March Rewind: Duke's First Final Four

What's March without Duke Tournament basketball? With this year's ACC and NCAA Tournaments cancelled, we'll go back in time to look at the top Blue Devils postseason games from each date in March and early April. Special thanks to SportsReference.com for boxscores and the Duke Library for the newspaper archive.

In 1963, Duke went to the Final Four for the first time in school history, facing No. 3 Loyola of Illinois, who was attempting to make history with four African-American starters. Loyola had already beaten a Mississippi State team who had to defy the governor’s order and sneak out of town, using dummy cars to trick authorities, earlier in the tournament.

Duke arrived in Louisville for the Final Four in a bus draped with a banner reading, “Handle with Care. Precious Cargo Aboard. Next NCAA Champions."

Supposedly, then-North Carolina coach Frank McGuire sent Loyola a gift before the game—assistant coach Dean Smith, who gave the team a full scouting report on Duke. The Blue Devils trailed by 13 at the half, then cut the score to 74-71 late in the second half. Loyola went on a 10-0 run and outscored Duke 20-4 the rest of the way to win by 19, 95-75.

Player of the year Art Heyman led Duke with 29 points on 11-of-30 shooting and 12 rebounds. Heyman would add 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting in the consolation third-place game over Oregon the next day, won by Duke, 85-63. Heyman became one of just 12 players in history to win the Final Four Most Outstanding Player without playing on the title-winning team—joining Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. He’s one of four players to win the honor without his team playing in the championship game, along with Temple’s Hal Lear, Princeton’s Bill Bradley and Utah’s Jerry Chambers.