On This Date in Sports March 27, 1939: The First Tournament
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
Oregon wins the first NCAA Basketball Tournament, beating Ohio State 46-33 in the first championship game on the campus of Northwestern in Evansville, Illinois. Just eight teams played in the first tournament, with four teams in the East and West regions. There was no Final Four that year as just the final was played in Evansville at Patten Gymnasium as Jimmy Hull of Ohio State was named Most Outstanding Player.
Following the success of the first National Invitation Tournament in 1938, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) sought to create a tournament of their own. This tournament would serve as the official championship for college basketball with the blessing of the NCAA.
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The first tournament would feature only eight teams, six conference champions and a pair of independents, which was broken up into two separate four-team regions. Brown coached by Eck Allen, Ohio State coached by Harold Olsen, Villanova coached by Alex Severance and Wake Forest led by Murray Greason were the teams that made up the Eastern Region with games played at the Palestra in Philadelphia. Meanwhile in the Western Region, in a game played at the California Coliseum in San Francisco, there was Oklahoma coached by Bruce Drake, Oregon coached by Howard Hobson, Texas coach by Jack Gray and Utah State led by Dick Romney.
The Eastern Region Semifinals were played on March 17th, with Villanova beating Brown 42-30 and Ohio State taking out Wake Forest 64-52. A day later in the Regional Final, the Buckeyes beat Villanova 53-36. On March 20th the Western Semifinals were held with Oregon beating Texas 56-41, while Oklahoma beat Utah State 50-39. A day later, Oregon rolled over Oklahoma 55-37.
The Championship Game was played at Patten Gymnasium on the campus of Northwestern in Evansville, Illinois. Among those in attendance were 400 coaches who had gathered in Chicago at the NABC Convention. Also in attendance was Dr. James Naismith, the man who invented basketball in 1891 at YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. The first basket was scored by Bobby Anet of Oregon who scored off a rebound. The Webfoots, as they were called back then scored the game’s first six points before Jimmy Hull answered for Ohio State with a made free throw. Oregon controlled the pace of play and held a 21-16 lead at the half. Hull got the Buckeyes off to a strong start in the second half, cutting the deficit to one. However, it was Oregon’s day, as they eventually built a ten-point lead and cruised the rest of the way, winning 46-33.
John Dick of the Ducks was the game’s leading scorer with 13 points, while Bobby Anet and Laddie Gale each added ten. Ohio State meanwhile was led by Jimmy Hull who scored 12 points, while Robert Lynch and William Sattler each scored seven points. The trophy presentation was a tad awkward as the trophy was damaged during the game when Anet chased down a loose rebound out of bounds.