NCAA Basketball in the 20th Century Quiz

Answer: Patten Gymnasium, Evanston, Illinois

On March 27, 1939, 15,025 people watched Oregon defeat Ohio State, 46-33, at Patten Gymnasium in Evanston, Illinois, to win the first NCAA basketball title.

Answer: Kansas City

Kansas City hosted 10 championship games, followed by New York with seven, Louisville with six, and Seattle with five.

Answer: Utah and Dartmouth

All of the pairings matched teams who played overtime in NCAA championship games. The first championship game to go to overtime was the 1944 championship game between Utah and Dartmouth, won by the Utes by a 42-40 score.

Answer: Wheaton and Kentucky Wesleyan

Wheaton defeated Kentucky Wesleyan, 89-65, at Evansville IN for the 1957 title, the first at the Division II level.

Answer: LeMoyne-Owen and Rowan

LeMoyne-Owen defeated Rowan, 57-54, at Reading PA for the 1975 title, the first at the Division III level.

Answer: Bradley

CCNY, led by tournament MVP Irwin Dambrot, defeated top-ranked Bradley, 71-68, to win the 1950 NCAA tournament title, and also defeated #1 Bradley, 69-61, to win the NIT title. The 1950 CCNY team was the first NCAA champ to have African American players in its starting lineup.

Answer: San Francisco Dons

Only seven teams finished as undefeated NCAA champions, with UCLA leading the pack with 4 undefeated national championship teams. The first, however, were the 1956 San Francisco Dons, who ended the season with a 29-0 record after defeating Iowa, 83-71, in the championship game.

Answer: Brown and Villanova

The pairings listed make up the first round games in the first NCAA tournament played in 1939. Villanova defeated Brown, 42-30, in the first game of a March 17th doubleheader in the first game in NCAA tournament history.

Answer: Duke

Led by Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich, UCLA won the 1964 championship by defeating Duke, 98-83, in the tournament's final game.

Answer: Loyola (Illinois)

Mississippi State won the SEC title in 1959, 1961, and 1962, but were forced to skip the NCAA tournament due to state prohibitions of the team playing racially integrated squads. Behind coach Babe McCarthy, the team left town before a state senator could serve them with an injunction that would prohibit them for playing the Loyola Ramblers, a team that started four African Americans. Loyola ended up winning the historic contest, 61-51.

Answer: Marquette

Marquette passed on a bid to participate in the 1970 NCAA basketball tournament. Irked over the NCAA's decision to assign the school to the Midwest Regional, played in Fort Worth, Texas, rather than the Mideast Regional in Dayton, Ohio, coach Al McGuire accepted instead a bid to play in the National Invitation Tournament, which they won.

The Warriors ended the season 26-3 and were ranked 8th nationally.

Answer: Austin Carr of Notre Dame

In 1970, Austin Carr scored 61 points against Ohio (an NCAA tournament record), 52 against Kentucky, and 45 against Iowa. In 1971, Carr scored 47 against Houston and 52 against Texas Christian. All five of these games rank among the top 10 outputs in Division I tournament history.

Answer: Virginia

Virginia (led by Ralph Sampson and Jeff Lamp) defeated LSU, 78-74, in 1981 to win the third-place consolation game at the NCAA final four tournament. Beginning with the 1982 tournament, this game was no longer played.

Answer: Columbia

After an unbeaten regular season, the 1951 Columbia Lions lost their NCAA tournament opener to Illinois, 79-71. The other schools mentioned had teams that went unbeaten in the regular season and lost in the NCAA tournament, but not in their opening game.

Answer: Larry Brown of Kansas

Kansas defeated conference rival Oklahoma, 83-79, in the final game coach Larry Brown would coach at the COLLEGIATE level in the 20th century.

Answer: Branch McCracken of Indiana

31-year old Branch McCracken was the coach of Indiana in 1940 when the Hoosiers won the NCAA championship by defeating Kansas, 60-42.

Answer: Vic Rouse's tip-in at the buzzer to give Loyola the 1963 NCAA championship over Cincinnati

With :03 left in overtime, the two-time defending champion Cincinnati Bearcats tied the score at 58-58. Loyola's Les Hunter then launched a brick from the left baseline, but Vic Rouse, anticipating Hunter's shot, grabbed the rebound and laid it in at the buzzer for the title.

Answer: #15 seed Coppin State over #2 seed South Carolina in 1997

Coppin State stunned South Carolina, 78-65, in the opening round of the 1997 tournament. The other three listed games were closer at the end. Richmond downed Syracuse 73-69, Princeton edged UCLA 43-41, and Villanova topped Georgetown 66-64.

Answer: Bradley

In 1955, district five tournament selectors had to name two independents to fill out the tournament bracket. Since only two independent teams existed in the district, both Bradley (7-19) and Oklahoma City (9-17) were named to the tournament. Bradley defeated Oklahoma City, 69-65, and SMU, 81-79, before losing to Colorado, 93-81, in the Midwest Regional final. (This rule was changed for the following season.)

Answer: Louisiana State

The 1986 final four consisted of number one seeds Duke and Kansas, number two seed Louisville, and number eleven seed LSU. Penn made it to the final four as a number nine seed in 1979; Villanova in 1985 and Wisconsin in 2000 were number eight seeds, as was UCLA in 1980.

Answer: Big South Conference

The Big South Conference did not have a team win a game at the NCAA tournament in the 20th century.

Answer: Bill Russell of San Francisco

Bill Russell collected 27 rebounds against Iowa in the Dons' 83-71 championship game victory in 1956 to set the record.

Answer: Texas Western guard Bobby Jo Hill was named the MVP of the 1966 final four.

This game has been credited with tourning around the public perception of the ability of African Americans to play basketball, but in reality it was a natural progression as basketball teams like San Francisco and Loyola won national titles featuring African Americans.

Although Bobby Jo Hill was named to the all-tournament team, Jerry Chambers from the fourth place Utah squad was named the tournament's MVP.

Answer: Bill Russell of San Francisco

While San Francisco won the title in both 1955 and 1956, Russell won the MVP award only for his 1955 performance. The 1956 MVP award went to Hal Lear of the third place Temple squad.

Answer: Christian Laettner of Duke

The 50th anniversary team was named in conjunction with the tournament's 50th anniversary, which occured in 1988. Christian Laettner, who played for Duke after that season, could not have been named to the team. In addition to Bird, Chamberlain, and Johnson, Michael Jordan of North Carolina and Lew Alcindor of UCLA were named to the squad.