The 1948 NAIA basketball tournament was held in March at
Municipal Auditorium in
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
. The 11th annual
NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format.
The championship game featured Louisville beating Indiana State, 82–70.
The only school to have won national titles in both the NAIA and NCAA Division I is
Louisville
Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...
. Uniquely,
Indiana State has finished as the National Runner-up in the NAIA (
1946
1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...
and 1948), the NCAA Division I (
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
) and the NCAA Division II (
1968) tournaments.
Indiana State won the NAIA in
1950
Events January
* January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
* January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...
.
The tournament was the first intercollegiate postseason to feature a black student-athlete,
Clarence J. Walker of
Indiana State under coach
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed "the Wizard of Westwood", he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, nati ...
. Wooden had withdrawn from the
1947 tournament because the NAIB would not allow Walker to play.
Awards and honors
Many of the records set by the 1948 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:
*Leading scorer est. 1963
*Leading rebounder est. 1963
*Charles Stevenson Hustle Award est. 1958
*Coach of the Year est. 1954
*Player of the Year est. 1994
*All-time scoring leader; second appearance: ''Harold Haskins, 12th'', Hamline (Minn.) (1947,48,49,50), 14 games, 104 field goals, 72 free throws, 280 total points, 20.0 average per game.
NAIA Championship History
Bracket
* * denotes overtime.
See also
* 1948 NCAA basketball tournament
* 1948 National Invitation Tournament
References
{{NAIA men's basketball tournament
NAIA men's basketball championship
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...