1955 NCAA Basketball Tournament

The 1955 NCAA Basketball Tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 8, 1955, and ended with the championship game on March 19 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 28 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.

1955 NCAA Basketball Tournament

Teams	24
Finals site	Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri
Champions	San Francisco Dons (1st title, 1st title game, 1st Final Four)
Runner-up	La Salle Explorers (2nd title game, 2nd Final Four)
Semifinalists	Colorado Buffaloes (2nd Final Four) Iowa Hawkeyes (1st Final Four)
Winning coach	Phil Woolpert (1st title)
MOP	Bill Russell (San Francisco)
Attendance	116,983
Top scorer	Bill Russell San Francisco (118 points)
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments «1954 1956»

San Francisco, coached by Phil Woolpert, won the national title with a 77–63 victory in the final game over La Salle, coached by Ken Loeffler. Bill Russell of San Francisco was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Locations

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1955 tournament:

East-1 Region

First Round (March 8)

Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

East-1 Regional (March 11 and 12)

The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

East-2 Region

First Round (March 9)

Memorial Coliseum, Lexington, Kentucky

East-2 Regional (March 11 and 12)

McGaw Memorial Hall, Evanston, Illinois

West-1 Region

First Round (March 8)

Thunderbird Coliseum, El Reno, Oklahoma

West Regional (March 11 and 12)

Ahearn Field House, Manhattan, Kansas

West-2 Region

First Round (March 8)

Cow Palace, San Francisco, California

West-2 Regional (March 11 and 12)

Oregon State Coliseum, Corvallis, Oregon

Final Four

March 18 and 19

Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri

For the third straight year, and sixth overall, the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri was the site of the Final Four. There were four new sites used in the 1955 tournament. For the first time since the 1939 National Championship, the tournament returned to the campus of Northwestern University, with games played at McGaw Memorial Hall, the then-three-year-old home to the Wildcats basketball program. The tournament also returned to the San Francisco area for the first time since 1939, with the first round of the West-2 regional played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, the immediate southern suburb of San Francisco. Both the Cow Palace and McGaw Memorial Hall would host Final Fours within the next five years after this. The tournament also came to the state of Kentucky for the first time, with games at the Memorial Coliseum on the campus of the University of Kentucky. The Wildcats' home court would host the tournament ten times in twenty years before being replaced by Rupp Arena. The fourth new arena was, to date, one of the smallest venues in arguably the smallest town ever to host a tournament game. The Thunderbird Coliseum, located at the Canadian County fairgrounds along U.S. Route 66 in the distant Oklahoma City suburb of El Reno, hosted the West-1 regional first-round game between Bradley and the host school, Oklahoma City University. The Chiefs would host the tournament once more in their history, in 1957 at another high school gymnasium in Oklahoma City. This was the first of three high school gymnasiums in five years to host tournament games.

Teams

Region	Team	Coach	Finished	Final Opponent	Score
East
East	Canisius	Joseph Curran	Regional Runner-up	La Salle	L 99–64
East	Duke	Harold Bradley	First round	Villanova	L 74–73
East	Iowa	Bucky O'Connor	Fourth Place	Colorado	L 75–54
East	Kentucky	Adolph Rupp	Regional Third Place	Penn State	W 84–59
East	La Salle	Ken Loeffler	Runner Up	San Francisco	L 77–63
East	Marquette	Jack Nagle	Regional Runner-up	Iowa	L 86–81
East	Memphis State	Eugene Lambert	First round	Penn State	L 59–55
East	Miami (OH)	Bill Rohr	First round	Marquette	L 90–79
East	Penn State	John Egli	Regional Fourth Place	Kentucky	L 84–59
East	Princeton	Franklin Cappon	Regional Fourth Place	Villanova	L 64–57
East	Villanova	Alex Severance	Regional Third Place	Princeton	W 64–57
East	West Virginia	Fred Schaus	First Round	La Salle	L 95–61
East	Williams	Alex Shaw	First Round	Canisius	L 73–60
West
West	Bradley	Bob Vanatta	Regional Runner-up	Colorado	L 93–81
West	Colorado	Bebe Lee	Third Place	Iowa	W 75–54
West	Idaho State	Steve Belko	First round	Seattle	L 80–63
West	Oklahoma City	Doyle Parrack	First round	Bradley	L 69–65
West	Oregon State	Slats Gill	Regional Runner-up	San Francisco	L 57–56
West	San Francisco	Phil Woolpert	Champion	La Salle	W 77–63
West	Seattle	Al Brightman	Regional Fourth Place	Utah	L 108–85
West	SMU	Doc Hayes	Regional Fourth Place	Tulsa	L 68–67
West	Tulsa	Clarence Iba	Regional Third Place	SMU	W 68–67
West	Utah	Jack Gardner	Regional Third Place	Seattle	W 108–85
West	West Texas State	Gus Miller	First round	San Francisco	L 89–66

Bracket

East-1 Region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
							Princeton	46
							La Salle	73
		La Salle	95
		West Virginia	61
												La Salle	99
												Canisius	64
		Canisisus	73
		Williams	60
							Canisius	73
							Villanova	71
		Villanova	74
		Duke	73

East-2 Region

	First Round					Regional Semifinals					Regional Finals
							Kentucky	71
		Marquette	90				Marquette	79
		Miami (OH)	79									Marquette	81
												Iowa	86
							Iowa	82
		Penn State	59				Penn State	53
		Memphis State	55

West-1 Region

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
							SMU	79
							Bradley	81
		Bradley	69
		Oklahoma City	65
												Bradley	81
												Colorado	93
							Colorado	69
							Tulsa	59

West-2 Region

	First Round					Regional Semifinals					Regional Finals
							Oregon State	83
		Seattle	80				Seattle	71
		Idaho State	63									Oregon State	56
												San Francisco	57
							Utah	59
		San Francisco	89				San Francisco	78
		West Texas State	66

Final Four

	National Semifinal					National Championship
	Iowa		73
	La Salle		76
						La Salle		63
						San Francisco		77
	Colorado		50
	San Francisco		62

National Third Place Game

	National Third Place Game[1]
		Iowa	54
		Colorado	75

Regional Third Place Games

East-1 Regional Third Place       Kentucky 84 Penn St. 59

East-2 Regional Third Place       Villanova 64 Princeton 57

West-1 Regional Third Place       Tulsa 68 SMU 67

West-2 Regional Third Place       Utah 108 Seattle 85

See also

• 1955 National Invitation Tournament
• 1955 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

References

1. "1954 NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket". Retrieved October 14, 2011.