Throwback Thursday (Friday edition) – 1963 NCAA Tournament

Click here for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Albany and Stony Brook (weather permitting).

Click here for a double feature of the weekly Bracket Rundown and Under The Radar podcasts

On the same week that we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we also look back to the 1963 NCAA Tournament. Almost every diehard fan knows about 1966 and Texas Western and their significance, but not much is said about the tournament 3 years earlier that began to spur more widespread integration into the game.

We start with the Mideast Region – the 6 teams selected for this region were Loyola of Chicago, Mississippi State, Illinois, Notre Dame, Bowling Green and Tennessee Tech. Mississippi State had won the SEC regular season title 4 out of the past 5 seasons, but state laws forbidding the Maroons (as Mississippi State was known back in 1963) to play integrated teams would not allow them to appear in the NCAA Tournament. While sneaking out of Mississippi in the middle of the night to the regional site of East Lansing, Mississippi State would be making their first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They would lose to Loyola in the semifinals of the region and would also beat Bowling Green in the Mideast 3rd place game. However, the team that emerged in the Mideast was Loyola; they would beat Tennessee Tech, MSU and downstate rival Illinois to earn a bid to the Final Four in Louisville. Loyola was believed to be the first team to start 5 black players in a regular-season game at Wyoming, but would not start such a lineup in the tournament like Texas Western would do 3 years later.

The East Region had 7 teams in the field; Duke, NYU, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, UConn, Princeton and Saint Joseph’s. While the field was unseeded, Duke did get the bye in the 1st round and would only have to beat NYU and Saint Joseph’s to earn their first ever trip to the Final 4 in program history under coach Vic Bubas. West Virginia would defeat NYU in the 3rd place game; this would represent the last time that NYU would make the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level.

In the Midwest Region, it was 2-time defending champion Cincinnati and everyone else (namely Colorado, Oklahoma City, Colorado, Texas and Texas Western). Cincinnati did survive a pair of tests against Texas and Colorado to earn their 3rd straight trip to the Final Four. Texas would earn 3rd place in the Midwest with a win over Oklahoma City.

In the West Region, UCLA, San Francisco, Oregon State, Arizona State, Utah State and Seattle all qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Many people would wonder how it was possible for UCLA, Oregon State and Arizona State to be in the same region, but people forget that what was the Pacific Coast Conference had to disband because of pay-for-play scandals. This caused Oregon State to be independent for 5 seasons before rejoining what was then the Pac-8 Conference that included UCLA. (Arizona State was in the WAC at that time).  Led by legendary coach Slats Gill (the namesake of Gill Coliseum), the Beavers would defeat Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona State to earn the program’s 2nd Final Four bid. San Francisco would defeat UCLA for 3rd place in the West; UCLA was a year away from the beginning of their dynasty in men’s basketball.

When the Final Four convened in Louisville, Loyola defeated Duke 94-75 and Cincinnati would defeat Oregon State 80-46 in the other semifinal. Duke would defeat Oregon State for 3rd place and even propelled Art Heyman to Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four without being a part of the championship game. Cincinnati had defeated Ohio State in overtime in the previous 2 NCAA title games, but the 3rd time would not be a charm as Loyola would defeat the Bearcats 60-58 in overtime at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. Both Cincinnati and Loyola would feature integrated lineups in the championship; this was in stark contrast to the Brown v. Board of Education championship that would be staged in 1966 between Texas Western (now UTEP) and Kentucky.

Last Saturday, Mississippi State also wore uniforms to commemorate their 1963 team when they hosted Tennessee; click here for highlights of that game.