Sudden Death Overtime?
 

I was reading the NFHS handbook and saw that back in the early 1960's sudden death overtime was eliminated in high school basketball. For those that remember what was this. And was it an option for overtime in addition to the regular 3:00 OT period at the time.

In the late 50's and at least thru 1962, Indiana played a 3:00 minute overtime initially--then if it was tied after the first OT, it went to sudden death--first team to score two points was the winner. I think (not certain on this though) it was a three minute session also, so at the end of time in the second OT it was feasible for a team to be ahead (by one) but the game still proceeding.

Can't speak to this being a fed rule--may have been though.

The NFHS handbook shows it was eliminated in 1961 so it was a rule then. I know for a fact(have read it) that in the 1950's in Minnesota there was an occasional sudden death game overtime period played. More often than not these were games played at the University of Minnesota. At the time there would be a couple of high school teams that would play a preliminary game to the college game and at the time the Big10 had a rule stating the floor must be cleared 30 minutes prior to tip off of the college game. So if the high school game was tied more often than not there was not time for a full 3:00 OT period so a sudden death overtime was played to determine a winner. One time a game actually ended in a 46-46 tie due to this rule. The game went a little long and there was no time at all to play the OT period. The last sudden death OT game i saw referenced in Minnesota was a game in a region tournament in 1960. The team that won won the game 69-68 so my guess it was the 1st team to score 2 points won the game,