1945 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament

The 1945 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 8th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 16 teams playing in a single-elimination format,[1] instead of the normal 32. It is the only tournament to feature only 16 teams. The NAIA Semifinals featured four new teams for the first time since the inaugural year, 1937. The championship game featured Loyola University (La.) defeating Pepperdine University (Calif.) 49 to 35.

1945 (1945) NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
Teams16
ChampionsLoyola (La.)
(1st title, 1st title game,
1st Fab Four)
Runner-UpPepperdine (Calif.)
(1st title game,
1st Fab Four)
SemifinalistsEastern Kentucky
Southern Illinois
Chuck Taylor MVPFred Lewis
(Eastern Kentucky)

Awards and honors

Many of the records set by the 1945 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:

  • Leading scorer est. 1963
  • Leading rebounder est. 1963
  • Charles Stevenson Hustle Award est. 1958
  • Coach of the Year est. 1954
  • Player of the Year est. 1994[2]

1945 NAIA bracket
First Round Elite Eight NAIA National Semifinals NAIA National Championship
            
- Central College (Mo.) 54
- Eau Claire (Wisc.) 36
- Central College (Mo.) 48*
- Eastern Kentucky 50
- Eastern Kentucky 64
- Simpson (Iowa) 42
- Eastern Kentucky 34
TOP TIER
- Pepperdine 52
- West Texas State 54
- Wichita State(Kan.) 43
- West Texas State 45
- Pepperdine 52
- Pepperdine (Calif.) 77
- Peru State (Neb.) 42
- Pepperdine 35
- Loyola 49
- Central Normal (Ind.) 53
- Catawba (N.C) 39
- Central Normal 43
- Loyola 50
- Loyola (La.) 53
- Phillips (Okla.) 31
- Loyola 37
BOTTOM TIER
- Southern Illinois 35
- Southern Illinois 64
- Washburn (Kan.) 49
- Southern Illinois 61
- Doane 44
- Doane (Neb.) 54
- Eastern Washington State 51
  •  * denotes overtime.

3rd place game

The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.

NAIA Third Place Game
   
- Eastern Kentucky 45
- Southern Illinois 49
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References
  1. "NAIA.org". Archived from the original on 2009-05-05. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  2. NAIA Championship History Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
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