In 1979, Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird — two dominant players of their time and perhaps all time — met for the very first time as rivals with the NCAA championship at stake.

The build-up was immense — the American sporting public could sense something special would occur on the night of the championship game, and the television ratings proved it.

Nearly 18 million households tuned  in to see Johnson’s Michigan State University Spartans defeat Bird’s Indiana State University Sycamores, 75-64. The game registered a 24.1 rating, an unprecedented mark for the Final Four and still the highest-rated NCAA basketball game 27 years later.

The classic clash between Johnson and Bird and their style of play helped fortify the Men’s Final Four as a premier sports event. The game’s lasting impact is why it was named one of the top 25 Defining Moments in the 100-year history of the NCAA.

John Wooden’s dynasty teams from the 1960s and 1970s at the University of California, Los Angeles, may have launched  college basketball’s growth spurt, but the Bruins’ championship teams never attracted an audience like Johnson and Bird did.

“The Magic-Bird game was significant,” said former Division I Men’s Basketball Committee Chair Dave Gavitt. “There wasn’t a lot of television coverage deep into the tournament in those days. The compelling nature of that game triggered a competitive bidding situation among the networks. We were able to move the tournament ahead significantly after that.”

Television rights fees for subsequent tournaments escalated to the point where the NCAA and CBS began an 11-year, $6 billion agreement in 2002-03.

Certainly, other finals since 1979 have attracted attention. The 1992 final between Duke University’s Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley and the University of Michigan’s highly touted freshman quintet, for example, drew 53 million viewers, but its overall rating did not reach 24.1.

With the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah as the canvas, college basketball fans tuned in to see Johnson and Bird begin to apply the first strokes of what would become a long-standing rivalry that extended into their professional playing days with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, respectively. Both players were 6-foot-9 and were attempting to lead their respective institutions to a first national championship.

Indiana State also looked like a team of destiny. During the season, Bob Heaton made two memorable shots to keep the Sycamores’ unbeaten season alive. One was a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to force overtime at New Mexico State University in a game Indiana State would go on to win.

“I remember their crowd was chanting ‘18-1’ at us,” Heaton said. “But going into overtime, their fans and even their players were just out of it. Bird and Carl Nix had fouled out, but we still beat them.”

Then in the regional final in Cincinnati, Heaton scored at the buzzer to give Indiana State a victory over the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

“I bumped into (CBS analyst) Billy Packer at the Final Four in Seattle in 1995,” Heaton said. “He told me that shot kind of changed the game of college basketball. He said it led to Bird and Magic being able to play against each other. A large audience watched the game, and it caught fire.”

It certainly added up to must-see TV.

Magic plays Bird

“There must have been a lot of snow and everybody was sitting inside,” Bird deadpanned in a 25-year anniversary story on NCAAsports.com. “Nobody had anything to do that day of the championship game. I’m sure there was a lot of interest in this small school from Terre Haute, Indiana, that was undefeated and playing for the national championship against the Big Ten champion.”

Jud Heathcote, who coached the Spartans to the national championship, sensed the build-up of the event once he saw how many members of the media descended upon Salt Lake City.

“It seemed like half were freelance writers,” Heathcote said. “If you’re doing that, you have to write something that will sell. What they latched onto immediately was the story of Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird. They keyed on those two instead of the national semifinal matchups.”

Michigan State, which finished 26-6, reached the final by cruising past the University of Pennsylvania, 101-67. Meanwhile, top-ranked and unbeaten Indiana State edged DePaul University, 76-74.

The day before the title game, Heathcote took Johnson and fellow all-American Greg Kelser with him to a news conference. Heathcote gave his two star players a game plan to follow when answering questions.

“I told them to be very careful and that people will try to get you to say something negative about Indiana State or Larry Bird,” Heathcote said. “They were going to want us to make comparisons. I told them to just play dumb on those questions.”

While it may have been smart not to provide any bulletin-board material for the opponent, the strategy produced some dull answers.

Heathcote said, “When we got in the car to go back to the hotel, Kelser told me, ‘You know, I’m an academic all-American, and now I know every reporter here thinks I’m stupid.’

“They kept asking Greg who was the better player — Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. He said he must have answered that question 20 times. He would simply say they both are just great players.”

As for his strategic planning on the court, Heathcote was confident his Spartans could keep Indiana State from an undefeated season because he had two superstars to the Sycamores’ one.

During practice, in fact, Heathcote had Johnson play the role of Larry Bird while the rest of the starters practiced a 2-3 matchup zone. Heathcote said Johnson had an unbelievable practice mimicking his star counterpart.

“He (Johnson) was throwing shots in from all over,” Heathcote said. “He had a great time. We wanted our players to understand, if we were going to put a man and a half on Larry Bird, we have got to cover the passing lanes. Larry Bird was a great passer. We had the luxury of having a guy who could pass the way Larry Bird could pass. We were well prepared for what Larry Bird could do for his team.”

A moment in time

As memorable as the game was, it probably wasn’t because of its aesthetics. Michigan State controlled play throughout and was able to limit Bird to 19 points on just 7-of-21 shooting from the field.

Johnson had a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds, while Kelser added 19 points and eight boards. Michigan State was up by nine at halftime and ahead by as much as 16 in the second half. “We might have had a wipeout if Greg Kelser didn’t pick up his fourth foul,” Heathcote said. “When I took him out, we played not to lose instead of to win. They cut the lead to six points. But when I put Greg back in, we ended up winning by 11.”

It also gave Kelser a chance to finally speak freely — and intelligently — to the media.

“At one point, there was only one freelance writer left in our locker room after the game,” Heathcote said. “He was asking our players if Larry Bird had let his team down.

“Greg explained how we used a matchup zone and how we skewed the zone toward Bird. He described every nuance we used and kept going on and on to explain every move.”

Heathcote enjoyed taking part in such a significant event in intercollegiate athletics, especially one that is being recognized as one of the defining moments of the NCAA.

“You talk about the Dukes and the North Carolinas and other big-time rivalries,” Heathcote said. “They don’t quite match up to what was there at that time. The fact that it has endured as the most-watched game in college history is surprising, because something always comes along that erases something else.

“For it to stay at that level that long is a reflection of the two superstars.”

Here is a list of the top 10 rated NCAA men’s  basketball tournament finals from 1975-2005.