1938 National Invitation Tournament

1938 National Invitation Tournament

Souvenir program from the tournament.
Tournament details
City	New York City
Venue(s)	Madison Square Garden
Dates	March 9–16, 1938 (1938-03-09 – 1938-03-16)
Teams	6
Final positions
Champions	Temple Owls (1st title)
Runners-up	Colorado Buffaloes
Third place	Oklahoma A&M Aggies
Fourth place	NYU Violets
Awards
MVP	Don Shields (Temple)
1939  →

The 1938 National Invitation Tournament was the inaugural edition of the annual college basketball competition.

The Invitation was won by Temple, who claimed the national championship with their win over Colorado in the tournament final. ^{[1] [2]}

Selected teams

Below is a list of the six teams selected for the tournament. ^[3]

Team	Conference	Overall record
Bradley	Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference	18–1
Colorado	Mountain States Conference	14–5
Long Island	Metropolitan New York Conference	23–4
NYU	Metropolitan New York Conference	15–6
Oklahoma A&M	Missouri Valley Conference	24–2
Temple	Eastern Intercollegiate Conference	20–2

Bracket

Below is the tournament bracket. ^[3]

	Opening round March 9				Semifinals March 14				Finals March 16
					Oklahoma A&M	55
	Temple	53			Temple	56
	Bradley	40							Temple	60
									Colorado	36
					Colorado	48
	NYU	39			NYU	47
	Long Island	37							Third Place
									Oklahoma A&M	37
									NYU	24

See also

• 1938 NAIA Basketball Tournament

References

1. Avery, Leslie (March 17, 1938). Written at New York. "Temple Captures National Mythical Court Title by Conquering Colorado". The Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. United Press. p. 28. The tournament sweep gave the eastern conference champions clean claim to the mythical national title.
2. Wilson, Dave (March 29, 1938). "Temple's National Champions Honored Again at Banquet — City Fetes Temple, National Champion". The Philadelphia Inquirer . p. 19. Representatives of this city's official family, leaders in education and prominent men in athletics paid tribute to Temple University's national championship basketball team at the dinner given by Mayor S. Davis Wilson in the ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford last night. [...] Following his speech Mayor Wilson presented Jimmy Usilton, Temple coach, with a wrist watch and also gave each member of the Owl team a gold ring-tokens of gratitude for the fame and honor which the Templars brought to this city.
3. Tournament Results (1930's) at nit.org, URL accessed December 9, 2009. Archived 11/7/09