1.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
2.
NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
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The tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was the idea of Ohio State University coach Harold Olsen. Played mostly during March, it has one of the most famous annual sporting events in the United States. The tournament teams include champions from 32 Division I conferences, and 36 teams which are awarded at-large berths, the 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single-elimination bracket, which pre-determines, when a team wins a game, which team it will face next. Each team is seeded, or ranked, within its region from 1 to 32, after an initial four games between eight lower-ranked teams, the tournament occurs during the course of three weekends, at pre-selected neutral sites across the United States. The Final Four is usually played during the first weekend of April and these four teams, one from each region, compete in a pre-selected location for the national championship. The tournament has been at least partially televised since 1969, currently, the games are broadcast by CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV under the trade-name NCAA March Madness. Since 2011, all games are available for viewing nationwide and internationally, such as in the Philippines, as television coverage has grown, so too has the tournaments popularity. Currently, millions of Americans fill out a bracket, attempting to predict the outcome of all 67 games of the tournament. With 11 national titles, UCLA has the record for the most NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championships, the University of Kentucky is second, with eight national titles. The University of North Carolina is in place, with six titles, while Duke University. The University of Connecticut is sixth with four national titles, the University of Kansas and University of Louisville are tied with three championships. During that time Villanova, Michigan, UNLV, Duke, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Syracuse, the NCAA has changed the tournament format several times since its inception, most often representing an increase of the number of teams. This section describes the tournament as it has operated since 2011, for changes during the course of its history, and to see how the tournament operated during past years, go to Format history, below. A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played during March, thirty-two teams earn automatic bids as their respective conference champions. Of the 32 Division I all-sports conferences, all 32 currently hold championship tournaments to determine which team receives the automatic qualification. The Ivy League was the last Division I conference that did not conduct a tournament, through the 2015–16 season, if two or more Ivies shared a regular-season championship, a one-game playoff was used to decide the tournament participant. Since 2017, the league conducts their own postseason tournament, the committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket. The tournament is divided into four regions and each region has at least sixteen teams, the committee is charged with making each of the four regions as close as possible in overall quality of teams from wherever they come from
3.
Henry Iba Award
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The Henry Iba Award was established in 1959 to recognize the best college basketball coach of the year by the United States Basketball Writers Association. Five nominees are presented and the individual with the most votes receives the award, the award is named for Henry Iba, who coached at Oklahoma State from 1934 to 1970. Iba won the NCAA College Championship in 1945 and 1946 and coached the U. S. Olympic Teams to two medals in 1964 and 1968. The award is presented at the Oscar Robertson Trophy Breakfast on the Friday before the Final Four, legendary UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden has the most all–time selections with seven. Of the seven other coaches with multiple Henry Iba Awards, none have received it more than twice, not including Woodens seven awards, the school with the second–most winners is Ohio State, which has had two coaches win a total of three awards
4.
DePaul University
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DePaul University is a private university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul, in 1998, it became the largest Catholic university by enrollment in the United States. Following in the footsteps of its founders, DePaul places special emphasis on recruiting first-generation students, DePauls two main campuses are located in Lincoln Park and the Loop. The Lincoln Park Campus is home to the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Science and Health and it also houses the School of Music, the Theatre School, and the John T. Richardson Library. The Loop campus houses the Colleges of Communication, Computing and Digital Media, and Law, as well as the School of Public Service and the School for New Learning. It is also home to the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, the Loop campus also houses the Loop Library and the Rinn Law Library. The student body represents a wide array of religious, ethnic, DePauls intercollegiate athletic teams, known as the Blue Demons, compete in the Big East Conference. DePauls mens basketball team has made 18 NCAA tournament appearances and appeared in two Final Fours, originally named St. Vincents College, DePaul University was founded in 1898 by the Congregation of the Mission priests and brothers, known as the Vincentians. Followers of 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul, they founded the university to serve Roman Catholic children of immigrants, Student enrollment grew from 70 in 1898 to 200 in 1903 in what is now the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. In response, the Vincentians re-chartered in 1907 as DePaul University, DePaul began admitting women in 1911 and awarded degrees to its first female graduates in 1912. It was one of the first Catholic universities to admit students in a co-educational setting. DePaul established the School of Music and the College of Commerce, in 1914, the College began offering courses in Chicagos Loop, the precursor of DePauls second primary campus. In 1915, the Illinois College of Law completed its affiliation with the university, although finances were rocky, the university continued to grow and build in the 1920s. In 1926, the university was first accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities, when DePaul’s first sports teams were formed in the early 1900s, the monogram D was selected for the uniforms. From this originated the nickname D-men which evolved into Demons, the color blue, which signifies loyalty and was chosen in 1901 by a vote of the student body, was added to the name to create the Blue Demons. By 1930 more than 5,000 students were enrolled in eight colleges, the Great Depression led to fluctuations in enrollment and tuition as well as cutbacks, including elimination of the football team in 1939. In 1938, the Department of Elementary Education was established, reportedly the one in the Midwest. With the entry of the United States into World War I in 1918, DePaul formed a unit of the US Army Reserve Officer Training Corps, DePaul also mobilized for World War II, offering its facilities for war training and free courses to train people for industry work
5.
George Mikan
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George Lawrence Mikan, Jr. nicknamed Mr. Mikan had a successful playing career, winning seven NBL, BAA, and NBA championships, an NBA All-Star Game MVP trophy, and three scoring titles. He was a member of the first four NBA All-Star games, after his playing career, Mikan became one of the founders of the American Basketball Association, serving as commissioner of the league. He was also vital for the forming of the Minnesota Timberwolves, in his later years, Mikan was involved in a long-standing legal battle against the NBA, fighting to increase the meager pensions for players who had retired before the league became lucrative. In 2005, Mikan died after a battle with diabetes. Since April 2001, a statue of Mikan shooting his trademark hook shot graces the entrance of the Timberwolves Target Center, George Mikan was born in Joliet, Illinois, as an American of Croatian descent. As a boy, he shattered one of his knees so badly that he was kept in bed for a year, in 1938, Mikan attended the Chicago Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary and originally wanted to be a priest, but then moved back home to finish at Joliet Catholic. Mikan did not seem destined to become an athlete, when Mikan entered Chicagos DePaul University in 1942, he stood 610, weighed 245 pounds, moved awkwardly because of his frame, and wore thick glasses for his near-sightedness. However, Mikan met 28-year-old rookie DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer, who saw potential in the bright and intelligent, put into perspective, Meyers thoughts were revolutionary, because at the time it was believed that tall players were too awkward to ever play basketball well. In the following months, Meyer transformed Mikan into a confident, Meyer and Mikan worked out intensively, and Mikan learned how to make hook shots accurately with either hand. This routine would become known as the Mikan Drill. In addition, Meyer made Mikan punch a speed bag, take dancing lessons, from his first National Collegiate Athletic Association college games for DePaul on, Mikan dominated his peers. In addition, Mikan also surprised the world with his unique ability of goaltending. In todays basketball, touching the ball after it reaches its apex is a violation and we would set up a zone defense that had four men around the key and I guarded the basket, Mikan later recalled his DePaul days. When the other took a shot, Id just go up. As a consequence, the NCAA and later the NBA, outlawed goaltending, after the end of the 1945–46 college season, Mikan signed with the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League, a predecessor of the modern NBA. He played with them for 25 games at the end of the 1946–47 NBL season, Mikan led the Gears to the championship of the World Basketball Tournament, where he was elected Most Valuable Player after scoring 100 points in five games, and also voted into the All-NBL Team. However, before the start of the 1947–48 NBL season, Maurice White, the president of the American Gear Company, White planned to create a 24-team league called the Professional Basketball League of America, in which he owned all the teams and arenas. However, the folded after just a month, and the players of Whites teams were equally distributed among the 11 remaining NBL franchises
6.
Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary
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Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary was an American seminary preparatory school administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago for young men considering the priesthood. Between 1961 and 1990, the seminary was split into two campuses, Quigley South and Quigley North, with Quigley North housed at the original building, the south campus was closed in 1990, with all seminary operations returning to the original building. The predecessor of the school, Cathedral College of the Sacred Heart, was founded in 1905, the American Institute of Architects Guide to Chicago has termed the stained glass of the Quigley Chapel dazzling. Archbishop James E. Quigley began plans for a seminary in Chicago in July 1903. Only 417 diocesan and 149 order priests then served Chicagos 252 parishes, with a city population nearing 1.7 million, and with the archdioceses then boundaries extending across northern Illinois. Quigley recruited Rev. Francis Andrew Purcell to head the new minor seminary, the site of the new seminary at Wabash, then Cass Avenue and Superior Street, was opened on 2 October 1905, upon Purcells return, and named Cathedral College of the Sacred Heart. Following the European seminary practice of being sited in the midst of the city center of ministry, it followed the practice of school on Saturday. No tuition was charged for the first 52 freshmen recruited and admitted upon the nomination of their pastor, nine other priests, all with either Irish or German surnames, served as the faculty. It became the tradition of Chicagos minor seminaries that financial want should not prevent a seminarian from attending. Quigley died on 10 July 1915, but his successor Mundelein expanded upon Quigleys vision and put it into action. Upon his being named Archbishop, Mundelein boarded a train on 7 February 1916, with a delegation from his new archdiocese, and headed to Chicago, where he was installed as archbishop two days later. The group will be composed of a college building. With the ground broken in November 1916 and a cornerstone laid at the corner of Pearson and Rush on 16 September 1917, carrying on a precedent established in 1905 in Cathedral College under rector Rev. By 1922, Quigley Seminary was already overcrowded, with over 600 students in a designed to hold 500. A west wing of the building, this time in the Flemish-Gothic style, was begun in March 1925 and completed amazingly by December 1925, increasing the capacity of the school another 500. By the end of his tenure as rector in 1931, Quigley faculty had grown from ten at Cathedral College in 1905 to forty-two, Quigleys priest faculty were expected to live in the parishes of the Archdiocese, so as to keep a parish and priestly connection. Purcell was succeeded as rector in 1931 by Msgr, philip Francis Mahoney, who according to the Archdiocesan history, changed little established by Purcell, and whose poor health led to his resignation during the 1934–35 academic year. Mundelein then met with the Quigley faculty and asked for their individual and confidential recommendations for the rectors position
7.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien
8.
Harlem Globetrotters
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The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater, and comedy. Over the years they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 122 countries and territories, the teams signature song is Brother Boness whistled version of Sweet Georgia Brown. Their mascot is an anthropomorphized globe named Globie, the team plays over 450 live events worldwide each year. The team is owned by Herschend Family Entertainment. The executive offices for the team are located in suburban Atlanta, the Globetrotters originated in the south side of Chicago, Illinois, in the 1920s, where all the original players were raised. In 1928, several players left the team in a dispute and that autumn, several of the players, led by Tommy Brookins, formed a team called the Globe Trotters and toured Southern Illinois that spring. Abe Saperstein became involved with the team as its manager and promoter, by 1929, Saperstein was touring Illinois and Iowa with his basketball team called the New York Harlem Globe Trotters. In fact, the Globetrotters did not play in Harlem until 1968, the Globetrotters were perennial participants in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, winning it in 1940. In 1952, the Globetrotters invited Louis Red Klotz to create a team to them on their tours. This team, the Washington Generals, were the Globetrotters primary opponents up until 2015, the Generals were effectively stooges for the Globetrotters, with the Globetrotters handily defeating them in thousands of games. In 1959, the Globetrotters played nine games in Moscow after Saperstein received an invitation from Vasily Gricorevich, the team, which included Wilt Chamberlain, was welcomed enthusiastically by spectators and authorities, they met Premier Nikita Khrushchev and collectively received the Athletic Order of Lenin medal. However, according to one report, spectators were initially confused, A Soviet audience of 14,000 sat almost silently, as if in awe and it warmed up slightly in the second half when it realized the Trotters are more show than competition. The Globetrotters brought their own opponent—not the Washington Generals, but the San Francisco Chinese Basketeers, a review in Pravda stated, This is not basketball, it is too full of tricks but praised the Globetrotters skills and suggested that they have some techniques to show us. The American press—particularly Drew Pearson—made note of the fact that the Globetrotters were paid the equivalent of $4,000, which could be spent only in Moscow. The games were used as evidence that U. S. –Soviet relations were improving, that Moscow was backing off its criticism of race relations inside America, many famous basketball players have played for the Globetrotters. Greats such as Wee Willie Gardner, Connie The Hawk Hawkins, Wilt The Stilt Chamberlain, the Globetrotters signed their first female player, Olympic gold medalist Lynette Woodard, in 1985. The Globetrotters have featured 13 female players in their illustrious history, baseball Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Bob Gibson, and Ferguson Jenkins also played for the team at one time or another. Because almost all of its players have been African American, and because of the involved in many of the Globetrotters skits
9.
