Establishing a national basketball culture, by Ari Sclar

Before Garden basketball could succeed in constructing a new model in college basketball, it had to overcome the sport’s fragmentation.  In 1934, Time explained that college basketball “is played almost entirely within regional leagues.”  This restricted the sport’s nationalization because “the argument of each league that it has the best team in the land is more forceful than most such controversies, since the strongest teams play on courts of different sizes under rules differently interpreted.”[1]  Stanley Frank pointed out that the root of the problem was “a vague negative set of rules, lending itself easily to all sorts of conflicting interpretation, is the stumbling block which makes college basketball a purely sectional sport.”  Any ‘championship’ contest would “prove exactly nothing” since “the home team most probably would win because the visiting squad would be bewildered and crucified by the wholly unfamiliar rule enforced by home officials.”  Frank quoted officials who that the rule book caused many problems since it merely “tells what a player cannot do and leaves everything else to the imagination.”[2]

The first Garden double-header in December 1934 demonstrated Frank’s supposition.  In the highly anticipated second game, St. John’s played Westminster College in the opener, NYU’s predominantly Jewish team and Notre Dame provided “hardly a dull moment all evening” before a crowd of 16,000 “that knew its basketball thoroughly.”  Literary Digest declared that “the packed galleries” in the arena had acted “as they do at a professional hockey game.”  This influenced the outcome since “the conduct of the partisan crowd kept nervous Notre Dame players from sinking a lot of free shots at the basket.”  To offset the partisanship, the Garden brought in a Midwestern referee to officiate alongside a New York referee.  The New York Times explained that “the Midwestern interpretation of guarding cost NYU…a heavy penalty in fouls.”  Literary Digest concurred that the “interpretation of the guarding rule inflicted a heavy penalty on the NYU team.”  NYU, which fielded largely the same team that had gone undefeated in 1934, defeated Notre Dame 25-18 despite the rulings of the Midwestern official.[3]

Rule interpretation remained the most pressing problem of Garden basketball during the 1934-35 season.  In the second double-header, NYU played Kentucky, considered the best team in the South.  In the final minute of play, New York ref Jack Murray called a foul on Kentucky’s star player, 6’5” center Leroy Edwards.  NYU’s Sid Gross converted the free throw, which proved to be the deciding basket in a 23-22 NYU victory.  The questionable foul, “set off the most raucous and liveliest argument the sport has yet provoked.”  Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp claimed his team had been “robbed” by Eastern officials since they had not punished NYU’s rough players for fouling Edwards throughout the entire game.  Literary Digest stated that Rupp and Notre Dame’s coach both “contend that they would have made a far better showing against NYU had their games been handled by home officials.  No team can lay claim to a ‘National Championship’ as long as officials are unable to agree on their definitions of fouls in a game.”  The mainstream media begrudgingly agreed that “NYU has the strongest claim of the [national] title.”[4]

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[1] “Sport: Basketball,” Time, February 19, 1934. The centrality of conferences in college sport led New York schools to discuss forming a Metropolitan League as a way to provide publicity and revenue.  The advent of regular Garden basketball made such a league irrelevant, but even if it had been formed, it would have contributed to the confusion of college basketball. 

[2] Stanley Frank, “Court Chatter,” New York Evening Post, January 10, 1934.

[3] “Playing the Game,” Literary Digest, January 12, 1935; “NYU Five Downs Notre Dame, 25-18, as 16,000 Look On,” New York Times, December 30, 1934.

[4] “Eastern Candidates for Basketball’s Crown,” Literary Digest, February 9, 1935. For coaches’ “contention,” see “Melvin Goldsmith, “College Basketball in the Far West,” Literary Digest, January 26, 1935.  The NYU-Kentucky game led to the three-second lane in order to restrict roughness under the basket.