Miami Hurricane's Winning Streak

[Kirijax]

Was looking at something else when I saw it mentioned that the Miami Hurricanes had college tennis' longest winning streak at 137 wins between 1955 to 1964. If they had such a long winning streak, why don't they have a national championship. I looked at the NCAA's list of champions and the best I could find for the Hurricanes were runner-up finishes in 1965 and 1975. Does anyone know more about this "longest winning streak?"

[gavna]

Well they would dominate during the regular season - then once in he NCAA tourny run into a west coast team like USC, UCLA or Stamford and get their heads handed to them. You didn't have as much if any cross country travel and the Canes just ran through all the weaker east coast and southern teams.

[Kirijax]

Originally Posted by gavna

Well they would dominate during the regular season - then once in he NCAA tourny run into a west coast team like USC, UCLA or Stamford and get their heads handed to them. You didn't have as much if any cross country travel and the Canes just ran through all the weaker east coast and southern teams.

Both NCAA finals were after the winning streak and both were losses to UCLA. So I can see how they would not have been able to beat the Cali teams. The Miami Hurricanes were did not meet the west coast tennis teams and did not get enough points to win the title (They came in 4th several times). Does anyone know exactly how the NCAA title was decided back in the 50s and 60s? So little info is out there about this.

[gavna]

Well back then they played 6 singles and the 3 doubles with the first to 5 winning the meet. Singles played first then the dubs - Not sure exactly how many teams were invited to the championships in the spring but I'm sure it was around 12 to 16 teams based on conference champions (Southwest, Big Ten, PAC Ten....etc) back then Miami were independent and not affiliated with any Conf I believe.

[volstennis]

Back then, the NCAA Team Championship was determined by performance in the NCAA singles and doubles tournaments. So, if you were a team with a few really good singles players, you were golden. I'm not exactly sure how the points were added up. That's how the SEC tournament was for a long long time too, until 1990.

The team format for NCAAs did not emerge until 1979, I think. At that time, only 16 teams played in the team tournament.

[ClarkC]

Originally Posted by gavna

Well they would dominate during the regular season - then once in he NCAA tourny run into a west coast team like USC, UCLA or Stamford and get their heads handed to them. You didn't have as much if any cross country travel and the Canes just ran through all the weaker east coast and southern teams.

This answer makes no sense. Their winning streak would come to an end every season under this scenario, and would never reach 157.

Originally Posted by gavna

Well back then they played 6 singles and the 3 doubles with the first to 5 winning the meet. Singles played first then the dubs - Not sure exactly how many teams were invited to the championships in the spring but I'm sure it was around 12 to 16 teams based on conference champions (Southwest, Big Ten, PAC Ten....etc) back then Miami were independent and not affiliated with any Conf I believe.

Nope, that is not how they played back then in the NCAA tourney, nor would it help Miami run up a decade-long winning streak. Perhaps it is best not to answer if you don't know the answer, as it just confuses the issue.

As volstennis indicated, this was a dual-match winning streak, and the NCAA tournament was not based on dual matches in the 1955-1964 time frame.

[JLyon]

sounds like NCAA's back then was similar to what the JUCO's use now.

[Kirijax]

Does anyone else have any knowledge of the system back then? Really curious about how Miami managed to extend their streak without having to face any of the CA teams.

[ClarkC]

Originally Posted by Kirijax

Does anyone else have any knowledge of the system back then? Really curious about how Miami managed to extend their streak without having to face any of the CA teams.

Did you not understand the explanation that volstennis gave?

The basic idea is that players played in the NCAA tournament as individuals. The scoring system was such that a first round win counted as so many points towards your team's total score, a second-round win counted more, etc. So, the team champion had a lot of good players scoring points for them, but there were no dual matches in the NCAA tournament.

[Kirijax]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

Did you not understand the explanation that volstennis gave?

The basic idea is that players played in the NCAA tournament as individuals. The scoring system was such that a first round win counted as so many points towards your team's total score, a second-round win counted more, etc. So, the team champion had a lot of good players scoring points for them, but there were no dual matches in the NCAA tournament.

I didn't realize I was supposed to be satisfied with one answer. Lots of people have different knowledge about what it was like back then and I'm interested in hearing about it. Not too hard to figure out.

Anyway, thanks for the additional input.

[coaching32yrs]

Miami had one of nation's longest winning streaks, pro or college. The longest sports wiinning streak in pro or college history was broken earlier this year. Trinity College squash won 252 consecutive matches. Back in the day many tennis players also played squash. Trinity coach played both and currently coaches both, as he did earlier in his career at West Point.