NCAA Men's Basketball History

I can hear former basketball coach and current basketball analyst Dick Vitale screaming, " It's a dipsy do-dunk a roo. That kid's a PTP'er Baby!" College basketball is one of the most popular sports in America and March Madness is a household word. College hoops can be seen 24-7 on TV.

Images of Marquette coach Al McGuire crying when his team won The NCAA Championship in 1977 or N.C. State's Jimmy V. running around looking for someone to hug after Derrick Lowe nailed the game winner against Houston in the 1983 NCAA title game are plastered in the hoops junky's mind.

From its humble beginnings, college basketball has exploded onto the national sports landscape.

Inventor of Basketball

James Naismith taught physical education at Springfield College (YMCA Training School) in Springfield, Massachusetts. His boss Luther Halsey Gulick asked Naismith to create a game that could be played indoors during winter. Under the guidance of Gulick, Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1892.

College Basketball is Born

Hamline College and the Minnesota School of Agriculture played the first intercollegiate basketball game on Feb. 9, 1895. Hamline College defeated the Minnesota school 9-3. The game was played with seven to nine players per side. No dribbling was permitted and a player was disqualified after two fouls.
Several changes were made to the game.The game was then played with five players per side. Dribbling the ball was then permitted. A player was disqualified after five fouls. On Jan. 1, 1896, the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa played using these new rules. Chicago defeated Iowa 15-12. This game was a forerunner of the modern college basketball game as we know it.

First College Basketball Tournament

The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association sponsored the first college basketball tournament in 1938. It was held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Six teams participated in the tournament: Temple, Colorado, New York University, Bradley, Long Island University, and Oklahoma A&M. Temple defeated Colorado 60-36 to win the championship.
This tournament became The NIT. The NIT is the oldest college basketball tournament.

Origins of the NCAA Tournament

The playing of The NIT in 1938 led to the creation of The NCAA basketball tournament in 1939. Eight teams were invited to the initial tournament. The teams were Villanova, Oregon, Brown, Ohio State, Wake Forest, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. Oregon won the first NCAA crown with a victory over Ohio State 46-33.

The War Between the NCAA and the NIT

Both the NCAA and the NIT were responsible for the explosion of college basketball. Both tournaments fought to get the best teams. By the 1970s, the NCAA took over as the prominent college basketball tournament.
The years 1938 to '53, many of the college basketball writers considered the NIT winner the real national champion because the tournament was played in New York City. Kentucky, Long Island University, New York Univeristy, City College of New York, Temple, and many of the other top college teams from 1938-53 chose to play in the NIT instead of the NCAA. However by 1970 The NCAA became the dominate basketball tournament, thus regulating the NIT to a second-class status.
In 2005, the NCAA bought the rights to the NIT for $56.5 million so now The NCAA controls both tournaments.

The College Basketball Game That Changed History

The year was 1966. The place was the Cole Field House on the University of Maryland campus. The game was the 1966 NCAA National Championship game between Texas Western (now UTEP) and Kentucky.
This was the first time in college basketball history that five black players started in an NCAA Championship game.
An all-white Kentucky team faced an all-black Texas Western team. The five black players who started for Texas Western were Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin, Orsten Artis, Willie Worsley and Harry Flournoy. Willie Cager and Nevil Shed played in the game as reserves.
Texas Western defeated Kentucky 72-65.
The repercussions of this game vibrated through out college basketball. This game completely opened up the college game to black players in the south as well as the north.
This game forever changed the racial makeup of college basketball.
It opened up the game to black coaches, too. Black coaches were now being considered to coach at the big schools like Kansas, UCLA, Michigan and Ohio State.
The down side it killed the black college game.

The Greatest College Basketball Players

ESPN, Fox Sports, and America Best named the 10 greatest college basketball players of all time. Number one on the list is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor). He played for UCLA from 1967 to '69. He was three time all-American. During his playing days at UCLA The NCAA outlawed the dunk. This was the direct result of his playing prowess. They called it the Alcindor rule.
The No. 2 is Bill Walton. Walton played for UCLA from 1972 to 1975. Walton was the college player of the year three times (72,73,74). He led UCLA to two national crowns and a record-setting 88 game winning streak.
Players ranked three through 10 are as follows: Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Peter Maravich, David Thompson, Larry Bird, Christian Laettner, Elvin Hayes and Magic Johnson.

Resources

• NCAA Basketball History