BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//entrinsik//Enrole//EN METHOD:PUBLISH X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20240310T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20241103T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20240328T104129Z-8560D040 PRIORITY:5 CLASS:PUBLIC TRANSP:OPAQUE SEQUENCE:0 DTSTAMP:20240328T104129Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20211029T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20211029T143000 RRULE:FREQ=Weekly;COUNT=3;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=FR DESCRIPTION:Event: Holiday College Basketball in Kansas City: History of the Big Eight Christmas Basketball Tournament\n\nBefore the Big 12 Conference, it was the Big Eight. Claiming Wilt Chamberlain as its greatest basketball alumnus, it was considered one of the most renown college basketball conferences in the country. From 1946 through 1978, the conference had its round robin holiday tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri between Christmas and New Year's Day. It was one of the best college basketball tournaments in the country. In the beginning, when only six, then seven, teams were in the conference, other non-conference teams were invited. Former pro basketball players such as JoJo White, Bob Boozer, Clyde Lovellette, Cliff Meely and Garfield Heard played in the tournament. There were also many who were part of this tournament's history that never played professional basketball. What made the tournament exciting is when a team not predicted to finish high in the conference would "catch lightning in a bottle" for that week and win the tournament. The course will explore the history of the tournament and discuss factors which would lead to the tournament's demise in 1978.