March 19, 2021 marks the 45th anniversary of the 1975-76 Puget Sound men's basketball team winning the NCAA D-II Championshionship. The Loggers beat Tennessee-Chattanooga, 83-74, to clinch the national title. In the championship game, Brant Gibler led the Loggers in scoring with 22 points, and Curt Peterson scored 20 points. 

The 1975-76 Puget Sound squad set a school record with 27 wins, including 13 straight wins to end the season. Of the Loggers' seven losses that year, six were against NCAA D-I programs. During the tournament run, opposing fans often referred to the underdog Loggers as "Puny Sound." But Puget Sound had the last laugh. The Loggers became the first west coast program to win the NCAA D-II men's basketball title. 

"The 1976 team is the standard of excellence that every Logger men's basketball team since has been trying to match," said Puget Sound men's basketball head coach Aubrey Shelton. Shelton '05 MAT '06 was an All-Northwest Conference honoree during his playing days with the Loggers. As a student-athlete, Shelton won two NWC titles and made a couple of NCAA D-III Sweet 16 appearance. "As a player, I played an alumni game against Rick Walker, one of the stars of the '76 team. I was warned by the upperclassmen that he had dropped 40 points the year before in the alumni game (he was in his mid-40's at the time). So the respect we had for those guys and that team was still present and we knew how good they were. Having the privilege to hear stories from former members of that team is always inspirational.  Currently, every recruit I bring on campus I show the national championship banner and tell them our mission is to get another one.  I also show them the Hall of Fame plaque of the 1976 team and say when we win the national title we ALL get in the hall of fame."