Team USA will compete for its the 16^th gold medal later this week in the Tokyo Olympics, bringing to mind an historic story around the University of San Francisco's involvement with the United States Olympic Team.
 
Basketball became an official medal sport in 1936 after being played as an exhibition event in the 1904 Olympics. Legendary Dons' head coach Jimmy Needles served as the manager of Team USA's 1936 gold medal winning team.
 
Immediately upon getting to Berlin, Needles' leadership and management allowed Team USA to overcome several rule changes that FIBA instituted, all while navigating a tumultuous and historic Olympic Games.
 
Needles and Team USA had three primary issues to work through: rosters were limited to seven players in a game, no player could exceed 6-feet, 2-inches in height, and all games were played outdoors on clay and sand courts. Needles navigated the hurdles by splitting his team into two squads and alternating them for each match.
 
Team USA opened the games with a win via forfeit. Their scheduled opponent, Spain, was a no show due to their ongoing conflict in the Spanish Civil War. Team USA went on to defeat Estonia, the Philippines, and Mexico go advance to the Gold Medal game. The matchup against Canada was delayed a day as heavy rains made the court unplayable.  However, the weather aided the United States as the soggier court conditions slowed down Canada's trademark fast break paying style. Team USA went on to win the first Olympic Gold Medal in men's basketball, 19-8.
 
Dr. James Naismith, the man credited with inventing basketball, was on hand for these games, and helped award the medals at the end of the competition.
 
Prior to the inclusion of professionals, the Olympic games were played by amateurs. The United States would routinely send its top collegiate athletes, and there were no shortage of future starts that donned the stars and stripes. USF's own Bill Russell and K.C. Jones were among the amateur players who helped the USA reach the top of the podium. Fresh off back-to-back NCAA Championships, the duo led Team USA to a perfect 8-0 record at the 1956 Olympic Games held in Australia.
 
With Jones and Russell leading the charge, the 1956 team achieved something that even the famed 1992 "Dream Team" could not boast – Team USA defeated its opponents by an unsurpassed average margin of 53.5 points. The United States eclipsed the 100-point plateau four times in the games, culminating with a resounding 89-55 drubbing of the Soviet Union in the Gold Medal contest.
 
Russell led the Unites States in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game, while shooting an absurd 47.9 percent from the field.  Jones finished fourth on the United States with 10.9 points per game and was 23-for-27 from the charity stripe.


(Photo of 1956 Team USA courtesy of FIBA Basketball)
 
In 1960, the Dons once again had their imprint on the Olympic Squad. Former USF head coach Pete Newell, who was the head coach at Cal, led an Olympic Team that featured the likes of Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, and Jerry West. Team USA went 8-0 in the games that year, which were held in Rome, and won by an average of 42.4 points per game.
 
Team USA will once again go for gold on Friday evening when the United States takes on France.