f history of their own to the tournament. OBU lost in the last championship game played in Kansas City, falling to Hawaii Pacific in Kemper Arena in 1993. The Bison also were the first team to qualify for the return trip to Kansas City, claiming the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season title and the first automatic berth Monday night. On Tuesday evening, Biola won the 10-team Golden State Athletic Conference crown. "I think any time you can add to the tradition of a program like OBU it is special," said second-year Bison coach Doug Tolin. "I think all of us feel a sense of responsibility to the people who have built this program over the years, so it is nice to be able to carry forward. We have put ourselves in a position, we hope, to add more to the tradition." OBU won its only national championship in men's basketball in the 1965-66 season, sandwiched between runner-up finishes in 1965 and 1967. Al Tucker was the Most Valuable Player of the 1966 and 1967 tournaments. Tucker passed away May 7, 2001, and as a tribute, the Bison wear his number on a black patch on their jerseys. John Parrish, now executive vice president at OBU, served as the university's sports information director during the Tucker era. He also returned to the OBU sideline this season as the play-by-play announcer for the radio and internet broadcasts of Bison basketball, a position he held for nine seasons, stepping down just before OBU's magical season in 1992-93. "It is the fulfillment of a dream I had 25 years ago when I started broadcasting OBU basketball," Parrish said. "When the Bison played in Kansas City in 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1973, I was public relations director and sports information director and not a play-by-play broadcaster. In those days, I sat on the bench with the team, kept a play-by-play of the game, and then contacted all of our media outlets after the game. I started broadcasting in the fall of 1973 and continued through 1979. I returned to...
