The Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League was an

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

for men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

, beginning with the 1901–02 season and ending with the 1954–55 season. Its membership ranged from four to eight members; all of these teams now compete in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

, which began play in 1955–56 and considers its men's basketball league to be a continuation of the EIBL. The EIBL/Ivy is the oldest basketball conference in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

; the next oldest, the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

, began play in

1905–06 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

Former members

;Notes:

History

The league was founded in the 1901–02 season by five schools:

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. The league adopted the double round robin format that has since become standard for college basketball conferences, with each team hosting every other team once and in turn being hosted by all of the others once. Yale won the initial

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

with a 5–3 record. The

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

was admitted to the league for the 1903–04 season, after securing temporary playing facilities. The championships during the first few years were evenly divided between Yale, Columbia, and Penn, with the Bulldogs winning three times, and the other two schools winning twice each. The league struggled in its first incarnation; there were many disagreements over the playing rules and

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, violent play was common, and on several occasions, teams failed to meet their obligation to play a complete league schedule. Harvard had particular difficulties due to limitations placed upon them by the school's faculty, which forced the squad to drop out of the league in

1904–05 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

and 1907–08 (and to stop playing altogether between 1908–1909 and 1919–20). These factors led to the collapse of the league, with no competition being held in 1908–09 or 1909–10. The league was reorganized in 1910–11 under the leadership of

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

Ralph Morgan Raphael Kuhner Wuppermann (July 6, 1883 – June 11, 1956), known professionally as Ralph Morgan, was a Hollywood stage and film character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan. Early life Morgan was born in New York City, the eig ...

, with Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Princeton, and Yale participating.

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

joined the conference in 1911–12; Yale dropped out in 1912–13, but returned the following

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

. The conference remained stable at six teams from 1913–14 until 1932–33 (with a one-year suspension in 1918–19 for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

). Columbia and Cornell were successful early in this period, with the Lions winning two championships, the Big Red one, and both sharing a fourth (the only time a first-place tie was not broken by a playoff game). The late nineteen-teens and early 1920s saw the rise of a great Penn team, winning three straight league championships and defeating the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, champions of the Western Conference, in a best-of-three “national championship” series held at the end of the 1919–20 season. This string was interrupted by Princeton, who finished first in 1922 and 1923, and were themselves arguably national champions in 1925. The late 1920s and early 1930s were mostly divided between Columbia and Penn. Harvard finally rejoined the league in 1933–34, bringing membership to seven teams. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale all suspended their participation for varying lengths of time during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, reducing the league to as few as four members in the 1944–45 season; however, all three quickly resumed their places in the league within two years of the war's end. The late 1930s and early 1940s saw the rise of a long-lived dynasty at Dartmouth, which won seven straight championships (still an EIBL/Ivy record) and made two trips to the finals of the new NCAA national championship tournament. By contrast, the post-war period produced a high degree of parity, with every team except Harvard winning at least once between 1945–46 and 1953–54. During these years, the movement to officially form the Ivy League was gathering momentum, culminating in the 1954 extension of the institutions' formal agreement to govern football competition to include competition in all sports. As part of this process,

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

joined the league for its final two seasons, and it was decided that the EIBL would be absorbed into the Ivy League beginning in 1955–56. The league came to an exciting conclusion in 1954–55, with Princeton emerging as the final champion from a three-way playoff with Columbia and Penn.

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1901 till:1955 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:0 left:0 bottom:50 top:0 Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:closed value:rgb(0.66,0.66,0.66) id:CA value:rgb(0.61,0.87,1) id:PR value:rgb(1,0.56,0) id:YL value:rgb(0.06,0.3,0.57) id:HV value:rgb(0.79,0,0.09) id:PAR value:rgb(0.584,0,0.102) id:DA value:rgb(0.05,0.50,0.06) id:BR value:rgb(0.20,0.08,0.08) BackgroundColors = canvas:bg PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:CA from:1901 till:1908 text: Columbia bar:1 color:CA from:1910 till:1918 bar:1 color:CA from:1919 till:end bar:2 color:red from:1901 till:1908 text:

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

bar:2 color:red from:1910 till:1918 bar:2 color:red from:1919 till:end bar:3 color:PR from:1901 till:1908 text:

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

bar:3 color:PR from:1910 till:1918 bar:3 color:PR from:1919 till:1944 bar:3 color:closed from:1944 till:1945 bar:3 color:PR from:1945 till:1955 bar:4 color:YL from:1901 till:1908 text:

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

bar:4 color:YL from:1910 till:1912 bar:4 color:closed from:1912 till:1913 bar:4 color:YL from:1913 till:1918 bar:4 color:YL from:1919 till:1943 bar:4 color:closed from:1943 till:1946 bar:4 color:YL from:1946 till:end bar:5 color:HV from:1901 till:1904 text:

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

bar:5 color:closed from:1904 till:1905 bar:5 color:HV from:1905 till:1907 bar:5 color:closed from:1907 till:1908 bar:5 color:closed from:1910 till:1918 bar:5 color:closed from:1919 till:1933 bar:5 color:HV from:1933 till:1943 bar:5 color:closed from:1943 till:1946 bar:5 color:HV from:1946 till:end bar:6 color:PAR from:1903 till:1908 text:

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

bar:6 color:PAR from:1910 till:1918 bar:6 color:PAR from:1919 till:1929 bar:6 color:PAR from:1929 till:end bar:7 color:DA from:1911 till:1918 text: Dartmouth bar:7 color:DA from:1919 till:end bar:8 color:BR from:1953 till:end text:

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

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League champions

Total championships

Notes

{{reflist Ivy League men's basketball Defunct NCAA Division I conferences 1901 establishments in the United States 1955 disestablishments in the United States Sports leagues established in 1901 Sports leagues disestablished in 1955