“In 1944, the NCAA tournament hosted its second non-white player, but only by chance, when the University of Utah, after losing in the first round of the NIT, stepped in for Arkansas at the last minute. Traveling with one of their two Japanese-American players, Wat Misaka, the Utes won the entire NCAA tournament—the “Misaka moment.”

I’m surprised first of all that college basketball was still going during the war, and that given prejudices at the time that Japanese players were on a roster. Also interesting that Utah was nearly the first racially integrated team.

Kind of a cool story we don’t hear of much at BYU apparently.

https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-integration-of-college-hoops-came-through-many#:~:text=Loads%20of%20college%20basketball%20teams,the%20use%20of%20Black%20players.