These are some of the changes instituted in the high school rules for 1939-40.

In 1956, the Harvard basketball team scheduled a Christmas holidays tour to play four opponents in the South.

• Quantico Marines
• North Carolina
• Georgia Tech
• Loyola of New Orleans

A guard on that Harvard team, Dick Hurley, recalls:

It was pretty exciting. For us back then, heading south meant Philadelphia.

However, the Crimson athletic department cancelled all the games in early October as a result of regulations in force in two of the states on the scheduled trip.

• The Georgia Board of Regents, controlling body of the state's university system, adopted an athletic policy in December 1955 banning games in Georgia against teams using Negroes or before unsegregated spectators.
• The Louisiana legislature, reacting to federal mandates to integrate its schools and other institutions, banned interracial athletic competition as well. Even a private institution like Loyola was covered by the prohibition, which would be invalidated by a Federal court two years later.

Harvard's AD, Tom Bolles, stated the school's policy.

Acting in its belief that Harvard alone must decide on the eligibility of its students to compete, the Harvard Faculty Committee on Athletics has withdrawn its approval of the trip which had included two games in locations where, under present conditions, this control of eligibility would not be possible.

The Crimson's 1955-6 hoops squad had included one Negro, C Bob Bowman. However, the 1956-7 team was entirely white.

• Still, civil rights debates began on the Cambridge MA campus shortly after school began in the Fall of 1956.
• In early October, the Harvard team was told about the Louisiana and Georgia situations. Philip Haughey, a senior of that team, recalled:

It was presented to us. And our reaction was, "So Bob wouldn't have been able to come?" There was no debate after that. We weren't going. Yes, we were now an all-white team, but if that was their attitude, then no one was going.

• Bowman himself, who was in medical school at the time of the decision and is now retired in California after 40 years as an orthopedic surgeon, praised the '56-7 team.

You have to remember the tenor of those times in America and that these were 19- and 20-year-old college student-athletes. In that context, it becomes more and more ethically courageous. They should be very proud, and I am very proud, that they took a stance that said, "If African-Americans can't play, then none of us will play."

Even though the state of North Carolina didn't have segregation laws like those in Georgia and Louisiana, the Harvard athletics committee decided that the trip wasn't worth making just for two games and cancelled the entire tour.

• Harvard became the third team to cancel games at Loyola that year. The ywo other schools, both with Negroes on their squads, were Marquette and American University.
• Harvard finally played basketball games in New Orleans in 1996 in the Christmas Classic tournament.

Al Attles

Purvis Short

• The team wasn't very good, finishing 24-58.
• Their woeful play got Al Attles fired after 61 games, with Johnny Bach taking over for the final 21 (winning only six of them).
• The OT futility started in the second game of the season, a 102-96 loss to the Bulls in Chicago.
• The only repeat victor in the eight OT games were the Atlanta Hawks who won at home 111-107 January 31 despite 36 points by Purvis Short and again at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum eleven days later 98-96.
• None of the eight games lasted more than one OT.
• The 1952-3 Baltimore Bullets and 2000-01 Los Angeles Clippers share the record of most OT losses in a season with 10. But the 1979-80 Warriors hold the mark for most OT losses in a season without a win.

By contrast, the Detroit Pistons won all eight of their OT contests in2002-3.

• Rick Carlisle's squad posted a 50-32 record, good enough to win the Central Division.
• The first two OT wins came on consecutive games against the Cleveland Cavaliers: 111-106 in Cleveland December 18 and 109-107 at the Palace of Auburn Hills two days later.
• The Pistons' next two OTs also came in consecutive games but with different road opponents: Philadelphia 76ers 103-94 January 8 and 101-99 over New Orleans two nights later.
• Detroit's final added time game went two OTs April 13 before the Memphis Grizzlies fell 110-107.
• Sacramento holds the record for most OT wins in a season with nine in 2000-01. But the Pistons hold the record for most OT wins without a loss.

Another NBA record involving the number eight has stood since November 15, 1952.

• Eight Syracuse Nationals went to the bench with six fouls in an OT game at Baltimore.
• With five Bullets also being ousted, the game likewise set the record for most combined disqualifications.
• An incredible 107 fouls were assessed. The teams made 92 FTs and missed 44 for a total of 136 charity tosses!
• But none of those figures set a record because of a 5 OT game between Syracuse and the Anderson (IN) Packers November 24, 1949.
• Syracuse and Anderson combined for 122 personals and shot 160 FTs.