Some More Religious History of March Madness
Some More Religious History of March Madness
Christian colleges in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament
Two years ago, when the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts University shocked both Ohio State and Florida to make the Sweet Sixteen, I was inspired to dig into some of the religious history of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. You can still find that 2021 post at The Anxious Bench if you want to read more history, but I thought I’d update things a bit using this year’s field for March Madness.
Yesterday ORU couldn’t upset Duke, whose Blue Devils are making their first tournament appearance without Mike Krzyzewski since 1980. A historically Methodist university, Duke is the most successful example of a basketball school that you might not immediately think of as a religious institution.
Several others are even more distant from their religious origins: Princeton (founded by Presbyterians) and Furman (Baptist) busted brackets on day one of this year’s tournament, while Colgate (Baptist) and Howard (Congregationalist) made quick exits on Thursday; two schools with historical connections to the Disciples of Christ, TCU and Drake, start today.Each quadrant of this year’s bracket includes one or two Catholic universities, all of which get started later today. As usual, most are associated with the Jesuits — including contenders Marquette (#2 East) and Xavier (#3 Midwest) — though the Gaels of Saint Mary’s (La Sallian) and Friars of Providence (Dominican) look to continue their proud basketball traditions as well.
Then two Jesuit schools face match-ups with larger Protestant universities whose coaches are sons of another religious college coach.
• If sixth-seeded Creighton makes it to the second round, the Bluejays will likely face the Baylor Bears, coached by Scott Drew. His father, Homer, earned all but seventeen of his 640 career wins coaching at two small Protestant universities in Indiana: Bethel (Missionary Church) and Valparaiso (Lutheran).
• Also in Denver, Scott’s brother Bryce opens against Gonzaga, the second time he has coached Grand Canyon University into the tournament. If they’re to improve on 2021’s first-round exit, the Antelopes will likely need some of their coach’s magic to advance.
Gonzaga-Grand Canyon is a particularly interesting match-up for those of you interested in the religious history of March Madness.
As I noted in my earlier post, Gonzaga is not only a Catholic university, but its powerhouse basketball team is coached by a Presbyterian pastor’s son, Mark Few. In both 2021 and 2022 the Zags were led by freshmen superstars Few had recruited from Minnehaha Academy, an Evangelical Covenant school in Minneapolis. Both immediately jumped to the NBA: Jalen Suggs and Chet Holmgren.
Grand Canyon is the basketball David to Gonzaga’s Goliath, but it also happens to be the largest Christian university in the country. Originally founded by Southern Baptists in post-WWII Arizona, GCU went through a highly unusual journey to its current status. Sold to a private corporation in 2004, just a few years after breaking with its denomination, Grand Canyon’s enrollment dipped below 1,000 before rebounding thanks to a massive expansion online and then regaining its non-profit status in 2018. For several years it was the only for-profit institution in the NCAA, with its basketball squad (then coached by former NBA star Dan Majerle) joining the Western Athletic Conference in 2013.
At that point, GCU’s on-campus enrollment was similar to Gonzaga’s (around 7,000 total), but it’s now about three times that large — with tens of thousands more taking courses online.That narrative can make Grand Canyon sound like Liberty University, another historically Baptist university that used online revenues to fund an on-campus expansion and move to Division I athletics.
But while Liberty has been known for its connections to Culture War politics, especially under controversial former president Jerry Falwell Jr., Grand Canyon has been much less defiant in presenting its religious identity. When it overtook Liberty for the largest enrollment by a Christian university in 2018, GCU president Brian Mueller insisted that “we are a university, not a church” and emphasized that 30% of its students chose Grand Canyon for reasons unrelated to religion.Still, Grand Canyon’s website encourages prospective students “to find your purpose and shape your own perspective by embracing a distinctive Christian worldview” and “to live out [their vocational] purpose in ways that honor God and serve others.” That includes playing and coaching top-level college basketball. Yesterday Sports & Spectrum profiled Antelopes forward Gabe McGlothan, who was baptized as a high school star and prayed for his team on the flight to Denver, and Bryce Drew, who has described the 1998 buzzer-beater that made March Madness history as God giving him “an awesome platform” from which to share his faith.
If this seems like too brief a mention of Duke on this topic… two years ago I didn’t even mention that school. “No, I’m not forgetting,” I told one reader, “I’d rather write about anything other than Duke basketball.”
The Antelopes lost in the WAC semifinals to New Mexico State, which then won the conference championship game against Abilene Christian — like Oral Roberts, one of the few full members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities to compete in Division I athletics.
The Flames joined the Antelopes in the tournament in 2021, but missed out again this March.