Kings die proudly. And Loyola was king.

After a thrilling but futile last-ditch rally, the Ramblers vacated their national basketball crown here tonight, losing to mighty Michigan, 84 to 80, in the second of two stunning developments before a crowd of 9,948 in Williams arena. In the first game, a band of upstarts from Ohio University ha shocked highly regarded Kentucky, 85 to 69.

Thus Michigan, co-champion of the Big Ten, and Ohio, ruler of the Mid-American conference, will clash here tomorrow night for the right to advance to the semi-finals of the NCAA tourney in Kansas City, Mo. next week.

Loyola and Kentucky, teams many thought would battle for the championship of this MidEast regional, will open the program with a consolation contest.

The Loyola-Michigan game was decided on a controversial call with 15 seconds left. The Ramblers, after trailing by as much as 10 points in the second half, had roared back into contention when Vic Rouse made two free throws with 22 seconds remaining to cut Michigan’s lead to 82 to 80.

Michigan brought the ball up court cautiously. Then Jim Coleman, with a burst of third-effort speed, cut in front of Michigan’s Bob Cantrell and batted the ball toward the basket. He dashed in to take possession and scored a layup, apparently tying the score.

But while Loyola fans went wild, back at the point of the interception Referee Phil Fox was signaling a traveling violation. The call nullified Coleman’s basket and returned the ball to Michigan. Cantrell then made two free throws with 10 seconds left to bring the score to its final status.

In the Loyola locker room, Coleman was a dejected young man, his head buried in his hands. “I don’t think I traveled on the play,” he said. “I didn’t know what the call was until you told me now.”

Asked to explain the play, Coleman related: “The guy on the side passed to Cantrell. I cut in front of him and tipped the ball away. I took one dribble and got the basket. I couldn’t have had possession because I hit the ball.”

Referee Fox said after the game “The boy [Coleman] intercepted, took three steps while going around the defensive man. You are allowed to take up to two steps, but he took three.”

Thus the entire matter came down to a question of control of the ball. If Coleman had control, it was traveling. If he didn’t it was an unfortunate call. Coleman says he didn’t, and most of the 9,948 fans didn’t think he did, either. Coach George Ireland declined to comment.

Fox, a Southern Conference referee, officiated in Loyola’s victory over Mississippi State last year in the tourney in East Lansing, Mich.

In vacating the crown, however, Loyola had no one to blame but itself. The Ramblers had an unusually poor shooting night and, moreover, they were outrebounded.

While Michigan was hitting at a 43.8 per cent clip, Loyola struggled along at 37.5. Loyola definitely was off. Its leading scorer, Ron Miller, for example, could connect on only seven of 26 field goal attempts.

Loyola surprised Michigan at the start by putting its shortest man, 5-10 John Egan, on 6-5 Cazzie Russell. Egan did a fine job, too. He held Cazzie to only four points in the first half.

But after Loyola took an early lead, Michigan went to the front for good at 16 to 14 on a tip-in by Larry Tregoning with 14 minutes remaining in the first half. With their shots missing the mark, the Ramblers slowly fell farther in arrears.

Bill Buntin [6-7], Tregoning [6-5], Oliver Darden [6-7] and Russell won the battle of the boards for Michigan. By winning this battle, the Wolverines eventually won the war.

It was 43 to 36 at halftime and three times in the second period Michigan built 10-point leads. But Loyola was not ready to abdicate and midway in the last half it put on a full court press. Slowly it caught up.

Another important point in its fruitless fight came when Coleman scored on a leaping drive-n. It cut Michigan’s lead to 76 to 74 with 2:52 left, but Coleman charged into Cantrell on the play and the latter’s free throw made it 77 to 74.

Then Tregoning stole the ball from Hunter, and after taking a pass from Russell, scored on a lay-up. When Russell added two free throws, it was 81 to 74 with 1:30 left.

Baskets by Rouse and Hunter and two free throws by Rouse narrowed the gap to 82 to 80. Then came that agonizing moment for Loyola fans when the tying basket was nullified by the traveling violation.

Loyola was dead, but it went down like a champion.

The most surprising thing about Ohio’s victory was the ease with which it handled the nation’s third-ranked team. The Southeastern conference kings never resembled a good team.

Kentucky was outshot, outrebounded, outrun, and out hustled. The Wildcats never had so much as a tie, and indeed, after the earl moments, were never in serious contention.

Cotton Nash, Kentucky’s celebrated All-American, best reflected his team’s ineptness. He scored only 10 points and his all-around play was weak.

The pattern for the game was set early. Kentucky played a 1-3-1 zone defense but Ohio had a hot hand and zipped into a quick lead. The Wildcats, shooting poorly, got only one shot at the basket and then retreated on defense as Ohio dominated the boards.

Even tho the Mid-American conference champions played the middle half of the game without Don Hilt, who sat on the bench with four fouls, they maintained a strong superiority over Kentucky. At halftime, Ohio had a 40 to 24 lead.

Some of McCormick's personal crusades were seen as quixotic (such as his attempts to reform spelling of the English language) and were parodied in political cartoons in rival Frank Knox's Chicago Daily News. Knox's political cartoonists, including Cecil Jensen, derided McCormick as "Colonel McCosmic", a "pompous, paunchy, didactic individual with a bristling mustache and superlative ego."