 Souvenir program from the tournament. | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| City | New York City |
| Venue | Madison Square Garden |
| Dates | March 9–16, 1938 (1938-03-09 – 1938-03-16) |
| Teams | 6 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Temple Owls (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Colorado Buffaloes |
| Third place | Oklahoma A&M Aggies |
| Fourth place | NYU Violets |
| Awards | |
| MVP | Don Shields (Temple) |
The 1938 National Invitation Tournament was the inaugural edition of the annual college basketball competition.
The Invitation was won by Temple, who claimed the national championship with their win over Colorado in the tournament final.[1][2]
Selected teams
Below is a list of the six teams selected for the tournament.[3]
| Team | Conference | Overall record |
|---|---|---|
| Bradley | Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | 18–1 |
| Colorado | Mountain States Conference | 14–5 |
| Long Island | Metropolitan New York Conference | 23–4 |
| NYU | Metropolitan New York Conference | 15–6 |
| Oklahoma A&M | Missouri Valley Conference | 24–2 |
| Temple | Eastern Intercollegiate Conference | 20–2 |
Bracket
Below is the tournament bracket.[3]
| Opening round March 9 | Semifinals March 14 | Finals March 16 | |||||||||
| Oklahoma A&M | 55 | ||||||||||
| Temple | 53 | Temple | 56 | ||||||||
| Bradley | 40 | Temple | 60 | ||||||||
| Colorado | 36 | ||||||||||
| Colorado | 48 | ||||||||||
| NYU | 39 | NYU | 47 | ||||||||
| Long Island | 37 | Third Place | |||||||||
| Oklahoma A&M | 37 | ||||||||||
| NYU | 24 | ||||||||||
See also
References
- ^ Avery, Leslie (March 17, 1938). Written at New York. "Temple Captures National Mythical Court Title by Conquering Colorado". The Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. United Press. p. 28.
The tournament sweep gave the eastern conference champions clean claim to the mythical national title.
- ^ Wilson, Dave (March 29, 1938). "Temple's National Champions Honored Again at Banquet — City Fetes Temple, National Champion". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 19.
Representatives of this city's official family, leaders in education and prominent men in athletics paid tribute to Temple University's national championship basketball team at the dinner given by Mayor S. Davis Wilson in the ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford last night. [...] Following his speech Mayor Wilson presented Jimmy Usilton, Temple coach, with a wrist watch and also gave each member of the Owl team a gold ring-tokens of gratitude for the fame and honor which the Templars brought to this city.
- ^ a b Tournament Results (1930's) at nit.org, URL accessed December 9, 2009. Archived 11/7/09
