The All-College Basketball Classic was a college basketball event that was played during the winter holidays in Oklahoma City from 1935 to 2016. The final events were held at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The All-College followed a tournament format until 2000, it was replaced by non-conference games featuring the Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys. The All-College Basketball Classic preceded the NCAA, NIT, NAIA, and NBA tournaments.
The All-College Tournament was originally conceived by Henry P. Iba, the coach at Oklahoma A&M, and Bus Ham, sports editor of The Oklahoman. The original purpose of the tournament was to increase interest in high school basketball in Oklahoma, and thereby to improve the quality of the college teams in the state. The first tournament included 16 teams from Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, and was played at Classen High School; Oklahoma A&M won the first title game over Tulsa, 40–17. Two years later the tournament had grown to 32 teams.Volney Meece, "Iba, Ham Saw Good for Preps in All College", The Oklahoman, December 24, 1985. When the publisher of The Oklahoman made known its intention to end its sponsorship, the Oklahoma City All Sports Association was formed in 1957 to take over the tournament.Jim Stafford, "Made in Oklahoma: The Oklahoma City All Sports Association", The Oklahoman, May 31, 2005.
The size, sponsorship, and success of the tournament varied over the years, and it shrank to four teams in 1981.Darrell Morrow, "Basketball Tourney Aids OKC Economy" , The Journal Record, December 18, 1992. ("Originally, it was a 32-team affair and it was played in high schools throughout Oklahoma City, then it was reduced to 16 teams and then it was reduced to eight. It was eight teams when we took over in 1957. In 1981, it became a four-team tournament because of the difficulty with the schools being restricted to playing a limited number of games.") In 1999 it had what one report called "one of its worst fields ever" with three small college programs along with Oklahoma.Berry Tramel, "City hoops tournament to change All-College organizers want to lure big teams", The Oklahoman, September 8, 2000. The last traditionally-formatted tournament was played in 2000, with Oklahoma beating SMU 79–78 in the title game. Beginning in 2001, the event switched to a showcase format, with a pre-determined schedule and no title game.Berry Tramel, "All-College Tournament enters new dimension", The Oklahoman, December 31, 2000. In 2013 the event included women's basketball for the first time, presenting a doubleheader featuring the Oklahoma State men's and women's teams each playing a game against an out-of-state foe.John Helsley, "Oklahoma State basketball: All-College Classic to feature OSU-Louisiana Tech men, OSU-South Florida women", The Oklahoman, August 4, 2013.
Tournament champions
YearWinnerScoreOpponentSource1936–3740–17<ref name="OKST" 193726–22193833–25Texas193937–34Texas Tech194039–38194137–31194237–25194331–27Norman NAS<ref name="OU MG"1944Oklahoma A&M43–34Arkansas1945Oklahoma A&M65–46<ref name="Baylor MG"194642–39Kansas194732–311948Oklahoma A&M39–3619491950Oklahoma A&M54–411951195251–49Idaho195367–561954San Francisco73–57195565–58Oklahoma City195670–691957195875–59195975–59196076–74<ref name="Wichita State Fact Book"196147–45Houston1962Loyola Chicago93–821963Wichita80–47196467–60196599–90196682–81196791–881968LSU94–91196987–75197097–81197183–781972101–89197396–751974Centenary91–80197580–78Centenary1976VMI69–581977San Francisco102–90197863–58Weber State197980–70198094–83Idaho198163–511982Oklahoma State76–641983Oklahoma87–621984Oklahoma84–72Louisiana Tech1985Oklahoma92–69198695–82Oklahoma1987Oklahoma107–56Illinois State1988Oklahoma124–95Texas1989Oklahoma99–781990112–991991Oklahoma78–73199295–76199395–76Tulsa1994Oklahoma76–61Tulsa199576–72Oklahoma1996Tulsa78–75Oklahoma1997Oklahoma79–61Alabama1998Oklahoma83–721999Oklahoma64–512000Oklahoma79–78
References
External links Official website