The first NCAA tournament, held in 1939, was an eight-team field that Oregon won after winning by double-digits in all three games. The "Tall Firs" beat Texas, 56-41, and Oklahoma, 55-37, in San Francisco before facing Ohio State in the final, held in Evanston, Illinois. Oregon won, 46-33. UO's 6-foot-4 junior post John Dick, who later became a Navy admiral, led both teams with 13 points. Ford "Moon" Mullen was the last surviving member of the title team until his death in 2013. A 2011 obituary of Dick captured the scene of Oregon's return home to Eugene as NCAA champions:

In a time when teams traveled by train and basketball inventor James Naismith attended the first championship game, Dick and the rest of the "Tall Firs" -- nicknamed for their towering front line -- proved to skeptics that college basketball could thrive on the West Coast.

Oregon's team so captivated the Northwest that as players made the trip home from the championship site in Chicago, Dick's family and friends in The Dalles collected 25-cent donations to buy him the best gold watch in town, wrote the late Brian Meehan of The Oregonian.

After raising $75 for the engraved Hamilton watch, organizers demanded that Union Pacific Railroad stop the train for a ceremony in The Dalles. At first, the railroad didn't oblige.

"They ended up talking to the president of the railroad and told him, 'If you will not stop this train, we will simply barricade the tracks,'" Dick said in a 2008 interview with Meehan. "They were not fooling around. ... The railroad president shot back: 'I'll give you 10 minutes.'"

About 2,500 people showed up before 6 a.m. for the ceremony, inspiring the hometowns of the other players to follow suit.

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The Oregonian

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Six years after Oregon's first and only NCAA title, coach John Warren (above, middle) returned the program to the eight-team tournament by winning five of the last six games in the regular season and conference playoff. UO opened with a loss to Arkansas, 79-76, in Kansas City, before winning a regional third-place game against Utah, 69-66.

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The Oregonian archives

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The tournament had expanded to 25 teams upon Oregon's third NCAA tournament appearance in 1960, and UO (with Charlie Warren, pictured) stayed close to home for the first round, beating New Mexico State, 68-60 in Corvallis. From there, Oregon beat Utah, 65-54, in Seattle, before losing to Cal, the eventual national runner-up, 70-49, in the West Region final.

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The Oregonian, 1962

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While Oregon's 81-79 loss to USC in Portland ended the Ducks' stay quickly, their appearance in consecutive tournaments was nonetheless noteworthy: Not until 2003 would UO again play in back-to-back NCAA tournaments. (Above: Charlie Warren and Oregon coach Steve Belko display the game ball presented to the Duck basketball star in 1962 after he had cracked the school three-year career scoring record.)

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Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Oregonian, 1995

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Oregon's 34-year absence from the NCAA tournament ended in 1995 after Oregon won 19 games, its most in 17 seasons. In the time between UO's appearances, the tournament field had expanded from 24 teams to 64. Coach Jerry Green led Oregon to a first-round matchup against Texas in Salt Lake City, but after UO's decades-long NCAA wait, its stay was brief. Eleventh-seeded Texas blew out sixth-seeded Oregon, 90-73. Orlando Williams scored 23 points to lead the Ducks in the loss, and Kenya Wilkins dished nine assists, which still stands as a single-game tournament record at UO.

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Alex Horvath

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In coach Ernie Kent's third season at Oregon, the Ducks made the field as a seventh seed, where they played Seton Hall in Buffalo. Just as in 1995, UO was upset in the first round, with the Pirates winning 72-71 in overtime. Oregon shot 40.3 percent and couldn't stop Seton Hall's Shaheen Holloway on offense, who had a game-high 27 points, or future NBA pro Samuel Dalembert on defense, with his 12 rebounds and six blocks. A.D. Smith's 17 points led UO, who finished the season 22-8.

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MORRY GASH

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To cap a season in which UO won its first outright conference title in 63 years, the Ducks made their deepest run in the tournament in 42 years. Seeded second in the Midwest, Oregon began in Sacramento and beat Montana in the first round and seventh-seeded Wake Forest in the second, with point guard Luke Ridnour hitting a then-UO record seven three-pointers against the Demon Deacons. From there, Oregon edged sixth-seeded Texas, 72-70, before taking on top-seeded Kansas in the regional final in Madison, Wisconsin, losing 104-86. The Ducks trailed by six at halftime before the Jayhawks widened the lead in the second half. Freddy Jones scored 32 points in the loss, which still stands as the second-most points scored by a Duck in an NCAA tournament game. With 26 wins, Oregon finished with its most victories since 1945.

