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12 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I've advocated for the NIT banner or a banner to include 'National Champions', heck, no one else will toot our horn, we might as well do it ourselves, but seemingly we chose not to

This is a good call.  I never really thought about it.

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35 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I've advocated for the NIT banner or a banner to include 'National Champions', heck, no one else will toot our horn, we might as well do it ourselves, but seemingly we chose not to

The NCAA may take exception given that they are the ones to crown a national champ..While the NIT was considered more prestigious then the NCAA did invite us to their tourney.  Bottom line - if we wanted to have the National Champ title we should have bypassed the NIT but back then who knew it would grow to what it is today.

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50 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

The NCAA may take exception given that they are the ones to crown a national champ..While the NIT was considered more prestigious then the NCAA did invite us to their tourney.  Bottom line - if we wanted to have the National Champ title we should have bypassed the NIT but back then who knew it would grow to what it is today.

microcosm of Billiken fandom... i blame Chris May for that 

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4 hours ago, Cowboy said:

-I've advocated for the NIT banner or a banner to include 'National Champions', heck, no one else will toot our horn, we might as well do it ourselves, but seemingly we chose not to

USF (CA) won the NIT in ‘49, the year after SLU won it. The PA announcer at USF Dons games introduces the team as the Three Time National Champion USF Dons, which includes the ‘49 NIT and the ‘55 and ‘56 NCAA Champs.  USF also lists Three Time National Champions on the electronic board at its War Memorial Gym.

So there would be precedent for SLU to make a similar claim re its NIT Championship.

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, cheeseman said:

The NCAA may take exception given that they are the ones to crown a national champ..While the NIT was considered more prestigious then the NCAA did invite us to their tourney.  Bottom line - if we wanted to have the National Champ title we should have bypassed the NIT but back then who knew it would grow to what it is today.

There is precedent for this, you just leave "NCAA" off the banner. We were National Champions in 1948 and there is nothing anyone can say about it. 

The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, one of college basektball's finest traditions, hang banners that state "National Champions" for the years 1922, 1923, 1958, 1988, and 2008. The final three are "NCAA Championships" but the first two are pre-ncaa and pre-NIT "Helm's Foundation" National Championships. No difference in the banners though. 

If its good enough for Kansas, its good enough for us. 

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21 minutes ago, prebilliken said:

There is precedent for this, you just leave "NCAA" off the banner. We were National Champions in 1948 and there is nothing anyone can say about it. 

The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, one of college basektball's finest traditions, hang banners that state "National Champions" for the years 1922, 1923, 1958, 1988, and 2008. The final three are "NCAA Championships" but the first two are pre-ncaa and pre-NIT "Helm's Foundation" National Championships. No difference in the banners though. 

If its good enough for Kansas, its good enough for us. 

Its from Wikipedia - but noted with sources - "Between 1939 and 1970, when teams could compete in either tournament, only DePaul (1945),[27] Utah (1947),[28], San Francisco (1949)[29] and Holy Cross (1954) [30] claim or celebrate national championships for their teams based solely on an NIT championship,[31][32][33][34] although Long Island recognizes its selection as the 1939 national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation,[35] made in 1943.[36][37] " 

I'm thinking we should work on getting 1948 sandwiched between Utah and San Francisco.

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1 hour ago, prebilliken said:

There is precedent for this, you just leave "NCAA" off the banner. We were National Champions in 1948 and there is nothing anyone can say about it. 

The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, one of college basektball's finest traditions, hang banners that state "National Champions" for the years 1922, 1923, 1958, 1988, and 2008. The final three are "NCAA Championships" but the first two are pre-ncaa and pre-NIT "Helm's Foundation" National Championships. No difference in the banners though. 

If its good enough for Kansas, its good enough for us. 

Fair enough

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1 hour ago, prebilliken said:

There is precedent for this, you just leave "NCAA" off the banner. We were National Champions in 1948 and there is nothing anyone can say about it. 

The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, one of college basektball's finest traditions, hang banners that state "National Champions" for the years 1922, 1923, 1958, 1988, and 2008. The final three are "NCAA Championships" but the first two are pre-ncaa and pre-NIT "Helm's Foundation" National Championships. No difference in the banners though. 

