On This Day 47 Years Ago, One of Basketball's Greatest Rivalries Was Born

The rivalry that defined the NBA in the 1980s was actually born on March 26, 1979. Forty-seven years ago today, Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans outdueled Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores in Salt Lake City to win the NCAA Tournament.

There's no shortage of profiles and documentaries, not to mention old game footage, to pore over in order to understand the impact Bird and Magic had on the NBA. For the sake of this article, we'll focus on their March Madness matchup, which was pretty significant in its own right.

Bird vs. Magic: The Stakes

Indiana State came into the game an undefeated 33-0. The champions of the Missouri Valley Conference, the Sycamores were making their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level.

If there were any doubts the level of competition they faced during the season, Bird and his team erased them in the Big Dance. The top seed in the Midwest, Indiana State took down Virginia Tech, Oklahoma and a Sidney Moncrief-led Arkansas team to reach the Final Four.

In the national semifinal against DePaul and its superstar Mark Aguirre, Bird showed why the Boston Celtics made him the No. 6 overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft and were willing to wait a year to have him join the organization. The 6-foot-9 forward scored 35 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and dished out nine assists in a 76-74 win.

Michigan State, meanwhile, won the Big Ten and earned the No. 2 seed in the Mideast. In the NCAA Tournament, they took out Lamar, LSU and top-seeded Notre Dame before obliterating the Cinderella Penn Quakers 101-67 in the Final Four.

Magic, still mostly known as Earvin in those days, posted a triple-double (29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) in that semifinal beatdown, with forward Greg Kelser adding 28 points and nine boards.

Bird vs. Magic: The Game

In what remains the most watched college basketball game of all-time to this day with a 35.1 rating, Michigan State jumped out to a 37-28 halftime lead and didn't look back.

All night long, the Spartans made things tough on Bird, who finished with 19 points, nearly 10 below his season average, on 7-of-21 shooting. Bird did finish with 13 rebounds and five steals, and Carl Nicks scored 17 points for the Sycamores, but it wasn't enough.

As expected, Magic (24 points, seven rebounds and five assists) and Kelser (19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds) were the top performers for MSU. However, the Spartans also received unexpected help from guard Terry Donnelly, who averaged 6.6 points on the season but poured in 15 on 5-of-5 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

Bird vs. Magic: The Legacy

This would mark Magic's first head-to-head title win over Bird. Bird evened the score when he led the Celtics past Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1984 NBA Finals, but the Lakers would go on to beat Boston in the championship series in 1985 and 1987.

Magic won five NBA championships overall, with Bird claiming three. Together, they teamed up to help the Dream Team win gold in Barcelona in 1992.