Gather around kids, it’s time for a history lesson.

For you old fogies like me enjoy some of the good memories.

Donovan Mitchell’s dunk against Florida State last week has received a lot of attention and rightly so. It was spectacular for several reasons: he is only 6-foot-3 inches tall; he had to time it perfectly; he took the rebound away from an opposing player with inside position; he hovered in the air long enough to grab the ball, cock his arm back and slam it into the basket. It was celebrated nationally as No. 3 on ESPN’s Top Plays the following day.

As much as I loved Mitchell’s dunk and rose from my seat in celebration... I’ve seen it all before.

You see, the University of Louisville is where dunk as artistry within the college game was born. I know because I was there.

Prior to the start of the 1967 season dunking was allowed in high school and college, but very seldom practiced. It was considered ‘ungentlemanly’ and unsportsmanlike to dunk, at least with any flair. Some coaches called it “idiots delight” and other coaches, including 10-time national champion coach John Wooden, discouraged his players from dunking. Interestingly, it is one of his players, Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar today) who is believed to be responsible for a no-dunking rule being instituted by the NCAA basketball committee.

Ostensibly the rule was for “injury concerns” and “to protect equipment from damage”. In the pro game and in dunking exhibitions at clinics and pick-up games it had become common to ‘shatter’ backboards with what was called a “gorilla” dunk (kids, look up Darryl Dawkins for more research). But most suspected that the dominance of the 7-2 Alcindor in the 1967 NCAA tournament was the true reason. UCLA easily won the tournament with Alcindor dunking over everyone. It didn’t do any good because UCLA won the next two years anyway. They also won the national championship in 1970, 71, 72 and 73.

In 1976, at the encouragement of many coaches and the invention of the ‘breakaway’ rim, the NCAA reinstated the dunk. The timing was perfect for the University of Louisville as two of the best high school basketball players in the country joined the basketball team. Darrell Griffith and Bobby Turner were two local players that had made a name for themselves as spectacular dunkers in Louisville’s popular Dirt Bowl. Griffith enhanced his reputation with an incomparable dunking exhibition in the Derby Classic in Freedom Hall.

When he arrived at UofL, Griffith promised the fans a NCAA National Championship and he delivered. Four seasons later the Cards won the championship defeating UCLA. But Griffith’s contributions to the school involved much more than championships. UofL basketball would develop a ‘brand’ that centered on the dunk. Griffith and his teammates would make Louisville the ‘Doctors of Dunk’ and restore the dunk to college basketball with flair.

LINK: Kansas City Star - Louisville's Griffith popularized the dunk

Many fans had never seen a player soar through the air, grab a rebound with one hand and slam it through the basket. Nor had they seen an alley-oop; one player passes to another who would jump and slam the pass through the basket. Many young fans had not seen a player take a drop step and dunk the ball with both hands, a move popularized by Wilt Chamberlain and copied by Alcindor.

Dunks with flair became synonymous with UofL and Griffith became Dr. Dunkenstein, a nickname that followed him into the pros. By the time he arrived in the NBA at Utah, he also became an outstanding 3-point shooter. Later Houston would become Phi Slamma Jamma, but Louisville was the first to create the dunking brand in college.

“We were the first team to be a brand,” Griffith said. “You had (Houston’s) Phi Slamma Jamma, and then the Fab Five (of Michigan), but the Doctors of Dunk were the first college brand, because we were so new at what we did.”

Louisville's love of the dunk continues today.