Title/Author:
“March 1939: Before
the Madness – The Story of the First NCAA Basketball Champions” by Terry Frei
Tags:
Basketball, college, championship,
history
Publish date:
February 6, 2014
Length:
264 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very
good)
Review:
The championship tournament to crown
the collegiate national champions in men’s basketball had very humble
beginnings. When it started in 1939, it was nothing close to the “March Madness”
that is the tourney today. This book by
Terry Frei not only informs the reader about that first championship journey
but also is a good source of information on the winners of that first tourney,
the Oregon Webfoots (the name “Ducks” would come later).
Much of the book is dedicated to the
players on that Webfoots team, although because none of the players nor close
relatives are still alive, Frei could not do research for the book through
first hand accounts via interview. He
states this in the introduction, which was a good thing as it becomes clear
that this material is presented in a different manner than other books of this
genre in which there are more quotes and stories from the people involved.
That doesn’t mean the information
isn’t good. The reader will learn much about the young men representing the
University of Oregon at a time when the center of the college basketball
universe revolved around New York City and Madison Square Garden. While the
Webfoots’ season is the primary focus, there is also a good deal of information
on the NIT (it started the year before the first NCAA tourney), the myths
surrounding the NIT and the champions of that tourney in 1939, the Long Island
University Blackbirds and their legendary coach Claire Bee.
It did seem a bit puzzling to
include them in this book, but that did help to create a good picture of the
state of the game in 1939 and how the East Coast dominated in not only the play
and the press, but their feeling that schools in the West weren’t equals to the
Eastern teams. Oregon took a trip cross country via train and while the results
on the court were mixed, the New York press got a look at the future champions.
For writing about the sport itself,
the sections on the Webfoots’ games in the Western championship and the
championship game itself against Ohio State was the best section in the book
for that information. The game was certainly played differently at that time,
with scores in the 50’s considered high, and the reader will learn much about how
the Webfoots executed their plays, passes and shots.
For a good look at the first NCAA
tournament champion Oregon Webfoots and the status of the game and the world,
as every chapter has several blurbs about the war in Europe, this book is recommended
for readers interested in those topics.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
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