My fandom of San Diego State men’s basketball began with the 1978-79 season. Thanks to a dad who worked on the campus at Montezuma Mesa, I was able to watch some incredible Aztecs. Players like Kim Goetz, AKA “The Long Ranger” Mike Dodd, and future baseball hall of famer Tony Gwynn were part of the first team I cheered for as a kid growing up.
But it wasn’t until a few short years later when head coach Smokey Gaines brought in a young stud from West Memphis, Arkansas that I could really get excited about. The Aztecs actually had a star we could root for, and led by him, a team who you felt gave your squad a chance to win, night in and night out.
Michael Cage
Michael Cage joined the Aztecs as a freshman in 1981 and had an immediate impact. With an already sculpted, athletic body, he finished his first year in the Red and Black as the nation’s number three rebounder. He truly dominated the paint in ways that few others could.
Along with fellow SDSU Athletics Hall of Fame members Milton Phelps and Judy Porter, Cage will have his jersey lifted to the rafters before the January 17 home game against Nevada.
All three basketball legends had their numbers retired in other facilities, but this will be the first time they will hang together in Viejas Arena, joining Aztecs great Kawhi Leonard.
Cage, #44, a three-time All-Western Athletic Conference and back-to-back WAC Player of the Year selection, not only possessed the ability to rebound, but he was more than a capable scorer too. By the time he had reached his senior year, Cage became the only player in the country to rank top-10 in both scoring and rebounding.
That season he averaged 24.5 points per game, still an Aztecs’ record. He ended his Aztecs’ career as the program’s leading scorer, a record that lasted 27 years.
Currently, Cage stands as the school’s statistical leader in seven categories including single-season scoring (686), single-season scoring average, career rebounding, and rebounds in a game (26), to name a few. In 1984, the year I was accepted into SDSU, Cage became the first Aztec to earn consensus All-American recognition.
The Clippers drafted Cage in the first round with the 14th overall pick. The 6’9” lefty went on to play 15 seasons in the NBA. Until Leonard came along, Cage represented the only real NBA success story Aztecs fans could celebrate.
Today, he is one of the biggest SDSU basketball supporters around. His jersey hanging in the rafters will be a regular reminder to me and thousands of SDSU alumni and fans who saw him play of how great an Aztec he was.
Milton ‘Milky’ Phelps
Although I never got to see Milton “Milky” Phelps play, I found out recently of a personal connection to the 1941 SDSU graduate. The Phelps family grew up in San Diego and Milky’s younger brother Bob went on to become a physical education teacher. Bob stayed local and taught in the South Bay.
In those classic navy blue coach’s “Bike” shorts, Bob Phelps served as one of my PE coaches at Hilltop Junior High in the early 80s. I can still picture him counting out cadence as me and my classmates performed various exercises.
Bob’s older brother Milky starred at San Diego State from 1938 through 1941. The first Aztec to score 1,000 points in his career, long before the shot clock or the three-point line, Phelps led SDSU to three consecutive National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championship games. After coming up short twice, the Aztecs secured the national title in the 1941 game.
Phelps, #22, earned recognition for his on-court accomplishments as a three-time NAIA All-American, including twice being named to the first team, the only Aztec man to hold that distinction. He currently ranks as the number 29 scorer in program history with 1,043 points.
Judy Porter-Wonders
The third Aztec great to be honored is #33 Judy Porter-Wonders. The center/forward was a four-time All-Western Collegiate Athletic Association (WCAA) honoree during her illustrious career at SDSU that ended in 1983.
The National Women’s Player of the Year finalist completed her Aztecs’ career as the holder of 21 school records. In fact, she still holds the school record for highest career-rebounding average with 12.5 boards per game.
Clearly one of the most dominant players SDSU has ever seen, Porter-Wonders was inducted into the San Diego State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990, becoming the first Aztec female athlete to be so honored.
Her jersey will now proudly hang alongside those of three other SDSU basketball legends.
With all of the recent success Aztecs basketball has enjoyed, the Viejas Arena rafters are becoming quite crowded with banners and jerseys. Most definitely a good problem to have. Go Aztecs!
San Diego State’s men’s basketball home game on January 17 against Nevada will tip at 8:00pm on Montezuma Mesa at Viejas Arena. CBS Sports Network and San Diego Sports 760 will have the coverage.
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