Making March Madness by Carlson Chad;

Author:Carlson, Chad; [Carlson, Chad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press

The Uncertain Future of the Red Cross Game

Unfortunately for the Aggies and for the entire college basketball establishment, this game marked the end of the collegiate hoops season. For the past three years, the National Invitation and NCAA champions had met in a “championship” game that benefited the Red Cross War Fund. With the United States now at peace, there was less imminent need for donations to the Red Cross, but there remained a strong interest in determining the official national champion of college basketball. And with two similar tournaments and no matchup between their champions, the college basketball world had to revert back to speculation regarding which team was best.

The omission of the Red Cross game raised plenty of questions regarding the politics of college basketball at the time. Fans and the local media clearly favored this game as a tidy year-end tie-up. In fact, local metropolitan sportswriters had been discussing the feature for months. As far back as January, the New York Times’s Louis Effrat speculated on the fate of the game. “The big playoff has proved a most desirable one,” the scribe argued, reaffirming that, “with virtually no dissenters, (the winner) was acclaimed the national champion.” Effrat’s January 28, 1946, column announced a new “East-West all-star college basketball game” at the Garden on Saturday, March 30—four days after the NCAA championship game. Effrat also noted that the circus was due to move in to the Garden immediately after this all-star event, leaving only two dates that the Red Cross Game could be played. Wednesday, March 27, was out because it was the day after the NCAA championship and would be unfair to its titleholder. Thursday and Friday, then, were the only options before Saturday’s all-star game and the Sunday onset of the weeklong circus.29

Effrat interviewed Ned Irish for his story. The Garden operator relayed that “so far nothing had been done about arranging the play-off,” but also that the implementation of the all-star contest would not exclude the possibility of a fourth Red Cross championship game. Effrat had no logical response for Irish’s ambiguous answer. Without such a game, the basketball season would end in “a nation-wide muddle” with “numerous title claims.” “Why there should be any hitch at all is mysterious,” Effrat opined, “but if arrangements are to be made for a championship play-off, the powers-that-be will have to start moving pronto.”30

Three weeks later, Asa Bushnell, the de facto face of the National Invitation tournament, told the press that “he knew nothing about plans for the annual Red Cross benefit play-off” game. Effrat’s plea to tournament organizers to get moving with plans for this contest found no adherents. In fact, Irish’s new all-star game began running into glitches. Everett B. Morris of the New York Herald-Tribune relayed on March 11 that the individual showcase event was “meeting with considerable opposition.” Apparently, Morris, Irish, and other organizers of this all-star event to benefit The Tribune Fresh Air Fund were having difficulty lining up some of the nation’s top players for the event.

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