The Maggie Dixon Classic is an annual early season

women'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 ...

tournament that was first played in 2006. The classic is played in honor of

Maggie Dixon Margaret Mary Dixon (May 9, 1977 – April 6, 2006) was an American collegiate women's basketball coach. Life Dixon was born in North Hollywood, California, and played basketball at Notre Dame High School. Dixon graduated in 1999 with a bac ...

who in April 2006, just after leading the Army women's basketball team to their first ever NCAA Tournament, died suddenly due to an

arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults ...

caused by a previously undiagnosed heart condition. On November 12, 2006, the first Maggie Dixon was played at the

Christl Arena Christl Arena is a 5,043-seat, multi-purpose arena in West Point, New York. It was built in 1985 as part of the Major Donald W. Holleder Center, which also houses Tate Rink. It is home to the United States Military Academy's Army Black Knights ...

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

; where Maggie coached her only season with the Lady Knights. Since this edition of the Maggie Dixon Classic, every other classic had featured a four team, two game doubleheader. The 2006 Maggie Dixon Classic was the only edition of the event to feature a men's game; in which the

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

coached by

Jamie Dixon James Patrick Dixon II (born November 10, 1965) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach of the TCU Horned Frogs men's team, where he played college ball. He previously served as the head coach of the University of Pittsbu ...

, Maggie's brother; defeated

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pen ...

by a final score of 86 to 67. In 2007, the Maggie Dixon Classic was moved to the historic

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and has been held there ever since. The Maggie Dixon Classic has also produced the eventual national champions in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013. Also in 2010, the UConn women's basketball team tied UCLA's 88 game win streak from the 1970s. The Huskies would eventually break the record and end their winning streak at 90 games. On January 4, 2015,

Immaculata University Immaculata University is a private Roman Catholic university in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The university is composed of 1,427 traditional undergraduate and ad ...

and

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

played in the Maggie Dixon Classic as a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the first game played between women's basketball teams in the Madison Square Garden. The second game of that doubleheader featured the UConn Huskies and St. John's Red Storm. In 2016, the Classic was moved to the campus of

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the school where Maggie Dixon served as an assistant coach under the direction of

Doug Bruno Richard Douglas Bruno (born November 7, 1950) is the head coach of the DePaul Blue Demons women's basketball team. In 2016, he completed his 30th season as head coach. Under his tenure, the Blue Demons have qualified for post-season competition p ...

. Upon moving to Chicago, the Classic was also restructured from its traditional format to a four-team knockout tournament. In 2017, Classic Games were moved to the

Wintrust Arena Wintrust Arena at McCormick Square, previously referred to as DePaul Arena or McCormick Place Events Center, is a 10,387-seat sports venue in the Near South Side community area of Chicago that opened in 2017. It is the current home court for ...

; which opened in October of that year. DePaul has won both Maggie Dixon Classics played in Chicago. TCU and Texas A&M took part in the event in 2017 at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas. The Classic was then moved to Fort Worth in 2018 and was played Schollmaier Arena, when TCU hosted Dixon's former team, Army. TCU again hosted the Classic the following year in 2019, taking on Boise State.

Past Results and Appearances

Appearances

*As of the 2015 Maggie Dixon Classic; excluding the men's game from 2006. Teams in bold text won their game.

Maggie Dixon Courage Award

Since the 2009 Classic, the family of Maggie Dixon has presented the Maggie Dixon Courage Award. This award is presented to an individual who exhibits courage in the face of adversity and continues to exemplify Dixon's mantra of never allowing adversity get in the way of achieving a dream. The award is always presented by Dixon's sister Julie Dixon Silva and by Dixon's older brother

References

{{Reflist, 35em, refs= {{cite news, title=College Basketball Roundup: No. 1 UConn women top Penn State, 77-63, date=December 15, 2008, url=http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/psu/2008/12/15/College-Basketball-Roundup-No-1-UConn-women-top-Penn-State-77-63/stories/200812150173, newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, access-date=19 Sep 2014 {{cite web, last=Hays, first=Graham, title=Celebrate, not compare, UConn & UCLA, url=http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=5936665 {{cite news, last=Hutchinson , first=Dave, title=Rutgers' women race past Louisiana Tech, 73-46, in Maggie Dixon Classic, date= December 9, 2012 , url=http://www.nj.com/rutgerswomen/index.ssf/2012/12/rutgers_vs_louisiana_tech.html, newspaper=The Star Ledger , access-date=19 Sep 2014 {{cite web, last=Adamec, first=Carl , title=Final: UConn 80, California 47, url=http://snyuconn.com/uconn/final-uconn-80-california-47/, work=SNY.TV, access-date=26 Jan 2014 {{cite news, title=Roundup: No. 1 Connecticut routs No. 20 Cal 80-47, date=December 22, 2013, url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaw/2013/12/22/womens-roundup-uconn-california-notre-dame-penn-state-purdue-south-carolina/4166869/, newspaper=USA Today, access-date=26 Jan 2014 {{cite news, last=Feinberg , first=Doug, title=MSG to honor first women's basketball game at arena, date=Sep 19, 2014, url=http://www.norwichbulletin.com/article/20140919/Sports/140919413#ixzz3DoXZYXo5, newspaper=Norwich Bulletin, access-date=19 Sep 2014 {{cite news, last=Elliott, first=Rich, title=Game report: No. 2 UConn 70, St. John’s 54, date=4 January 2015, url=http://blog.ctnews.com/elliott/2015/01/04/game-report-no-2-uconn-70-st-johns-54/, newspaper=CT Post, publisher=Hearst Media Services Connecticut, access-date=10 Jan 2015 Women's basketball competitions in the United States