Found: 1940 NCAA Basketball Final! Indiana vs. Kansas

Wait ... so D_B actually posted a link that was worth a shit? That's bigger news than finding this lost footage.

That light at mid-court almost looks like sunlight coming through a hole in the roof, but I don't think KC's Municipal Auditorium had anything like that.

 

Ahem

 

Mikan didn't come around until later in the 1940s and a lot of what we see today (wider lanes, the shot clock) came about because of him, but I get your point. Hell, the game's changed immensely in just the last 25 years.

 

My favorite part of the video was when one of the players from the team going left to right heaved up a one-armed shot from like 28 feet out for no reason.

 

I don't know if it was an illusion created by the super speed of the film, but it seemed like a lot of shots were just on whims and not really part of designed plays.

 

Yeah. And remember, this wasn't some scrub-a-dub game between Hillbilly High School and Bugtussle Tech, it was the NCAA Championship Game.

Seek out this link the next time some ole gaffer starts to yammer on about "the good old days" when they "played the game the right way."

 

30 posts about film footage from 1940 and no spnited jokes? Talk about the upset of the year.