting before their game against

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

on January 4, 1975. At the time, it was assumed that the players were objecting to the fact that freshman Jeff Tropf, who was white, was starting over more experienced black players. Later, more complaints came to light including the arena being too cold during practice due to construction and the school's lack of emphasis on basketball. When the players returned an hour before game time, head coach Gus Ganakas suspended the players. As a result, the team fielded junior varsity players and Tropf for the game against Indiana and were blown out 107–55. The next day, the suspended players aired their grievances with Ganakas, apologized, and were reinstated to the team. Tropf left the school after the season.

Roster and statistics

Source

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 style=, Regular season

Awards and honors

* Terry Furlow – All-Big Ten First Team * Terry Furlow – Big Ten Scoring Champion (20.2 ppg in-conference) * Lindsay Hairston – All-Big Ten First Team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1974-75 Michigan State Spartans Men's Basketball Team Michigan State Spartans men's basketball seasons

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

Michigan State Spartans men's b

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...