Hawkeyes beat Temple ... in the Final Four

The men's basketball paths of Iowa and Temple have crossed just once before in an NCAA tournament, with a berth in the national-championship game at stake.

In Evanston, Ill., before a crowd of 10,525 in Northwestern's McGaw Hall, the Hawkeyes defeated Temple, 83-76, in the 1956 national semifinals to set up a game with Bill Russell's San Francisco team in the finals.

Bill Logan scored a career-high 36 points for Iowa. Logan was a second-team All-American.

Carl Cain had 20 points and 15 rebounds. Bill Schoof had 18 points and 18 rebounds. Only six Hawkeyes played in the game, not unusual. Logan, Cain, Schoof, Bill Seaberg and Sharm Scheurman formed the 'Fabulous Five.' Like Michigan's 'Fab Five' decades later, they would get to two Final Fours, but would win no championship.

Temple got 32 points from Hal Lear and 28 from Guy Rodgers. But they combined for seven charging fouls. It was a different game then. There was no goaltending rule, which made Russell rather useful for San Francisco. Goaltending became a rule in 1957.

Rodgers, by the way, had a long NBA career as a point guard.

Iowa shot 38 free throws, Temple 17. The Owls made just six of them. Yikes!

'It wasn't one of our sharper games,' Iowa Coach Bucky O'Connor said after the win. 'We'll have to be better to beat San Francisco. To beat them, you have to shoot 42 or 43 percent. (Iowa shot 41.4 percent against Temple.)'

Iowa shot a miserable 32.5 percent against USF. Russell had 26 points and 27 rebounds in the Dons' 83-71 title-game triumph.

Sixty years later, it's Iowa and Temple hooking up again in the NCAAs. The game isn't nearly as important as the one in 1956, but it will be seen by far more people.