National Basketball Association
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The National Basketball Association is the major mens professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier mens professional basketball league in the world. It has 30 teams, and is a member of USA Basketball. The NBA is one of the four professional sports leagues in the United States. NBA players are the worlds best paid athletes by average annual salary per player, the league was founded in New York City on June 6,1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3,1949, the leagues several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1,1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, the first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that leagues 1948 title, Following the 1948–49 season, the BAA took in the remainder of the NBL, Syracuse, Anderson, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan, Denver, and Waterloo. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as arenas and smaller gymnasiums. The process of contraction saw the leagues smaller-city franchises move to larger cities, the Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, and then to St. Louis in 1955. The Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957, japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks. He remained the only player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships, to encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954. If a team does not attempt to score a goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, who already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, russells rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports. The 1960s were dominated by the Celtics, led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966
10.
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
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The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as the sports most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball, dedicated to Canadian physician and inventor of the sport James Naismith, it was opened and inducted its first class in 1959. As of the induction of the Class of 2016 on September 9,2016, the Naismith Hall of Fame was established in 1959 by Lee Williams, a former athletic director at Colby College. In the 1960s, the Basketball Hall of Fame struggled to raise money for the construction of its first facility. The Basketball Hall of Fames Board named four inductees in its first year, in addition to honoring those who contributed to basketball, the Hall of Fame sought to make contributions of its own. In 1979, the Hall of Fame sponsored the Tip-Off Classic and this Tip-Off Classic has been the start to the college basketball season ever since, and although it does not always take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, generally it returns every few years. In the 17 years that the original Basketball Hall of Fame operated at Springfield College, the popularity of the Basketball Hall of Fame necessitated that a new facility be constructed, and in 1985, an $11 million facility was built beside the scenic Connecticut River in Springfield. As the new hall opened, it also recognized women for the first time, with such as Senda Berenson Abbott. In 2002, the Basketball Hall of Fame moved again—albeit merely 100 yards south along Springfields riverfront—into a $47 million facility designed by renowned architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, the buildings architecture features a metallic silver, basketball-shaped sphere flanked by two similarly symmetrical rhombuses. The dome is illuminated at night and features 80,000 square foot, including numerous restaurants, the second Basketball Hall of Fame was not torn down but rather converted into an LA Fitness health clubs. The current Basketball Hall of Fame features Center Court, a basketball court on which visitors can play. Inside the building there are a gallery, many interactive exhibits, several theaters. A large theater for ceremonies seats up to 300, the honorees inducted in 2002 included the Harlem Globetrotters and Magic Johnson, a five-time NBA champion, three-time NBA finals MVP and Olympic gold medalist. As of 2011, the current Basketball Hall of Fame has greatly exceeded attendance expectations, despite the new facilitys success, a logistical problem remains for the Basketball Hall of Fame and the City of Springfield. Urban planners at universities such as UMass Amherst have called for the I-91 to be moved, in 2010, the Urban Land Institute announced a plan to make the walk between Springfields Metro Center and the Hall of Fame easier. Since 2011, the induction process employs a total of seven committees to both screen and elect candidates, since 2011, the Veterans and International Committees also vote to directly induct one candidate for each induction class. Contributor Direct Election Committee Note that other committees may choose to elect contributors, for example, the 2014 class included two contributors. However, each screening committee is limited as to the number of candidates it can put forth to the Honors Committee—10 from the North American Committee, any individual receiving at least 18 affirmative votes from the Honors Committee is approved for induction into the Hall of Fame
11.
