1955 NCAA basketball tournament
The 1955 NCAA basketball tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 8, 1955, and ended with the championship game on March 19 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 28 games were played, including a third-place game in each region and a national third-place game.
Teams | 24 |
---|---|
Finals site | Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri |
Champions | San Francisco Dons (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four) |
Runner-up | La Salle Explorers (2nd title game, 2nd Final Four) |
Semifinalists |
|
Winning coach | Phil Woolpert (1st title) |
MOP | Bill Russell (San Francisco) |
Attendance | 116,983 |
Top scorer | Bill Russell San Francisco (118 points) |
San Francisco, coached by Phil Woolpert, won the national title with a 77–63 victory in the final game over La Salle, coached by Ken Loeffler. Bill Russell of San Francisco was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Locations
The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1955 tournament:
East-1 Region
- First round (March 8)
- Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
- East-1 Regional (March 11 and 12)
- The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
East-2 Region
- First round (March 9)
- Memorial Coliseum, Lexington, Kentucky
- East-2 Regional (March 11 and 12)
- McGaw Memorial Hall, Evanston, Illinois
West-1 Region
- First round (March 8)
- Thunderbird Coliseum, El Reno, Oklahoma
- West Regional (March 11 and 12)
- Ahearn Field House, Manhattan, Kansas
West-2 Region
- First round (March 8)
- Cow Palace, San Francisco, California
- West-2 Regional (March 11 and 12)
- Oregon State Coliseum, Corvallis, Oregon
Final Four
- March 18 and 19
- Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri
For the third straight year, and sixth overall, the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri was the site of the Final Four. There were four new sites used in the 1955 tournament. For the first time since the 1939 National Championship, the tournament returned to the campus of Northwestern University, with games played at McGaw Memorial Hall, the then-three-year-old home to the Wildcats basketball program. The tournament also returned to the San Francisco area for the first time since 1939, with the first round of the West-2 regional played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, the immediate southern suburb of San Francisco. Both the Cow Palace and McGaw Memorial Hall would host Final Fours within the next five years after this. The tournament also came to the state of Kentucky for the first time, with games at the Memorial Coliseum on the campus of the University of Kentucky. The Wildcats' home court would host the tournament ten times in twenty years before being replaced by Rupp Arena. The fourth new arena was, to date, one of the smallest venues in arguably the smallest town ever to host a tournament game. The Thunderbird Coliseum, located at the Canadian County fairgrounds along U.S. Route 66 in the distant Oklahoma City suburb of El Reno, hosted the West-1 regional first-round game between Bradley and the host school, Oklahoma City University. The Chiefs would host the tournament once more in their history, in 1957 at another high school gymnasium in Oklahoma City. This was the first of three high school gymnasiums in five years to host tournament games.
Teams
Region | Team | Coach | Conference | Finished | Final Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
East | ||||||
East | Canisius | Joseph Curran | WNY3 | Regional Runner-up | La Salle | L 99–64 |
East | Duke | Harold Bradley | Atlantic Coast | First round | Villanova | L 74–73 |
East | Iowa | Bucky O'Connor | Big Ten | Fourth Place | Colorado | L 75–54 |
East | Kentucky | Adolph Rupp | Southeastern | Regional third place | Penn State | W 84–59 |
East | La Salle | Ken Loeffler | Independent | Runner Up | San Francisco | L 77–63 |
East | Marquette | Jack Nagle | Independent | Regional Runner-up | Iowa | L 86–81 |
East | Memphis State | Eugene Lambert | Independent | First round | Penn State | L 59–55 |
