The 1936 United States men's Olympic basketball team competed in the Games of the XI Olympiad in Berlin, representing the United States of America, and was coached by Jimmy Needles of the Amateur Athletic Union's (AAU) Universal Pictures team. Gene Johnson of Wichita University assisted Needles, while Joe Reilly served as the team's director. 1936 was the first year that basketball was an official medal sport (it had been a demonstration sport in 1904). The U.S. won the first gold medal, defeating Canada, 19–8, in a gold medal match played outdoors on a clay and sand court in the rain. James Naismith, the game's inventor, watched many of the 1936 Olympic basketball matches, and helped award medals at the end of the basketball competition.
As was the custom at the time, the Olympic trials consisted of a tournament between top teams from the AAU, the YMCA and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. One notably absent team from the tournament was the 1935–36 Long Island Blackbirds, who had just completed a 25–0 season behind stars Jules Bender, Ben Kramer and Art Hillhouse. The largely Jewish Blackbirds team boycotted the trials due to the games being held in Berlin, during the Nazi reign of Adolph Hitler. LIU president Tristram Walker Metcalfe stated: "Our conviction that the United States should not participate in the Olympic Games since they are being held in Germany has not been altered by the fact that our basketball team is now recognized generally as a possible Olympic representative. Such participation would be indirect, if not direct, contribution of the raising of funds to finance such participation."[3]
Since basketball first became an Olympic medal sport in 1936, a new and national playoff system was developed for the US basketball team selection. The amateur ruling bodies devised a 10 regional district playoff system for college and university entrants, which later evolved into the March Madness of the NCAA's Final Four. Joining the AAU's two top teams -- the Universal Pictures Universals (Hollywood/Los Angeles, California) and the McPherson Globe Refiners team (McPherson, Kansas) --in Madison Square Garden, were the five colleges advancing from the district playoffs:[4]
As winner of the YMCA National, the Wilmerding (PA) YMCA team earned the eighth and last slot. The quarter final winners were McPherson outscoring Temple, Universal Pictures over Arkansas, Washington beating DePaul, and the YMCA team besting Utah State. The semi final games were important because the US Olympic team would be chosen from those two winners. In the opener, the Universal movie men from California beat Wilmerding by 13, 42–29.[5] The Globe Refiners qualified by out-running Washington 48 to 30. In an all AAU and extremely close final, Universal Pictures prevailed 44–43 over McPherson,[6][7] becoming the U.S. national champions.
However, the U.S. plan for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin was for the Globe Refiners and the Universals to jointly comprise the United States Team USA, with the two remaining mostly separate squads, playing alternating games, both representing Team USA. [8][9][9]
As the U.S. team arrived, they were made aware of several FIBA rules that were quite different than what the team was accustomed to in the States. There was no three second rule (which had then just been introduced to U.S. play), teams were limited to rosters of seven total players, and all games were to be played outdoors on a surface which was a mixture of sand and clay and which had been that of a tennis court. Needles successfully protested another stipulation – that players had to be 6'2" or shorter to compete. To get around the seven-player team limit, Needles split the squad into two teams – one featuring the McPherson Globe Refiners players and collegian Ralph Bishop, and one featuring the AAU Universal players – and alternated them for each match.[10]
Their first match was won in a forfeit, as their scheduled opponent Spain, in the throes of the Spanish Civil War, never showed up. In the second match, the Universal team routed Estonia, by a score of 52–28. A McPherson-led win over the Philippines landed the Americans in the medal round, where they defeated Mexico, to reach the gold medal game.
The gold medal game was played after a day of rain, and the weather conditions put a damper on the Canadian national team's trademark fast break playing style. The two teams were only able to manage a combined total of eight points in the second half of play, due to the downpour, and the U.S. won the gold medal with a 19–8 victory.[10]
1 2 Cunnigham, Carson (January 2010). American Hoops: U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball From Berlin to Beijing. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. pp.1–28. ISBN978-0-8032-2293-9.
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