McCoy Tarry took over as his replacement. The new $700,000 Fieldhouse arena debuted for Tiger home games in 1951. John Wallesea was the first Memphis State player to be picked by the NBA in 1952. In 1954, Forest Arnold became the school's first All-American. The Tigers made their first participation in the NCAA tournament in 1955,...
John Wallace was drafted with the third pick of the 1952 NBA draft by the Philadelphia Warriors. He played only one season before moving on to play baseball for a few years before finishing his career back at MSU. He is currently ranked number eight all-time at the school with 136 points scored.
Forest Arnold was drafted with the ninth pick of the 1954 NBA draft by the Indianapolis Olympians. He played two seasons with them before moving on to play baseball for an additional three years before finishing his career at MSU. He is currently ranked number four all-time at the school with 952 points scored.
After graduating from high school in 1957, Arnold went on to play two more seasons of baseball before deciding to finish his athletic career.
Arnold's death in 1975 after playing only three games that season caused controversy among sports writers who felt he should have been given the opportunity to finish out his senior year. A memorial game was held in his honor with MSU defeating UT Martin 88-77 in front of 1,500 fans at Memorial Hall.
West Tennessee State Normal School, the University of Memphis' forerunner, originally fielded a basketball team in 1920. Zach Curlin took over as coach of the squad in 1924. That same year, the school's board of trustees approved a plan to establish a permanent faculty member to oversee men's basketball activities. The position was created with the title of "assistant professor of physical education."
In 1926, the university hired its first full-time basketball coach when Frank Haith began work with the men's team. Haith had no formal training as a coach but had played center for Memphis during its last two seasons in the Southern Conference. He went on to lead the Tigers to undefeated regular seasons in 1930 and 1931 before they were defeated by North Carolina in the conference tournament final.
Haith left Memphis after three seasons to take over as head coach at Miami (now Ohio). He was replaced by Howard Hobson, who had been serving as an assistant under Haith. Hobson stayed at the school for four years before moving on to LSU where he won 335 games over 11 seasons. He is still the all-time winning leader in the Southeastern Conference. After leaving Baton Rouge, Hobson returned home to Memphis where he coached for another five years before getting fired. He later became an assistant at Kentucky under Adolph Rupp.
This draft created a record by drafting five players from the same school in the first round. The players were all from the University of Kentucky: John Wall (first), DeMarcus Cousins (fifth), Patrick Patterson (fourteenth), Eric Bledsoe (eighteenth), and Daniel Orton (twenty-ninth).
The University of Kentucky had five players taken in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft. When he was selected, John Wall signed an endorsement agreement with Reebok. Wall's quickness and athleticism were excellent in his debut season, but he lost the Rookie of the Year title to the highflyer, Blake Griffin.
Wall made his commitment to the University of Kentucky on May 19, 2009, after being recruited by the University of Kentucky, Duke University, Georgia Tech, and the University of Kansas.
Wall hit the game-winning shot in his collegiate debut against Miami University. It aided Kentucky's victory with 5 seconds remaining on the clock. He had 19 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals in the game.
The Bulls of Chicago Jordan's professional basketball career began in 1984, when he was picked by the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls were looking for a star player to replace the one they lost (their all-time leader in points per game) in Bill Russell, so they chose 19-year-old Michael Jordan out of Rutgers University.
In his first season, Jordan helped the Bulls win the championship. He was awarded with five titles during his career, three with the Bulls and two with the Wizards.
After winning the first title together, the Bulls broke up. Although they came back later on, Jordan decided to leave Chicago after three years to join the Washington Wizards. He said that he wanted to play for his hometown team - the Bulls - but the Wizards offered him more money. However, he returned to Chicago after one season, where he ended his career.
During his time in Chicago, Jordan led the Bulls to four more championships, including three consecutive ones from 1992 to 1994. He also created a record by scoring 100 points in a single game three times: 1990, 1991 and 1993. In addition, he is the only player in history to score 30 or more points in all playoff games played.
Collegiate Firsts at Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University was the first known college to field a basketball team against an outside opponent, playing against the local YMCA in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 7, 1893, and winning 9-6. The game was not recorded by any media source and there are no contemporaneous accounts of it. It is possible that another game was played earlier that day between Vanderbilt students, but there is no evidence for this claim.
Vanderbilt's first season was 1892-93, so they could have been the first team, but they also could have been one of many teams that played before them. There were probably other games between colleges before this one, but we will never know because there were no media sources at the time to report on these games.
The first official game reported by a media source was between Princeton and Columbia on December 29, 1896. This game was played before an audience of 3,000 people at New York City's Madison Square Garden and reported by the New York Times. Both schools agreed to play for $5,000 in today's money, with the winner taking home $1,500.
These two teams were the only ones to ever compete in an official game until 1947 when the NBA started holding games.
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