Havana University

Vs.

Long Island University

December 25, 1943

In 1943, the NBA was still a decade away. Professional basketball was struggling to survive in small markets like Fort Wayne, IN and Rochester, NY. These teams were members of the first truly successful league, the National Basketball League (NBL), and were sponsored by corporations, but had little fan base. College basketball was the king and growing in popularity, thanks in part to Edward S. "Ned" Irish. Originally a sportswriter for the New York World Telegram, Irish became known as "The Boy Promoter" by bringing college basketball to Madison Square Garden. On December 29, 1934, 16,188 spectators watched the first intersectional doubleheader when NYU defeated Notre Dame and Westminster College (PA) edged St. John's. From 1942 to 1949, Irish promoted matchups at the Garden that brought in more than 500,000 fans. Irish would go on to create the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the forerunner of the NBA, the Basketball Association of America (BAA). He was the founder to the New York Knicks and president of that organization from 1946 to 1974.

Irish is still known as the “Father of Big-Time Basketball”, but what is lost to historians is his contribution to the international development of the game. It happened in 1943 when Irish staged the first international basketball challenge in American history. College football had played a postseason series of games game in Cuba from 1907 to 1937 (see college football bowl section) now known as the Bacardi Bowl. But, while American teams went to Cuba, no foreign team had come to the USA. That was, until Irish invited the University of Havana to play a three game basketball series against Eastern colleges over the Christmas holidays of 1943.

To that point, Olympic national basketball had been played on foreign soil in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. But to understand how under-developed the game was in 1936, one needs only study the Olympic qualifying process for that year. The first USA Olympic Trials were held in April 1936 in Madison Square Garden in New York. Invited to the trials were the top two teams from the national AAU championship, the winner of the YMCA nationals and five college district champions. The McPherson Globe Refiners (Kan.) and Universal Pictures (Hollywood, Calif.) played in the Trials championship game. This time, Universal edged the AAU champion Refiners 44-43. Selected for the 14-member U.S. Olympic team were seven members of the Universal team, six players from the McPherson Globe Refiners, and one collegian. The USA won the gold medal in Berlin easily with a 19-8 victory over Canada in the gold medal game on a rain-soaked outdoor court. The first opponent for the America team in those Games, Spain, a nation embroiled in a Civil War, never showed up.

Irish had visions of basketball becoming, not just an American obsession, but an international game, as well. In 1943, he proposed an historic matchup of the University of Havana against Long Island University in Madison Square Garden on Christmas night, 1943. This was to be followed by games against Canisius at Buffalo on Dec. 28, 1943 and against Temple in Philadelphia on New Year’s Day, 1944. The national press focused on the game and the fans became intrigued. Although Havana was seen as a considerable underdog, what captured the imagination of the nation was the mustaches that the team members wore. Dubbed as the Caballeros of the Caribbean or the Havana Habaneros, the team arrived in New York on Dec. 27, 1943 to much fanfare and interest.

Cuban basketball was also in the developmental stage in the 1930’ and 1940’s. There was a huge push to heighten sports interest in Cuba and a national sports festival was being held to promote that development. Miguel Mariano Gomez had been schooled at the prestigious New York Military Academy and served as President of Cuba for seven months in 1936. He was the son of former president, José Miguel Gómez. He was inaugurated President of Cuba on May 20, 1936 he served until December when he was impeached and removed from office by a group that included future dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Gomez was an avid sports fan and envisioned Cuba competing with the USA in all youth athletic areas. He was a huge fan of American football and invited Columbia Coach Lou Little to visit him in Cuba. But, more developed than football at the time in Cuba was basketball, and a tournament was planned for the 1937 Sports Festival, along with the Bacardi Bowl between Auburn and Villanova, and Olympic hero Jesse Owens in a match race against a horse. The basketball tournament featured Columbia, Eastern Intercollegiate Conference (precursor to the Ivy League) champions of 1936 with a 12-0 record and the University of Mexico who had finished third at the Olympics in Berlin with a 7-1 record. But, before the festivities commenced, Batista came to power in a coup, which jeopardized the event. Fortunately, Batista was as big a sports fanatic as Gomez had been and events preceded as planned. Columbia’s basketball squad defeated the Havana Athletic Club to win the basketball competition.

Irish built on this and the Cuban tour of 1943 became a reality. The problem for basketball aficionados was the question of whether international competition was ready for such an event. Irish risked the very real possibility of permanently souring the public to international competition if the games turn out to be routs. And this was the expectations of the odds makers who made Long Island University a 17 point favorite in the first game. This is a remarkable figure considering the average high scoring game of that time would see scores in the 50’s. Upon the arrival of the Cubans, the press had this to say:

The Long Island Potatoes should be asked not to pile up the score. That wouldn't do the Good Neighbor policy any good. Bookmakers rated Long Island 17 points the better. It was a shame to take the money. Cuban cagers might have come on the last several years, but not to this extent.

The Long Island University Blackbirds has one of the most powerful programs in the country in 1943. Having won the NIT and national championships in 1939 and 1941, the Birds were in the middle of a 142 game home winning streak at the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy Gymnasium and Madison Square Garden. They were coached by the immortal Clair Bee. Bee, who still has the highest winning percentage in NCAA history (.826), was the author of books and a newspaper columnist and the most respect authority on the game. In 1943, he was on a two year leave from the program serving in the maritime war effort. He was replaced by George Wolfe a player for the professional Philadelphia Sphas. L.I.U. truly was the most respected basketball program in the nation at that time.

Under Wolfe in 1943, LIU was undefeated at 12-0 entering the game against the Cubans at the Garden. Havana University had won 22 of their last 25 games, having won two of three encounters with the respected U. S. naval team from Guantanamo Bay. On paper, the game was a complete mismatch. The Cuban’s tallest player was their six foot two center, Luis Sanjurjo, who was also Pan-American high jump champion. They had seemingly no way to defend against L.I.U.'s 6 ft.7 center, Irving Rothenberg. Plus, the Cubans had never played on an indoor court and certainly not in a building like Madison Square Garden. Havana University was coached by Dr. Livio Morales who, after playing at Havana, had attended-coaching school at Columbia and Northwestern. Prof. M. A. Moenck of the University was considered the Dr. Naismith of Cuba. He was a star at Tulane 25 years before.

The game took place on December 25, 1943. These are the press reports of the day:

Havana Basketball Team Upsets L.I.U.

NEW YORK. Dec. 25- (AP)- A dazzling exhibition of ball handling was given by the University of Havana basketball team making its United States debut tonight by scoring an unexpected 40 to 37 triumph over Long Island University. Brooklyn College earlier had upset Western Kentucky, 36-35, also before 17,043 fans at Madison Square Garden.

Although playing most of the second half without their scoring ace, Federico Lopez, the Cubans found the range after a slow start and rode to victory on the strength of a nine point scoring spree midway in the final period. With Lopez supplying the chief scoring power, the visitors came from a 17 to 9 deficit to hold a 23 to 21 edge at the intermission.

Lopez, charged with his third personal, was taken out after three minutes of play in the final session and entered the game 10 minutes later only to commit his fourth foul within 30 seconds.

Time Magazine, January 3, 1944

Basketball, supposedly a U.S. specialty, showed last week that it had international possibilities. On Christmas Day the University of Havana, first big-time foreign team ever to play on a U.S. court, confounded experts and Long Island University, rated the East's best team, 40-to-37.

The Cubans' ball-handling was about the slickest ever seen in Manhattan's packed and cheering Madison Square Garden. Basketbol shares Cuban sporting fervor with beisbol and boxeo. The season lasts seven months on outdoor, wooden courts. It took Havana's team only ten minutes to get their indoor bearings. From then on split-vision faking and passing kept them always in the lead. The "Caballeros of the Caribbean" go home after two more games: with Canisius at Buffalo early this week, and with Temple at Philadelphia on New Year's Day.

The nation was stunned and mesmerized by the events that transpired at Madison Square Garden. So, what happened? The Cubans acted as if frightened by the surroundings in the early going. Once Long Island scored, however, they settled down and put on a display of ball control that was completely unexpected. Their passing and pattern running was amazing for the time. Lavernia’s passed the ball through his legs to a teammate at one point. They simply out-finessed the Blackbirds and took a stunning upset. The fans at the Garden went wild.

They slipped under the basket and maneuvered the defense into position where they had a 3 to 2 advantage at least 40 times. They couldn't  hit a foul shots, but didn’t need to. They employed a man-for-man defense in its strictest sense. Something that had been considered correct 25 years before. No matter where an L. I. U. player went, he had company, which requires a quick break, blazing speed and remarkable anticipation.

The press clamored for a rationale to all of this. It was theorized that, because basketball was a nine-month sport in Cuba, Havana had an advantage. Also, 11 players on the Havana varsity had been together three seasons. In actuality, Havana didn’t play that well. Besides poor free throw shooting, they had a deplorable field goal efficiency. Had they been hot that evening, the game would have been a rout. Basketball fans throughout the nation were poised to witness the superiority of the Cuban game for the next few nights. But, it was not to be.

One Dec 28, Canisius, prepared for the Cubans by all the press publicity, easily handled Havana behind the defensive performance of center, Matt Mazza. Mazza poured in 16 points and disrupted the Cubans on defense. Taken out of the flow of their passing game, they were defeated, 35-21. On New Years Day in Philadelphia, Temple crushed them at Convention Hall in Philadelphia, 43-22 in front of a crowd of 10,982.

It had not taken the American basketball establishment long to figure out the University of Havana. Their American tour ended with a 1-2 record. But, Irish had lit a fire for international competition that would continue for the rest of the century and into the next. He had brought international basketball to New York and the USA. Long before Vlade Divac, Manu Ginobili or Yao Ming, there was Frederico Lopez. Long before the Argentine national team won the Olympics, the Havana University team won in the Garden and won the hearts of Americans. International basketball was here to stay.

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