1936 United States men's Olympic basketball team

none August 2023 1936 United States men's Olympic basketball team Jimmy Needles 1936 Summer Olympics 16px Joe Fortenberry USA (7.3) 33 vs. PHI 1948 The 1936 United States men's Olympic basketball team competed in the Games of the XI Olympiad in Berlin, representing the United States of America, and was coached by Jimmy Needles of the Amateur Athletic Union's (AAU) Universal Pictures team. Gene Johnson of Wichita University assisted Needles, while Joe Reilly served as the team's director. 1936 was the first year that basketball was an official medal sport (it had been a demonstration sport in 1904). The U.S. won the first gold medal, defeating Canada, 19–8, in a gold medal match played outdoors on a clay and sand court in the rain. James Naismith, the game's inventor, watched many of the 1936 Olympic basketball matches, and helped award medals at the end of the basketball competition. Roster Roster for the 1936 Olympics.https://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/games-of-the-xith-olympiad-1936.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20150429183619/http://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/games-of-the-xith-olympiad-1936.aspx dead April 29, 2015 Games of the XIth Olympiad -- 1936 USA Basketballhttps://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/usa-mens-alltime-olympic-numerical-roster.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20180429222706/https://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/usa-mens-alltime-olympic-numerical-roster.aspx dead April 29, 2018 USA Men's All-Time Olympic Jersey Numbers USA Basketball Name Position Height Weight Age Home Town Team/School Sam Balter Guard 5'10" 150 26 Los Angeles, California Universal Pictures (UCLA) Ralph Bishop Forward 6'3" 185 21 Yakima, Washington Washington Joe Fortenberry Center 6'8" 185 25 Happy, Texas McPherson Globe Refiners (West Texas State) Tex Gibbons Guard 6'1" 175 28 Elk City, Oklahoma McPherson Globe Refiners (Southwestern) Francis Johnson Guard 5'11" 175 26 Hartford, Kansas McPherson Globe Refiners (Wichita) Carl Knowles Forward 6'2" 165 26 Los Angeles, California Universal Pictures (UCLA) Frank Lubin Forward 6'7" 225 26 Glendale, California Universal Pictures (UCLA) Art Mollner Guard 6'0" 160 23 Westlake Village, California Universal Pictures (Los Angeles CC) Donald Piper Guard 5'11" 160 25 Peoria, Illinois Universal Pictures (UCLA) Jack Ragland Guard 6'0" 175 30 Tucson, Arizona McPherson Globe Refiners (Wichita) Willard Schmidt Center 6'8" 190 26 Swanton, Nebraska McPherson Globe Refiners (Creighton) Carl Shy Guard 6'0" 170 27 Hollywood, California Universal Pictures (UCLA) Duane Swanson Forward 6'2" 175 22 Waterman, Illinois Universal Pictures (USC) Bill Wheatley Forward 6'2" 175 27 Kipp, Kansas McPherson Globe Refiners (Kansas Wesleyan) Olympic trials As was the custom at the time, the Olympic trials consisted of a tournament between top teams from the AAU, the YMCA and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. One notably absent team from the tournament was the 1935–36 Long Island Blackbirds, who had just completed a 25–0 season behind stars Jules Bender, Ben Kramer and Art Hillhouse. The largely Jewish Blackbirds team boycotted the trials due to the games being held in Berlin amidst rising antisemitism in Germany. LIU president Tristram Walker Metcalfe stated: "Our conviction that the United States should not participate in the Olympic Games since they are being held in Germany has not been altered by the fact that our basketball team is now recognized generally as a possible Olympic representative. Such participation would be indirect, if not direct, contribution of the raising of funds to finance such participation." Weinreb Michael A team that chose principles over gold medals ESPN.com April 20, 2009 https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=weinreb/090414 November 30, 2014 Since basketball first became an Olympic medal sport in 1936, a new and national playoff system was developed for the US basketball team selection. The ruling bodies devised a 10 regional district playoff system for college and university entrants, which later evolved into the March Madness of the NCAA's Final Four. Joining the AAU's two top teams – the Universal Pictures Universals (Hollywood/Los Angeles, California) and the McPherson Globe Refiners team (McPherson, Kansas) – in Madison Square Garden, were the five colleges advancing from the district playoffs:Spalding Official Basketball Guide 1936–37 Bingham J. Lyman American Sports Publishing Company 1936 New York 72–75 University of Arkansas DePaul University Temple University Utah State University University of Washington As winner of the YMCA National, the Wilmerding (PA) YMCA team earned the eighth and last slot. The quarterfinal winners were McPherson outscoring Temple, Universal Pictures over Arkansas, Washington beating DePaul, and the YMCA team besting Utah State. The semifinal games were important because the US Olympic team would be chosen from those two winners. In the opener, the Universal movie men from California beat Wilmerding by 13, 42–29.Netting Out Basketball 1936 Hughes Rich Friesen Press 2011 Victoria, BC 167–189 The Globe Refiners qualified by out-running Washington 48 to 30. In an all-AAU and extremely close final, Universal Pictures prevailed 44–43 over McPherson,McPherson Had No Fire April 6, 1936 New York Times 25Olympic Games Basketball Report in the Report of the American Olympic Committee Games of the XI Olympiad Bingham J. Lyman 1936 168 becoming the U.S. national champions. Olympic tournament Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics As the U.S. team arrived, they were made aware of several FIBA rules that were quite different than what the team was accustomed to in the States. There was no three second rule (which had then just been introduced to U.S. play), teams were limited to rosters of seven total players, and all games were to be played outdoors on a surface which was a mixture of sand and clay and which had been that of a tennis court. Needles successfully protested another stipulation – that players had to be 6'2" or shorter to compete. To get around the seven-player team limit, Needles split the squad into two teams – one featuring the McPherson Globe Refiners players and collegian Ralph Bishop, and one featuring the AAU Universal players – and alternated them for each match.Cunnigham Carson American Hoops: U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball From Berlin to Beijing January 2010 Lincoln, Nebraska University of Nebraska Press 1–28 978-0-8032-2293-9 Kessler, Martin: "Universal Pictures, 'Frankenstein,' And Basketball: The Story Of The First U.S. Olympic Team," February 07, 2020 WBUR-TV, (PBS affiliate), retrieved September 22, 2025"Wichita State’s branch of Olympic hoops history makes a move," Wichita Eagle, retrieved September 22, 2025 Their first match was won in a forfeit, as their scheduled opponent Spain, in the throes of the Spanish Civil War, never showed up. In the second match, the Universal team routed Estonia, by a score of 52–28. A McPherson-led win over the Philippines landed the Americans in the medal round, where they defeated Mexico, to reach the gold medal game. The gold medal game was played after a day of rain, and the weather conditions put a damper on the Canadian national team's trademark fast break playing style. The two teams were only able to manage a combined total of eight points in the second half of play, due to the downpour, and the U.S. won the gold medal with a 19–8 victory. Results USA 2, Spain 0 (forfeit) USA 52, Estonia 28 USA 56, Philippines 23 USA 25, Mexico 10 USA 19, Canada 8 References External links Team profile at USA Basketball official site Category:United States at the Olympic men's basketball tournament United States Olympic