1949 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament


The 1949 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 12th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. The championship game featured Hamline University defeating Regis College 57 to 46. Hamline's championship win would make them the first team to win 2 non-consecutive tournaments. Regis University in their first tournament appearance would finish as the National Runner-Up, but it would be the highest finish Regis would ever see of the 5 tournament appearances. Regis would make it back to the NAIA Semifinals in 1951, only to finish in 4th place.

Awards and honors

Many of the records set by the 1949 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:
The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.