University of Notre Dame

 

Hesburgh Libraries

Rare Books & Special Collections

The Joyce Sports Research Collection: Basketball

What follows is a guide to some of the more significant materials pertaining to basketball held in Rare Books and Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame. It does not include basketball materials held elsewhere in the Hesburgh Libraries, or in Notre Dame's University Archives. Its purpose is to provide researchers with a convenient overview of Special Collections' resources in this subject area; it does not aspire to be comprehensive. Items listed in these finding aids do not circulate; they may be requested and consulted in Special Collections, 102 Hesburgh Library, from 9:30am to 4:30pm weekdays. Researchers interested in materials specifically relating to basketball at Notre Dame should contact University Archives, 607 Hesburgh Library.

Title or collection descriptions on this page are linked to records, inventories, and other appropriate types of finding aid. The dates that follow many of the annual and periodical titles on this page indicate the span of years a given title was published; available holdings are indicated in the linked finding aid. Questions concerning the materials on the page may be directed to the curator of the Joyce Sports Research Collection, Greg Bond.

Books

  • RBSC houses all the Libraries' earlier and scarcer sports related titles, including those with a bearing on basketball. Most of these volumes predate 1970. All may be searched in the Libraries' online catalog.

Annuals — guide format

  • Holdings of the Spalding (1900-1937/38) and AAHPER (1938/39- ) annual women's basketball guides. Both these annuals were aimed at physical educators, and consist primarily of rules, standards, and instructional material promulgated by the women's sections of organizations like the American Physical Education Association and the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

Annuals — magazine format

Yearbooks and media guides

Programs

  • A collection of about 2600 men's college basketball programs, dating for the most part from 1940 to 1975. Approximately 600 of these were produced for tournaments, doubleheaders, or other events involving four or more teams. Larger and smaller schools from all parts of the United States are represented, with some emphasis on institutions from California. A finding aid for these materials is pending.

  • A collection of around 1150 men's professional basketball game programs, mostly from the late 1940s, the 1950s and the 1960s. About one thousand of these involve teams from the National Basketball Association (1949/50- ), though a number of other leagues are represented as well, including the National Basketball League (1937/38-1948/49), the Basketball Association of America (1946/47-1948/49), and the American Basketball Association (1967/68-1975/76). Also included is a small group of All-Star Game programs from the NBA and ABA.

Special Collections

  • A small collection of items on the Harlem Globetrotters professional basketball team. Materials include promotional photographs and literature, game programs, and a collection of the team's annual yearbooks, complete from 1947/48 to 1971.