As we descend into March Madness once again, it might be well to take stock of the longtime love affair between the Kansas City region and the game of basketball. It is impossible to say with certainty when the first game was played in the region, but likely it was at the YMCA in the mid-1890s. That’s because future regional resident James Naismith invented the game in 1891 in Springfield, MA at the International YMCA Institute. The new game was a response to a class assignment.

All we know for sure is that by 1898 when Naismith became college chaplain and assistant professor of Physical Education at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, a few women’s basketball games had been played at that institution prior to his arrival. Further, as he looked around for potential opponents for his newly organized men’s student team, he found them at the YMCAs in Kansas City and Topeka.

Early in the 20th century, the Missouri Valley Conference [later, the Big 6, the Big 7, and the Big 8] expanded its sports offerings to include basketball as well as the originating sport of football. Kansas, along with Kansas State Agricultural College [today’s K-State], the University of Missouri, Iowa State College, the University of Nebraska and the University of Oklahoma comprised the conference in the earliest days.

Naismith was responsible for the program at KU from its inception in 1898 to 1907 while he also served as Chaplain. Following this service he performed as University Physician [he held an M.D. degree] for a time. But, from 1898 to his retirement in the mid-1930s, he was Assistant Professor of Physical Education and instructor of record for the Boy’s Physical Hygiene course required of every incoming freshman. This meant he taught the University’s version of sex education, among other things.

Basketball tournaments have been around in the region in some form for almost as long as the game itself. It was always more convenient to get the various teams together in one place for a short period of time to play each other, either in “round robin” fashion or in elimination brackets. The Missouri Valley Conference began the practice in the World War I era.

National and international tournaments took a little longer. In 1936, the first international Olympic basketball competition was held in Berlin, Germany. Fittingly, Dr. Naismith was on hand to throw up the first basketball to start the tournament between Estonia and Bulgaria. Even United States teams were strictly amateur in those days.

That same year of 1936 witnessed the first National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball [NAIB] tournament here in Kansas City. Dr. Naismith participated in its founding as a national championship tournament for smaller colleges from around the country. This evolved overtime into the NAIA tournament that commenced play once again yesterday at Municipal Auditorium. Indeed, part of the purpose of the tournament in 1936 was to provide the then brand new Auditorium with a signature annual event. The NAIA tournament has performed that function ever since except for a few years of “Babylonian Captivity” in Tulsa during the 1990s.

This weekend also marks NCAA regional play in Sprint Arena as that organization returns to its tournament roots in the Heartland. Although the very first NCAA national basketball championship tournament was held in 1939 in Evanston, IL, play moved to Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium in 1940 and returned for the two following seasons. New York City grabbed the tournament in 1943 and kept it at Madison Square Garden through 1948. The Tournament has been held in a variety of venues all over the country since, but nowhere as much as here in Kansas City. Ten times between 1940 and the present the NCAA invited championship teams to our fair city for the ultimate in basketball competition, most recently in the absolutely memorable 1988 event held at Kemper Arena and won by the University of Kansas.

New York City has hosted the NCAA Basketball Championships seven times while Seattle and Indianapolis tie for third with five hostings, but Kansas City’s ten events spread over almost 50 years stands alone. We are “Basketball Town USA!” Unfortunately, this very fact probably works against Kansas City’s regaining the “Final Four” anytime soon. This year’s championship games will be held in Detroit, and commitments have already been made to sites through 2016.

All currently planned championships will occur in indoor stadiums that house many more people than could be crammed into either Kemper or Sprint. Ironically, Kansas City’s last opportunity to host the Final Four probably disappeared with the demise of the proposal a few years ago to enclose Arrowhead Stadium. These days it seems only football facilities are big enough for the biggest basketball games.

William S. Worley, Instructor in History—MCC-Blue River