If its good enough for Kansas, its good enough for us. 

This is the SLU athletic department we're talking about. That would make too much sense for them to actually do....

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1 hour ago, prebilliken said:

There is precedent for this, you just leave "NCAA" off the banner. We were National Champions in 1948 and there is nothing anyone can say about it. 

The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, one of college basektball's finest traditions, hang banners that state "National Champions" for the years 1922, 1923, 1958, 1988, and 2008. The final three are "NCAA Championships" but the first two are pre-ncaa and pre-NIT "Helm's Foundation" National Championships. No difference in the banners though. 

If its good enough for Kansas, its good enough for us. 

What year did the "National Championship" flip from the NIT to the NCAA Tournament?

Xavier has a 1958 NIT Champions banner in Cintas Center, and seeing that KU claims the 1958 title made me think of that.

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Found a John Feinstein column - that was in Washington Post - 2 years ago. I'm not sure when - but the NIT and NCAA were on equal ground till 1971, when the NCAA passed a rule giving invited teams no choice but to play in its tournament if invited. Interesting read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/kryzyzewski-knight-coached-at-army-no-ncaa-tournament-teams-have-played-there/2016/01/31/70a5dc50-c7ae-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html?utm_term=.5473caee8c67

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The 1951 point shaving scandal is what did in the NIT.  The NCAA tourney expanded their field twice in the early 50s and by the late 50s the NCAAs while not dominating the NIT was clearly a level above.

I truly believe we don't have the 48 champion because we didn't call it first.  UK did.  SLU played a stronger schedule and beat a stronger field in the NIT.  UK played in some postseason AAU and olympic games and won those, which SLU didn't compete in, which carried them to declaring themselves the national champions.  UK only had #3 Holy Cross and #9 Michigan in the NCAAs.  SLU had to go through #s 4,5,6, and 7.  The following year UK won the NCAA again in another weak field and lost in the NIT.  SLU was #3 in the country and also lost in the NIT.  UK's loss in blamed on gambling.  Again the NIT was fixed from 49-52 and after that more top teams were choosing to play in the NCAA and not go into NY.

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55 minutes ago, milwaukeebill said:

Why there is no 1948 NIT champions banner or 1948 National Champs banner is one of the most confounding things of all time.
 

 

4 minutes ago, Spoon-Balls said:

If someone in AD marketing was competent enough, they could make some sort of video montage for looking back at the history and the tradition of SLU basketball.  Similar to this Blues intro video from 2012:

 

Well if the SLUmors of May being an avid board reader are true. Maybe we’ll see this next year 🤷🏼‍♂️

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8 minutes ago, almaman said:

My father in law one of the last little group of WW2 vets turned 90 Sunday. If he went to see the "48 Bills play he'd of been 9.

Check your math! If he was born in ‘28, he would have been 20. 

WW2 ended in ‘45. You must be a millennial!!!

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My parents saw Easy Ed and the 48 NIT team. Dad (born in '21) was a WW2 veteran and went to SLU for a couple of years in the late 40s. Mom was born in '29 and was dating Dad after the war until they married in '49.  A lot of those dates were basketball games at the old Kiel. I saw a few games as a kid but mostly I remember Dad always had the Bills games on the radio (or once in a while on TV) when I was growing up.  That's why I'm a Billiken fan and longtime season ticket holder. (I have no other connection to SLU.)

Dad and I went to the occasional game and then became season ticket holders from around the Bonner NIT years on. Mom died in '05 and we put Dad in a retirement home until he died in 2009. I was busting him out for Bill's games up until the end of the Kielvistrade years. He was getting too weak to get around by then and said he'd had enough. So he never got to see a game at Chaifetz. But he did see the 1948 'National Champion' Billiken team.

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2 hours ago, milwaukeebill said:

Why there is no 1948 NIT champions banner or 1948 National Champs banner is one of the most confounding things of all time.
 

-there is a 1948 NIT champions banner, not too many realize that we won the largest post season tournament of that season and from my view we should acknowledge the historic accomplishment

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