Height becomes important, by Ari Sclar

In 1937, college basketball made one of the most important rule changes in its history, the elimination of the center jump.  Prior to the 1937-38 season, play stopped after every made basket and the teams returned to the center of the court for a jump ball.  Opponents of the center jump denounced the unfairness it produced in the game.  Nat Holman had declared that, “basketball as it is now is not 100% healthy due to the advantage held by a team with a tall center.”[1]  Four years later, University of Minnesota coach Dave MacMillan stated that he favored the rule change since “otherwise you have four players and a clown.”[2] 

MacMillan’s distinction between ‘players’ and the center ‘clown’ indicated the clear bias against tall players in basketball.  Prior to the 1936 Olympic qualifying tournament, the Time magazine described the McPherson Oilers, whose starting five ranging in height from 6’1” to 6’9”, as “athletic freaks.”  They had perfected a “technique called ‘dunking’ with which they score by jumping up above the basket, dropping the ball into it.”  Some traditionalists believed that such activity would ruin the game.  Kansas coach ‘Phog’ Allen spoke for many coaches and critics when he stated: “dunking is not basketball.”[3]

During the early decades of the twentieth century, coaches viewed taller players as awkward, ungainly, and useful only for rebounds or the center jump.  In 1934, newspapers viewed Jewish high schooler and future NYU star Irwin Witty as “a smooth player, despite his 6’3” height.”[4]  Coaches spent considerably more time with shorter guards and forwards who possessed the bursts of movement required in basketball.  Many assumed this would continue in the post-center jump era.  Ironically, the rule change produced the opposite effect.  The absence of the center jump forced coaches to provide tall players with instruction, which increased their skill and ability on the court.  Some commentators immediately recognized that a shift had occurred.  In the March 1938 YMHA Bulletin, Stanley Frank re-issued his treatise on Barney Sedran with the additional comment that basketball “gives the big man crushing advantages over a smaller opponent.”  By the mid-1940s, players over 6’9” became more common in college basketball as DePaul’s George Mikan, Oklahoma A&M’s Bob Kurland, and St. John’s Harry Boykoff changed the nature of the game.[5]  Yet, tall players remained seen as “freaks.”  In 1943, Newsweek profiled the 6’9” Boykoff, New York City’s first successful ‘big man.’  The text focused on his height, made no mention of his Jewishness and explained that, “It is rumored that the reason the 20-year-old sophomore is studying accountancy is so that he can tally his final height.”[6]

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the new generation of ‘freaks’ often stood under the basket to block their opponents’ shot.  Many commentators considered this, much like the center jump, an unfair advantage for taller players and believed that the “practice called ‘goal tending’ threatened to turn the game over to circus giants, whether or not they can play basketball.”[7]  The NCAA banned goaltending following the 1944 season, but taller players and their coaches adapted to this rule like they had the elimination of the center jump.  Holman and others lamented the gradual removal of the ‘small’ player.  Holman scoffed at Phog Allen’s suggestion that the basket be raised to 12-feet, but suggested the lanes be widened to 12-feet in order to “aid the little man” by keeping taller players further from the basket.  Despite opposition from traditionalists, however, the sport’s popularity seemed to increase every year as basketball became “a sport where height pays off.”[8] 

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[1] “Holman’s No-Tap Plan Tested as Court Experts See Y Beat Collegians,” Y Bulletin, April 7, 1933.  In 1933, Holman organized a “test game” between the 92^nd Street YMHA varsity and a collection of ‘all-stars’ from CCNY and St. John’s. 

[2] “On the Courts,” New York Times, December 29, 1937. MacMillan’s comments were made after the first double-header in which a record crowd of 18,148 saw Stanford defeat CCNY and Minnesota beat LIU.  MacMillan was a former teammate of Holman’s with the Celtics.

[3] Quote on ‘freaks’ from “Sport: Basketball,” Time, April 13, 1936; Quote on ‘dunking’ from “Brooklyn College and McPherson Oilers Score in Garden Basketball Games,” New York Times, March 12, 1936.  Prior to the 1936 qualifying tournament, the Oilers played an All-Metropolitan team composed of the entire LIU squad and stars from NYU, CCNY, St. John’s, Manhattan, Fordham, and St. Francis.  MacPherson won 45-43 in “the most brilliantly played and spectacular basketball game that Madison Square Garden ever has seen.”  On Allen’s attitude, see Harold C. Evans, “Some Notes on College Basketball in Kansas,” The Kansas Historical Quarterly 11, no. 2 (May 1942): 199-215.  Quote on 213.

[4] “Jefferson Seeks First Court Title in Facing Clinton,” New York Times, March 24, 1934.

[5] Stanley Frank, “Jews in Sports: Barney Sedran,” Y Bulletin, March 18, 1938. 

[6] “Basketball,” Newsweek, February 1, 1943.  On Mikan  as the “first” great big man, see Isaacs, All the Moves, 129-135; Bjarkman, Hoopla, 51-52.

[7] The rules committee also allowed unlimited substitutions, increased personal fouls from four to five, and provided the referee with the ability to call time out for an injured player.  See “Sports,” Newsweek, April 14, 1944.

[8] “Little Man: Holman Urges Changes in Cage Setup,” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1951; “Coach Assails Basket Ball Toss-Up as Unsportsmanlike,” Washington Post, January 17, 1929. Sport: Basketball Pfd,” Time, April 6, 1942.