Seven straight titles.
 
Not one, not two, not three...
 
Seven.
 
The Victoria Vikes men's basketball national championship run from 1980 to 1986 is a remarkable feat at any level, but more so in university athletics, where turnover is inevitable as every season begins by welcoming one class of players and ends saying goodbye to another. Even the modern-day Carleton Ravens, winners of the 11 national titles since 2003, have not yet won more than five consecutively.
 
And as it turns out, the Vikes nearly didn't make it to four.
 
March 12, 1983. Victoria at Alberta in the Canada West final. Winner goes to nationals, loser's season enters the history books.
 
The Vikes were in enemy territory, their starting centre was sidelined by food poisoning, and when they left the court at halftime trailing the Golden Bears by 20, their dynasty seemed doomed.
 
"The opposing coach passed me in the locker room and said, 'Boy you guys are really struggling,'" Vikes coaching legend Ken Shields recalled.
 
"I answered, 'Yeah, I don't know what the hell we're going to do'."
 
What they did was change from their trademark press defense to an aggressive 1-2-2 zone. What they did was force turnovers and convert them into easy layups. What they did was erase Alberta's lead within the first five minutes of the second half.
 
What they did was go on to win 83-67 and stay alive.
 
"We came in at half time and there was a calmness in the room," said Shields. "We talked matter-of-factly about our lack of energy in the first half and all agreed that it was poor.
 
"I never raised my voice."
 
Why raise your voice when you can raise banners? Shields' Victoria teams captured the first seven Canadian university championships of the 80s (a record that still stands for most consecutive national titles in CIS basketball, men's or women's) and captured every Canada West championship from 1978 to 1984 (also a record for consecutive wins).
 
"We played so well as a team and a unit," said Eli Pasquale, a three-time All-Canadian point guard who was part of Victoria's first five championship teams and was selected by Seattle in the 1984 NBA Draft. "You get the right people and you get the right coach and things came together and they worked out."
 
Pasquale was one of several Vikes who competed internationally for Canada in the 80s. He along with post Gerald Kazanowski and centre Greg Wiltjer all participated in both the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. Shields helmed the Canadian men's junior team for several years before taking over the senior team in 1990, and coached Vikes alum Phil Ohl at that year's World Championships.
 
"The major reason that we were able to sustain a high level of success over a long period of time was that our mission was to achieve national and international levels of performance," said Shields, a three-time CIS coach of the year at Victoria.
 
"Our program was designed to give those athletes with national team potential every chance to achieve that goal. The (national) championships were a bi-product of the training programs which were designed to give the athlete's every chance to make national team.
 
"We approached each parameter of development with the same goal, and that was to reach national and international standards of performance: skills, fitness, competitive toughness, teamwork, and a high level of understanding of the game."
 
In 1979-80, Victoria went a combined 25-0 in the regular season and post season, culminating with a 73-65 victory over Brandon in the CIAU Final. After losing a number of seniors to graduation, including a pair of starters, the Vikes endured a mid-season slump in 1980-81, but reinvented themselves as a pressing and trapping team and finished with a dozen straight wins, downing Acadia for a second title.
 
"That second time we came in as nobodies in a sense because we just didn't have the season that we had the year before," Pasquale said. "But once we won that that, I knew we were coming back the next season ... I just expected it. If we didn't win the national championship, basically the season was for naught."
 
The Vikes lost just once all season en route to defeating St. Mary's for the 1982 championship, doing so at home in Victoria. After cruising through their 1982-83 conference schedule undefeated, a four-peat seemed inevitable.
 
Inevitable, that is, until the disastrous start against Alberta.
 
Victoria's stunning second half rally – which, worth nothing, came before the three-pointer had been introduced into Canadian university basketball – showed why they were so unbeatable for so long.
 
"We were able to come back due to the level of fitness that we had along with a high level of belief in ourselves which was attained through the many hours of intense, detailed preparation," said Shields, whose team advanced to nationals in Waterloo where they put on a defensive clinic to defeat the host team 63-52 and claim title No. 4.
 
"Another characteristic that our teams had was outstanding internal leadership. We had natural leaders like Eli ... These leaders were of great value in developing real confidence (and) belief within our team."
 
Victoria wasn't quite as dominant towards the end of their championship run, dropping the occasional game here or there, but always rose to the occasion when it mattered most. They beat Brandon in the 1984 final, and downed Waterloo in both 1985 and 1986.
 
UBC swept Victoria in the best-of-three 1987 Canada West Final, ending the Vikes' streak at seven.
 
Not one, not two...
 
Seven.
 
Three decades later, the details of the '80s Vikes are starting to get a bit fuzzy. The team, though, is unforgettable.
 
"I hope that our teams were remembered for the way that they conducted themselves on and off the court," Shields said. "As outstanding players who played the game the way it should be played, with fierce and fearless intensity, and with outstanding cohesion and teamwork; as good sportsmen on the court and as good citizens off the court."