National Champion

Most of the members of the Class of 1947 were born in 1925. For my 92nd birthday, I was given a booklet, “1925: Remember When ... A Nostalgic Look Back in Time” and was pleased to note that Princeton was designated “NCAA Basketball Champion” — which, I learned, was the only time Princeton had been awarded that honor. Before notifying PAW of that historically interesting fact, I checked and found that NCAA basketball champions only started to be designated in 1939, so I then checked Princeton’s sports history and learned that the 1925 team had a record of 21–2, which made it the nominal national champion; however, at a later date, the NCAA retroactively designated Princeton as the national NCAA champion in 1925. Princeton’s basketball records since that time have been commendable for an Ivy League team, but only really shone on the national scene in the Bill Bradley ’65 years of 1963–1965.