General information on basketball at Harvard

The Harvard Crimson men's and women's basketball teams compete in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Home games are played at the Lavietes Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts.

James A. Naismith created the game of basketball at Springfield College in 1891. His goal was to create a competitive sport to complement gymnastics, which dominated indoor winter sports at the time. Several universities, including Yale and Princeton, succeeded with the new sport. Harvard basketball began in 1900 when John Kirkland Clark (LLB 1902), a Harvard Law School student, introduced the game to the school. Clark, who captained the Yale basketball team of 1898-1899, served as captain and coach of the first Harvard basketball team. The new squad received official recognition from the Harvard Athletic Committee on December 7, 1900. The basketball team had mixed success in its first few seasons, while the game itself was subject to criticism because it had developed a reputation for excessive violence. At the time, the sport was considered a conditioner for football players during the offseason. The rough-and-tumble brand of basketball played on the court, a lack of day games, limited fan attendance, and poor practice facilities led the Harvard Athletic Committee to abolish intercollegiate basketball at Harvard in 1909.

During the subsequent decade, basketball gained nationwide popularity, and University officials reconstituted the sport at Harvard. In the fall of 1919, the Athletic Committee voted to organize a freshman team. Inter-dormitory, inter-class, intra-University leagues, and the "Harvard informals," a team composed of upper-class players, were established. In 1920, basketball was recognized as a minor sport, and Harvard's first official season since basketball was discontinued in 1909 began. By 1928, more than 400 students were playing various levels of basketball at Harvard. Building on its success, basketball was formally added to the University's roster as its sixth major sport in 1937. A highlight of Harvard's basketball program in its early years was the 1945-1946 season when the team qualified for an NCAA tournament bid. Within the next few decades, the team had numerous chances to win the Ivy League title, and they did so in the 2011–12 season, when the team qualified for the NCCA tournament for the first time since the 1945-1946 season.

Women's basketball at Harvard (then Radcliffe College) was established in 1898. Initially, the team formed the Seven Sisters conference, including Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Barnard, and Smith colleges. A loosely arranged intercollegiate schedule remained in place until the 1960s when Harvard sponsored the women's varsity team in the 1974-1975 season. The women's team was highly successful, winning 11 Ivy League championships since 1986. The 2008-2009 squad won its 500th game on January 30, 2009, becoming the first school in Boston and the Ivy League to accomplish this feat. The women's team was the first Ivy League basketball team on either the men's or women's side to go undefeated during conference play. Additionally, the women's team is the first and only basketball program, men or women, to upset a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, defeating No. 1 Stanford University in the first NCAA tournament round on March 14, 1998.