On March 25, 1947, Holy Cross won the NCAA tournament — and exactly 70 years later, Boston.com invited fans to relive the excitement. With March Madness in full swing, the article looks back at the legendary win over Oklahoma that made Holy Cross the first New England team to earn the coveted title.
At the time, the team — which included basketball legend Bob Cousy ’50 — didn’t even have a home court on campus, playing home games at the Boston Garden instead. That didn’t stop them from going 27-3 that season before beating out the best teams in the country to become, as the Boston Globe called them in 1947, “champions of the land from a red barn atop cold Pachachoag Hill in Worcester.”
Thank you for the article on the 1947 HC NCAA champions. It brought back many memories for this Crusader (’63). I was too young to remember the 47 team but read about them and was a Celtic fan from the day Bob Cousy joined the team in 1950. I attended the Final Four in 2003 in New Orleans with two close friends. In the main lobby of the Super Dome there were individual banners hung for each of the previous NCAA champions. What a thrill for me to see the HC banner. My friend looked at it and said, “HOLY CROSS NCAA champion. How did that ever happen?” Thank you again for this article which brought back some wonderful memories.