Alabama Basketball: Hinkle Fieldhouse and NCAA Tournament history

Alabama Basketball: The Crimson Tide playing where ‘Hoosiers’ was filmed is great. So is the story of another time Hinkle Fieldhouse was an NCAA Tournament site.

For Alabama Basketball and the 11 other teams playing NCAA Tournament First Round games in Hinkle Fieldhouse, the history won’t much matter. There are more pressing, immediate goals than reviewing the setting’s NCAA Tournament history.

For the rest of us, whether the 1986 movie Hoosiers stirs you or not, the Hinkle story is an important piece in the evolution of one of sports’ biggest events.

Long before Thad Matta, Todd Lickliter and Brad Stevens brought NCAA Tournament fame to Butler University, the team was coached by Tony Hinkle. On either side of WWII, Hinkle coached Butler’s basketball, football and baseball teams. Coaching basketball was what Hinkle did most. He was Butler’s head coach for 41 years.

His Butler teams played at Butler Fieldhouse, known since 1967 as Hinkle Fieldhouse. The basketball arena was built in 1928. It has been renovated many times since. In the minds of some college basketball fans, including ones who are not Butler fans or live in the state of Indiana, Hinkle is a basketball cathedral; a shrine to the lasting glory, past and present of the game.

Those who have seen Hoosiers saw the building in an earlier iteration; in some ways different and other ways the same as the one Alabama Basketball will play in Saturday afternoon. For the record, Hickory High School in the movie was a tribute to a real, small school, Indiana State Champion, Milan High School. As Hickory did in the movie, Milan won its championship in then Butler Fieldhouse.

There is another story in which the Fieldhouse played a major role. In 1939, when what became March Madness began, the NIT was the more prestigious event. Most teams preferred playing in the NIT. Initially, it was the National Association of Basketball Coaches that created and staged the ‘other’ tournament option in 1939. It had a rough start. The tournament lost $2,531 after having to give away many free tickets to get 5,500 fans to see Oregon beat Ohio State in the final. The NCAA was asked to take over the tournament the next year. Saying yes was the smartest thing the NCAA has ever done.

The Indy Star provides valuable insight to this story.

"… in 1940, basketball was close to its peach basket roots. The sport was two years removed from the elimination of the jump ball between centers after every made field goal."

The NCAA formed a three-man committee to choose the teams for the 1940 NCAA Tournament. Tony Hinkle was one of the three coaches. The eight-team tournament concluded with Indiana University winning over Kansas. The Hoosiers won two games in Butler Fieldhouse before advancing to the final game in Kansas City.

According to Wikipedia, fewer than 37,000 people attended the eight games in the 1940 tournament. The leading scorer, who played in three games, scored 39 points.

How much the game has changed is mind-boggling. Every basketball fan is thankful for the changes. Still, an anchor to the past, through Hinkle Fieldhouse is special.

Alabama Basketball kicks off its return to the Big Dance, Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM CST, Hinkle Fieldhouse. The game will be broadcast by TBS.