East | Miami (OH) | Bill Rohr | Mid-American | First round | Marquette | L 90–79 |
East | Penn State | John Egli | Independent | Regional Fourth Place | Kentucky | L 84–59 |
East | Princeton | Franklin Cappon | Ivy League | Regional Fourth Place | Villanova | L 64–57 |
East | Villanova | Alex Severance | Independent | Regional third place | Princeton | W 64–57 |
East | West Virginia | Fred Schaus | Southern | First round | La Salle | L 95–61 |
East | Williams | Alex Shaw | Independent | First round | Canisius | L 73–60 |
West | ||||||
West | Bradley | Bob Vanatta | Independent | Regional Runner-up | Colorado | L 93–81 |
West | Colorado | Bebe Lee | Big 7 | Third Place | Iowa | W 75–54 |
West | Idaho State | Steve Belko | Independent | First round | Seattle | L 80–63 |
West | Oklahoma City | Doyle Parrack | Independent | First round | Bradley | L 69–65 |
West | Oregon State | Slats Gill | Pacific Coast | Regional Runner-up | San Francisco | L 57–56 |
West | San Francisco | Phil Woolpert | CBA | Champion | La Salle | W 77–63 |
West | Seattle | Al Brightman | Independent | Regional Fourth Place | Utah | L 108–85 |
West | SMU | Doc Hayes | Southwest | Regional Fourth Place | Tulsa | L 68–67 |
West | Tulsa | Clarence Iba | Missouri Valley | Regional third place | SMU | W 68–67 |
West | Utah | Jack Gardner | Mountain States | Regional third place | Seattle | W 108–85 |
West | West Texas State | Gus Miller | Border | First round | San Francisco | L 89–66 |
Bracket
East-1 Region
First round | Regional semifinals | Regional Finals | |||||||||
Princeton | 46 | ||||||||||
La Salle | 73 | ||||||||||
La Salle | 95 | ||||||||||
West Virginia | 61 | ||||||||||
La Salle | 99 | ||||||||||
Canisius | 64 | ||||||||||
Canisisus | 73 | ||||||||||
Williams | 60 | ||||||||||
Canisius | 73 | Third place | |||||||||
Villanova | 71 | ||||||||||
Villanova | 74 | Kentucky | 84 | ||||||||
Duke | 73 | Penn St. | 59 |
East-2 Region
First round | Regional semifinals | Regional Finals | ||||||||
Kentucky | 71 | |||||||||
Marquette | 90 | Marquette | 79 | |||||||
Miami (OH) | 79 | Marquette | 81 | |||||||
Iowa | 86 | |||||||||
Iowa | 82 | |||||||||
Penn State | 59 | Penn State | 53 | Third place | ||||||
Memphis State | 55 | |||||||||
Villanova | 64 | |||||||||
Princeton | 57 | |||||||||
West-1 Region
First round | Regional semifinals | Regional Finals | |||||||||
SMU | 79 | ||||||||||
Bradley | 81 | ||||||||||
Bradley | 69 | ||||||||||
Oklahoma City | 65 | ||||||||||
Bradley | 81 | ||||||||||
Colorado | 93 | ||||||||||
Colorado | 69 | Third place | |||||||||
Tulsa | 59 | ||||||||||
Tulsa | 68 | ||||||||||
SMU | 67 |
West-2 Region
First round | Regional semifinals | Regional Finals | ||||||||
Oregon State | 83 | |||||||||
Seattle | 80 | Seattle | 71 | |||||||
Idaho State | 63 | Oregon State | 56 | |||||||
San Francisco | 57 | |||||||||
Utah | 59 | |||||||||
San Francisco | 89 | San Francisco | 78 | Third place | ||||||
West Texas State | 66 | |||||||||
Utah | 108 | |||||||||
Seattle | 85 | |||||||||
Final Four
National semifinal | National Championship | ||||||
Iowa | 73 | ||||||
La Salle | 76 | ||||||
La Salle | 63 | ||||||
San Francisco | 77 | ||||||
Colorado | 50 | ||||||
San Francisco | 62 | National third-place game | |||||
Iowa | 54 | ||||||
Colorado | 75 |
Notes
- The 1955 tournament saw a record eleven teams - Canisius, Duke, Iowa, Marquette, Memphis State, San Francisco, Southern Methodist, Tulsa, West Texas State, West Virginia and Williams College - make the tournament for the first time. This beat the record of ten teams set in 1953 (the first year which the tournament expanded to include a regional quarterfinal round), and would be beat in 1981 when 12 teams made the tournament.
- Two teams in the field, West Texas State College (now known as West Texas A&M University) and Williams College of Williamstown, Massachusetts, are no longer in Division I. Neither team would make the tournament again; West Texas is now in Division II and Williams is in Division III. The NCAA would split into University and College Divisions in 1956, thus ending the chances for smaller teams such as these to make the tournament.