Once again, March Madness is upon us. It has become a staple of the non-sports world along the same lines of the Super Bowl, filled with teams chosen in pools due to colors and nicknames. The event tends to capture America’s interest for nearly a month.

Growing up in the late 1960s and 70s, the NCAA tournament to me was a unique basketball experience in which we began to recognize relatively unknown college stars, many of whom became familiar names in the NBA.

This latest installment of my look back at YESTERDAY -- a trip back in time to the late 1960s, 70s and sometimes dipping into the early 80s and 90s -- is a recollection of the NCAA tournament in the 1970s as well as some items that emerged during the period.

This decade also saw a number of “big men,” who played prominent roles for their teams and went on to become stars in the ABA and NBA. They became the faces of numerous Sports Illustrated covers.

It started with the 1970 tournament, which included just 25 teams from the East, Mideast, Midwest, and West regions.

Little-known centers Artis Gilmore of Jacksonville and Bob Lainer of St. Bonaventure splashed onto the scene. Remember the slander 7-2 Gilmore with the afro, goatee, and the one-hand. left-hand grasp of the ball, and the 6-10 Lainer, who looked like a defensive tackle who also had a left-handed hook in the middle with his size 22 sneakers? People forget Lainer had career number of 27 points and 15 rebounds a contest.

Think back to the UCLA Bruins with the power-blue uniforms with the bright yellow lettering that seemed to leave you mesmerized. Stoic John Wooden led from the sidelines, and he would rule college basketball with 10 titles during the era of the late 1960s and 70s.

Sidney Wicks was the rugged-looking, true 6-9 power forward who won the Outstanding Player Award in 1970 before the Bill Walton run began. Who was the leading scorer of the 1970 tournament? Does Notre Dame’s Austin Carr ring a bell?

NBC broadcast the games with Curt Gowdy and Jim Simpson with the call. Simpson certainly was one of the more underrated announcers during the decade. Dick Enberg and Billy Packer first teamed together in 1976.

A lost fact is the championship game and a consolation game were both played on a Saturday afternoon from 1969-72. I can recall watching both of them on a basketball-filled day.

In 1974, North Carolina State ended the UCLA run, and a new college star surfaced on the forefront.

David Thompson became famous for beginning the trend of the “alley-oop” dunk and gained the name of “Skywalker” before Michael Jordan ruled the air above the rim.

Most people forget Thompson was only 6-4, but he can with the best of them in the paint. Didn’t we all try to be Thompson on the playground?

Besides Thompson, NC State unveiled 7-2 center Tom Burleson, who was as dominating as his peers, and 5-7 guard Monte Towe, who was relentless as an attack dog and could launch shots from long range. The following year in 1975, the tournament field jumped from 25 to 32.

A year earlier in 1973, the first Monday night championship game was played with UCLA outlasting Memphis State in the final behind Walton.

One often forgotten big man was Indiana’s 6-10 Kent Benson, who led the Hoosiers to the 1976 NCAA championship at the Spectrum. Benson’s cast was Quinn Buckner and Scott May, who all were led by legendary Bobby Knight. Indiana beat Michigan, who was paced by Phil Hubbard.

The decade ended with a fantastic finale that featured future hall of famers Michigan State’s Magic Johnson and Indiana State’s Larry Bird that would reset the NBA in the 1980s. Johnson and his group had a little too much firepower in a 75-64 victory. Bird suddenly became a household name.

Local Hoops: If you were a local college basketball fan in the 1970s, you had to think back to the Big 5 games from Penn’s Palestra on Channel 17 on a Saturday night.

Al Meltzer and Bob Vetrone were the announcers, but the most memorable moments were the camera angles from above and the sound of the cowbells from the crowd. There also were the streamers that would be launched before and after the games.

A Legendary Basketball Shadow: I couldn’t finish this column without mentioning “The White Shadow,” a classic sports TV show that debuted in 1978 and ended in 1981.

Ken Howard played Ken Reeves, a former Chicago Bulls player whose career was cut short due to a knee injury and accepted a job as a head basketball coach at a mythical Carver High School, a ghetto Los Angeles-based school.

The show had credible basketball scenes and also dealt with real-life teenage issues. It also had great player nicknames such as Mario “Salami’ Pettrino, James “Hollywood” Heyward, Ricardo “Go-Go” Gomez, and Curtis “CJ” Jackson.

Set The Pace: Along with those memorable college figures and games of the 1970s, how about the AMC Pacer? It was the big, square-type car that was on the market from 1975-80. Did you have one or know of anyone who did?

The Pacer was recognized for its wide seats, and it has only two doors. It was streamed-lined, and didn’t contain many of the accessories of other cars. The Pacer was a precursor for the Gremlin, which also was unique in many ways.

Don’t Drink The Water: On this date in 1975, the Doobie Brothers topped the charts with “Black Water,” which evolved into a classic or the long-running group.

The song was sandwiched around Olivia Newton-John’s “Have You Ever Been Mellow” and Frankie Valli’s “My Eyes Adore You.” Newton-John had just burst onto the scene before she gained superstardom as a co-star with John Travolta in “Grease” the following year.

McDonald’s March: mid-March always brought the thought of McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes to your youth. Those green-colored shakes were a gimmick as a basic vanilla shake colored green with a mint twist, but there were still a must.

A leprechaun was in the ads as well as Ronald McDonald and a green Grimace. I believe we all have had our share of those, and we still buy them once in a while.