A Basketball Height Limit? FIBA, the 1936 Olympics, and the Ruling that Saved the Game

Abstract

An unusual topic of conversation arose at the inaugural Olympic basketball tournament in Berlin in 1936. After intense conversations and a series of votes, the nascent Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur (FIBA) established a rule on height limitations for all players. Strangely, however, no major international tournament ever occurred with a height limit, even though the majority of participating nations voted in the affirmative. Indeed, the failure to enforce this rule reveals the difficulties of basketball's early governance and the jurisdiction and power of the International Olympic Committee. Surprisingly, given its stature in basketball, the United States only played a minor role in this issue. As it turned out, the height limit topic continued to arise in the decades following this inaugural Olympic tournament, but tall players remained eligible, allowing the sport to slowly grow toward standardized if not perfectly uniform rules across the globe.