Red Rolfe
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Robert Abial Red Rolfe was an American third baseman, manager and front-office executive in Major League Baseball. During his playing career, Rolfe was the third baseman on the New York Yankees of the late 1930s. Rolfe played 10 major league seasons, all with New York and his finest season came in 1939, when he amassed 213 hits,139 runs scored, and 46 doubles while hitting.329 with 14 home runs and 80 runs batted in. He retired following the 1942 season, after his four-year coaching stint at Yale, Rolfe coached the Toronto Huskies of the BAA in 1946–1947 and returned to the Yankees as a coach. After the 1947 season, Rolfe joined the Detroit Tigers as director of their farm system, but he returned to the field after only one season, when he succeeded Steve ONeill as Tiger manager after the 1948 campaign. In 1949, Rolfes first season as manager, the Tigers improved by nine games, then, in 1950, they nearly upset the Yankees, winning 95 games and finishing second, three games behind. A fluke botched double play was the teams undoing, late in September at Cleveland, the Indians had the bases loaded in the tenth inning with one out and the score tied. Visibility was poor because smoke from Canadian forest fires was blowing across Lake Erie, but in the smoky conditions Robinson had not seen that a putout had already been made at first base, necessitating that the catcher tag the runner, not the plate, to record an out. Robinson mistakenly tagged the plate, the run counted and Cleveland won the game and it was the turning point in the pennant race, for the postwar Tigers, and for Rolfes managerial career. Beset by a starting rotation, the Tigers faltered in 1951, slipping to 73 wins. Then Detroit completely unraveled in 1952, winning only 23 of 72 games under Rolfe, on July 5, he was fired and replaced by one of his pitchers, Fred Hutchinson. The 1952 club won only 50 games, losing 104 – the first time ever that the Tigers lost 100 or more games, Rolfe then returned to Dartmouth as the athletic director of his alma mater from 1954 to 1967. The colleges baseball diamond is named in his honor, Rolfe died in Gilford, New Hampshire, in 1969 at age 60 of chronic kidney disease
12.
National Invitation Tournament
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The National Invitation Tournament is a mens college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City each March and April, over time it became eclipsed by the NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament – known today informally as March Madness and The Big Dance. The NIT has since been regarded more as a tournament for teams that did not receive a berth in the NCAA tournament. A second, much more recent NIT tournament is played in November, formerly the Preseason NIT, it was founded in 1985. Like the postseason NIT, its final rounds are played at Madison Square Garden, both tournaments were operated by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association until 2005, when they were purchased by the NCAA, and the MIBA disbanded. Unless otherwise qualified, the terms NIT or National Invitation Tournament refer to the tournament in both common and official use. The first NIT was won by the Temple University Owls over the Colorado Buffaloes and this became the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association in 1948. Originally the tournament invited a field of 6 teams, with all games played at Madison Square Garden in downtown Manhattan. The field was expanded to 8 teams in 1941,12 in 1949,14 in 1965,16 in 1968,24 in 1979,32 in 1980, in 2007, the tournament reverted to the current 32-team format. Some conferences, such as the Southeastern Conference, were racially segregated, from its onset and at least into the mid-1950s, the NIT was regarded as the most prestigious showcase for college basketball. The winner of the National Invitation Tournament was regarded as more of a national champion than the actual, titular, national champion, several teams played in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year, beginning with Colorado and Duquesne in 1940. Colorado won the NIT in 1940 but subsequently finished fourth in the NCAA West Region, in 1949, some Kentucky players were bribed by gamblers to lose their first round game in the NIT. This same Kentucky team went on to win the NCAA, the champions of both the NCAA and NIT tournaments played each other for a few years during World War II. From 1943 to 1945, the American Red Cross sponsored a charity game between each years tournament champions to raise money for the war effort. The series was described by Ray Meyer as not just benefit games, the NCAA champion prevailed in all three games. The Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively selected the NIT champion as its champion for 1938. In 1943 the NCAA tournament moved to share Madison Square Garden with the NIT in an effort to increase the credibility of the NCAA Tournament. In 1945, The New York Times indicated that many teams could get bids to enter either tournament, the team played in the NIT instead, which it won