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ERIC GAY/AP

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At 23-9 entering the NCAA tournament, Oregon earned the eighth seed in the Midwest to earn back-to-back invites for the first time since 1961. It was quickly bounced by Utah, 60-58, in Nashville, marking the fourth time UO lost its opening-round game in the tournament by three or fewer points. Luke Jackson and Luke Ridnour combined for 27 points and 12 rebounds, but also eight turnovers in the loss, which came despite Utah's 29.5 percent shooting.

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Sol Neelman

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Oregon's appearance in the 2007 tournament, which ended with an 85-77 loss to eventual national champ and top-seeded Florida, will most likely be remembered for freshman guard Tajuan Porter's shooting display from distance throughout UO's four games. Porter's 33 points against UNLV in the Sweet 16 remain a program record in the tournament. After being held scoreless for nearly the first 12 minutes against UNLV, Porter scored 17 points in the final eight minutes before halftime.

From The Oregonian's 2007 recap of the win: (Porter) became the first player to hit eight three-pointers in the NCAA regionals since Iowa State's Dedric Willoughby in 1997 against UCLA. Three others --Glen Rice, Bo Kimble and Cuonzo Martin --share the record. The tournament record is 10, by former UNLV player Freddie Banks in the Final Four of 1987.

Porter has 108 three-pointers this season --third most by a freshman in NCAA history. His 502 points is an Oregon freshman record, and his 54.2 three-point percentage in the tournament is the best of any player with at least 20 attempts.

Third-seeded Oregon had opened the tournament with wins against Miami of Ohio and Winthrop in Spokane before beating UNLV and falling to Florida — a game in which Porter couldn't regain his touch and shot 2-of-12 from deep -- in St. Louis. UO finished 29-8.

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Sue Ogrocki

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Playing in the South Regional in Little Rock, Arkansas, ninth-seeded Oregon came out energized and led by as many as 13 points just after halftime ... until a second-half malaise set in. Oregon was outscored by 17 points after halftime in a 76-69 loss to Mississippi State. The Ducks missed 17 consecutive three-point shots and shot just 2-of-21 after halftime. It would be Ernie Kent's final NCAA tournament as UO coach and the Ducks wouldn't return to the Big Dance for five years.

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Bruce Ely/The Oregonian

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Dana Altman's third season at Oregon produced a surprising trip to the Sweet 16 after upset (and blowout) wins against fifth-seeded Oklahoma State and fourth-seeded Saint Louis. The Ducks ran into top-seeded Louisville, the eventual national champion, and the Cardinals' pressure forced UO into a 77-69 loss in Indianapolis in the Midwest Regional semifinal. The tournament began UO's current streak of five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances under Altman.

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Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

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Oregon scrambled just to make the 2014 tournament after beginning the Pac-12 slate 3-8. That improbable entrance to the field led to an improbable matchup: In an odd twist, Oregon opened against BYU, an opponent it had already beaten that season. The Ducks took out the Cougars, 87-68, in Milwaukee a second time before facing second-seeded Wisconsin in a de facto home game for the Badgers, who were playing barely an hour from their Madison campus. The loss was stomach-turning for the Ducks, who'd led by 12 points at halftime.

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Charlie Neibergall

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Familiar faces, and places, marked Oregon's third tournament under Dana Altman. Eighth-seeded UO played its opening round in the West Region in Omaha, where Altman coached at Creighton from 1994 until 2010. And after beating Oklahoma State in its opening game for the second time in three seasons, Oregon faced Wisconsin in the round of 32 for a second consecutive year, losing again, 72-65. Joseph Young's 30 points in the loss to the Badgers is third-most — behind Porter in 2007, and Jones in 2002 — in UO history in an NCAA tournament game.

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Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian/OregonLive

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Given one of the tournament's four top seeds for the first time in school history, Oregon routed Holy Cross by 39 and snuck by Saint Joseph's by five in Spokane to earn a trip to the Sweet 16, where it topped fourth-seeded Duke, 82-68, in Anaheim. That led to Oregon's sixth regional final appearance, where hot-shooting and second-seeded Oklahoma -- led by star guard Buddy Hield's 37 points on eight three-pointers -- stopped cold UO's bid for a Final Fourth berth, winning 80-68. The matchup with Oklahoma was a reunion for Altman and OU's Lon Kruger, who had hired Altman to his staff at Kansas State in 1987 before the two became close friends.