On This Day in Sports: March 27, 1939
On March 27, 1939, Oregon defeated Ohio State 46–33 in Evanston, Illinois, to win the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The event contained only eight teams and competed for attention with the more established National Invitation Tournament in New York. Oregon’s victory did not yet possess the enormous cultural weight of a modern national final, but it created the first entry in a championship record that would define college basketball.
Coach Howard Hobson’s Oregon team was nicknamed the Tall Firs because of its unusual size. The Ducks used that height to control rebounding and interior play against Ohio State, building a lead that the Buckeyes could not erase. John Dick scored 13 points for Oregon, while Jimmy Hull led Ohio State with 12 and was later recognized as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player despite the loss.
The championship game was played on Northwestern University’s campus before a modest crowd. There was no sprawling bracket, wall-to-wall television coverage or familiar Final Four brand. Regional semifinals and finals had narrowed the field quickly, and travel still placed practical limits on a national competition. The tournament survived because the NCAA continued refining it while schools and audiences gradually accepted a single knockout path to a recognized champion.
Oregon’s 46–33 win became more significant with every year the event expanded. The field grew to sixteen teams in 1951, thirty-two in 1975 and sixty-four in 1985, transforming a small experiment into a major American sports ritual. The Tall Firs remain the first champions, permanently connecting one disciplined 1939 team to every bracket, upset and title celebration that followed.
The inaugural NCAA tournament featured eight teams.
Oregon defeated Ohio State 46–33 in Evanston.
Howard Hobson coached the champion Tall Firs.
John Dick scored 13 points for Oregon.
Ohio State’s Jimmy Hull was named Most Outstanding Player.
The tournament later expanded into a national March tradition.
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