The year was 1937. Tensions were rising again in Europe. The great depression wore on in America. Australia and New Zealand were presumably still doing their thing down there in the South Pacific, but at least Australia was getting ready to tangle, and not just with crocodiles.
A peacekeeping idea was introduced.
What if, somebody said, we had a postseason basketball tournament? Something to remind men of all of which we are capable? Something to give us hope? Something to bring us together?
It was decided. Six teams. New York City. March. To be held the next spring.
And it was held, and what a roaring success it was. Temple’s dominant victory over Colorado in the title game. Don Shields’s historic performance, carving his name atop the grand list of the greats. A disturbance in the cosmos, making room for the one blog that would bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
But alas.
It was too late.
Four days before the tournament concluded, Hitler annexed Austria.
Soon, the war was on.
The war lasted six long years. Imagine how long it would have been without an NIT pulling us all out of it. Every year since, the NIT has brought us peace. It’s brought us hope. It’s allowed war, sure, but not *world* war. It’s reminded humanity of its grandest ideals.
Now, the NIT is once more under threat, and while it remains to be seen if the world can withstand one NIT cancelation (after all, it went four billion years without an NIT and only had a few world wars in the meantime), there are doubts it could withstand two without delving into total and complete conflict. I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but it well could happen because of the absence of two straight NIT’s.
The stakes have never been higher.
