1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Inside-job theory
However, the Montreal police considered that speculation too broad to be helpful in focusing their investigation, and evidence did not bear it out. While it was possible that the thieves had indeed actively involved someone working on the skylight, it was as possible that they, or others involved with them, had learned of the security flaw through an overheard remark somewhere. An intense investigation of the workers involved with the skylight did not find any evidence they had passed information about it to anyone criminally inclined.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Inside-job theory
It was also seen as possible that the robbers had learned of the skylight flaw by simply reconnoitering their target. Roughly two weeks before the theft, someone reported encountering two men sitting on chairs on the roof, wearing sunglasses and smoking. When questioned by the person who reported the incident, they claimed to be museum employees. But when investigators looked for the chairs on the roof after the theft, they could not be found. Likewise, no fingerprints or other evidence was left on either the ladder or nylon rope.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Inside-job theory
Theories of an inside job were also undermined by the thieves' poorly planned exit. After abandoning their improvised plan to leave by the same skylight when they realized it would take too long to set up a system of pulleys, they instead chose to try to flee in one of the museum's trucks. If they had based that alternative on inside information they had obtained, they would have known how to disable the alarm they set off on the side entrance before opening it. And even if they had not chosen to do so, they would have known it did not sound anywhere else besides the museum—and thus not have abandoned half of what they had stolen to escape on foot.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Selection of works
While the jewellery and figurines seem to have been chosen only because they could be easily carried, the paintings stolen seem to have been a matter of choice. Their small size, in addition to making them easy to carry and conceal, would also facilitate quick sales. The robbers, and any dealer working with them, might, investigators have speculated, have been looking to sell to private collectors who display their paintings in their homes. Indeed, the pairs of small paintings with similar subject matter by the same artist—Brueghel, Corot, Millet and Vincent—would be excellent choices to decorate a room.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Selection of works
Interest in art in recent years had driven up prices, a phenomenon which had been widely reported in both French- and English-language media, and the thieves would have known even if they had no interest in art what collectors were willing to pay large sums for. Some art dealers in the Montreal area refused to discuss their business with police absent a legal order such as a subpoena or warrant.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Selection of works
Around Christmas 1972, a Montreal Gazette columnist reported that, in fact, most of the paintings had been delivered to the homes of wealthy collectors in Mount Royal, with a small portion diverted to the U.S. This led police to interrogate two unnamed individuals, but no new leads developed as a result.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Selection of works
The robbers might not even have had to visit the museum to decide what works to take. Half of those they did keep when they ran away had been in Masterpieces from Montreal, a travelling exhibition that had been to several cities in the U.S. during the year before Expo 67. The Rembrandt had been included in a 1969 exhibit to commemorate the tricentennial of the artist's death, and the following year many of the French paintings had been in another exhibit that the press in that language gave great attention to.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Selection of works
All those works in the special exhibitions would have been depicted in handbooks or catalogues produced in association with them. Only the Brueghels, the Rubens and the Vincent portraits had not been included in those exhibits nor mentioned in any publication save the museum's own catalogue.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Possible early suspects
Early in their investigation, the police began looking into a group of students at the nearby École des beaux-arts de Montréal. Mostly French-speaking, they had often visited the museum but had frequently been asked to leave before its official closing time so that the mostly English-speaking staff could take their tea. This had engendered considerable resentment on the students' part.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Investigation, Possible early suspects
Police kept five of these students under 24-hour surveillance for two weeks. Eventually they decided they could not find any evidence, and dropped that part of the investigation. Alain Lacoursière, an art-theft specialist with the Montreal police who investigated the cold case in later years, by his own account taking it over just before the files were slated to be shredded in 1984, believes the students were not involved. "This crime was organized with a guy in charge who was 35 to 40 years old," well past his student years, he said in 2010.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
In many art thefts the thieves seek ransom payments in return for the stolen works, and this happened twice in the MMFA thefts. Within a week of the robbery museum director David Giles Carter received a phone call from, he believed, one of the thieves. A man with a gravelly voice and an accent Carter described as "European" gave him directions to a phone booth near McGill University, near which one of the stolen pendants was found.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
Soon afterwards, a brown manila Port of Montreal envelope arrived at the museum with snapshots of the stolen paintings. Carter nicknamed the thief "Port of Montreal" as a result, and dialogue was opened up between the museum and the thieves to negotiate a ransom. At first the thieves demanded $500,000, about a quarter of the works' stated value; later they halved that.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
Carter demanded the thieves, or whoever it was negotiating on their behalf, give more proof they had the paintings than snapshots. In response, they told the museum's security director to go to a locker in Montreal Central Station. Inside, he found the Brueghel Landscape with Buildings and Wagon. It is the only one of the stolen paintings that has so far been recovered.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
As a result of these negotiations, approximately a month later the museum's insurance companies and the Montreal police set up a sting operation. An undercover detective posed as an insurance adjustor and agreed to meet the thieves or their representative in an empty field in one of the city's suburbs, where he hoped the thieves would believe he was ready to hand over $5,000 for another one of the paintings. However, when one of the local police cruisers passed by, completely unaware of the plans, the thieves apparently came to realize what was actually going on and never met the undercover officer. The next day they called Carter and complained that they had been set up.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
Lacoursière believes that it was actually the museum and the police who were being set up. The field the robbers had chosen as the meeting site had few nearby houses at the time and could easily have been monitored from some distance away, allowing the robbers to detect even the more subtle police presence necessary to support a sting operation. "It was all a smokescreen", he says. Since the thieves never reopened negotiations afterwards, he believes they never had any intention of returning the paintings at the time and were using the purported ransom negotiations as a diversion while they bought themselves more time to sell or otherwise dispose of the paintings.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
The second attempt took place the following year. A few months after the museum closed for its three-year renovation project in May 1973, a caller to a member of the museum's board said he would share where the paintings were hidden for $10,000. André DeQuoy, one of the adjusters handling the case, was involved in the discussion and made it clear that while the insurance companies would pay for information leading to the discovery of the painting, they would not pay for the paintings themselves. After he agreed to deliver it personally to the source, the board made the money available.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
The caller had instructed DeQuoy, who was being discreetly followed by police, to go to a certain phone booth in downtown Montreal one afternoon. From there the caller sent him to other phone booths elsewhere in the city, such as the Blue Bonnets race track, on St. Laurent Boulevard and at the Henri-Bourassa station on the Montreal Metro. The caller then informed DeQuoy that he had picked up the police tail and DeQuoy was to return to his office and await further instructions while the caller had the unmarked car called off.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
DeQuoy did, and an hour later the caller said the police had been taken care of. Again he was sent out to phone booths, ultimately traveling back and forth across the island of Montreal to 11 of them, until at 4 a.m. the next morning he was told he could leave the envelope at the base of a sign in a vacant lot on St. Martin Boulevard, then return to the Henri-Bourassa phone booth where the caller would contact him again with the location of the paintings.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Ransom negotiations and recovery attempts
While DeQuoy waited for the call, he let the police know where he had been all night. But the caller never called, so the adjustor returned to his office. At 8 a.m. the caller called him there and told him the paintings were in a motel in Laval, north of Montreal. An intensive search of the building, however, produced neither the paintings nor any sign they had ever been there. The $10,000 was not recovered.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
Due to the minimal news coverage, in January 1973 Bill Bantey put together a circular, Attention: Stolen, depicting the stolen paintings and giving information such as their dimensions, in English and French. The idea was to distribute it widely throughout the international art community and familiarize possible buyers with the stolen works, a practice that was not common in art thefts at the time as most museums preferred to keep the news of their victimization to themselves.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
Major auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's would not routinely check for whether art offered for sale through them was on lists of stolen works until 1985. "[We hope that] the works become so catalogued and so well-known that it would be unlikely that any collector or museum buyer could innocently purchase them," Bantey told the Gazette.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
The museum and investigators did not make the ransom negotiations in the year after the thefts public knowledge until ten years later. "For years we thought our chances of recovery were better keeping everything quiet," said one police detective, explaining the decision. "But now our hopes are small. Maybe this will stimulate interest and produce something." But while it did allow police to confirm what they have only described as "certain facts", those have apparently not led to any progress in the case.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
The recovered Brueghel was kept in storage at the museum by Ruth Jackson for ten years until a new frame could be purchased, after which it was returned to the place it had been exhibited prior to the theft. However, it was later determined that it was not by Brueghel but one of his students; Lacoursière believes the thieves may have chosen to return it due to doubts about its authenticity. It nevertheless remains on exhibit.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
A similar fate befell the painting the museum bought with the money it received from its insurers. A group of 20 of them paid out nearly $2 million to settle the claim; they in turn posted a $50,000 reward for the return of the paintings, which under the terms of the insurance policies they legally owned as a result of paying the theft claim. The museum used the money to purchase a Rubens, The Leopards, which the museum promoted as the largest Rubens exhibited in Canada.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
But like the Brueghel, it was later reattributed to the painter's assistants, after a conservationist determined that its red pigments were mixed four decades after Rubens' death, reducing its value and interest to museumgoers. On the 35th anniversary of the robbery, in 2007, the museum thus returned it to storage and has never put it on display again.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
Even the attribution of some of the stolen work has been called into question. When the de Heems were being prepared for their inclusion in Masterpieces from Montreal, a Parisian art historian the museum contacted suggested that they were in fact the work of another Dutch master, Evert Collier. The Rembrandt landscape, while indeed signed and dated by the artist, is one that both he and his students frequently returned to as a subject, and some historians are not entirely confident the painting was his even with the signature. The Gainsborough portrait, too, may in fact be the work of Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough's rival, since its subject, Thomas Fletcher, is shown wearing a Madras regimental uniform, which he only started wearing in 1771, three years before his portrait was painted by Reynolds.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
In 1992, on the 20th anniversary of the theft, a Radio-Canada story reported that the insurance companies now considered the paintings' value to have appreciated to $20 million. They had consequently increased the reward offer to $100,000. On behalf of the Montreal police, Lacoursière, who began investigating art crime in 1994, offered an additional million in 1999. No one has yet come forward to claim these rewards.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments
Lacoursière has had some promising leads over the years that have yielded nothing. He has been told that the paintings, or some of them, are in Italy, and that two Montreal men in the French city of Nice were possible suspects. One heroin addict he interviewed in Vancouver seemed to have inside information about the robbery, but everything he knew had been previously reported in the media; when he was asked about two details that police have withheld since only the actual robbers would know them, he was unable to do so.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments, "Smith"
One lead, however, has not been so easy for Lacoursière to dismiss. In 1998, a dealer he had gotten to know introduced him to a man who has been identified publicly only by the pseudonym "Smith". Smith told the detective he, too, had been a student at the École des beaux-arts at the time of the theft, explaining to him the tension between the students and museum staff.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments, "Smith"
In the course of their initial conversation, Lacoursière quickly came to believe Smith knew a great deal about the robbery, perhaps more than the police did. Although Smith said he had not been one of the five students kept under surveillance afterward, he told the detective that the rope used by the thieves to enter from the skylight was not gray as had been reported at the time, but yellow like the ones used at the school building. However, upon reviewing the original file and talking with one of the original investigators, Lacoursière found that any information on the colour of the rope had been deliberately withheld by police in order to confirm any later confessions or statements by possible suspects. He considered Smith's statements "highly suspicious".


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments, "Smith"
Lacoursière investigated Smith's background, and found that a year after finishing his five-year course at the school, Smith had spent a quarter of a million dollars to buy himself a house and a local woodworking company. Lacoursière could not determine how Smith might have acquired that amount of money at such a relatively young age. He implied in 2010 it might have been from selling the stolen work.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments, "Smith"
According to Lacoursière, Smith even told him that he would at some point in the future tell him something about the robbery. In 2007, during the filming of "L'Colombe d'art" ("The Colombo of Art"), a Radio-Canada special on his career as an art-theft detective, Lacoursière visited Smith and offered him the million-dollar cheque on camera. Smith, however, simply laughed, and invited the camera crew into his house so they could see for themselves that he had none of the stolen paintings.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments, "Smith"
In 2010, Quebec journalist Sylvain Larocque interviewed Smith by telephone. While he again denied any role in the theft himself, he claimed that professors and porters at the Université du Québec à Montréal, which the École des beaux-arts had been merged into in 1969, were behind the robbery. They were possibly, he claimed, the same people behind a robbery at the university a few weeks earlier.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Later developments, "Smith"
The following year Lacoursière received a link to a video in an email from Smith, possibly intended to tease the detective, who by then had retired. It was a Mercedes-Benz advertisement from Hong Kong in which bank robbers steal a briefcase from a bank vault, then escape in a Mercedes. They elude capture but leave the briefcase behind; inside is a long-lost stolen da Vinci painting.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Theories of the paintings' current whereabouts
The robbery is now largely forgotten, except by the insurance companies and police, who continue to search. "Like a death in the family, you have to let it drop," Bantey says. However, in 2009, Paul Lavallée, the museum's director at the time, said it continues to affect the museum, since it might not be able to reclaim the works even if they were recovered. "[W]e would be strapped for funds," he said, even if the insurer offered them to the museum at a discount.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Theories of the paintings' current whereabouts
It is possible the paintings may have been destroyed to prevent them from being used as evidence against those in possession of them. But Lacoursière believes they were likely sold through smaller dealers who may not have known they were stolen, or cared if they did, to collectors who likewise keep them private, especially today, since they cannot sell them. He also notes that criminal organizations have found stolen art useful in other ways.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Theories of the paintings' current whereabouts
During the 1994–2002 Quebec Biker war, he recalls, he learned that one member of the Montreal-area Hells Angels served as a fence for art thieves, selling stolen art to the Italian Mafia at 10 percent of its price, who in turn used the names of dead residents of the affluent suburb of Westmount on faked provenance forms.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Theories of the paintings' current whereabouts
While it is not believed likely that the original robbers were affiliated with organized crime, the ransom attempts may point in that direction. The Port of Montreal envelope in which the snapshots of the stolen art was sent may suggest the involvement of the West End Gang, an Irish-dominated group that is one of Canada's oldest and strongest criminal organizations, which has historically been based in the city's port. Bantey, however, doubts this based on his familiarity with the city's criminal element from his journalism days. "[They] were interested in prostitution and drugs" exclusively at the time, he says, and no one involved would have had the expertise required to pull off the robbery. Nor does he believe the thieves were motivated by separatism or any other political cause, just a desire to enrich themselves.


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Theories of the paintings' current whereabouts
Despite some suggestions the paintings, assuming they still exist, are still in Montreal, or elsewhere in Canada or the U.S. or Europe, the investigators who will discuss this believe the art has been moved to Latin America. Lacoursière notes that many of the West End Gang often spend their winters in, and retire to, Costa Rica. Police there have not responded to requests for assistance from their counterparts in Montreal. Bantey believes the paintings are in South America somewhere. "I've heard several people I respect say that."


1972 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery, Theories of the paintings' current whereabouts
The police files on the robbery remain closed to public inspection as the case is still considered open.


1972 Moroccan constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum was held in Morocco on 1 March 1972. The new constitution replaced that approved by referendum in 1970, and was drawn up after an attempted coup in July 1971 forced King Hassan II to accept the need for a broader government (the previous constitution had limited directly elected seats to only 90 of the 240 in Parliament).


1972 Moroccan constitutional referendum
The constitution was approved by 98.8% of voters with a 93% turnout, and was promulgated on 10 March. Elections were scheduled for May. However, they were then indefinitely postponed, and did not take place until 1977.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt
The 1972 Moroccan coup attempt was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco on 16 August 1972. The attempted coup d'état occurred in Morocco when a rebel faction within the Moroccan military attempted to shoot down an aircraft carrying the Moroccan king, Hassan II. The attempt was orchestrated by General Mohamed Oufkir, a close advisor to King Hassan. He was assisted by Mohamed Amekrane, commander of the Moroccan air force base at Kenitra. On August 16, four Northrop F-5 jets, acting on Oufkir's orders, intercepted Hassan's Boeing 727 as it returned from France. Reportedly, King Hassan grabbed the radio and told the rebel pilots, "Stop firing! The tyrant is dead!" Fooled, the rebel pilots broke off their attack.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt
Hassan's plane, which had been strafed by air force jets, killing eight and injuring 40, landed safely at Rabat's airport.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, Background
The coup occurred a year after another attempted military coup against Hassan II's regime. 250 rebels based in the Ahermoumou cadet training school attacked the king's palace on his 42nd birthday, killing 91 people and injuring 133. Oufkir had gained power after the coup in 1971, moving from the Minister of Interior to Defence. Many had believed he planned the first coup to facilitate this rise.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, Attack
On 16 August 1972, as Hassan was returning to Morocco from a personal visit to France, four air force pilots, flying Northrop F-5 fighter jets, attacked the Boeing 727. The planes shot holes through the fuselage, killing some passengers. One plane broke off, strafing a nearby airfield and killing many on the ground.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, Attack
Allegedly, the rebel pilots broke off their attack on the king's aircraft after the king himself grabbed the radio and told the rebel pilots, "Stop firing! The tyrant is dead!" Believing their mission to have been accomplished, the rebel pilots broke off their attack.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, Attack
Eight passengers on the royal jet were killed and 40 injured, however, the jet was able to land safely at Rabat airport.


1972 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, Aftermath
Kenitra Air Base, where most of the rebellious air force officers were based, was surrounded and hundreds arrested. Oufkir was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds later on 16 August, ostensibly from suicide. Many of his relatives were imprisoned, not being released until 1991, speculated to be because of international criticism for possible human rights abuses. General Amekrane fled to Gibraltar after the coup's failure; he failed to receive asylum and was extradited back to Morocco where he was executed by firing squad.


1972 Mosman state by-election
A by-election was held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Mosman on Saturday, 29 July 1972. It was triggered by the retirement of the former Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party and Minister of the Crown, Pat Morton.


1972 Mosman state by-election
The seat was subsequently won by David Arblaster (Liberal). Despite Mosman being a safe Liberal seat, the Labor Party fielded a candidate. The Liberal primary vote fell 11.1% compared to the previous year's general election. The same four parties contested both.


1972 Mosman state by-election, Background
The seat of Mosman, a traditionally safe Liberal seat, had been held since 1947 by Pat Morton, who became Leader of the Liberal Party in 1955 until being deposed in 1959 by Robert Askin.


1972 Mosman state by-election, Background
As a Minister for Highways and Local Government in the Askin Government from 1965, Morton gained a reputation as being a strong advocate for allowing free enterprise and business to take precedence over planning controls and government regulation. His time as Minister was marked by increasing strains on state infrastructure and his pro-development stance was largely attributed as an attempt to alleviate these problems.


1972 Mosman state by-election, Background
Despite this, Morton and his State Planning Authority were continuously criticised for not being totally accountable to the public, particularly as the pro-business Sydney Commissioners worked side by side with the Planning authority to increase developments in the Sydney CBD to their highest levels ever, embodied by the construction of the MLC Centre, the demolition of the Theatre Royal, Sydney and the Australia Hotel.


1972 Mosman state by-election, Background
Among the most controversial schemes undertaken by his government were also a massive freeway system that was planned to be driven through the hearts of historic inner-city suburbs including Glebe and Newtown and an equally ambitious scheme of 'slum clearance' that would have brought about the wholesale destruction of the historic areas of Woolloomooloo and The Rocks. This eventually culminated in the 1970s Green ban movement led by the secretary of the NSW Builders' Labourers Federation, Jack Mundey, to protect the architectural heritage of Sydney.


1972 Mosman state by-election, Background
At the 1971 election, Askin's majority was reduced by four seats to the Labor Party under Pat Hills. Morton retained his seat, despite his primary vote falling to 62.7% from 73.5% in the 1968 election. Morton remained as member until 16 June 1972, when he retired from parliament. At the time of his departure it had been rumoured that he had been threatening to dismiss Blacktown City Council if they did not stop blocking a $200 million development in Mount Druitt.


1972 Mosman state by-election, Results
The Liberal Party retained the seat, albeit on a significantly reduced margin, due in part to several major party candidates splitting the Liberal vote. The Liberal candidate, David Arblaster, emerged with 51% of the primary vote against Labor candidate and founding member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, Anne Conlon. Neil Mackerras, brother of prominent psephologist Malcolm Mackerras and orchestra conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, stood as the Democratic Labor Party candidate.


1972 Mr. Olympia
The 1972 Mr. Olympia contest was an IFBB professional bodybuilding competition held in October 1972 at the Handelshof in Essen, West Germany. It was the 8th Mr. Olympia competition held.


1972 Murshidabad by-election
In March 15, 1972 a by-election was held in for the Murshidabad seat in the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament of India). The by-election was called after the death of the sitting Member of Parliament Chowdhury Abu Taleb.


1972 Murshidabad by-election
The election was won by Muhammad Khoda Baksh of the Indian National Congress (I).


1972 Mysore Legislative Assembly election
The 1972 Mysore State Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of Mysore (currently Karnataka) to elect 216 members to the Mysore Legislative Assembly.


1972 NAIA Division I football season
The 1972 NAIA Division I football season was the 17th season of college football sponsored by the NAIA and the third season of the league's two-division structure.


1972 NAIA Division I football season
The season was played from August to November 1972 and culminated in the 1972 NAIA Champion Bowl, played on December 9, 1972 in Commerce, Texas.


1972 NAIA Division I football season
East Texas State (now Texas A&M–Commerce) defeated Carson–Newman in the Division I Championship Bowl, 21–18, to win their first NAIA national title.


1972 NAIA Division II football season
The 1972 NAIA Division II football season was the 17th season of college football sponsored by the NAIA and the third season of play of the NAIA's lower division for football.


1972 NAIA Division II football season
The season was played from August to November 1972 and culminated in the 1972 NAIA Division II Football National Championship, played on December 9, 1972 in Joplin, Missouri on the campus of Missouri Southern State College.


1972 NAIA Division II football season
Missouri Southern defeated Northwestern (IA) in the championship game, 21–14, to win their first NAIA national title. As of 2015, this was the earliest championship to feature a team that remains a NAIA member.


1972 NAIA Ice Hockey Championship
The 1972 NAIA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament involved four schools playing in single-elimination bracket to determine the national champion of men's NAIA college ice hockey. The 1972 tournament was the fifth men's ice hockey tournament to be sponsored by the NAIA. The tournament began on March 4, 1972, and ended with the championship game on March 5.


1972 NAIA Ice Hockey Championship
Gustavus Adolphus attended the tournament for the fifth straight year with Lake Superior State making a fourth tournament appearance; both University of Wisconsin–Superior and University of St. Thomas made the tournament for the first time. Lake Superior State reached the championship game for the fourth year in program history. Led my head coach Ron Mason, the Lakers defeated Gustavus Adolphus to win the team's first national championship.


1972 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament
The 1972 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 35th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format.


1972 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament
This year was the first and only tournament since seeding began in 1957 that all 4 top seeded teams made it to the national semi-finals. Seeding was changed in 2016, so each bracket is now seeded 1 thru 8. Kentucky State becomes the second team to win three in a row, joining Tennessee State (1957, 1958, 1959).


1972 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament, 1972 NAIA bracket, 3rd place game
The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine 3rd and 4th places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.


1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 24th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 1st modern-era NASCAR Cup series season. The season began on Sunday January 23 and ended on Sunday November 12. Richard Petty won his second consecutive Winston Cup Championship and fourth overall. Larry Smith was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year.


1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
This season is considered to be the first of NASCAR's "modern era". The number of races was reduced from 48 to 31, all dirt tracks were removed from the schedule, and a minimum race distance of 250 miles (402 km) was established for oval tracks.


1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Race summaries
Petty won the Grand National title over Allison by 128 points.


1972 NBA All-Star Game
The 22nd NBA All-Star Game was played on January 18, 1972, at The Forum.


1972 NBA Finals
The 1972 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round played at the conclusion of the 1971–72 National Basketball Association (NBA) season. The Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks in five games. The Lakers got their first NBA championship since the franchise moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was a rematch of the 1970 NBA Finals that the Knicks had won in a full seven-game series.


1972 NBA Finals
This season's team won a then NBA-record 69 regular season games, including 33 wins in a row -- a record which still stands. The 69 wins would remain a record for the most wins in a season until the 1995–96 Chicago Bulls (who were coached by former Knicks player Phil Jackson) broke it en route to a 72-win season that also resulted in a championship of their own.


1972 NBA Finals
They were led by Wilt Chamberlain, the NBA's top rebounder that season. Guards Gail Goodrich and Jerry West were each among the NBA's top ten scorers that season, spearheading the NBA's top offense at 121 points per game. West also led the NBA in assists. The Lakers as a team led all NBA teams in rebounds and assists that season.


1972 NBA Finals
Los Angeles had swept a solid 57-win Chicago Bulls team in the playoffs' opening round, then defeated the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks (record of 63–19) in six games to win the Western Conference. That historic series had matched Chamberlain against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and West against Oscar Robertson. Having defeated tough Milwaukee, 48-win New York figured to be an easy formality for the Lakers.


1972 NBA Finals
New York was a top defensive team that allowed just 98.2 points per game and made 47% of their shots as a team. They had defeated the 38-win Baltimore Bullets and then upset the 56-win Boston Celtics to win the Eastern Conference final.


1972 NBA Finals
This was the first of 23 consecutive championship series officiated by Jake O'Donnell. In the previous three seasons, O'Donnell could not work the playoffs due to his duties as an American League umpire. He resigned from umpiring after working the 1971 American League Championship Series to become a full-time NBA official, working through the second round of the 1995 playoffs.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 1
[ Willis Reed]] was out with a knee injury, but his replacement, Jerry Lucas, scored 26 points on 13 of 21 shooting to lead the Knicks to the win in the series opener. Lucas, a 6'9" center, was an excellent outside shooter. Chamberlain would not pursue him far from the basket and preferred to position for rebounds instead. The intelligent Lucas exploited this fact. But Lucas was not the only Knick who was red hot. Bill Bradley hit 11 of 12 shots from the field as New York shot 53 percent as a team for the game.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 1
The team took advantage of a nearly perfect first half to jump to a good lead and won easily, 114-92. New York hit 16 of their first 20 shots and led after each quarter. The win was considered a surprising upset. Dave DeBusschere added 19 points and 18 rebounds. Walt Frazier triple-doubled with 14 points, 11 assists and 12 rebounds. The high-scoring Lakers backcourt of Jerry West and Gail Goodrich shot a cold 11 of 37, and no Los Angeles players took up their slack.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 2
Heavily criticized for their Game 1 loss in the home opener, the Lakers looked to avenge themselves on their home court again. But at halftime, the Lakers' lead was just 51-50. Knicks forward DeBusschere, straining in position battles against the gigantic Chamberlain, hurt his side and did not play after the first half. The loss of DeBusschere, a key New York rebounder and defender, would badly hurt the team's chances from this point forward. He had played 43 minutes in Game 1, and the Knicks relied on him heavily. Also playing hurt was New York guard Earl Monroe.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 2
The Lakers' Gail Goodrich took advantage and netted 31 points. The still cold-shooting West simply passed and had 13 assists. Chamberlain took advantage of DeBusschere's absence and pulled down 24 rebounds, controlling the middle at both ends of the court. Lucas had foul trouble and sat much of the third quarter, with New York scoring just 11 points in the period. A New York rally in the fourth quarter could not stop a 105-92 Los Angeles win to even the series.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 2
Both teams used short rotations during the series. Los Angeles played each of its starters 40 minutes or more in Game 2, with Chamberlain playing all 48. New York figured to do the same, but now had to deal with injury issues to DeBusschere and Monroe.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 3
Despite injury issues, New York fans were optimistic as the series now headed to Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks went 5-0 vs. the Bullets and Celtics en route to the Finals. The Knicks had gotten their ' split ' in two games in Los Angeles, and now had a chance to take control of the series. DeBusschere gamely attempted to play in the first half, but simply could not overcome his injury. He missed all six of his field-goal attempts. He was hurting and elected not to play in the second half.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 3
DeBusschere explained: "I didn't feel I was helping the team". Lucas, the star of Game 1, tried to take up DeBusschere's slack. He hit 11 of 21 shots for 23 total points and 14 rebounds in 47 minutes of play. He also added a team-high six assists. Frazier added 25 points himself. Bradley went a cold 5 of 17. The Lakers led 52-47 at the half, and with DeBusschere out, took over the game again in the third quarter.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 3
Chamberlain and Laker forward Happy Hairston collected 20 rebounds apiece, with the Laker giant also adding 26 points on 9 of 10 shooting. West and Goodrich combined for 46 points, and Los Angeles danced out to a 22-point lead and took a 2-1 lead in the series with a 107-96 win. Nineteen thousand five-hundred New York fans watched the contest.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 4
The Knicks felt that Game 4 was a must-win game. DeBusschere vowed to play, lasting 48 minutes and pulling down a team-high 13 rebounds. New York led 56-53 at the half. After an even third quarter, the Lakers rallied in the fourth. West made a clutch basket to give the Lakers the lead with seconds left, but a Frazier tip-in over Chamberlain evened the score. West missed at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime tied 101-101. The Lakers would outscore New York 15-10 in the extra frame to win 116-111 and take a commanding 3-1 series lead back to Los Angeles.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 4
All five Los Angeles starters played at least 45 minutes in Game 4, with Lakers coach Bill Sharman using just seven players total. Chamberlain played all 53 minutes and had 24 rebounds. The Laker starting guards combined for 56 points to again key the team.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 4
In the game New York had two players that played at least 50 minutes. Lucas played all 53 minutes, and had 25 points on 11-22 shooting, with 11 assists and eight rebounds. Frazier had 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in 50 minutes.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 5
The Lakers returned home looking to win their first title in Los Angeles. After playing to a 53-all tie at halftime, The Lakers finally pulled away from the tired Knicks in the second half.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 5
Chamberlain dominated the middle, flirting with what would've been a quadruple-double with 24 points, 29 rebounds, eight blocks and eight assists in 47 minutes. Blocked shots were not an official NBA stat at that time, but ABC announcer Keith Jackson counted them up during the broadcast. West and Goodrich combined for 48 points.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 5
Walt Frazier had 27 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds in 47 minutes for the Knicks.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 5
The Lakers won 114-100 to claim their first NBA Championship in Los Angeles. For the series, Chamberlain averaged 19.4 points and 23.2 rebounds and was named Finals Most Valuable Player.


1972 NBA Finals, Game-by-game summary, Game 5
West had averaged 19.8 points and 8.8 assists, and Goodrich averaged 25.2 points for the series.


1972 NBA Finals, Aftermath
The teams would meet again in the finals the following year, as the Knicks would get their revenge. In a reversal of the 1972 series, the Knicks would win four in a row after losing the opener to win their second NBA title in four years.


1972 NBA draft
The 1972 NBA draft was the 26th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 10 and 15, 1972 before the 1972–73 season. In this draft, 17 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. The first two picks in the draft belonged to the teams that finished last in each conference, with the order determined by a coin flip. The Portland Trail Blazers won the coin flip and were awarded the first overall pick, while the Buffalo Braves were awarded the second pick.


1972 NBA draft
The remaining first-round picks and the subsequent rounds were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. As a result of last year's supplemental hardship draft, the Cincinnati Royals, the Atlanta Hawks, the Golden State Warriors and the Baltimore Bullets forfeited their first round picks, while the Los Angeles Lakers forfeited their fourth round pick. Prior to the start of the season, the Cincinnati Royals relocated and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. The draft consisted of 18 rounds comprising the selection of 198 players.


1972 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was eligible for selection. If a player left college early, he would not be eligible for selection until his college class graduated. Before the draft, eight college underclassmen were declared eligible for selection under the "hardship" rule, a similar case in which Spencer Haywood successfully argued in his court case against the NBA which allowed him to play in the NBA before his college class graduated. These players had applied and gave evidence of financial hardship to the league, which granted them the right to start earning their living by starting their professional careers earlier. This was the first draft where college underclassmen were allowed to enter.


1972 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
LaRue Martin from Loyola University Chicago was selected first overall by the Portland Trail Blazers. Bob McAdoo, a college junior from the University of North Carolina, was selected second by the Buffalo Braves, and went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award in his first season. McAdoo, 10th pick Paul Westphal, and 12th pick Julius Erving have been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Erving was also named to the list of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History announced at the league's 50th anniversary in 1996.


1972 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
McAdoo was a 3-time NBA Scoring champion, and NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1982 and 1985. He won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1975, had two All-NBA Team selections, and was a five-time All-Star. Erving had left college in 1971 to play professionally in the American Basketball Association (ABA) with the Virginia Squires. He joined the NBA in 1976 after both leagues merged, playing 11 seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers. An NBA champion in 1983, he was MVP in 1981, won three ABA Most Valuable Player Awards, was All-ABA five times and All-NBA seven, and an ABA All-Star five times and NBA All-Star eleven.


1972 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
Paul Westphal, the 10th pick, was named All-NBA four times, an All-Star five, and on the 1974 NBA championship Boston Celtics. After retiring as a player, he went on to coach three NBA teams, most recently the Sacramento Kings. The 16th pick, Jim Price, and 34th pick, Don Buse, were also selected to an All-Star Game. Chris Ford, the 17th pick, won the NBA championship in 1981 with the Celtics. After retiring as a player, he went on to coach four NBA teams, including the Celtics. Ralph Simpson, the 11th pick, had left college in 1970 to play professionally in the ABA with Denver Rockets. He was selected to five ABA All-Star Games and four All-ABA Teams before he joined the NBA in 1976.


1972 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
LaRue Martin is considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history. Martin only lasted four seasons in the league with a career scoring average of 5.3. Martin and eight other first-round picks all had insignificant contributions to the league; none of them had career scoring averages above 9 points per game and only one of them lasted more than six seasons in the NBA. Two of the first-round picks, Erving and Simpson, had already played in the ABA before the draft. They stayed there until both leagues merged in 1976 and only Simpson played for the team that he got drafted to.


1972 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
In the tenth round, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Krešimir Ćosić from Brigham Young University with the 144th pick. However, he opted to play another season in college before returning to Yugoslavia in 1973. Ćosić, who was also selected in the fifth round of the 1973 Draft, had a successful career in Europe, winning numerous league and club titles, as well as six gold medals with the Yugoslavian national team. For his achievements, he has been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to the FIBA Hall of Fame.


1972 NBA draft, Other picks
The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one NBA game.


1972 NBA playoffs
The 1972 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1971–72 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals. Wilt Chamberlain was named NBA Finals MVP.


1972 NBA playoffs
The Lakers finished the regular season with the best record in NBA history at 69–13, a mark that was unequalled until the 1996 Bulls finished 72–10. Led by Chamberlain and Jerry West, the Lakers won their first title in Los Angeles; their last title was in 1954 as the Minneapolis Lakers.


1972 NBA playoffs
The Lakers won their first NBA Finals in their last nine appearances without superstar Elgin Baylor, who had played in each of the preceding eight losses. He retired nine games into the season because of ongoing knee problems.


1972 NBA playoffs
The Conference Semifinals series between the Bullets and Knicks would be the last NBA playoff series in which the team with the inferior regular season record held home-court advantage based on division champions holding home-court advantage over a division runner-up through the Conference Finals. Although from 1977–2015, division champions were either automatically seeded higher than non-division champions or guaranteed a minimum seed regardless of record. However, home-court advantage would be based on regular season record, with division champion status being used as a possible tiebreaker to determine seeding.


1972 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Eastern Conference Semifinals, (A1) Boston Celtics vs. (C2) Atlanta Hawks
This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning three of the four meetings while the Hawks were based in St. Louis.


1972 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Eastern Conference Semifinals, (C1) Baltimore Bullets vs. (A2) New York Knicks
This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Knicks winning two of the previous three meetings.


1972 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Western Conference Semifinals, (P1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (M2) Chicago Bulls
This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning both prior meetings.


1972 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Western Conference Semifinals, (M1) Milwaukee Bucks vs. (P2) Golden State Warriors
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bucks winning the first meeting.


1972 NBA playoffs, Conference Finals, Eastern Conference Finals, (A1) Boston Celtics vs. (A2) New York Knicks
This was the eighth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning four of the first seven meetings.


1972 NBA playoffs, Conference Finals, Western Conference Finals, (P1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (M1) Milwaukee Bucks
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bucks winning the first meeting.


1972 NBA playoffs, NBA Finals: (P1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (A2) New York Knicks
This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning two of the first three meetings.


1972 NC State Wolfpack football team
The 1972 NC State Wolfpack football team represented North Carolina State University during the 1972 NCAA University Division football season. The Wolfpack were led by first-year head coach Lou Holtz and played their home games at Carter Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. They competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing in second. NC State was invited to the 1972 Peach Bowl in Atlanta, where they defeated West Virginia.


1972 NCAA College Division Baseball Tournament
The 1972 NCAA College Division Baseball Tournament decided the champion of baseball at the NCAA College Division level for the 1972 season. This was the fifth such tournament for the College Division, having separated from the University Division in 1957. It was also the first held in Springfield, Illinois, having spent the first four years in Springfield, Missouri. The Florida Southern Moccasins won the championship by defeating the Valley State.


1972 NCAA College Division Baseball Tournament, Format
Twenty one teams were selected to participate, divided into four regions. Two regions consisted of six teams, another had five, and the Midwest had four. Each region completed a double-elimination round, with the winners advancing to the finals. The finals, made up of the four regional champions, also competed in a double-elimination format.


1972 NCAA College Division Basketball Tournament
The 1972 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 1971-72 NCAA College Division men's basketball season. It was won by Roanoke College, with Roanoke's Hal Johnston named the Most Outstanding Player.


1972 NCAA College Division football rankings
The 1972 NCAA College Division football rankings are from the United Press International poll of College Division head coaches and from the Associated Press poll of sportswriters and broadcasters. The 1972 NCAA College Division football season was the 15th year UPI published a Coaches Poll and the 13th year for the AP. Both polls started to use the term "College Division" in 1972, but many of the referenced publications continued to use the "Small College" terminology.


1972 NCAA College Division football rankings
1972 was the last year the polls would be used to crown a national "Small College" or "College Division" champion. In 1973, season-ending playoffs were begun to determine a champion for "Division II". The UPI and AP continued publishing "College Division" polls through the 1974 season.


1972 NCAA College Division football season
The 1972 NCAA College Division football season was the 17th and final season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the NCAA College Division level.


1972 NCAA College Division football season, Rankings
College Division teams (also referred to as "small college") were ranked in polls by the AP (a panel of writers) and by UPI (coaches). The national champion(s) for each season were determined by the final poll rankings, published at or near the end of the regular season, before any bowl games were played.


1972 NCAA College Division football season, Rankings, College Division final polls
Both the UPI and AP panels ranked Delaware (10–0) first, followed by Louisiana Tech (11–0), and Cal Poly (8–0–1). Louisiana Tech later defeated Tennessee Tech in the Grantland Rice Bowl, while Cal Poly lost to North Dakota in the Camellia Bowl. Delaware declined an invitation to face UMass (7–2) in the Boardwalk Bowl, and did not play in the postseason.


1972 NCAA College Division football season, Bowl games
The postseason consisted of four bowl games as regional finals, all played on December 10.


1972 NCAA College Division football season, Bowl games, Black college national championship
Grambling defeated North Carolina Central in the inaugural Pelican Bowl to capture the black college football national championship.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship
The 1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament was the second annual NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. This was the last NCAA championship in which the Wingate Memorial Trophy was also presented to the national champion. Prior to NCAA Lacrosse Championships, the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) awarded the Wingate Memorial Trophy to the NCAA annual champion based on regular season records.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
The 1972 NCAA Division I tournament championship game was played at University of Maryland in front of 7,001 fans. As in 1971, teams were first selected from the college lacrosse divisions, and then at-large teams were chosen. Army, Navy, Maryland and Johns Hopkins were selected as "seeded" picks. And Virginia, Cortland, Rutgers and Washington & Lee were picked as the at-large teams.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
The Virginia Cavaliers led by coach Glenn Thiel (future head coach at Penn State) with an 11-4 record, defeated Johns Hopkins 13 to 12. Virginia had USILA player of the year Pete Eldredge, who finished with four goals in the finals scoring the game winner with four minutes left in the fourth quarter.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
Maryland, the pre-tournament favorite and host team, fell in the semifinals to Johns Hopkins, 9-6, before 8,000 fans.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
The victory gave Virginia its first NCAA national title in lacrosse, but it was the school's third overall lacrosse title including USILA titles in 1952 and 1970. The victory also gave Virginia its first official NCAA national title in any sport, as the NCAA only unofficially recognizes Virginia's national championship in boxing from 1938. The Cavaliers had lost to Hopkins, Maryland and Navy during the regular season.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
The Cavaliers survived a late rush by Jack Thomas, who with 12 seconds left in the game appeared to have a clear shot at the net. Bob Scott however had, unknown to the ball players called a timeout, negating what would have been a last-second game-tying attempt.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
This tournament saw the entry in the tournament of two early innovative lacrosse programs, Cortland State and Washington and Lee. Cortland was notable for going 14-2 that season while knocking off defending champion Cornell, Syracuse and Navy, and earning the number 3 seed in the tournament. Cortland was coached by Jack Emmer who later took Washington and Lee to consecutive NCAAs before moving on to be the longtime coach at Army.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
Paced by veterans Jay Connor, Tom Duquette, Pete Eldredge and Chip Barker as well as freshman Richie Werner, Virginia got the winning goal from Eldredge, unassisted with 4:11 left in the contest. Maryland, the pre-tourney favorite, fell in the semifinals to Johns Hopkins 9–6. Connor, the tourney’s leading scorer, set a meet record for assists. Maryland’s John Kaestner broke the single-game assist mark. Virginia and Johns Hopkins combined to shatter all three of the tournament records for shots on goal.


1972 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
In the first round, Jack Emmer's Cortland team edged Navy 10 to 9 in double overtime, led by Paul Wehrum's 3 goals. Cortland scored three goals in the fourth quarter to erase a 9–6 deficit and won the game despite being outshot by Navy 57–28.


1972 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship
The 1972 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship (then named the NCAA College Division Men's Soccer Championship) was the inaugural Division II men's college soccer tournament held by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Since 1959, all schools had competed in a single division. The SIU Edwardsville Cougars won their first NCAA title in any sport by defeating the Oneonta Red Dragons in the championship game, 1-0. The final match was played on December 9, 1972, in Edwardsville, Illinois, at SIUE's Cougar Field, which also hosted the Division I College Cup in 1970 and 1975.


1972 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship, Division change
1972 was the only year that this tournament was known as the "College Division Men's Soccer Championship." In 1973, the NCAA renamed the University Division as Division I and the College Division as Division II.


1972 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship, Division change
Several of the teams in the new Division II that placed a high emphasis on their soccer programs, including both SIUE and Oneonta, moved to Division I after only one season, taking advantage of a then-current NCAA rule that allowed a Division II school to play one sport in Division I and a Division I school to play one sport in Division II. As a result, seven of the twenty-four teams in the 1972 College Division tournament were among the twenty-four teams in the 1973 Division I tournament.


1972 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship, Division change
Although four of the seven teams have since stepped down to a lower division, five other schools in the 1972 tournament have since moved up to Division I. These are: Akron, Cal State Fullerton, Eastern Illinois, Hartford, and Loyola Maryland.


1972 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
The 1972 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were contested March 10−11, 1972 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan at the eighth annual NCAA-sanctioned track meet to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate indoor track and field events in the United States.


1972 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
USC topped the team standings, the Trojans' second indoor team title.


1972 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Qualification
Unlike other NCAA-sponsored sports, there were not separate University Division and College Division championships for indoor track and field until 1985. As such, all athletes and teams from University and College Division programs were eligible to compete.


1972 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The consensus 1972 College Basketball All-American team, as determined by aggregating the results of four major All-American teams. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors from a majority of the following teams: the Associated Press, the USBWA, The United Press International and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.


1972 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
The 1972 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament was the third annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's college volleyball. The tournament was played at Irving Gymnasium at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Like the previous year, the format of this championship consisted of a preliminary, four-team round robin to determine seeding for a subsequent single-elimination tournament.


1972 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
UCLA defeated San Diego State, 3–2 (10–15, 9–15, 15–9, 15–10, 15–7), in the championship match to win their third consecutive national title. UCLA's Dick Irvin was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.


1972 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament, Qualification
Until the creation of the NCAA Men's Division III Volleyball Championship in 2012, there was only a single national championship for men's volleyball. As such, all NCAA men's volleyball programs (whether from the University Division, or the College Division) were eligible. A total of 4 teams were invited to contest this championship.


1972 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The 1972 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship was the fourth annual NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship to determine the national champion of NCAA men's college water polo. Tournament matches were played at the Armond H. Seidler Natatorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico during December 1972.


1972 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
UCLA defeated UC Irvine in the final, 10–5, to win their third, and second consecutive, national title.


1972 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The leading scorer for the tournament was Jim Kruse from UC Irvine (31 goals). The Most Outstanding Player of the tournament was Eric Lindroth from UCLA. Additionally, an All-Tournament Team was named for the first time this year.


1972 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, Qualification
Since there has only ever been one single national championship for water polo, all NCAA men's water polo programs (whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of 8 teams were invited to contest this championship.


1972 NCAA Skiing Championships
The 1972 NCAA Skiing Championships were contested in Winter Park, Colorado at the nineteenth annual NCAA-sanctioned ski tournament to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate alpine, cross country skiing, and ski jumping in the United States.


1972 NCAA Skiing Championships
Host Colorado, coached by alumnus Bill Marolt, captured their third national championship (and first since 1960), finishing 5.2 points ahead of three-time defending champion Denver in the team standings.


1972 NCAA Skiing Championships
Colorado's Mike Porcarelli reclaimed the slalom and alpine titles he won two years earlier; the repeat champions were Otto Tschudi of Denver in downhill and Bruce Cunningham of New Hampshire in Nordic combined. Denver's Odd Hammernes won his second jumping title, three years after the first.


1972 NCAA Skiing Championships
In the downhill race, Utah sophomore David Novelle was killed after he lost a ski, went off the course, and collided with a tree. As a result, the Utah team withdrew from the competition.


1972 NCAA Skiing Championships, Venue
This year's championships were held March 16–18 in Colorado at Winter Park, west of Denver.


1972 NCAA Skiing Championships, Venue
The nineteenth edition, these were the sixth NCAA Championships in Colorado and the third at Winter Park (1956, 1959); the others were at Crested Butte (1966) and Steamboat Springs (1968, 1969).


1972 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament
The 1972 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament was played at the end of the 1972 NCAA University Division baseball season to determine the national champion of college baseball. The tournament concluded with eight teams competing in the College World Series, a double-elimination tournament in its twenty-sixth year. Eight regional districts sent representatives to the College World Series with preliminary rounds within each district serving to determine each representative. These events would later become known as regionals.


1972 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament
Each district had its own format for selecting teams, resulting in 28 teams participating in the tournament at the conclusion of their regular season, and in some cases, after a conference tournament. The twenty-sixth tournament's champion was Southern California, coached by Rod Dedeaux. The Most Outstanding Player was Russ McQueen of the University of Southern California.


1972 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament, Regionals
The opening rounds of the tournament were played across eight district sites across the country, each consisting of between two and six teams. The winners of each District advanced to the College World Series.


1972 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament, College World Series, Tournament Notes
Southern California becomes the first team to win three consecutive College World Series.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
The 1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of NCAA University Division (now Division I) college basketball. It began on Saturday, March 11, and ended with the championship game in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 25. A total of 29 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
Led by longtime head coach John Wooden, the undefeated UCLA Bruins won the national title with an 81–76 victory in the final game over Florida State, coached by Hugh Durham. Sophomore center Bill Walton of UCLA was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player; the first of two consecutive.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
In a historically significant note, the Southwestern Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns made the tournament in their first season of eligibility for postseason play; the next to achieve this feat was North Dakota State in 2009. SW Louisiana also made the tournament in 1973, but due to major infractions that resulted in the basketball program receiving the NCAA death penalty (and very nearly expelled from the NCAA altogether), both appearances have since been vacated and the records expunged.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
This was the last year in which the championship game was played on Saturday; it moved to Monday night in 1973.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1972 tournament:


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
Regional Semifinals, 3rd Place Games, and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
National Semifinals, 3rd Place Game, and Championship (Final Four and Championship)


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
For the second time, the city of Los Angeles and the LA Memorial Sports Arena hosted the Final Four. To date, this is the last Final Four to be held in the city, although the city and region continue to host games to this day. The tournament saw five new venues and three new host cities used for the first time. For the first time, the tournament came to the campus of Iowa State University and the Hilton Coliseum, then in its first year of operation.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
The first games held in the state of Tennessee were held this year at the Stokely Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. For the third time, games were held in the state of Virginia, this time at William & Mary Hall on the campus of the College of William & Mary.


1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
Games were held at the brand-new Marriott Center, then the largest basketball arena in the country, on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, replacing the Smith Fieldhouse. And at Idaho State University in Pocatello, games were held in the two-year-old Minidome, having previously been played at Reed Gym in 1957. To date, this is the last time games were held at either the Hilton Coliseum or at Jadwin Gymnasium on the campus of Princeton University, the only Ivy League gymnasium other than the Palestra used in the tournament.


1972 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships
The 1972 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships were the 34th annual cross country meet to determine the team and individual national champions of men's collegiate cross country running in the United States. Held on November 20, 1972, the meet was hosted by the University of Houston at the Glenbrook Golf Course in Houston, Texas. The distance for this race was 6 miles (9.7 kilometers).


1972 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships
All NCAA University Division members were eligible to qualify for the meet. In total, 25 teams and 241 individual runners contested this championship.


1972 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships
The team national championship was won by the Tennessee Volunteers, their first title. The individual championship was won by Neil Cusack, from East Tennessee State, with a time of 28:23.00.


1972 NCAA University Division Golf Championship
The 1972 NCAA University Division Golf Championship was the 34th annual NCAA-sanctioned golf tournament to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate golf in the United States.


1972 NCAA University Division Golf Championship
The tournament was held at the Cape Coral Golf Club in Cape Coral, Florida.


1972 NCAA University Division Golf Championship
Defending champions Texas won the team championship, the Longhorns' second NCAA title.


1972 NCAA University Division Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 1972 NCAA Men's University Division Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1971–72 NCAA University Division men's ice hockey season, the 25th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 16 and 18, 1972, and concluded with Boston University defeating Cornell 4-0. All games were played at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.


1972 NCAA University Division Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
Four teams qualified for the tournament, two each from the eastern and western regions. The ECAC tournament champion and the two WCHA tournament co-champions received automatic bids into the tournament. An at-large bid was offered to a second eastern team based upon both their ECAC tournament finish as well as their regular season record.


1972 NCAA University Division Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The ECAC champion was seeded as the top eastern team while the WCHA co-champion with the better regular season record was given the top western seed. The second eastern seed was slotted to play the top western seed and vice versa. All games were played at the Boston Garden. All matches were Single-game eliminations with the semifinal winners advancing to the national championship game and the losers playing in a consolation game.


1972 NCAA University Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The 1972 NCAA University Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships were contested June 1−3 at the 50th annual NCAA-sanctioned track meet to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate University Division outdoor track and field events in the United States.


1972 NCAA University Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships
This year's outdoor meet was hosted by the University of Oregon at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR.


1972 NCAA University Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships
UCLA easily finished atop the team standings, capturing their second consecutive, and fourth overall, team national title.


1972 NCAA University Division Soccer Tournament
The 1972 NCAA University Division Men's Soccer Tournament was the fourteenth organized men's college soccer tournament by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to determine the top University Division college soccer team in the United States. The Saint Louis Billikens won their ninth national title by defeating the UCLA Bruins in the championship game, 4–2. The final match was played on December 29, 1972, in Miami, Florida, at the Miami Orange Bowl for the second straight year.


1972 NCAA University Division Soccer Tournament
The NCAA College Division Men's Soccer Championship (now known as Division II) was held for the first time in 1972.


1972 NCAA University Division Swimming and Diving Championships
The 1972 NCAA University Division Swimming and Diving Championships were contested in March 1972 at Crandall Pool at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York at the 49th annual NCAA-sanctioned swim meet to determine the team and individual national champions of University Division men's collegiate swimming and diving in the United States.


1972 NCAA University Division Swimming and Diving Championships
Indiana again topped the team standings, the Hoosiers' fifth consecutive and fifth overall title.


1972 NCAA University Division Tennis Championships
The 1972 NCAA University Division Tennis Championships were the 27th annual tournaments to determine the national champions of NCAA University Division men's singles, doubles, and team collegiate tennis in the United States.


1972 NCAA University Division Tennis Championships
Trinity (TX) captured the team championship, the Tigers' first such title. Trinity finished six points ahead of Stanford in the final team standings (36–30).


1972 NCAA University Division Tennis Championships, Host site
This year's tournaments were contested at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.


1972 NCAA University Division Tennis Championships, Team scoring
Until 1977, the men's team championship was determined by points awarded based on individual performances in the singles and doubles events.


1972 NCAA University Division Wrestling Championships
The 1972 NCAA University Division Wrestling Championships were the 42nd NCAA University Division Wrestling Championships to be held. The University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland hosted the tournament at Cole Field House.


1972 NCAA University Division Wrestling Championships
Iowa State was took home the team championship with 103 points and three individual champions.


1972 NCAA University Division Wrestling Championships
Wade Schalles of Clarion was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler and John Panning of Minnesota received the Gorriaran Award.


1972 NCAA University Division baseball rankings
The following poll makes up the 1971 NCAA University Division baseball rankings. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper published its first human poll of the top 20 teams in college baseball in 1957, and expanded to rank the top 30 teams in 1961.


1972 NCAA University Division baseball rankings, Collegiate Baseball
Currently, only the final poll from the 1972 season is available.


1972 NCAA University Division baseball season
The 1972 NCAA University Division baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began in the spring of 1972. The season progressed through the regular season and concluded with the 1972 College World Series. The College World Series, held for the twenty sixth time in 1972, consisted of one team from each of eight geographical districts and was held in Omaha, Nebraska at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium as a double-elimination tournament. Southern California claimed the championship for the third year in a row, en route to five consecutive titles.


1972 NCAA University Division baseball season, Conference winners
This is a partial list of conference champions from the 1972 season. Each of the eight geographical districts chose, by various methods, the team that would represent them in the NCAA Tournament. 13 teams earned automatic bids by winning their conference championship while 15 teams earned at-large selections.


1972 NCAA University Division baseball season, College World Series
The 1972 season marked the twenty sixth NCAA Baseball Tournament, which culminated with the eight team College World Series. The College World Series was held in Omaha, Nebraska. The eight teams played a double-elimination format, with Southern California claiming their eighth championship, and third in a row, with a 1–0 win over Arizona State in the final.


