March 29, 1945: College Basketball's 1st "Game of the Century"

Cappy Lane, game timekeeper at the old Madison Square Garden,

flanked by Bob Kurland (left) and George Mikan

March 29, 1945, 80 years ago: College basketball has its 1st "Game of the Century." It's a benefit for the Red Cross at Madison Square Garden, between the 2 main claimants for the National Championship. NCAA Tournament Champion Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), coached by Henry Iba, defeats NIT Champion DePaul, coached by Ray Meyer, 52-44. Sadly, there appears to be no surviving footage.

It's also basketball's 1st real "battle of the big men," with Oklahoma State's 7-foot-even Bob Kurland getting the better of DePaul's 6-foot-10 George Mikan. Iba and Kurland would make it back-to-back NCAA titles in 1946.

But while "Foothills" Kurland would only play semipro ball, Mikan would dominate the early NBA, winning 6 league titles in 7 years with the Minneapolis Lakers, from 1948 to 1954.

Both men were among the earliest players elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, Mikan with the 1st class of inductees in 1959, Kurland in 1961. Mikan lived until 2005, Kurland until 2013. Iba was elected to the Hall in 1969, Meyer in 1979 -- both men while still coaching at their respective schools. In fact, the year he was elected, Meyer finally got to the NCAA Final Four for the 1st time since 1941. He finally retired in 1984. Iba lived until 1993, Meyer until 2006.

March 29, 1945 was a big day in New York basketball for another reason, although it wouldn't be known for many years: New York Knicks Hall-of-Famer Walt Frazier was born.

December 23, 1924: Basketball's 1st Big Man Is Born

December 23, 1924, 100 years ago: Robert Albert Kurland is born in St. Louis, and grows up in nearby Jennings, Missouri. He was considered basketball's first great "big man," standing 7 feet tall and weighing 220 pounds, and is the first player noted to have dunked in a collegiate game (if not the first to actually do it).

Bob "Foothills" Kurland led Oklahoma A&M to the National Championship in 1945 and 1946. (The school was renamed Oklahoma State in 1958.) His duels with George Mikan of DePaul, NIT Champions at the time (and thus, to many fans, the real "National Champions") became legend.

He never turned pro, instead working for Phillips Petroleum and playing for their company team, the Phillips 66ers, based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He led the U.S. team to Olympic Gold Medals in 1948 in London, and in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland.

He stayed with Phillips long after his basketball career ending in 1952, rising to become an executive. He was one of the earliest inductees into the Basketball Hall of Fame, in 1961. He died a year ago. 

Kurland died at his home on Sanibel Island in Florida, on September 29, 2013, at age 88. He was survived by his wife of 62 years, Barbara; their 4 children Alex, Ross, Dana, and Barbara; and 7 grandchildren.