Winston Salem State College - Wins NCAA Basketball Championship 1967
The team was led by Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and coached by the legendary Clarence "Big House" Gaines.
The Rams finished the season with 31-1 overall record with their sole loss of the season coming against High Point. The team went on to score over 100 points 17 times during the season, including a span of nine 100-point games over a 10-game span. In the playoffs, the Rams took wins over #6 Akron (71-56), #2 Kentucky Wesleyan (82-73), and defeated #5 Southwest Missouri (77-74) to take the 1967 NCAA Division II National Championship.
Winston Salem State College, Winston Salem, NC., (WSSC) became the first HBCU to win a NCAA championship in 1967. The team was led by Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and coached by the legendary Clarence "Big House" Gaines.
Photograph source: Winston Salem State University Archives.
.....
The 1967 NCAA College Division basketball tournament involved 36 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA College Division college basketball as a culmination of the 1966–67 NCAA College Division men's basketball season. It was won by Winston-Salem State University and Winston-Salem's Earl Monroe was the Most Outstanding Player.
WSSU player Vernon Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, who would later go on to a stellar pro career with the Baltimore Bullets and New York Knicks, largely led the team to victory and earned honors as NCAA Division Player of the Year and NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors as result.
Hall of Fame winning coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines, who coached the men’s basketball at WSSU for nearly 50 years, also earned top honors as NCAA Division II College Coach of the Year.