The Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League was an
athletic conference
An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...
for men's
college basketball
College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
, beginning with the
1901–02 season and ending with the
1954–55 season. Its membership ranged from four to eight members; all of these teams now compete in the
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
, which began play in
1955–56. The Ivy League's men's basketball league claims the EIBL's history as its own. Through the EIBL, the Ivy League is the oldest basketball conference in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
; the next oldest, the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
, began play in
1905–06.
Former members
;Notes:
Membership timeline
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bar:1 color:CA from:1901 till:1908 text: Columbia
bar:1 color:CA from:1910 till:1918
bar:1 color:CA from:1919 till:end
bar:2 color:red from:1901 till:1908 text: Cornell
bar:2 color:red from:1910 till:1918
bar:2 color:red from:1919 till:end
bar:3 color:PR from:1901 till:1908 text: Princeton
bar:3 color:PR from:1910 till:1918
bar:3 color:PR from:1919 till:1944
bar:3 color:closed from:1944 till:1945
bar:3 color:PR from:1945 till:1955
bar:4 color:YL from:1901 till:1908 text: Yale
bar:4 color:YL from:1910 till:1912
bar:4 color:closed from:1912 till:1913
bar:4 color:YL from:1913 till:1918
bar:4 color:YL from:1919 till:1943
bar:4 color:closed from:1943 till:1946
bar:4 color:YL from:1946 till:end
bar:5 color:HV from:1901 till:1904 text:Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
bar:5 color:closed from:1904 till:1905
bar:5 color:HV from:1905 till:1907
bar:5 color:closed from:1907 till:1908
bar:5 color:closed from:1910 till:1918
bar:5 color:closed from:1919 till:1933
bar:5 color:HV from:1933 till:1943
bar:5 color:closed from:1943 till:1946
bar:5 color:HV from:1946 till:end
bar:6 color:PAR from:1903 till:1908 text:Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
bar:6 color:PAR from:1910 till:1918
bar:6 color:PAR from:1919 till:1929
bar:6 color:PAR from:1929 till:end
bar:7 color:DA from:1911 till:1918 text: Dartmouth
bar:7 color:DA from:1919 till:end
bar:8 color:BR from:1953 till:end text:Brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black.
In the ...
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text:"Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League Membership History"
History
The league was founded in the 1901–02 season by five schools:
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
,
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, and
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. The league adopted the
double round robin format that has since become standard for college basketball conferences, with each team hosting every other team once and in turn being hosted by all of the others once. Yale won the initial
championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this sys ...
with a 5–3 record.
The
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
was admitted to the league for the
1903–04 season, after securing temporary playing facilities. The championships during the first few years were evenly divided between Yale, Columbia, and Penn, with the Bulldogs winning three times, and the other two schools winning twice each.
The league struggled in its first incarnation; there were many disagreements over the
playing rules and
eligibility,
violent play was common, and on several occasions, teams failed to meet their obligation to play a complete league schedule. Harvard had particular difficulties due to limitations placed upon them by the school's faculty, which forced the squad to drop out of the league in
1904–05
Nineteen or 19 may refer to:
* 19 (number)
* One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019
Films
* ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film
* ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film
* '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film
* '' D ...
and
1907–08 (and to stop playing altogether between 1908–1909 and 1919–20). These factors led to the collapse of the league, with no competition being held in
1908–09 or
1909–10.
The league was reorganized in
1910–11 under the leadership of
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...
r
Ralph Morgan, with Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Princeton, and Yale participating.
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
joined the conference in
1911–12; Yale dropped out in
1912–13, but returned the following
year
A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 Synodic day, solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) ...
. The conference remained stable at six teams from 1913–14 until
1932–33 (with a one-year suspension in
1918–19 for
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
). Columbia and Cornell were successful early in this period, with the Lions winning two championships, the Big Red one, and both sharing a fourth (the only time a first-place tie was not broken by a
playoff game).
The late nineteen-teens and early 1920s saw the rise of a great Penn team, winning three straight league championships and defeating the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, champions of the
Western Conference, in a best-of-three
“national championship” series held at the end of the
1919–20 season. This string was interrupted by Princeton, who finished first in 1922 and 1923,
and were themselves
arguably national champions in 1925. The late 1920s and early 1930s were mostly divided between Columbia and Penn.
Harvard finally rejoined the league in
1933–34, bringing membership to seven teams. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale all suspended their participation for varying lengths of time during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, reducing the league to as few as four members in the
1944–45 season; however, all three quickly resumed their places in the league within two years of the war's end. The late 1930s and early 1940s saw the rise of a long-lived dynasty at Dartmouth, which won seven straight championships (still an EIBL/Ivy record) and made two trips to the finals of the new
NCAA national championship tournament.
By contrast, the post-war period produced a high degree of parity, with every team except Harvard winning at least once between
1945–46 and
1953–54.
During these years, the
movement to officially form the Ivy League was gathering momentum, culminating in the 1954 extension of the institutions' formal agreement to govern football competition to include competition in all sports. As part of this process,
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
joined the league for its final two seasons, and it was decided that the EIBL would be absorbed into the Ivy League beginning in 1955–56.
The league came to an exciting conclusion in 1954–55, with Princeton emerging as the final champion from a three-way playoff with Columbia and Penn.
League champions
Total championships
Notes
{{reflist
Ivy League men's basketball
Defunct NCAA Division I conferences
1901 establishments in the United States
1955 disestablishments in the United States
Sports leagues established in 1901
Sports leagues disestablished in 1955