1972 NCAA University Division football rankings
Two human polls comprised the 1972 NCAA University Division football rankings. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, does not bestow a national championship, instead that title is bestowed by one or more different polling agencies. There are two main weekly polls that begin in the preseason—the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll.


1972 NCAA University Division football rankings, UPI Coaches' poll
The final UPI Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, in early December. USC was a unanimous selection, with all 35 first-place votes.


1972 NCAA University Division football season
The 1972 NCAA University Division football season saw the USC Trojans, coached by John McKay, go undefeated and win the national championship as the unanimous choice of the 50 AP panelists. Eighth-ranked in the preseason, the Trojans were narrowly voted No. 1 in the first AP poll, and stayed out front for the rest of the year.


1972 NCAA University Division football season
Prior to the 1972 season, two programs were elevated to the University Division. The new programs were Long Beach State and Tampa. The change brought the total number of programs in the University Division to 121.


1972 NCAA University Division football season
During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for the major college football teams in the University Division, which became Division I in 1973 (and Division I-A in 1978). The NCAA Football Guide, however, did note an "unofficial national champion" based on the top ranked teams in the "wire service" (AP and UPI) polls. The "writers' poll" by Associated Press (AP) was the most popular, followed by the "coaches' poll" by United Press International) (UPI).


1972 NCAA University Division football season
Through the 1973 season, the UPI issued its final poll in early December before the bowls, but since 1968 (and 1965) the AP Trophy was withheld until the postseason was completed. The AP poll in 1972 consisted of the votes of fifty sportswriters, though not all of them voted in every poll. Those who cast votes would give their opinion of the ten best teams. Under a point system of twenty points for first place, nineteen for second, etc., the "overall" ranking was determined.


1972 NCAA University Division football season
This season was historically significant because it was the first in which freshmen were eligible to play varsity football in the University Division. The NCAA had historically prohibited freshmen from varsity competition, except during the United States involvement in World War II and the Korean War. In 1968, the NCAA allowed freshman eligibility in the University Division in all sports, except football and basketball, and extended the rule to those sports effective with the 1972–73 academic year.


1972 NCAA University Division football season, Conference and program changes, NCAA structure
This was the last season for the "University" and "College" divisions. For the 1973 season, the NCAA created the three-division structure that exists today with teams and conferences designated accordingly:


1972 NCAA University Division football season, Conference and program changes, NCAA structure
Five years later in 1978, Division I was subdivided (for football only) into I-A and I-AA. In 2006, these were renamed Division I FBS and FCS, respectively. Many of the teams and conferences now in FCS (Big Sky, Ohio Valley, SWAC, Yankee) were initially in Division II and moved up to I-AA.


1972 NCAA University Division football season, November
In 1972, only the Rose Bowl (Big Ten vs. Pac-8) and Cotton Bowl (SWC winner) had rigid conference tie-ins. Thus, Big 8 champion Oklahoma passed up an Orange Bowl invitation to play in the Sugar Bowl, while SEC champion Alabama passed the Sugar to meet Texas in the Cotton. For the first time, the Sugar Bowl was played at night on New Year's Eve, rather than New Year's Day afternoon. With two consecutive victories in the Orange Bowl, No. 9 Nebraska was invited to a third against No. 12 Notre Dame.


1972 NCAA University Division football season, Bowl games, Major bowls
The final AP poll in January was: 1. USC (12–0), 2. Oklahoma (11–1), 3. Texas (10–1), 4. Nebraska (9–2–1),  5. Auburn (10–1)


1972 NCAA University Division football season, Heisman Trophy
The Big Eight Conference dominated the Heisman race in 1972,as the top three were from Nebraska & Oklahoma:


1972 NFL Draft
The 1972 NFL draft was held February 1–2, 1972, at the Essex House in New York City, New York.


1972 NFL Draft
During round 17, after Falcons coach Norm Van Brocklin yelled to his staff "Do we want the roughest, toughest s.o.b. in the draft?! ", the team drafted the then-64-year-old actor John Wayne, "of Fort Apache State" (Wayne actually played football at USC); NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle disallowed the selection, however.


1972 NFL season
The 1972 NFL season was the 53rd regular season of the National Football League. The Miami Dolphins became the first (and to date the only) NFL team to finish a championship season undefeated and untied when they beat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII. The Dolphins not only led the NFL in points scored, while their defense led the league in fewest points allowed, the roster would also featured two running backs to gain 1,000 rushing yards in the same season.


1972 NFL season, Colts and Rams exchange owners
On July 13, Robert Irsay and Willard Keland bought the Los Angeles Rams  from the estate of Dan Reeves and transferred ownership to Carroll Rosenbloom, in exchange for ownership of the Baltimore Colts.


1972 NFL season, Draft
The 1972 NFL Draft was held from February 1 to 2, 1972 at New York City’s Essex House. With the first pick, the Buffalo Bills selected defensive end Walt Patulski from the University of Notre Dame.


1972 NFL season, New officials
Referee Jack Vest, the referee for Super Bowl II, the 1969 AFL championship game and 1971 AFC championship game, was killed in a June motorcycle accident. Chuck Heberling was promoted from line judge to fill the vacancy and kept Vest's crew intact. Heberling's line judge vacancy was filled by Red Cashion, who was promoted to referee in 1976 and worked in the league through 1996, earning assignment to Super Bowl XX and Super Bowl XXX.


1972 NFL season, Division races
From 1970 through 2002, there were three divisions (East, Central and West) in each conference. The winners of each division, and a fourth "wild card" team based on the best non-division winner, qualified for the playoffs. The tiebreaker rules were changed to start with head-to-head competition, followed by division records, common opponents records, and conference play.


1972 NHL Amateur Draft
The 1972 NHL Amateur Draft was the 10th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec.


1972 NHL Amateur Draft, Selections by round
Below are listed the selections in the 1972 NHL amateur draft. The expansion Islanders won the first pick by a coin toss between themselves and the Flames.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft
The 1972 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 6, 1972. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's two then-new expansion teams for the 1972–73 season, the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Flames.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules
Each expansion team was to select twenty-one players from the established clubs, three players from each of the fourteen existing teams: two goaltenders and nineteen skaters. Thus, a total of 42 players were selected.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules
The existing teams could protect two goalies and fifteen skaters. First-year pros were exempt. The existing teams could lose only a maximum of three players, including a maximum of one goaltender. The Seals, Canadiens, Flyers and Blues could exempt themselves from losing a goaltender because they had each lost a goalie in the 1970 Expansion Draft; however, the Canadiens and Blues chose to expose a goalie.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules
In the first two rounds, goaltenders were selected; skaters were selected in rounds three through twenty-one. After each of the first, third and subsequent rounds in which any of the established teams lost a player, the team in question moved one unprotected player to their protected list.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules
The draft order was to be determined by two coin tosses: one for the expansion draft and the other for the amateur draft. The two general managers, Cliff Fletcher for the Flames and Bill Torrey for the Islanders, agreed to have a single coin toss for first overall in the amateur draft. The winner would pick first in the amateur draft and the first choice of skaters in the expansion draft. The loser would have the first choice of goaltenders and the first choice in the inter-league draft (drafting minor-league professionals). The Islanders won the toss to select first in the amateur draft leaving the Flames to pick first in the expansion draft.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Boston: goaltenders - Gerry Cheevers and Eddie Johnston; skaters - Don Awrey, Garnet Bailey, Johnny Bucyk, Wayne Cashman, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Don Marcotte, Fred O'Donnell, Ron Plumb, Bobby Orr, Derek Sanderson, Dallas Smith, Fred Stanfield, Carol Vadnais and Mike Walton.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Buffalo: goaltenders - Roger Crozier and Dave Dryden; skaters - Steve Atkinson, Mike Byers, Butch Deadmarsh, Al Hamilton, Tim Horton, Jim Lorentz, Don Luce, Ray McKay, Gerry Meehan, Gilbert Perreault, Tracy Pratt, Rene Robert, Paul Terbenche, Jim Watson and Randy Wyrozub.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
California goaltenders - exempt; skaters - Ivan Boldirev, Gary Croteau, Stan Gilbertson, Joey Johnston, Pete Laframboise, Reggie Leach, Bert Marshall, Walt McKechnie, Gerry Pinder, Dick Redmond, Bobby Sheehan, Paul Shmyr, Rick Smith, Bob Stewart and Tom Webster.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Chicago: goaltenders - Tony Esposito and Gary Smith; skaters - Christian Bordeleau, J. P. Bordeleau, Bobby Hull, Dennis Hull, Doug Jarrett, Jerry Korab, Cliff Koroll, Darryl Maggs, Keith Magnuson, Chico Maki, Pit Martin, Stan Mikita, Jim Pappin, Pat Stapleton and Bill White.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Detroit: goaltenders - Andy Brown and Al Smith; skaters - Red Berenson, Gary Bergman, Arnie Brown, Guy Charron, Bill Collins, Alex Delvecchio, Gary Doak, Tim Ecclestone, Tom Gilmore, Larry Johnston, Al Karlander, Serge Lajeunesse, Nick Libett, Mickey Redmond and Ron Stackhouse.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Los Angeles: goaltenders - Gary Edwards and Rogie Vachon; skaters - Ralph Backstrom, Doug Barrie, Serge Bernier, Bob Berry, Larry Brown, Mike Corrigan, Paul Curtis, Butch Goring, Jim Johnson, Real Lemieux, Bill Lesuk, Barry Long, Gilles Marotte, Doug Volmar and Juha Widing.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Minnesota: goaltenders - Cesare Maniago and Gump Worsley; skaters - Fred Barrett, Jude Drouin, Barry Gibbs, Bill Goldsworthy, Danny Grant, Ted Harris, Buster Harvey, Dennis Hextall, Doug Mohns, Lou Nanne, Bob Nevin, Dennis O'Brien, Murray Oliver, J. P. Parise and Tom Reid.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Montreal: goaltenders - Ken Dryden and Michel Plasse; skaters - Pierre Bouchard, Yvan Cournoyer, Terry Harper, Rejean Houle, Jacques Laperriere, Guy Lapointe, Claude Larose, Jacques Lemaire, Frank Mahovlich, Pete Mahovlich, Henri Richard, Jim Roberts, Serge Savard, Marc Tardif and J. C. Tremblay.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
NY Rangers: goaltenders - Eddie Giacomin and Gilles Villemure; skaters - Ab DeMarco, Jim Dorey, Bill Fairbairn, Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield, Ted Irvine, Bruce MacGregor, Jim Neilson, Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, Dale Rolfe, Bobby Rousseau, Rod Seiling, Pete Stemkowski and Walt Tkaczuk.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Philadelphia: goaltenders - exempt; skaters - Barry Ashbee, Willie Brossart, Bobby Clarke, Bill Clement, Gary Dornhoefer, Rick Foley, Bob Kelly, Ross Lonsberry, Rick MacLeish, Simon Nolet, Jean Potvin, Don Saleski, Dave Schultz, Ed Van Impe and Joe Watson.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Pittsburgh: goaltenders - Cam Newton and Jim Rutherford; skaters - Syl Apps Jr, Larry Bignell, Dave Burrows, Steve Cardwell, Darryl Edestrand, Nick Harbaruk, Bryan Hextall Jr, Sheldon Kannegiesser, Rick Kessell, Al McDonough, Greg Polis, Jean Pronovost, Duane Rupp, Ron Schock and Bryan Watson.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
St. Louis: goaltenders - Jacques Caron and Peter McDuffe; skaters - Curt Bennett, Andre Dupont, Jack Egers, Chris Evans, Fran Huck, Mike Murphy, Danny O'Shea, Kevin O'Shea, Barclay Plager, Bob Plager, Phil Roberto, Gary Sabourin, Frank St. Marseille, Floyd Thomson and Garry Unger.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Toronto: goaltenders - Bernie Parent and Jacques Plante; skaters - Bobby Baun, Ron Ellis, Brian Glennie, Jim Harrison, Paul Henderson, Pierre Jarry, Dave Keon, Rick Ley, Jim McKenny, Garry Monahan, Mike Pelyk, Larry Pleau, Darryl Sittler, Errol Thompson and Norm Ullman.


