March 27, 2019

With the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments in full swing across the United States, World Book looks back at the first NCAA basketball title game, which took place 80 years ago today on March 27, 1939. In that first championship, the University of Oregon men’s basketball team downed Ohio State 46-33 at the original Patten Gymnasium at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) establishes athletic standards and official playing rules for college sports.

The 1939 NCAA national champion University of Oregon basketball team with members’ autographs at the bottom. From left to right, front row: Wally Johansen, Slim Wintermute, Bob Anet (holding trophy), coach Howard Hobson, Laddie Gale (holding trophy), and John Dick. Standing are: Bob Hardy, Evert McNeely, manager Jay Langston, Ford Mullen, Matt Pavalunas, trainer Bob Officer, Ted Sarpola, and Earl Sandness. Credit: University of Oregon

That first title team from Oregon was known as the Webfoots (today the team is known as the Ducks). The Webfoots sported five players known as the “Tall Firs” because of their towering stature (for the era)—they ranged from 6 feet 3 inches (1.9 meters) to 6 feet 8 inches (2 meters) tall. The Tall Firs dominated the tournament, but it was an Ohio State player, forward Jimmy Hull, who earned the first Most Outstanding Player award. The 5-foot-11-inch (1.8-meter) tall Hull averaged 19.3 points per game during the tourney.

There were some big differences between the tournament of 1939 and the modern “March Madness” that captures the attention of sports fans across the country every year. In 1939, just eight teams competed in the men’s tournament (68 teams compete today), and there was not yet a women’s competition (the first was held in 1972). And from the late 1930′s into the 1950′s, the NIT (National Invitation Tournament, first held in 1938) was considered the preeminent college basketball competition. (Long Island University, arguably the best team in the country in 1939, shunned that first NCAA tournament and went on to win the NIT.) The NIT has since been relegated to the also-rans who do not qualify for the NCAA tourney.

A few side notes to that first title game in 1939: in 2015, Oregon and Ohio State again challenged for a national championship, but this time in football. Ohio State won that title game, 42-20. In 2017, Oregon returned to the NCAA basketball final four for the first time since 1939 (but lost to North Carolina in the semifinal). Also in 2017, Northwestern, the host of the 1939 title game, finally qualified for its first NCAA tournament. Northwestern won its inaugural tourney game, but lost to Gonzaga in the second round.