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NCAA Basketball History
The sport of basketball was devised by James Naismith in 1892. The first recorded game relating a college basketball team took place in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania on April 8, 1893 when a team from Geneva College overpowered the New Brighton YMCA. The first intercollegiate game was played on February 9, 1895 when Minnesota State School of Agriculture defeated Hamline College by a score of 9 to 3. The first intercollegiate game relating the now familiar five-player format occurred in Iowa City, Iowa on January 18, 1896 when the University of Chicago conquered the University of Iowa 15 to 12. Before that time, there were typically seven to nine players on each team.
By the turn of the 20th Century, sufficient amount of colleges were fielding basketball teams that leagues began to form. The NCAA was founded in Chicago in 1906. The first NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship competition was held before 5,500 fans in Evanston, Illinois in 1939. That year, Oregon beat Ohio State 46 to 33 in the final game to win the national championship.
The first college games to be televised was at Madison Square Garden in 1940. Pittsburgh crushed Fordham, 57 to 37, and NYU beat Georgetown, 50 to 27. Since the arrival of television, the popularity of college basketball has exploded. March Madness is time after time one of the most watched events of the year and draws over 700,000 fans.
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