1972 NHL Expansion Draft, Rules, Protected lists
Vancouver: goaltenders - George Gardner and Dunc Wilson; skaters - Dave Balon, Gregg Boddy, Andre Boudrias, Dave Dunn, Jim Hargreaves, Dennis Kearns, Orland Kurtenbach, Wayne Maki, Gerry O'Flaherty, Rosie Paiement, Poul Popiel, Bobby Schmautz, Dale Tallon, Don Tannahill and Barry Wilkins.


1972 NSWRFL season
The 1972 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 65th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundation clubs and another six from across Sydney, competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final match between the Manly-Warringah and Eastern Suburbs clubs.


1972 NSWRFL season, Season summary
The 1972 season's Rothmans Medal winner was Western Suburbs' halfback Tommy Raudonikis. Rugby League Week awarded their player of the year award to Eastern Suburbs' five-eighth John Ballesty.


1972 NSWRFL season, Season summary
This season, for the first time since 1966, Souths would fail to reach the grand final, and for the first time since 1948 the Grand Final did not feature either Souths or St George.


1972 NSWRFL season, Season summary
Following the grand final, several players travelled to France to represent Australia in the 1972 Rugby League World Cup.


1972 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
6th seasonGround: Endeavour FieldCoach: Tommy BishopCaptain: Cliff Watson / Ken Maddison


1972 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
65th seasonGround: Lidcombe Oval, Pratten ParkCoach: Don ParishCaptain: Tom Raudonikis


1972 NSWRFL season, Regular season
Bold – Home gameX – ByeOpponent for round listed above margin


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
After twenty-five years in the competition and five Grand Final losses, Manly finally broke through to win the club's first NSWRFL premiership.


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
In a controversial match, the Sea-Eagles downed the Eastern Suburbs Roosters 19 to 14, thus shedding their 'bridesmaids' tag. The Roosters were highly critical of referee Keith Page after the match, claiming both of Manly's tries shouldn't have been awarded. To add to their rage, Easts crossed for two tries that were disallowed.


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
A dour first half saw the teams go to the break tied 4–4, before a try by hooker Fred Jones put Manly ahead. Jones appeared to drop the ball as he attempted to ground it, but was awarded a try nonetheless. For his part Jones contends that he did place the ball with downward pressure. Midway through the second half, controversy flared again when Manly centre Ray Branighan appeared to stop over the Eastern Suburbs try line after accepting what looked like a forward pass from prop Bill Hamilton.


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
However, referee Page allowed it and the Manly fans began celebrating, knowing that at 19–4 their first premiership victory was assured. Although Easts fought back with two late tries to John Ballesty and Bill Mullins and brought the score to 19–14, time ran out for the Roosters and Manly had won their first ever premiership in first grade.


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
In the end, it was Manly's part-time goal kicker Ray Branighan who proved the difference, kicking six goals from eight attempts.


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
Manly-Warringah 19 (Tries: Fred Jones, Ray Branighan. Goals: Ray Branighan 6. Field Goal: Bob Fulton)


1972 NSWRFL season, Grand final
Eastern Suburbs 14 (Tries: John Ballesty, Bill Mullins. Goals: Allan McKean 4)


1972 National Challenge Cup
The 1972 National Challenge Cup was the 59th edition of the United States Soccer Football Association's annual open soccer championship. Teams from the North American Soccer League declined to participate. Elizabeth S.C. defeated the San Pedro Yugoslavs in the final game.


1972 National Invitation Tournament
The 1972 National Invitation Tournament was the 1972 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition.


1972 National Invitation Tournament, Selected teams
Below is a list of the 16 teams selected for the tournament.


1972 National League Championship Series
The 1972 National League Championship Series was played between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates from October 7 to 11. It was the fourth NLCS. Cincinnati won the series three games to two to advance to the World Series against the Oakland Athletics. The Reds became the first team in major league history to advance to the World Series without the best record in their respective league, made possible by the Junior and Senior Circuits each splitting into two divisions in 1969. In the previous three post seasons, the team with the best record in each league advanced to the World Series.


1972 National League Championship Series
The 1972 NLCS ended with a dramatic ninth inning rally in the fifth and deciding game. The series was also notable as the last on-field appearance by Pittsburgh's future Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, who would die in a plane crash on December 31.


1972 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
The Reds got a first-inning homer from second baseman Joe Morgan to take a short-lived 1–0 lead. But Pittsburgh bounced back with three in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by an RBI triple from Al Oliver and an RBI double from Willie Stargell. Pittsburgh never looked back, getting a two-run homer from Oliver in the fifth and coasting to the win behind the strong pitching of Steve Blass. The frustrated Reds ultimately stranded 11 baserunners, and their manager Sparky Anderson was ejected in the fourth inning. The time of game was a brisk 1 hour and 57 minutes.


1972 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
Cincinnati bounced back to even the series in Game 2. Pittsburgh starter Bob Moose allowed five consecutive hits to start the game. Bobby Tolan and Tony Pérez both hit two-run doubles to give the Reds a 4–0 lead and chase Moose. The Pittsburgh bullpen stopped the Reds offense, though, and the Pirates came back to make it a 4–3 game with single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth, as Milt May, Roberto Clemente and Dave Cash picked up RBIs. Joe Morgan homered in the eighth to give the Reds a crucial insurance run, and Cincinnati reliever Tom Hall finished a long and strong relief stint to get the victory.


1972 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 3
The series moved to Cincinnati and produced a tense, low-scoring contest. Cincinnati's Darrell Chaney and Bobby Tolan hit RBI singles in the bottom of the third to give the Reds a 2-0 lead. In the fifth, Pittsburgh catcher Manny Sanguillén homered to cut the lead in half, and Rennie Stennett tied the game at 2 in the seventh with an RBI single. The Pirates scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on a groundout by Sanguillen. Pirates closer Dave Giusti, came on in the eighth to shut the door on the Reds and earn the save.


1972 National League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
The Reds evened the series in Game 4 behind a sparkling two-hitter from left-handed hurler Ross Grimsley. The Reds scored three runs off Pirates starter Dock Ellis, aided by Pittsburgh errors in the first and fourth. Grimsley singled in another run in the sixth and the Reds eventually added three more. The run support was more than enough for Grimsley as he held the typically potent Pirates' offense in check. He yielded just two hits, both by Roberto Clemente. Pittsburgh got its lone run on a seventh-inning homer by Clemente.