On this date in history (March 25, 1947), 70 years ago today, the Sooners made what at the time was their first appearance in an NCAA Basketball Tournament championship game, facing Holy Cross.
Then head coach Bruce Drake had taken Oklahoma to its first NCAA Final Four eight years earlier, in 1939, in the inaugural season for both Drake and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
In those years, only eight teams qualified to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners won a share of the Big Six Conference title that season with a 7-3 record and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament.