1979 NBA draft
The 1979 NBA draft was the 33rd annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA), held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on Monday, June 25. In this draft, the 22 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players; it went ten rounds and selected 202 players.


1979 NBA draft
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 Los Angeles Lakers, who obtained the New Orleans Jazz' first-round pick in a trade, won the coin flip and were awarded the first overall pick, while the Chicago Bulls were awarded the second pick. 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. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was eligible for selection.


1979 NBA draft
If a player left college early, he would not be eligible for selection until his college class graduated. Larry Bird would have been eligible to join this draft class because his "junior eligible" draft status from being taken by Boston in 1978 would expire the minute the 1979 draft began, but Bird and the Celtics agreed on a five-year contract on June 8 to avoid that. Before the draft, five college underclassmen were declared eligible for selection under the "hardship" rule. 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. Prior to the draft, the Jazz relocated from New Orleans to Salt Lake City and became the Utah Jazz.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
Magic Johnson from NCAA champion Michigan State University, one of the "hardship" players, was selected first overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson, who had just finished his sophomore season in college, became the first underclassman to be drafted first overall. He went on to win the NBA championship with the Lakers in his rookie season. He also won the Finals Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the first rookie ever to win the award. He spent his entire 13-year career with the Lakers and won five NBA championships.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
He also won three Most Valuable Player Awards, three Finals Most Valuable Player Awards, ten consecutive All-NBA Team selections and twelve All-Star Game selections. For his achievements, he has been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also named to the list of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History announced at the league's 50th anniversary in 1996. After retiring as a player, Johnson went on to have a brief coaching career as an interim head coach of the Lakers in 1994.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
Sidney Moncrief, the fifth pick, won two Defensive Player of the Year Awards and was selected to five consecutive All-NBA Teams, five consecutive All-Defensive Teams and  five consecutive All-Star Games. In "The Book of Basketball", Bill Simmons noted that then-Lakers GM Jerry West had actually wanted to trade down from the #1 pick and use it to get Moncrief along with more players and picks, but Jerry Buss vetoed West's plans because Buss wanted Magic to be the new face of the team he was just finishing his full purchase of.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
Jim Paxson, the twelfth pick, was selected to one All-NBA Team and two All-Star Games. Bill Cartwright, the third pick, won three consecutive NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls from 1991 through 1993. He also had one All-Star Game selection, which occurred in his rookie season. He then became the Bulls' head coach for three seasons. Bill Laimbeer, the 65th pick, won two NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990 and was selected to four All-Star Games.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
After retiring, he coached the Detroit Shock of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for eight seasons, leading them to three WNBA championships in 2003, 2006 and 2008. Mark Eaton, who had only completed one year of college basketball, was selected by the Phoenix Suns with the 107th pick. He opted to return to college basketball and later joined the NBA in 1982, after he was drafted again by the Utah Jazz in the 1982 draft.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
During his eleven-year career with the Jazz, he won two Defensive Player of the Year Awards and was selected to five consecutive All-Defensive Team and one All-Star Game. Two other players from this draft, eighth pick Calvin Natt and 73rd pick James Donaldson, were also selected to one All-Star Game each.


1979 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
In the fourth round, the Boston Celtics selected Nick Galis from Seton Hall University with the 68th pick. However, he suffered a serious injury in the training camp and was waived by the Celtics before the season started. Galis, who was born in the United States to Greek parents, opted to play in Greece. He never played in the NBA and spent all of his professional career in Greece, where he helped the country emerge as an international basketball power. He won a Eurobasket title, 8 Greek championships, 7 Greek cups as well as numerous personal honors and awards. He has been inducted into both the FIBA Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.


1979 NBA draft, Other picks
The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one NBA game or have been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.


1979 NBA draft, Notes
^ 1: Even though Mark Eaton was a freshman, he was eligible to be drafted because he was already four years out of high school and therefore he did not need to apply for early entry.


1979 NBA playoffs
The 1979 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association’s 1978–79 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Seattle SuperSonics defeating the Eastern Conference champion Washington Bullets 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals. The Sonics earned their only NBA title. Dennis Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP.


1979 NBA playoffs
The Finals was a rematch of 1978, in which Washington defeated Seattle 4–3. As of the 2020–21 season, this remains the last time the Bullets (now the Wizards) have advanced as far as the Conference Finals.


1979 NBA playoffs
The Spurs made their first visit to the Conference Finals in these playoffs.


1979 NBA playoffs
This was the first time that three of the former ABA teams made the playoffs, as it was the NBA playoff debut of the New Jersey Nets.


1979 NBA playoffs
This was the first time both conference finals went to a deciding Game 7 since 1963 and the last until 2018.


1979 NBA playoffs, First Round, Eastern Conference First Round, (3) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (6) New Jersey Nets
This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams.


1979 NBA playoffs, First Round, Eastern Conference First Round, (4) Houston Rockets vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Hawks winning the only previous meeting.


1979 NBA playoffs, First Round, Western Conference First Round, (3) Phoenix Suns vs. (6) Portland Trail Blazers
This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams.


1979 NBA playoffs, First Round, Western Conference First Round, (4) Denver Nuggets vs. (5) Los Angeles Lakers
This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams.


1979 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Eastern Conference Semifinals, (1) Washington Bullets vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks
This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Wizards/Bullets winning two of the first three meetings.


1979 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Western Conference Semifinals, (1) Seattle SuperSonics vs. (5) Los Angeles Lakers
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the SuperSonics winning the first meeting.


1979 NBA playoffs, Conference Semifinals, Western Conference Semifinals, (2) Kansas City Kings vs. (3) Phoenix Suns
This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams.


1979 NBA playoffs, Conference Finals, Eastern Conference Finals, (1) Washington Bullets vs. (2) San Antonio Spurs
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bullets winning the first meeting.


1979 NBA playoffs, Conference Finals, Western Conference Finals, (1) Seattle SuperSonics vs. (3) Phoenix Suns
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Suns winning the only meeting.


1979 NBA playoffs, NBA Finals: (E1) Washington Bullets vs. (W1) Seattle SuperSonics
This was the second Finals meeting between these two teams, with the Bullets winning the first meeting.


1979 NBL season
The 1979 NBL season was the inaugural season of the National Basketball League (NBL). The championship was decided by a sudden death Grand Final between first (St. Kilda Saints) and second (Canberra Cannons).


1979 NBL season, Regular Season
The 1979 Regular Season took place over 15 Rounds between 24 February 1979 and 3 June 1979.


1979 NBL season, Ladder
The NBL tie-breaker system as outlined in the NBL Rules and Regulations states that in the case of an identical win-loss record, the results in games played between the teams will determine order of seeding.


1979 NBL season, Ladder
1Head-to-Head between Canberra Cannons and Nunawading Spectres (1-1). Canberra Cannons won For and Against (+2).


1979 NBL season, Ladder
3Head-to-Head between Glenelg Tigers and Bankstown Bruins (1-1). Glenelg Tigers won For and Against (+7).


1979 NC State Wolfpack football team
The 1979 NC State Wolfpack football team represented the North Carolina State Wolfpack during the 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's head coach was Bo Rein. NC State has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) since the league's inception in 1953. The Wolfpack played its home games in 1979 at Carter–Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, which has been NC State football's home stadium since 1966. NC State won the 1979 ACC Championship with a record of 5–1 in conference play. Despite the conference championship, the Wolfpack did not receive a bowl invitation, while two teams they defeated, Clemson and Wake Forest, did. As of 2020, the 1979 NC State team is the most recent bowl-eligible Power Five conference champion to not receive an invitation.


1979 NC State Wolfpack football team
Rein accepted the head coaching position at LSU on November 30, 1979. He never coached a game in Baton Rouge, perishing January 10, 1980 when the private aircraft he was traveling in flew well off course and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia.


1979 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament was played at the end of the 1979 NCAA Division I 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 thirty third year. Eight regional competitions were held to determine the participants in the final event. Seven regions held a four team, double-elimination tournament while one region included six teams, resulting in 34 teams participating in the tournament at the conclusion of their regular season, and in some cases, after a conference tournament. The thirty-third tournament's champion was Cal State Fullerton, coached by Augie Garrido. The Most Outstanding Player was Tony Hudson of Cal State Fullerton.


1979 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament, Regionals
Seven of the eight regionals were played as 4-team double-elimination tournaments. One regional was played as a 6-team double-elimination tournament. The winner of each regional moved on to the College World Series.


1979 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament, College World Series
Connecticut, Miami (FL), Pepperdine, Arkansas, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi St., and Cal St. Fullerton won their regionals and moved on to the College World Series.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game
The 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game was the final of the 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament and determined the national champion for the 1978–79 season. The game was held on March 26, at the Special Events Center (now the Jon M. Huntsman Center) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game
In the game, the Indiana State Sycamores of the Missouri Valley Conference faced the Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten Conference. The Sycamores entered the contest undefeated for the season, while the Spartans had six losses. Spartans guard Magic Johnson and Sycamores forward Larry Bird competed against each other for the first time; the pair developed a rivalry in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1980s.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game
Michigan State won 75–64 to claim the school's first national championship in men's basketball. The 1979 NCAA tournament final had the highest Nielsen ratings of any game in the history of American basketball.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Indiana State
The Sycamores were not ranked in the Associated Press (AP) or United Press International preseason polls, and coaches in their Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) did not pick them to win the league. The team, which had been coached by Bob King in 1977–78, was led by senior forward Larry Bird, who had averaged 30.0 points per game during the previous season (second in NCAA Division I basketball) and been named an All-American in 1978. Indiana State's lineup also featured Carl Nicks, a junior guard who was returning to the school after spending his sophomore season at Gulf Coast Community College.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Indiana State
However, the four starters from the 1977–78 team other than Bird had graduated. Before the start of the season, King suffered a heart attack and left the job; he was replaced by Bill Hodges. The Sycamores won their first game versus Lawrence University by a score of 99–56, and followed that performance by traveling to Purdue and winning by 10 points. Bird scored 40 points in Indiana State's next contest, a 74–70 victory at Evansville. That began a streak of seven games in which Bird scored over 30 points, including a 48-point effort against Butler.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Indiana State
Indiana State entered the AP poll at number 20 on December 12, rising as the season progressed and the team remained unbeaten. One challenge came during a game against Bradley, which elected to play with a triangle-and-two defense that Bradley coach Dick Versace called the "Bird Cage". The alignment was effective in containing Bird, who scored four points (his lowest total for Indiana State) on two field goal attempts; the Sycamores, however, managed to win. By February 13, the Sycamores were the top-ranked team in the country, and they held that position in the final rankings.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Indiana State
Indiana State won all 16 of its games against MVC competition. The Sycamores were the number one seed in the Midwest region of the NCAA Tournament, and began their run in the event with an 86–69 second-round win over Virginia Tech. A 93–72 win over Oklahoma followed, and a two-point victory against Arkansas gave Indiana State a Final Four spot.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Indiana State
In the national semifinal against DePaul, Bird made 16 of 19 field goal attempts and had 16 rebounds and 9 assists. In a close game, Indiana State won 76–74 to reach the final without a loss on the season, at 33–0.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Michigan State
Coached by Jud Heathcote, Michigan State featured sophomore Magic Johnson, who had been instrumental in helping the team win the Big Ten Conference championship the previous season. It was their first solo conference title since 1958–59; the Spartans reached the regional finals at the 1978 NCAA Tournament, but lost by three points to eventual champion Kentucky. The team also had Greg Kelser, who was later chosen in the first round of the NBA draft.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Michigan State
Writer Michael Wilbon said that entering the season, the team was "talented but seemed just a little less than they should have been in the Big Ten." The Spartans began the season with three straight wins, then lost by a point, 70–69, at North Carolina. Michigan State followed that defeat with six consecutive wins, and was top-ranked in the AP poll in early January. However, the team lost consecutive games to Illinois and Purdue (both losses coming on jumpers in the closing seconds), causing it to fall five places in the poll. Afterwards, the Spartans posted a blowout victory over Indiana and a win in overtime over Iowa. Ranked third in the AP poll following those games, the Spartans lost at Michigan 49–48, as Keith Smith made the winning free throw with no time remaining.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Michigan State
In their next game, an unheralded Northwestern team handed Michigan State its worst defeat of the season, beating them 83–65 for their fourth loss in six games. After that game, they faced Ohio State in a contest that required overtime; the Spartans emerged with an 84–79 win. That led to a winning streak; Michigan State ran off wins in their next nine games, defeating four of the teams that had beaten them in the process. Wisconsin snapped the Spartans' streak in their final game before the NCAA tournament, winning 83–81 on a long-range shot at the buzzer. The Spartans' 13–5 Big Ten record put them in a three-way tie with Iowa and Purdue for first in the conference, and they won 21 of 27 games in all regular season play; their final AP poll ranking was third.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Background, Michigan State
Michigan State was awarded the second seed in the Mideast Regional for the NCAA Tournament, and defeated the Lamar Cardinals 95–64 in their first game, held in the second round. The Spartans advanced to the regional semifinal, where they topped third-seeded LSU 87–71. In the regional final, the Spartans defeated the Mideast region's top seed, Notre Dame, by a 12-point margin to advance to the Final Four, where they faced Penn. Michigan State won in the national semifinals 101–67 to gain a berth in the NCAA title game. Johnson had a triple-double in the contest, posting 29 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds. Entering the national championship game, they had a 25–6 record.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Broadcasting
The 1979 NCAA Final Four, which included the national championship game, was televised by NBC. Announcing duties were performed by Dick Enberg, Al McGuire, and Billy Packer, while the halftime show was hosted by Bryant Gumbel. The Nielsen ratings for the championship game were 24.1; this figure is the highest for any basketball game in the United States as of 2017. The estimated audience was around 40 million people in 18 million households, and the number of viewers increased 20 percent from the 1978 NCAA Tournament final.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
The national championship game took place on March 26. The Spartans gained control of the ball after the opening tip-off, only for Johnson to commit a traveling violation by making contact with the feet of Indiana State's Brad Miley. The Sycamores scored the first basket of the game, which was made by Steve Reed. The two teams played a close game in the early stages; a successful shot by Bird gave Indiana State a one-point advantage, and Michigan State called a timeout after his shot.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
The Spartans took a 9–8 lead on a basket by guard Terry Donnelly four minutes and twenty-six seconds into the contest. Michigan State used that play to begin a scoring run, outpointing Indiana State 9–0 during the stretch, which included a three-point play by guard Mike Brkovich. The Spartans' game plan on defense was to converge on Bird when he neared the baseline, in an effort to prevent him from receiving the ball. In addition, their strategy led to multiple instances in which Bird became uncertain as to whether he should pass or attempt a shot.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
Bird's effectiveness was limited, but Michigan State's players committed numerous personal fouls; both Johnson and Kelser had three fouls in the first half and were forced to leave the game. Despite their foul issues, the Spartans extended their lead over the Sycamores to 12 as the first half neared its end. After 20 minutes of play, Michigan State held a 37–28 advantage.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
To begin the second half, Kelser made a shot six feet from the basket. Including those two points, the Spartans scored seven consecutive points to bring their lead to 16. Donnelly contributed four straight field goals as the Spartans' lead climbed to 50–34. Indiana State began to rally at this point, with two made field goal attempts each for Bird and Bob Heaton. While Michigan State's lead remained around 10 points, Kelser's foul troubles worsened when he committed his fourth of the game 4:27 into the second half.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
Michigan State was forced to remove him for reserve Jay Vincent, who was suffering from a foot bruise. In 19 overall minutes of playing time, Vincent had four fouls himself. Indiana State focused on playing close to the opposing basket while Kelser was out of the game, and Bird keyed a Sycamores scoring run with two field goals and a free throw. With 10:05 remaining, the Spartans' lead had been cut to 52–46. Kelser was brought into the game in response to the run, and did not commit another foul until the end.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
He and Johnson were responsible for the next eight points scored by the Spartans. The run included a four-point play by Johnson; he had a slam dunk while being fouled by Heaton, and sank two free throws that were awarded because Heaton was judged to have undercut him. For the last five minutes of the game, the Spartans held the ball for long periods to burn time off the clock. Bird received a technical foul call for one play in which he illegally stole the ball from Johnson while he was attempting an inbounds pass and attempted to score. Behind an offense that missed only 4 of 16 second half field goal attempts, Michigan State clinched its first men's basketball national championship by a 75–64 final score. Johnson was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, having scored 53 points on 17-of-25 shooting during the Final Four.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Statistical summary
Johnson led all scorers in the national championship game with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Kelser added 19 points and led the Spartans with 8 rebounds, one more than Johnson. Donnelly was the only other Michigan State player to score in double figures; he made all five of his field goal attempts and ended the game with 15 points. Ron Charles, Vincent, and Mike Brkovich were the other Spartans players to score points; each player contributed between five and seven points to Michigan State's total. Overall, the Spartans made 26 of their 43 shots.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Statistical summary
For the Sycamores, Bird was the team's leading scorer with 19 points, but missed on two-thirds of his 21 field goal attempts. Bird was also the top rebounder for either side in the game, recording 13 rebounds. Nicks made half of his 14 shots and scored 17 points, while Heaton added 10 points. Four other players contributed points for Indiana State, but the team was successful on only 27 of its 64 field goal attempts. The Sycamores' free throw shooting was worse than Michigan State's; Indiana State missed 12 of its 22 attempts, while the Spartans had 10 misses in 33 free throws taken. The free throw scoring differential was thus greater than the margin of victory.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, Aftermath
Wilbon has credited the 1979 NCAA championship game with increasing interest in the NCAA Tournament, which underwent two field expansions in the following decade. Bird and Johnson both turned professional after the 1978–79 college season, and wound up playing for the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively. The 1979 NCAA championship game was the first encounter in a rivalry that developed as the two continued their careers. The Celtics and Lakers met three times in the NBA Finals during the 1980s, and the pair helped to increase national interest in the NBA. ESPN's Andy Katz wrote that Bird and Johnson "helped create the interest in the Final Four and they made today's NBA."


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament involved 40 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 9 and ended with the championship game on March 26 in Salt Lake City. A total of 40 games were played, including a national third-place game. This was the tournament's only edition with forty teams; the previous year's had 32, and it expanded to 48 in 1980.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
The 1979 Indiana State team was the most recent squad to reach a national title game with an undefeated record, holding that distinction for 42 years until the 2021 Gonzaga Bulldogs team won a 93-90 OT national semifinal over UCLA to reach the 2021 title contest vs. Baylor with a 31-0 record.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
Michigan State, coached by Jud Heathcote, won the national title with a 75–64 victory in the final game over Indiana State, coached by Bill Hodges. Indiana State came into the game undefeated, but couldn't extend their winning streak. Magic Johnson of Michigan State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Michigan State's victory over Indiana State was its first over a top-ranked team, and remained its only victory over a number one ranked team until 2007 (Wisconsin).


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
The final game marked the beginning of the rivalry between future Hall of Famers Johnson and Larry Bird. As of 2016, it remains the highest-rated game in the history of televised college basketball. Both Johnson and Bird would enter the NBA in the fall of 1979, and the rivalry between them and their teams (respectively, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics) was a major factor in the league's renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. The game also led to the "modern era" of college basketball, as it introduced a nationwide audience to a sport that was once relegated to second-class status in the sports world.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
With the loss in the championship game, Indiana State has finished as the national runner-up in the NAIA (1946, 1948), NCAA Division II (1968), and NCAA Division I (1979) tournaments, making them the only school to do so.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
This was the first tournament in which all teams were seeded by the Division I Basketball Committee. The top six seeds in each regional received byes to the second round, while seeds 7–10 played in the first round.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
It is also notable as the last Final Four played in an on-campus arena, at the University of Utah. (The most recent tournament to be held on a university's premises (i.e. not on the university's main campus, but on a satellite or branch campus) was in 1983, as the University of New Mexico (UNM) hosted that year's tournament in The Pit (then officially known as University Arena), which is located on the UNM South Campus.)


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
It has, however, been played in a team's regular off-campus home arena two times since then: in 1985 at Rupp Arena, Kentucky's home court, and in 1996 at Continental Airlines Arena, then Seton Hall's home court. Given the use of domed stadiums for Final Fours for the foreseeable future, it is likely this will be the last Final Four on a college campus. This tournament was the last until the 2019 tournament to see two finalists playing for the national championship for the first time. The 1979 Final Four was the first in which all four schools came from east of the Mississippi River.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
This was the first NCAA tournament where three officials were assigned to all games. Several conferences, including the Big Ten and Southeastern, used three officials for its regular season games prior to the NCAA adopting it universally.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 1979 tournament:


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
National Semifinals, 3rd Place Game, and Championship (Final Four and Championship)


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
Salt Lake City became the eighteenth different site of the Final Four, and the eighth Final Four to be held on a college campus. Due to the current setup of the Final Four, both of these are likely not to be repeated. Two new host cities, Cincinnati, Ohio and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were included for the first time, hosting at the Riverfront Coliseum (the then-home arena of the Cincinnati Bearcats) and MTSU's Murphy Center, respectively. This year also marked the last time tournament games were held at the University of Kansas's legendary Allen Fieldhouse and at SMU's Moody Coliseum. As more and more tournament games are being held in large cities and NBA-caliber arenas, this was most likely the last time the Tournament will be held in Lawrence.


1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, Tournament Notes
In the East, the Round of 32 was called Black Sunday because of Penn's upset of #1 North Carolina and St. John's upset of #2-seeded Duke, both in Raleigh. Penn went all the way to the Final Four before losing to eventual champion Michigan State. Both teams had to defeat higher-seeded opponents in the Round of 40 to have the chance to beat UNC and Duke. Penn beat three higher-seeded opponents to reach the Final Four, a feat which was later bettered in 1986 by LSU, 2006 by George Mason, and 2011 by Virginia Commonwealth, who each beat four higher-seeded opponents on the way to the Final Four.


1979 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships
The 1979 NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country Championships were the 41st annual cross country meet to determine the team and individual national champions of NCAA Division I men's collegiate cross country running in the United States. Held on November 19, 1979, the meet was hosted by Lehigh University at the Saucon Valley Fields in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The distance for this race was 10 kilometers (6.21 miles).


1979 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships
All Division I cross country teams were eligible to qualify for the meet through their placement at various regional qualifying meets. In total, 29 teams and 237 individual runners contested this championship.


1979 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships
The team national championship was retained by the UTEP Miners, their fifth title. The individual championship was won by Henry Rono, from Washington State, with a time of 28:19.60. This was Rono's third individual title in four years. Along with Gerry Lindgren (1966, 1967, and 1969) and Steve Prefontaine (1970, 1971, and 1973), the former from Washington State and the latter from Oregon, Rono is one of only three Division I collegiate runners with three individual titles.


1979 NCAA Division I Golf Championship
The 1979 NCAA Division I Golf Championship was the 41st annual NCAA-sanctioned golf tournament to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate golf at the University Division level in the United States.


1979 NCAA Division I Golf Championship
The tournament was held at the Bermuda Run Country Club in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, hosted by Wake Forest University.


1979 NCAA Division I Golf Championship
Ohio State won the team championship, the Buckeyes' second NCAA title and first since 1945.


1979 NCAA Division I Golf Championship
For the first time, teams needed to be in the top fifteen after three rounds of play to qualify for the fourth and final championship round; all other team were cut.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1978–79 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 32nd such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 18 and 24, 1979, and concluded with Minnesota defeating North Dakota 4-3. The first round game was held at the home team venue while all succeeding games were played at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
The NCAA gave four teams automatic bids into the tournament. The two ECAC teams that reached the ECAC tournament final received bids as did the two WCHA co-champions. The NCAA also had the ability to add up to 4 additional teams as it saw fit and chose to include the CCHA tournament champion as well.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The four automatic qualifiers were seeded according to pre-tournament finish. The ECAC champion was seeded as the top eastern team while the WCHA co-champion that finished highest in the regular season was given the top western seed. The second eastern seed was slotted to play the top western seed and vice versa. Because an at-large bid was offered to a western school they were placed in a first round game with the second western seed to determine the final semifinalist. The first round game was played at the home venue of the second seed while all succeeding games were played at the Olympia in Detroit, Michigan. All matches were Single-game eliminations with the semifinal winners advancing to the national championship game and the losers playing in a consolation game.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship
The 1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament was the 9th annual Division I NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. Twelve NCAA Division I college men's lacrosse teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
The championship game was hosted by University of Maryland, and was played in front of 16,166 fans. The game saw the Johns Hopkins University defeat University of Maryland by the score of 15–9, taking control with five unanswered goals in the second period.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
This tournament was notable as the only entry for North Carolina State, led by Stan Cockerton, in the NCAA tournament. The lacrosse program at North Carolina State was discontinued shortly afterwards.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
This was one of the great season in Hopkins' history, with highlights of the 13-0 season including wins over 2nd ranked Maryland and 5th ranked Virginia twice each, as well as wins over 3rd ranked Navy, 4th ranked Cornell, North Carolina State and 6th ranked Army. Hopkins was ranked Number 1 in the nation for 11 straight weeks, the team averaged over 15 goals a game and gave up under 7 goals a game, with only two teams able to score double digits in goals against.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
In the finals, Johns Hopkins used a tough defense led by Hall of Fame goalie  and a strong offense led by Dave Huntley and Jeff Cook defeating the Terrapins for the second time that season in winning their second consecutive NCAA title. The Number One seeding in the tournament went to the Blue Jays with a 10 and 0 regular season record and winners of 17 in a row, since a mid-season defeat in 1978 by Cornell.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
Syracuse appeared for the first time in an NCAA tournament, while Maryland was making its ninth straight tournament appearance. Following this title game, Hopkins had won or tied for 34 national championships, more than twice as many as any other school.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
Hopkins had handed the Terrapins five of their losses over the prior three seasons, including consecutive defeats in the semifinals of the Division I tournaments in 1977 and 1978.


1979 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, Tournament overview
This was a great stretch of tournament play for the Terrapins as during the 1970s, Maryland participated in six NCAA title games, including four in a row from 1973 to 1976. During that span, the Terps won two national titles and lost four.


1979 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships were contested May 29−June 2 at the 57th annual NCAA-sanctioned track meet to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate Division I outdoor track and field events in the United States.


1979 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
This year's meet was contested at Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, who hosted for the second time overall and for the first time since 1977.


1979 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
After winning a co-championship in 1978, UTEP easily finished atop this year's team standings and claimed their third national title.


1979 NCAA Division I Soccer Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament was the 21st organized men's college soccer tournament by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to determine the top college soccer team in the United States. The SIU Edwardsville Cougars won their first national title by defeating the Clemson Tigers in the championship game, 3–2. The final match was played on December 9, 1979, in Tampa, Florida, at Tampa Stadium for the second straight year.


1979 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships
The 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Swimming and Diving Championships were contested in March 1979 at the Cleveland State University Natatorium at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio at the 56th annual NCAA-sanctioned swim meet to determine the team and individual national champions of Division I men's collegiate swimming and diving in the United States.


1979 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships
California topped the team standings for the first time, the Golden Bears' inaugural national title.


1979 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships
The 1979 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships were the 34th annual tournaments to determine the national champions of NCAA men's college tennis. Matches were played during May 1979 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia on the campus of the University of Georgia. A total of three championships were contested: men's team, singles, and doubles.


1979 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships
The men's team championship was won by the UCLA Bruins, their 13th team national title. UCLA defeated Trinity (TX) in the final round, 5–3. The men's singles title was won by Kevin Curren from Texas, and the men's doubles title went to Erick Iskersky and Ben McKown of  Trinity (TX).


1979 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
The 1979 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships were the 49th NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships to be held. Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa hosted the tournament at the Hilton Coliseum.


1979 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Iowa took home the team championship with 122.5 points with two individual champions.


1979 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Bruce Kinseth of Iowa received the Gorriaran Award as well as being named the Most Outstanding Wrestler.


1979 NCAA Division I baseball rankings
The following poll makes up the 1979 NCAA Division I 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.


1979 NCAA Division I baseball rankings, Collegiate Baseball
Currently, only the final poll from the 1979 season is available.


1979 NCAA Division I baseball season
The 1979 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began in the spring of 1979. The season progressed through the regular season and concluded with the 1979 College World Series. The College World Series, held for the thirty third time in 1979, consisted of one team from each of eight regional competitions and was held in Omaha, Nebraska at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium as a double-elimination tournament. Cal State Fullerton claimed the championship for the first time.


1979 NCAA Division I baseball season, Conference winners
This is a partial list of conference champions from the 1979 season. The NCAA sponsored regional competitions to determine the College World Series participants. Seven regionals of four teams and one of six each competed in double-elimination tournaments, with the winners advancing to Omaha. 21 teams earned automatic bids by winning their conference championship while 13 teams earned at-large selections. The Trans America Athletic Conference, as a new league, did not earn an automatic bid.


1979 NCAA Division I baseball season, College World Series
The 1979 season marked the thirty third 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 Cal State Fullerton claiming their first championship with a 2–1 win over Arkansas in the final.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football rankings
Two human polls comprised the 1979 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-A 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.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football season
The 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season saw the Alabama Crimson Tide bring home a national title with a perfect 12–0 season. The title was Alabama's 11th claimed, and their 6th Associated Press awarded title.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football season
This was an extremely dominant Alabama team, only giving up 67 points the entire season and shutting out five opponents. The team won a tight game against LSU 3–0 and beat Auburn by a touchdown before beating Arkansas 24–9 in the Sugar Bowl.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football season
There was very little movement at the top of the rankings throughout the season, as only three different teams held the top spot in the AP poll and only two in the UPI poll. USC was the pre-season top-ranked team, and held the number one ranking until a 21–21 tie with Stanford, a game USC led at halftime 21–0. A fumbled hold on the snap from center cost the Trojans a chance at a last-second field goal. Stanford was led by quarterback Turk Schonert, while freshman John Elway served as his backup. USC  ended up finishing second in the country, but running back Charles White brought home the Heisman Trophy.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football season
No. 2 Alabama then took over the top spot and never relinquished that position in the UPI poll. In the AP poll, however, Ohio State took over the top spot in the last regular season poll of the season. Ohio State had defeated No. 13 Michigan in Ann Arbor by a score of 18–15 to earn the Big Ten title. Two weeks later, Alabama defeated No. 14 Auburn 25–18 in Birmingham, but the AP voters saw fit to jump Ohio State ahead of them.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football season
Thus, Ohio State came within one point of a national title under first-year coach Earle Bruce, who replaced coach Woody Hayes, falling to USC 17–16 in the Rose Bowl after an undefeated season.


1979 NCAA Division I-A football season, Conference and program changes
While Georgia Tech joined the ACC in non-football sports, the Yellow Jackets would not join ACC football until 1983.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game
The 1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game between the Eastern Kentucky Colonels and the Lehigh Engineers (now the Lehigh Mountain Hawks). The game was played on December 15, 1979, at Orlando Stadium (now Camping World Stadium) in Orlando, Florida. The culminating game of the 1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season, it was won by Eastern Kentucky, 30–7.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game, Teams
The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1979 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a four-team bracket.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game, Teams, Eastern Kentucky Colonels
Eastern Kentucky finished their regular season with a 9–2 record (5–1 in conference); their losses were to East Tennessee State of Division I-A and conference rival Murray State. Tied for third with Lehigh in the final AP Poll for I-AA, the Colonels were the at-large selection to the four-team playoff; they defeated Nevada, the West selection, by a score of 33–30 in double overtime to reach the final. This was the first appearance for Eastern Kentucky in a Division I-AA championship game.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game, Teams, Lehigh Engineers
Lehigh also finished their regular season with a 9–2 record; they had lost to Colgate of Division I-A and Delaware of Division II. Tied with Eastern Kentucky for third in the final AP Poll for I-AA, the Engineers were the East selection to the playoff; they defeated Murray State, the South selection, by a 28–9 score to reach the final. This was also the first appearance for Lehigh in a Division I-AA championship game.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA football rankings
The 1979 NCAA Division I-AA football rankings are from the Associated Press. This is for the 1979 season.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season
The 1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1979, and concluded with the 1979 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game on December 15, 1979, at Orlando Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The Eastern Kentucky Colonels won their first I-AA championship, defeating the Lehigh Engineers by a final score of 30−7.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season, Conference champions
Big Sky Conference – Montana StateMid-Eastern Athletic Conference – Morgan StateOhio Valley Conference – Murray StateSouthwestern Athletic Conference – Alcorn State and Grambling StateYankee Conference – Boston University and Massachusetts


1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season, Postseason, NCAA Division I-AA playoff bracket
The bracket consisted of three regional selections (West, East, and South) plus Eastern Kentucky as an at-large selection.


1979 NCAA Division I-AA football season, Postseason, NCAA Division I-AA playoff bracket
* Next to name denotes host institution* Next to score denotes overtimes


1979 NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament involved 32 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball as a culmination of the 1978–79 NCAA Division II men's basketball season. It was won by the University of North Alabama and North Alabama's Perry Oden was the Most Outstanding Player.


1979 NCAA Division II Lacrosse Championship
The 1979 NCAA Division II Lacrosse Championship was the sixth annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champions of NCAA Division II and Division III men's college lacrosse in the United States.


1979 NCAA Division II Lacrosse Championship
This was the final championship before the introduction of a separate Division III men's championship in 1980. As such, this was the final year of the tournament's twelve-team format.


1979 NCAA Division II Lacrosse Championship
The final was played at Motamed Field at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.


1979 NCAA Division II Lacrosse Championship
Adelphi defeated UMBC in the final, 17–12, to win their first national title. The Panthers (13–3) were coached by Paul Doherty.


1979 NCAA Division II Lacrosse Championship
This was the first Division II championship game without Hobart, who lost to St. Lawrence in the quarterfinals. The defending champions, Roanoke, also fell in the quarterfinal round.


1979 NCAA Division II Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Men's Division II Ice Hockey Tournament involved 4 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college ice hockey. A total of 4 games were played, hosted by Merrimack College.


1979 NCAA Division II Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The University of Lowell, coached by Bill Riley, won the national title with a 6-4 victory in the final game over Mankato State.


1979 NCAA Division II Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Craig MacTavish, of  the University of Lowell, was named the Most Outstanding Player and was the high scorer of the tournament with six points (4 goals, 2 assists).


1979 NCAA Division II Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
Due to the lack of conferences and tournaments for western schools the NCAA held a regional tournament to help select teams for the national tournament. The western regional tournament is not considered as part of the NCAA championship but is included here for reference. No automatic bids were offered.


1979 NCAA Division II Soccer Championship
The 1979 NCAA Division II Soccer Championship was the eighth annual tournament held by the NCAA to determine the top men's Division II college soccer program in the United States.


1979 NCAA Division II Soccer Championship
Alabama A&M defeated Eastern Illinois in the final, 2–0, to win their second national title. This was the Bulldogs' third consecutive appearance in the Division II championship match after winning in 1977 and losing in 1978.


1979 NCAA Division II Soccer Championship
The final was played at Florida International University in Miami, Florida on December 1, 1979.


1979 NCAA Division II football rankings
The 1979 NCAA Division II football rankings are from the Associated Press. This is for the 1979 season.


1979 NCAA Division II football season
The 1979 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level, began in August 1979, and concluded with the NCAA Division II Football Championship in December 1979 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, NM. During the game's two-year stretch in New Mexico, it was referred to as the Zia Bowl. The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens defeated the Youngstown State Penguins, 38–21, to win their first Division II national title.


1979 NCAA Division II football season, Conference summaries
Association of Mid-Continent Universities – Youngstown StateCentral Intercollegiate Athletic Association – Virginia UnionFar Western Football Conference – UC DavisGreat Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Saginaw Valley StateGulf South Conference – Mississippi CollegeLone Star Conference – Texas A&IMissouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association – Northwest Missouri StateNorth Central Conference – North DakotaNorthern Intercollegiate Conference – Minnesota–Duluth and Minnesota State–MoorheadPennsylvania State Athletic Conference – Lock HavenRocky Mountain Athletic Conference – Western StateSouth Atlantic Conference – PresbyterianSouthern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Alabama A&M


1979 NCAA Division II football season, Postseason
The 1979 NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs were the sixth single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college football. The championship game was held at University Stadium in Albuquerque, NM for the first time. With the game being played in New Mexico for the next two years, it was deemed the Zia Bowl.


1979 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament was played at the end of the 1979 NCAA Division III baseball season to determine the fourth national champion of college baseball at the NCAA Division III level. The tournament concluded with four teams competing at Pioneer Park in Marietta, Ohio for the championship. Four regional tournaments were held to determine the participants in the World Series. Regional tournaments were contested in double-elimination format, with all four regions consisting of six teams, for a total of 24 teams participating in the tournament. The tournament champion was Glassboro State, who defeated Stanislaus State for the championship.


1979 NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament was the fifth annual single-elimination tournament, held during March 1979, to determine the national champions of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's Division III collegiate basketball in the United States.


1979 NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament
The tournament field included 32 teams, an increase of two from 1978, with the national championship rounds being contested in Rock Island, Illinois.


1979 NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament
Defending champions North Park defeated SUNY Potsdam, 66–62, in the championship game to repeat as national champions and claim their second overall title.


1979 NCAA Division III football season
The 1979 NCAA Division III football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division III level, began in August 1979, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football Championship in December 1979 at Garrett-Harrison Stadium in Phenix City, Alabama. The Ithaca Bombers won their first Division III championship, defeating the Wittenberg Tigers by a final score of 14−10 in a re-match of the 1975 championship (won by Wittenberg).


1979 NCAA Division III football season, Postseason
The 1979 NCAA Division III Football Championship playoffs were the seventh annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division III college football. The championship game was held at Garrett-Harrison Stadium in Phenix City, Alabama for the seventh consecutive year. Like the previous four championships, eight teams competed in this edition.


1979 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
The 1979 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were contested March 9−10, 1979 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan at the 15th 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.


1979 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
Villanova took the top spot in the team standings, finishing just 1 point ahead of defending champions and perennial track power UTEP. The Wildcats claimed their second indoor team title and first since 1968.


1979 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Qualification
Unlike other NCAA-sponsored sports, there were not separate NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III championships for indoor track and field until 1985. As such, all athletes and programs from all three divisions were eligible to compete.


1979 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The consensus 1979 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.


1979 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
On March 21, 1979, CoSIDA announced the 1979 Academic All-America team. The following is the 1978–79 Academic All-America Men's Basketball Team as selected by CoSIDA:


1979 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
The 1979 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament was the 10th annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's college volleyball. The tournament was played at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California during May 1979.


1979 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
UCLA defeated USC in the final match,  3–1 (12–15, 15–12, 15–11, 15–7), to win their seventh national title. Coached by Al Scates, the Bruins finished the season undefeated (30–0).


1979 NCAA Men's Volleyball Tournament
UCLA's Sinjin Smith was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. An All-tournament team of seven players was also named.


1979 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 Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of 4 teams were invited to contest this championship.


1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The 1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship was the 11th 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 Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, California during December 1979.


1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
UC Santa Barbara defeated UCLA in the final, 11–3, to win their first national title.


1979 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
Greg Boyer from UC Santa Barbara was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. An All-Tournament Team, consisting of seven players, was also named. For the third consecutive year, the tournament's leading scorer was Scott Schulte from Bucknell (11 goals).


1979 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.


1979 NCAA Skiing Championships
The 1979 NCAA Skiing Championships were contested at the Steamboat Ski Resort on Mount Werner near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, at the 26th 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.


1979 NCAA Skiing Championships
Seven-time defending champions Colorado, coached by Tim Hinderman, once again claimed the team national championship, finishing 23 points ahead of Utah in the standings. This was the tenth title for the Buffaloes.


1979 NCAA Skiing Championships, Venue
This year's NCAA skiing championships were contested at the Steamboat Ski Resort at Mount Werner in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.


1979 NCAA Skiing Championships, Venue
These were the eighth championships held in the state of Colorado (1956, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, and 1977) and the third at Steamboat Springs (1968 and 1969).


1979 NFL Championship Series (Australia)
The 1979 NFL Championship Series was the 4th edition of the NFL Night Series, an NFL-organised national club Australian rules football tournament between the leading clubs from the SANFL, the VFA and QAFL.


1979 NFL Championship Series (Australia)
In June 1978 the VFL announced their plans to form a new company to oversee a night series that would be broadcast nationally and Australian Football Championships Pty. Ltd. was incorporated on July 28, 1978 to run a rival national night competition, in opposition to the NFL Night Series. By October 1978, The VFL were joined by the WAFL, TANFL, NSWAFL and ACTAFL in the joint venture and transferred from NFL Night Series to the AFC Night Series. However, the SANFL rejected the VFL's overtures, choosing to remain aligned with the NFL instead. They were joined by the VFA and QAFL in a greatly-reduced NFL Series.


1979 NFL Championship Series (Australia)
But by May 1979, the NFL, the SANFL and the AFC/VFL held meetings to discuss the future of the series and agree that the SANFL would join the AFC Night Series in 1980 and that the NFL would ceased running their Night Series beyond this edition.


1979 NFL Draft
The 1979 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.


1979 NFL Draft
The Buffalo Bills held the first overall pick in the draft, acquired from the San Francisco 49ers in the trade which sent O. J. Simpson to his hometown team. The Bills' selection at No. 1, Ohio State linebacker Tom Cousineau, refused to sign with the Bills and instead inked a lucrative deal with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.


1979 NFL season
The 1979 NFL season was the 60th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XIV when the Pittsburgh Steelers repeated as champions by defeating the Los Angeles Rams 31–19 at the Rose Bowl. The Steelers became the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice. It was also the 20th anniversary of the American Football League.


1979 NFL season, Draft
The 1979 NFL Draft was held from May 3 to 4, 1979 at New York City's Waldorf Astoria New York. With the first pick, the Buffalo Bills selected linebacker Tom Cousineau from the Ohio State University.


1979 NFL season, New Officials
Jerry Seeman was promoted to referee succeeding Don Wedge who returned to being a deep wing official, primarily as a back judge, where he continued to officiate through 1995. Seeman served as a crew chief for 12 seasons, working Super Bowl XXIII and Super Bowl XXV before leaving the field to succeed Art McNally as NFL Vice President of Officiating from 1991 to 2001.


1979 NFL season, Division Races
Starting in 1978, ten teams qualified for the playoffs: the winners of each of the divisions, and two wild-card teams in each conference.


1979 NHK Trophy
The 1979 NHK Trophy was held at the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo on October 26–28. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.


1979 NHL Entry Draft
The 1979 NHL Entry Draft was the 17th NHL Entry Draft. It took place on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League (NHL) teams selected 126 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in the reverse order of the 1978–79 NHL season and playoff standings. The draft was the first to be conducted after the NHL-WHA merger. As part of the terms of the merger, the four former WHA teams had joined the NHL on the condition that they be placed at the bottom of the draft order, as opposed to the top of the order as is usually the case for expansion teams.


1979 NHL Entry Draft
In addition, the minimum draft age was lowered from 20 to 19 with the addition of any underage players who had already played in the WHA. The NHL had been considering lowering the draft age for some time, and timed the decision to lower the draft age at least in part to coincide with the merger.


1979 NHL Entry Draft
The lowering of the draft age caused two years' worth of draft picks to go in the same draft, resulting in what is generally considered one of the best draft classes in NHL Entry Draft history, which included future Hall of Famers Ray Bourque, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet and Kevin Lowe in the first round alone. Hall of Famers Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, and Guy Carbonneau would be drafted in later rounds.


1979 NHL Entry Draft
12 of the 21 players selected in the first round would play in at least one All-Star game, 19 of the 21 would play at least 450 career NHL games, and all 21 had NHL careers of at least 235 games. Under the old rules, Wayne Gretzky and Messier would not have been eligible to enter the NHL until the 1981 draft.


1979 NHL Entry Draft
On the other hand, the NHL shortened the draft to only six rounds, whereas some previous drafts ran for more than twenty rounds. As a result, in spite of the larger number of teams participating the 1979 Draft had 108 fewer selections than the previous draft and was the shortest draft since 1971. It is the last Entry Draft to have fewer than 200 selections. Due to the strength of the class and fewer selections, there are many undrafted players who were eligible to be drafted who went on to have notable NHL careers, including Hall of Famer Dino Ciccarelli, five-time Stanley Cup champion Charlie Huddy and four-time 50-goal scorer Tim Kerr.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Absence of Wayne Gretzky
Rising superstar Wayne Gretzky had played for the Edmonton Oilers in the WHA's final season. As per the terms of the NHL-WHA merger, Gretzky was to have become eligible for the 1979 draft due to having already played professionally in the WHA. However, Gretzky had a personal services contract with Oilers owner Peter Pocklington.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Absence of Wayne Gretzky
The NHL had originally expected the contract would be voided. But Gretzky, faced with the likelihood of having to play for the struggling Colorado Rockies if he were to enter the draft, refused to void his contract with Pocklington. As a result, a compromise was reached in which the Oilers were allowed to keep Gretzky in exchange for being placed at the bottom of the draft order in the Entry Draft.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round
Below are listed the selections in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. Club teams are located in North America unless otherwise noted.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round one, Notes
1. * The Los Angeles Kings' first round pick went to the Boston Bruins as the result of a trade on October 9, 1978 that sent Ron Grahame to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round one, Notes
2. * The Pittsburgh Penguins' first round pick went to the Minnesota North Stars as the result of a trade on October 18, 1978, that sent Dennis Maruk to the Washington Capitals in exchange for this pick. Washington had acquired the pick previously as the result of a trade on October 17, 1977 that sent Hartland Monahan to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round one, Notes
3. * The Montreal Canadiens' first round pick went to the Los Angeles Kings as the result of a trade on October 5, 1978, that sent the first round pick in 1981 to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Murray Wilson and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
1. * The Colorado Rockies' second round pick went to the Philadelphia Flyers as the result of a trade on June 15, 1978, that sent the second round pick in 1978 to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
2. * The St. Louis Blues' second round pick went to the Atlanta Flames as the result of a trade on December 12, 1977, that sent Curt Bennett, Phil Myre, and Barry Gibbs to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Yves Bélanger, Dick Redmond, Bob MacMillan and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
3. * The Detroit Red Wings' second round pick went to the Washington Capitals as the result of a trade on August 17, 1977, that sent Ron Low, the 46th overall pick to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Walt McKechnie, the third round pick in 1978 and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
4. * The Washington Capitals' second round pick went to the New York Islanders as the result of a trade on October 19, 1978, that sent Michel Bergeron to the Washington Capitals in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
5. * The Minnesota North Stars' second round pick went to the Montreal Canadiens as the result of a trade on August 9, 1979 that sent Bill Nyrop to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for the second round pick in 1980 (changed to the second round pick in 1982 on June 11, 1980) and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
6. * The Toronto Maple Leafs' second round pick went to the Los Angeles Kings as the result of a trade on June 14, 1978, that sent Dave Hutchison and Lorne Stamler to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Brian Glennie, Kurt Walker, Scott Garland and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round two, Notes
7 . * The Edmonton Oilers' second round pick went to the Minnesota North Stars as the result of a trade on August 9, 1979, that sent Dave Semenko and the 48th overall pick to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for the 63rd overall pick and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round three, Notes
1. * The Colorado Rockies' third round pick went to the Montreal Canadiens as the result of a trade on November 24, 1976, that sent John Van Boxmeer to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round three, Notes
2. * The St. Louis Blues' third round pick went to the Montreal Canadiens as the result of a trade on August 18, 1977, that sent Jim Roberts to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round three, Notes
3. * The Washington Capitals' third round pick went to the Detroit Red Wings as the result of a trade on August 17, 1977, that sent Walt McKechnie, the third round pick in 1978 and the 24th overall pick to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Ron Low and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round three, Notes
4. * The Minnesota North Stars' third round pick went to the Edmonton Oilers as the result of a trade on August 9, 1979, that sent the 42nd overall pick and the 63rd overall pick to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Dave Semenko and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round three, Notes
5. * The New York Rangers' third round pick went to the Buffalo Sabres as the result of a trade on March 12, 1979, that sent Jocelyn Guevremont to the New York Rangers in exchange for the third round pick in 1980 and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round three, Notes
6. * The Edmonton Oilers' third round pick went to the Minnesota North Stars as the result of a trade on August 9, 1979, that sent Dave Semenko and the 48th overall pick to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for the 42nd overall pick and this pick.


1979 NHL Entry Draft, Selections by round, Round four, Notes
1. * The Minnesota North Stars' fourth round pick went to the Edmonton Oilers as the result of a trade on June 9, 1979, that the Edmonton Oilers promised to not make Paul Shmyr one of its priority selections in the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft in exchange for this pick.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft
The 1979 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 13, 1979. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the National Hockey League's new teams for the 1979–80 season: the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets. These four teams had joined the NHL after a merger agreement was reached with the World Hockey Association (WHA).


1979 NHL Expansion Draft
As many WHA players also had their rights held by NHL teams, those NHL teams were allowed to reclaim their players. In order to keep the NHL teams from plundering all the talent from the WHA-turned-NHL teams, each incoming franchise was allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and two skaters. These were designated as "priority selections" in the Expansion Draft.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, WHA Dispersal Draft
Following the 1978–79 WHA season, and prior to the NHL reclaiming players, the WHA dispersed players whose rights were held by teams not accepted into the NHL: the Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers, and the Indianapolis Racers, who had folded during the previous season. Players that were twenty years old or younger were available to all 21 NHL teams in the entry draft, and the remaining players were made available to the four merging teams from the WHA. Before their final season the WHA opted not to have an amateur draft and instead encouraged their teams to sign underage players.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, WHA Dispersal Draft
Seven Birmingham Bulls were drafted in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft: Rob Ramage (1st), Rick Vaive (5th), Craig Hartsburg (6th), Michel Goulet (20th), Gaston Gingras (27th), Pat Riggin (33rd), and Keith Crowder (57th). Crowder began the season as a Bull but returned to the Peterborough Petes after just five games. The Cincinnati Stingers used two who were drafted: Mike Gartner (4th) and Mark Messier (48th). Messier was underage but was eligible for the 1979 draft due to his WHA service time. The Winnipeg Jets used John Gibson (71st), but only on a ten game tryout contract in March 1979 but was returned to the Niagara Falls Flyers before the end of the season.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft rules
Reclaiming of players: The 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to reclaim any rights to former WHA players they held. The four incoming franchises, however, were allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and two skaters, voiding their NHL rights. These players were considered "priority selections" in the expansion draft. Numerous deals were cut by the incoming teams to retain some of their players. For instance, Quebec retained star forward Real Cloutier by trading a first-round draft choice to the Chicago Black Hawks, which held Cloutier's rights; that pick was used to select perennial superstar Denis Savard.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft rules
Wayne Gretzky was a special case - although no team held his NHL rights, under existing rules he would have been removed from the Oilers and placed into the NHL Entry Draft. However, Gretzky had been signed by Oilers owner Peter Pocklington to a personal services contract instead of a standard player contract. Confronted with the probability of being drafted first overall by the last place Colorado Rockies, Gretzky refused to void his contract with Pocklington. After deliberation, the Oilers were allowed to keep Gretzky as one of their priority selections, and agreed to choose last in each round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft as further compensation.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft rules
Gordie Howe was a second special case - as a gentlemen's agreement between the Hartford Whalers and the Detroit Red Wings, which held his NHL rights, the Red Wings declined to reclaim the 51-year-old Howe.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft rules
Expansion draft: Each of the 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to protect 15 skaters and two veteran goalies.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft rules
Compensation: The 17 existing NHL teams received $125,000 for each player drafted, these payments being funded by the $6 million in franchise fees each of the former WHA teams paid to join the NHL.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Reclaimed players
These are players whose NHL rights were reclaimed when the WHA merged with the NHL.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft results, Priority selections
These players were "priority selections" in the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft results, Priority selections
1 The NHL denied the Oilers' claim of Bengt-Ake Gustafsson. League president John Ziegler ruled that the Oilers violated WHA rules when they attempted to add Gustafsson to their team during the 1979 playoffs, so they voided any claim on him.


1979 NHL Expansion Draft, Expansion draft results, Priority selections
These are players selected in the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft.


1979 NHL expansion
The 1979 NHL expansion was the culmination of several years of negotiations between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA) that resulted in the WHA and all of its surviving franchises folding in return for the owners of four of the WHA's six remaining teams (the Edmonton Oilers, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets) being granted expansion franchises that commenced play in the NHL for the 1979–80 season. The agreement officially took effect on June 22, 1979. The agreement ended the seven-year existence of the WHA and re-established the NHL as the lone major league in North American professional ice hockey.


1979 NHL expansion
The two leagues had discussed the possibility of merging for numerous years, despite the acrimonious relationship between the two after the WHA aggressively recruited NHL players upon the former's founding in 1971. The two sides came close to an agreement in 1977, but the proposed merger was defeated by a group of hard-line NHL owners. The NHL also initially rejected the 1979 expansion agreement by one vote. However, a massive boycott of Molson products in Canada led the Montreal Canadiens, who were owned by the Molson family, to reverse their position in a second vote along with the Vancouver Canucks, allowing the plan to pass.


1979 NHL expansion
Although popularly called the NHL-WHA merger, the NHL refused to recognize the WHA's records or history as being any part of its own, and explicitly treated the WHA teams' arrival not as a merger but rather as an expansion consisting of four new teams which happened to have identical or similar names to some of the former WHA teams. The existing NHL teams were given the right to reclaim players from the WHA clubs without compensation, although each of the new NHL franchises were permitted to keep two goaltenders and two skaters from their WHA rosters.


1979 NHL expansion
An expansion draft was then held to stock the four new NHL teams. The expansion teams were also placed at the end of the draft order for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, as opposed to typical expansion teams in North American sports leagues which are usually placed at or very near the front of the draft order.


1979 NHL expansion, Background
Since the demise of the Western Canada Hockey League in 1926, the NHL had existed as the only major professional North American ice hockey league. After dwindling to the Original Six in 1942, the NHL remained stable until the 1960s.


1979 NHL expansion, Background
Following speculation that the Western Hockey League intended to declare itself a major league, the NHL was entertaining serious expansion discussions by 1963, culminating four years later with the addition of six new teams for the 1967–68 NHL season; this sparked the first significant expansion period for the league that continued until it had tripled in size to 18 teams in 1974.


1979 NHL expansion, Background
The WHA was founded in 1971 with ten teams, and intended to operate as a direct competitor to the NHL. By its inaugural season, 67 NHL players had defected to the new league. Former Chicago Black Hawks star Bobby Hull lent immediate credibility to the fledgling circuit when he signed a 10-year contract with the Winnipeg Jets for $2.7 million, the largest in hockey history at the time. The NHL attempted in court to block the defections, earning an injunction against the Jets that initially prevented several players, including Hull, from playing in the WHA.


1979 NHL expansion, Background
The new league challenged the orders, stating that the NHL's reserve clause, which tied players' rights to their NHL team for life, was illegal. A Philadelphia district court sided with the WHA in November 1972, ruling that the reserve clause violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, freeing all players to play in the WHA. The ruling ended the NHL's monopoly on talent.


1979 NHL expansion, Background
Since hockey salaries were among the lowest in professional sports at the time, a key part of the WHA's business plan was to place franchises in midsized Canadian markets, including the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Nationals and Quebec Nordiques who played in cities the NHL had repeatedly rejected for expansion franchises but which the WHA thought could sustain major professional hockey teams.


1979 NHL expansion, Background
The WHA also challenged the older league more directly by placing teams in NHL markets, including the Philadelphia Blazers (Philadelphia Flyers), Vancouver Blazers (Vancouver Canucks), Toronto Toros (Toronto Maple Leafs), and Chicago Cougars (Chicago Black Hawks), among others. The WHA's existence prompted the NHL to hastily expand to Atlanta and Long Island in 1972 to keep the rival loop out of the newly completed Omni Coliseum and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum; the teams were christened as the Flames and Islanders, respectively.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
Merger talks between the two leagues had been ongoing since 1973, when NHL governors Bill Jennings of the New York Rangers and Ed Snider of the Philadelphia Flyers unsuccessfully approached the WHA and offered to have all 12 of its franchises join the NHL for $4 million each. Attempts at reconciliation were frequently blocked by Toronto's Harold Ballard, Chicago's Bill Wirtz, and Boston's Paul A. Mooney, owners of the three NHL teams most affected by the WHA's player raids.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
By 1976, however, both leagues were struggling under the financial pressures of competing against each other on the ice and in the courtroom. Bobby Hull had become an outspoken proponent of a merger between the two leagues, though Gordie Howe (the NHL's all-time scoring leader-turned-WHA player) and WHA president Bill MacFarland disagreed, arguing that the WHA was sustainable indefinitely.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
Long-time NHL President Clarence Campbell was fiercely opposed to any union between the two leagues, saying, "They're our rivals. They were people that did their best to destroy us. Why would we salvage them now? To hell with them." Despite this animosity, some NHL teams agreed to play preseason exhibition games against WHA opponents prior to the 1974–75 season. Campbell ordered this interleague play halted in 1975, but the following year, the NHL president (who by this time was facing both declining health and personal scandal) relented and interleague exhibition games resumed, although a few NHL clubs, including Montreal and Toronto, continued to boycott them.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
Campbell retired in 1977, and his successor, John Ziegler (the NHL's first American chief executive), was more open to unification. Under Ziegler's presidency, interleague exhibition games became more common, eventually involving every NHL team except Los Angeles, Buffalo, Toronto, and Montreal. Merger negotiations also intensified, and continued to be conducted openly. The American teams were far less hostile to the idea of a merger than their Canadian counterparts. There were a number of reasons for this, but probably the most compelling was the Montreal Canadiens' dominance of the NHL during the years of the WHA's existence.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
The Canadiens won five of the seven Stanley Cups during this time, including four in a row from 1976 through 1979. The 1976–77 Canadiens in particular are widely considered to be the most dominant team in NHL history.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
Montreal owed this success in large part to its ability to better resist WHA efforts to lure away its players (a notable exception being J.C. Tremblay, who left the Canadiens to play for the WHA's Quebec Nordiques), and many American teams believed they were able to do this because Canadian Hockey Night in Canada television revenues were mostly distributed among the three Canadian teams instead of across the league. Hence, adding Canadian teams would lessen the financial advantage that teams like the Canadiens had. Also, both NHL and WHA owners realized that the Canadian markets were a vital economic base, both to the WHA and any future rival league that might take its place. Absorbing the Canadian markets would therefore preclude the possibility of the NHL having to fight off another rival league.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
However, American support for a merger was based on the assumption that all existing NHL teams would share the expansion fees equally; this did not go over well with the league's Canadian owners. The objection was not without precedent; in 1970, Montreal and Toronto had only agreed to support Vancouver's addition to the NHL after they were paid indemnities for the inclusion of the Canucks in the Hockey Night in Canada television deal. Although the three Canadian teams could not block any agreement on their own, the fact that any deal needed three-quarters support among the NHL owners meant that the Canadian teams only needed two American clubs to side with them to block any agreement.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
In June 1977, Ziegler announced that the NHL had created a committee to investigate the possibility of a merger, while Bill DeWitt, Jr., owner of the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers, stated that Ziegler had invited six WHA teams to join the NHL for the 1977–78 season if various conditions could be met. This proposal would have seen the six teams become full NHL members, but play in their own division with a separate schedule for the first year.


1979 NHL expansion, Merger talks
Led by Toronto's Harold Ballard, the owners voted down Ziegler's proposal. The Calgary Cowboys, who had hoped to be one of the six teams to join the NHL, subsequently folded, as did the Phoenix Roadrunners, Minnesota Fighting Saints, and San Diego Mariners. This reduced the WHA to eight teams for the 1977–78 WHA season, and left its long-term future in doubt.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
The intense competition between the leagues did not leave the NHL unscathed. The Pittsburgh Penguins filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and nearly moved to Seattle before they found stable ownership with shopping mall magnate Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., a native of nearby Youngstown, Ohio who decided to keep the team in Pittsburgh (DeBartolo would later go on to own the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL).


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
The California Golden Seals and Kansas City Scouts were not as lucky, as both teams would move for 1976, with the Golden Seals becoming the Cleveland Barons and the Scouts the Colorado Rockies after only two years in Kansas City. By 1978 it faced the possibility of two of its teams (the Minnesota North Stars and Barons) folding. Ziegler was able to mitigate the damage by arranging a merger between the two clubs; the Barons remain the most recent example of an American professional sports team in an established major league ceasing operations.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
Negotiations resumed in 1978, and it again appeared that the Houston Aeros, as one of the league's strongest teams, were an obvious candidate to join the NHL. Unfortunately for Houston, by this time Ziegler realized NHL owners would never vote to admit six teams, and floated a proposal that would admit four WHA franchises. The WHA responded by insisting that all three of its Canadian teams be admitted to the NHL. This left room for only one American team, with the only serious contenders for that spot being the Aeros and Whalers.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
Aeros owner Kenneth Schnitzer attempted to persuade Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs to support the agreement that included the Aeros and not the Bruins' neighbors based in Hartford, only to find that Jacobs, as one of the older league's most hard-line owners, was opposed to any sort of merger with the WHA and that Ziegler was cool to the idea of adding another Sun Belt NHL team. Of the three Sun Belt teams that had joined the league since 1967, one (the Golden Seals) had already relocated and two (the Los Angeles Kings and Atlanta Flames) were struggling financially.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
During the final series of talks, it soon became evident that no merger of any sort would take place in time for the 1978-79 NHL season. It was also apparent that when there was a merger, the Aeros were not likely to be included. Schnitzer announced that the Aeros would not take part in the 1978-79 WHA season, bringing the league down to seven teams. He first applied for direct admission to the NHL, only to find the older league uninterested in such an expansion with so many of its existing franchises struggling.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
Finally, Schnitzer campaigned to be allowed to purchase an existing club and relocate it to Houston. The obvious candidate to move was the Barons (the former Seals), who were on the verge of folding. Schnitzer believed the older league would accept almost any other proposal as an alternative to the perceived embarrassment of having to disband a franchise, and did come close to a deal to relocate the moribund Barons franchise to Houston.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
However, the NHL instead opted to approve a proposal from George and Gordon Gund (the owners of the Barons) to buy the North Stars franchise and "merge" it with their own. Having run out of options, Schnitzer folded the Aeros on July 9, 1978. In doing so, the Aeros became the only WHA champion that did not eventually join the NHL.


1979 NHL expansion, 1978 revised agreement
Discussion between the two leagues intensified into the 1978–79 season, when the WHA made an offer to have five teams join the NHL the following year, paying $5 million each for the right to join. Although the WHA offer was not accepted, Ziegler was encouraged, stating that owners were beginning to view the negotiations from a business standpoint rather than an emotional one. The WHA saw the Indianapolis Racers fold after only 25 games, reducing the league further to six teams, the lowest in league history.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Six teams was widely seen as the absolute minimum to maintain a viable and credible league, and with the WHA facing financial difficulty and struggling to meet payrolls, the Racers' demise left the floundering league's players and fans in doubt as to whether the league would even finish the season. However, the Racers left the league with a key piece of leverage when flamboyant owner Nelson Skalbania signed 17-year-old superstar Wayne Gretzky to a lucrative personal services contract.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
At the time, the NHL did not permit the signing of players under 20, nor did it allow its owners to sign players to anything except standard NHL contracts, but the WHA had no rules barring such signings. Skalbania signed Gretzky to a personal services contract so that he would retain the rights to the teenaged superstar even if the WHA folded outright, as he believed that anyone who owned the highly-touted Gretzky's rights would at the very least be able to secure an NHL franchise for himself in exchange.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Gretzky only played eight games for the Racers. Skalbania ultimately could not meet his obligations (thus leading to his team's demise) and opted to sell Gretzky's contract to Oilers owner Peter Pocklington. Unlike Skalbania, Pocklington was better financed at the time and owned a team that was much better supported and thus reasonably stable by WHA standards, and certain to be included in any expansion or merger.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The two leagues reached an agreement in March 1979 to grant expansion franchises in four WHA cities, pending ratification by the NHL's owners. The NHL originally wanted to take in the New England Whalers, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers. The owners of the Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls were resigned to their exclusion from the NHL, but the Quebec Nordiques fought the proposal. The NHL's American teams were less enthusiastic about including Quebec than they were about Edmonton and Winnipeg, and Ziegler thought that the Canadiens might be persuaded to support an agreement that excluded the Nordiques.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Nevertheless, the WHA insisted on NHL franchises for all three of its surviving Canadian markets and Ziegler finally agreed to put the matter to a vote of the NHL's Board of Governors. At a March 8, 1979 meeting in Key Largo, Florida, 12 of the 17 owners supported the proposal – one short of the required three-fourths majority (13 teams out of 17 would have represented 76.5% of the league, just past the threshold stipulated in the NHL constitution to grant expansion franchises. As the initial vote stood, it only represented 70.6%). The five teams that voted against the agreement were the Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Los Angeles Kings.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The five teams that cast a "no" ballot did so for different reasons. The Bruins were not pleased with the prospect of sharing New England with the Whalers, while the Canadiens were even less enamored with having to share the province of Quebec with the Nordiques. The Canadiens, Canucks, and Maple Leafs disliked the idea of having to split Hockey Night in Canada revenues six ways rather than three, while the Canucks and Kings feared the loss of dates with NHL teams from the east. Maple Leafs' owner Ballard had a personal grudge as well; he had never forgiven the WHA for plundering his roster in the early 1970s.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The Canadiens were owned by Molson Brewery, and when news emerged that the Canadiens had voted against the deal, fans in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec City organized a boycott of Molson products, believing that Molson was standing in the way of their cities remaining big-league hockey towns. The boycott quickly spread nationwide. It caused a drain on the Canucks' revenue as well, since Pacific Coliseum sold Molson products. The House of Commons of Canada weighed in as well, unanimously passing a motion urging the NHL to reconsider.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
A second vote was held in Chicago on March 22, 1979, which passed by a 14–3 margin as both Montreal and Vancouver reversed their positions. Both teams' hands were forced by the boycott, and the Canucks were also won over by the promise of a balanced schedule, with each team playing the others twice at home and twice on the road.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The agreement resulted in the Oilers, Whalers, Nordiques, and Jets joining the NHL for the 1979–80 NHL season. However, the NHL insisted on treating the WHA teams' arrival as an expansion, not a merger.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The WHA teams each had to pay a $6 million franchise fee for the right to enter the NHL – however, since this was nominally the same fee paid by all of the other teams that joined the NHL in the 1970s (a decade of high inflation), the financial terms of the agreement were nominally quite favorable to the WHA although some of the teams that joined earlier in the decade received concessions on their fees.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The two remaining WHA teams, the Stingers and Bulls, were paid $1.5 million apiece in parachute payments and joined the Central Hockey League, the league-owned minor league, for one season each. The Stingers folded after 33 games; the Bulls played two full seasons before folding. Major pro hockey has yet to return to Cincinnati or Birmingham, though the NHL did place teams in the nearby markets of Columbus and Nashville in the late 1990s.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
The rest of the agreement was slanted heavily in the NHL's favour. The NHL held a reclamation draft for the established clubs, in which nearly all of the players who had bolted from the NHL and were still active in the WHA saw their rights revert to their NHL clubs without compensation. The WHA clubs were thus stripped of nearly all of their players; for all intents and purposes, they were effectively dissolved and had to rebuild their rosters from scratch.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
However, in one of the few concessions to the WHA teams, they were allowed to protect two goalies and two skaters.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Some less formal exceptions were also made, in particular for aging players: hockey legends Gordie Howe and Dave Keon of the Whalers was allowed to remain with the Whalers rather than report to the Red Wings and Maple Leafs respectively while Bobby Hull was allowed to remain with the Jets rather than report to the Black Hawks - in an ironic twist of fate Hull would later be traded from Winnipeg to the Whalers and play on the same line as Howe and Keon during the 1979-80 season.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Even more controversial was the NHL's insistence that the four new teams be placed at the bottom of the order for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. Historically, the NHL slots expansion teams at or near the top in an entry draft. In what was not a complete coincidence, the NHL also lowered the draft age to nineteen, effectively doubling the size and depth of the talent pool in the 1979 draft.


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Ostensibly, this was done in exchange for the Oilers being allowed to retain Gretzky as a priority selection, which unexpectedly became an issue after Gretzky made it clear he was not interested in voiding his personal services contract only to return the junior ranks or join the floundering Colorado Rockies (who would have presumably drafted Gretzky with the first overall pick had they been given the opportunity).


1979 NHL expansion, Final agreement
Gretzky was still only eighteen years old at the time but was allowed to join the NHL with the Oilers on account of his professional experience, as a player joining from another professional league he was deemed ineligible for the league's Calder Memorial Trophy awarded each year to the league's top rookie.