The Eastern Intercollegiate Conference (EIC) was an

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The conference sponsored men's

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

and existed from 1932 to 1939, with teams in the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. The 1937–1938 conference champion,

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, went on to win the

1938 National Invitation Tournament The 1938 National Invitation Tournament was the 1938 edition of the annual NCAA basketball competition. It was the inaugural National Invitational Tournament and was won by Temple. Selected teams Below is a list of the six teams selected for ...

.College Hoopedia: 1937-38
/ref> Although the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

described the conference as "one of the best in the nation,"College Hoopedia: 1938-39
/ref> its members agreed to disband it at the end of the 1938–1939 season because geographical problems had made scheduling difficult.

Member schools

Over its seven seasons of existence, the conferences membership varied between five and six schools each season.sports-reference.com Eastern Intercollegiate Conference
/ref>

Final members

;Notes:

Other members

;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1932 till:1939 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.9) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.631,0.616,0.741) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for another sport only id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference when the other color has already been used PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1932 till:end text:

Carnegie Tech Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a Private university, private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became t ...

(1932–1939) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1932 till:end text: Georgetown (1932–1939) bar:3 color:FullxF from:1932 till:end text:

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

(1932–1939) bar:4 color:FullxF from:1932 till:end text:

(1932–1939) bar:5 color:FullxF from:1932 till:end text:

(1932–1939) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1932 till:1933 text:

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

bar:6 color:FullxF from:1933 till:1934 text: Bucknell (1933–1934) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1934 till:end text:

bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1932 till:1935 text:

bar:7 color:FullxF from:1935 till:end text:

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

(1935–1939) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1932 TextData = fontsize:M textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Eastern Intercollegiate Conference Membership History" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Champions

The conference championships were determined by the best regular season conference records except in the event of teams having identical conference records. In the case of such ties, the conference championship was decided by a one-game playoff championship game at the conclusion of the regular conference season. Conference championships were decided by this playoff game in 1935, 1936, and 1937. However, following the 1938–1939 season, no playoff game was held despite identical records held by Carnegie Tech and Georgetown, and the two schools were declared co-champions for the season. Pittsburgh dominated the conference results with four championships in the conferences seven seasons, winning the first two seasons by having the best regular-season record and winning championship playoff games in 1935 and 1937, but losing the 1936 championship playoff game. *1932–1933 Pittsburgh *1933–1934 Pittsburgh *1934–1935 Pittsburgh* *1935–1936 Carnegie Tech* *1936–1937 Pittsburgh* *1937–1938 Temple *1938–1939 Carnegie Tech/Georgetown** * Conference title decided by a playoff game
** No playoff game held. The two teams were declared co-champions based on identical regular-season conference records.

Scoring record

During the 1937–1938 season, Carnegie Tech′s Melvin Cratsley set the league′s single-game scoring record in men's basketball with 34 points against

. He scored 12

field goals A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, a ...

during the game, ten of them on tip-ins or by shooting from directly beneath the hoop and the other two on set shots from inside the

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

line.

Season standings

Each team played each other team in the conference twice each season in a home-and-home schedule except for the 1933–1934 season, when Bucknell, Carnegie Tech, and Pittsburgh did not play a complete 10-game home-and-home schedule for the season.

1932–1933

1933–1934

1934–1935

*Conference playoff championship game, March 18, 1935, in Morgantown,

.
Pittsburgh 35, West Virginia 22

1935–1936

*Conference playoff championship game, March 14, 1936, at

Pitt Stadium Pitt Stadium was an outdoor athletic stadium in the eastern United States, located on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1925 Pittsburgh Panthers fo ...

Pavilion,

.
Carnegie Tech 32, Pittsburgh 27

1936–1937

*Conference playoff championship game, March 22, 1937, at

Philadelphia Arena The Philadelphia Arena was an auditorium used mainly for sporting events located at 46th and Market Streets in West Philadelphia. The address of the building, originally named the Philadelphia Ice Palace and Auditorium, was 4530 Market Street. ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh 35, Temple 29

1937–1938

1938–1939

*No conference championship playoff game was held, so Carnegie Tech and Georgetown finished as co-champions.

Overall team results

*Includes conference playoff games.
**The

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

did not begin play until

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

. The NCAA tournament did not begin play until

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

. "N/A" (not applicable) indicates neither tournament existed during the school's membership in the conference.
***Includes a conference co-championship Carnegie Tech and Georgetown shared in the 1938–1939 season.

Head coaches

Eleven men served as head coaches of EIC teams during the conference's seven seasons of play. Only three of them — Pittsburgh's

Doc Carlson Henry Clifford "Doc" Carlson (July 4, 1894 – November 1, 1964) was an American basketball coach and football player. He is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee as the men's college basketball coach of his alma mater, the University of ...

, Carnegie Tech's Max E. Hannum, and Temple's James Usilton — coached their teams throughout the EIC's existence. *Includes conference playoff games.
**The

did not begin play until

. The NCAA tournament did not begin play until

. "N/A" (not applicable) indicates coaching tenures in the conference during which neither tournament existed.
***Includes a conference co-championship Carnegie Tech and Georgetown shared in the 1938–1939 season.

References

Sports leagues established in 1932 Sports leagues disestablished in 1939 Sports in the Eastern United States College sports in Pennsylvania College sports in Washington, D.C. College sports in West Virginia Articles which contain graphical timelines