It has been a rough, oh, coupla-three decades for Long Beach State alumni who care about the major sports. The football program was killed, and the basketball program, which was one of the nation’s best for a half-dozen seasons straddling 1970, generally wasn’t very good.

So, as a 49ers alumnus, I was quite pleased to read about the hoopsters taking down the nation’s 10th-ranked team, and then to see it on Sports Center.

Long Beach State had some good moments, once upon a time.

Well, first, the football team. I covered them the season when they went 9-2 and capped things with an upset of San Diego State at Qualcomm — which was a big deal, in 1975.

(That 1975 season also marked my first ride in a jet; I traveled with the team, for a game at Southern Illinois, and we ended up in a cornfield in Salina, Kansas, while stopping for fuel. Just ran off the runway. Everyone was scared to death; I thought it was just another day at the airport — because I didn’t know any better, as a first-time flier.)

However, the football program was eliminated after the 1991 season, which was just sad.

A story that has grown up around Long Beach State football, and now accepted as fact (true or not) … In 1990, George Allen (yes, that George Allen, the NFL Hall of Famer, former Rams and Redskins coach) had taken over the LBSU program. The 49ers started 0-5 but finished 6-0, and it looked as if Allen were in the process of turning around the program.

His team celebrated their 6-5 finish by dumping a bucket of water/Gatorade/sports drink on him, which was probably not a good idea — he was 72, and the temperatures were in the 50s — and he caught pneumonia and died of a heart attack a month later.

The program was killed after one more season. It has been accepted wisdom in Long Beach, ever since, that had Allen lived the program would have survived several more years, at the least. (San Jose State still plays football; why not Long Beach?)

And before we go to hoops, a nod towards the baseball program, which had a very nice 20-year run. But the Dirtbags (an awful name I will never accept) never could quite get it done in the College World Series (two semifinal appearances) … and I am one of those guys who gets very little pleasure out of college baseball. For me, and for most college sports fans, it’s football and basketball, and that’s it.

Now, to Long Beach State hoops. The Niners had a hugely successful run under Jerry Tarkanian on either side of 1970. Tark the Shark (he was called that even then) went 122-20 at Long Beach, and had a late lead against the John Wooden Wicks/Rowe UCLA team of 1970-71 in the NCAA West Regional final, only to lose 57-55. That UCLA team won the NCAA title. And the 49ers almost took them down.

After Tark left, Lute Olson (yes, that Lute Olson) took over the team and the Niners went 24-2 and were one of the best teams in the nation (they beat No. 2 Marquette in the Long Beach Arena), but NCAA violations from the Tark Era meant they were ineligible to go to the playoffs, and Lute left for Iowa after the one season, and that was that.

Since then, things have ranged from mediocre to grim, with only three NCAA tournament appearances since 1976, and zero tournament victories. The biggest highlight, by far, was a road upset of No. 1 Kansas in 1993. A distant second probably would have been the upset of a not-very-good UCLA team, in Pauley Pavilion, which I wrote about two years ago. (A bit late to finally take the measure of the Bruins, but hey …)

The best thing to happen to Long Beach State athletics since 1993 … occurred tonight. Under Dan Monson, who is known for kick-starting Gonzaga’s run as a powerful mid-major, the Niners went to Pitt and ended their 56-game home nonconference winning streak, and without much trouble.

The 49ers won 86-76, and I was watching LB celebrate on ESPN — even from over here in the UAE.

The Beach expected to be pretty good, and apparently they are. Casper Ware, a point guard, is the main guy; he scored 28 against Pitt.

The game even got a bit of notice on Grantland.com, the ESPN spinoff website, where it was noted that Long Beach gets to go home to Long Beach (which is a good thing, though not much of America knows it, anymore), and Pitt had to stay in Pittsburgh.

Long Beach State has a chance to return to earth — or do even more impressive stuff — in the near future. Between now and Christmas, they have road games scheduled against Louisville, Kansas and North Carolina, and they play Xavier in Hawaii. All four of those are ranked teams.

Anyway, in honor of The Beach’s big victory at Pitt, I will wear my Long Beach State ball cap to the office today. A couple of weeks ago, one of my American colleagues said, “LB … Long Beach? Those are the Gauchos, right?”

No. The Forty-Niners, my man. Conquerors of No. 10 Pittsburgh!