OT - History of the NCAA tourney
 

Here's a link to an article on the history of the NCAA basketball tournament. I thought it was quite interesting, especially since it begins with info on the first ever tournament - won by the University of Oregon. No, that's not a typo.

The History of the NCAA Basketball Tournament

Nice article. Can't recall if CCNY won this tournament a couple times or if it was the NIT they won. Can you imagine the outcry if there was a one team per conference limit now? [would need to be a smaller field and many conferences would be much smaller]

CCNY holds the distinction of being the only team to win both the NIT and NCAA Tournament in the same season. They did it in 1950, when the NIT occurred before the NCAA and teams could play in both.

Weekly Feature: Whereabouts Of The 1950 City College Of New York Team, NIT and NCAA Champs (Part I) – LostLettermen.com

I believe at the time the NIT was just as prestigious and the NCAA tournament.

The article I linked indicates it was more prestigious, probably in part because of the 1 team per conference rule.

I've always heard that the NIT was more prestigious than the NCAA back in the day.

Ouch, reading that just hurt my head.

Padgett and I officiated both championship games that year. I was the R in the NCAA game and he was the R in the NIT game because it was the second tournament and the more important tournament of the two. :D

MTD, Sr.

P.S. We both still had our own hair back then. :D

Come clean, Mark. When was your first year?

I can't speak for the "other" Mark, but the first game I worked was between two teams at the Springfield YMCA. My partner was Dr. Naismith. I still have splinters from handling the peach baskets.

Note to "other" Mark. I still have all my own hair. It's a trait that's inhairent in my family. :D

Saving Up To Make A Toupee ???
 

I really don't understand why balding men pick the hair out of the shower drain and keep it in a big plastic bag?

There's a guy I ref with who is quite "follicley challenged", but he's such a good guy that we say he's not bald, he's just helping the environment by having a solar panel on his head. :D

Amazing that they could win both tourneys while shaving points.

Everyone - sign along.

"Any points you can shave, I can shave better. I can shave any points better than you. No you can't. Yes I can. No you can't. Yes I can. No you can't. Yes I can, YES I CAN!"

http://cdn.faniq.com/images/blog/af0...1214986481.jpg

"Ed Warner was the MVP of the NIT thanks to his 21.7 points per game. After the scandal broke, all players involved pled guilty and received suspended sentences; except for Warner, who served six months in jail. He’d spend one more stint in prison for attempting to sell heroine. Following that, Warner went into high school officiating. In 1984 he was partly paralyzed after a car accident and became an observer of officials for NYC high schools."

:eek: