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Professional basketball assumed major league status with the organization of the new Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946 under the guidance of Walter A. Brown, president of the Boston Garden. Brown contended that professional basketball would succeed only if there were sufficient financial support to nurse the league over the early lean years, if the game emphasized skill instead of brawling, and if all players were restricted to contracts with a reserve rule protecting each team from raiding by another club.

06 metres]) led the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships before going on to become one of the greatest centres in professional basketball history. 16 metres]) played at the University of Kansas before turning professional in the late 1950s. He is regarded as the greatest all-around big man ever to play. It remained, however, for Lew Alcindor (who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), also 7 feet 1 inch, to most influence the rules. After his sophomore year (1966–67) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the dunk shot was banned from collegiate basketball, ostensibly because the rules committee felt, again, that the big men had too great an advantage.

Interest in the NCAA tournament paralleled the growth of the game. The first basketball tournament was staged by the Amateur Athletic Union in 1897 and was won by New York City’s 23rd Street YMCA, later to become a traveling professional team known as the New York Wanderers. Although the YMCA was prominently identified with the game in its early years, it did not hold its first national tournament until 1923 (the event took place until 1962). , that later became the NAIA. MARCH MADNESS “March Madness” is an informal term that refers to the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball championship tournaments and the attendant fan interest in—and media coverage of—the events.