The Redshirt Senior: The History of Ancient Eight Basketball
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Spring term is winding down for most; I’m working my TA job at the moment, and I don’t remember what week it is. My mind keeps drifting back to college basketball and the lost postseason. Ivy League basketball doesn’t get a lot of credit as a mid-major league, so I wanted to do my best to explain the history of some programs by comparing them to major conference schools.
I’ll start with my soon-to-be alma mater. Dartmouth’s basketball history is richer than that of some of its Ivy League contemporaries. The Big Green has the third most NCAA tournament wins and bids of Ivy League teams, behind the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, and is actually the only Ivy League basketball program to post a positive win-loss percentage in the NCAA tournament at 10-7 (although Penn and Princeton’s records, 13-26 and 13-29 respectively, are artifacts of the NCAA tournament allowing more than one school per conference during the 1975 tournament and later increasing the tournament size).
Dartmouth’s prestige in the Ivy League hit its zenith in the 1940s and 1950s, when the Big Green placed second in the NCAA tournament in 1942 and 1943 and made a total of seven tournaments during those two decades. A good comparison to draw is with the University of San Francisco Dons basketball program. The Dons were also a 1950s powerhouse, winning the NCAA tournament in 1955 and 1956 and reaching the Sweet Sixteen in both 1957 and 1958. Both programs have regressed since then, with Dartmouth failing to win an Ivy League championship since 1959 and San Francisco maintaining some success into the 1980s but falling behind since then, in part due to NCAA sanctions. It’s also interesting to point out the figures who came out of each program. A big part of San Francisco’s success was Bill Russell, who would go on to win 11 NBA championships after his time at San Francisco. Dartmouth’s last NCAA tournament team featured Dave Gavitt, who would go on to help found the Big East Basketball Conference, changing the landscape of college basketball as we know it. Not bad for two small-time programs.
The kings of the Ivy League with regard to all-time records and tournament prestige are without a doubt Penn and Princeton. These two rivals have combined for over half (26 out of 43) of the Ivy League’s NCAA tournament wins. These two programs have produced coaching talent as well, including current Cornell University head…
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