Blue White Illustrated

P E N N S T A T E ' S N C A A T O U R N A M E N T H I S T O R Y older tourney was regarded as the true national championship event. The Met- ropolitan Basketball Writers Association created it in 1938 to help publicize Madi- son Square Garden. "One of the goals was to confirm New York's primacy in the college basketball world," wrote Terry Frie in his definitive book about the beginning of both tourna- ments, "March 1939: Before the Mad- ness." "It definitely was an outgrowth of the regular-season college doubleheaders at Madison Square Garden and involved the type of conflict of interest for writers that wouldn't have been tolerated later. … The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Associ- ation, made up of New York scribes, founded, sponsored, and promoted it – and promoted it to the point where they sometimes came off as carnival barkers imploring passersby to enter the tent." Concerned by this new event, the lead- ers of the National Association of Basket- ball Coaches forced a reluctant NCAA into sanctioning a national tournament at the end of the next season. The format 1942 In what was then an eight-team tournament with two regions, East and West, Penn State was the only partici- pant without a conference affiliation. Coach John Lawther's team took a 17-2 record to New Orleans. Led by future Nittany Lion head coaches Elmer Gross and John Egli, the team lost to Dart- mouth of the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League, 44-39, in the Elite Eight. The Lions then beat Illinois, 41- 34, in the regional consolation game the next day. 1952 Gross was in his third year as head coach, and the tournament was up to 16 teams, with four regions and the first official Final Four played in Seattle. Penn State lost both games in the East-1 Region at Raleigh, N.C., 82- 54 to Kentucky and 69-60 to North Carolina State. However, the Nittany Lions' shocking third-place finish in the 1954 Final Four was foretold by the underclassmen on the team, starters Jesse Arnelle and Jack Sherry and re- serve Ron Weidenhammer. 1954 Penn State squeezed into the tournament with four consecutive wins at the end of the regular season and was ranked ninth in the final AP poll. The tourney was now up to 24 teams, with the East-1 Region first round at Philadelphia's Palestra. Gross's squad, with an 18-5 record, was sent to the East-2 Regional in Fort Wayne, Ind. Penn State began its miraculous run with a 62-50 win over Toledo, followed by upsets of No. 8 LSU, 78-70, and No. 6 Notre Dame, 71-63, in Iowa City. At the Final Four in Kansas City, the Lions lost to No. 2 LaSalle in the semifinals, 69-54. They then beat USC, 70-61, for third place when a consolation game was part of the format. 1955 Egli had succeeded Gross as head coach, and with Arnelle again leading the way, along with starters Weidenhammer, Earl Fields, Bobby Hoffman and Jim Blocker, the Lions made the 24-team tournament with an 18-8 record and were sent to the East-2 Region's first round at Lexington, Ky. Penn State beat Memphis State, 59-55, but lost in the second round in Evans- ville, Ind., to Iowa, 82-53, and fell to Kentucky in the regional consolation game, 84-59. A 10-year tournament

• Cover