| National championship game | |||||||||||||
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| Date | March 30, 1981 | ||||||||||||
| Venue | The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||
| Referees | Ken Lauderdale, Lou Moser, & Booker Turner[1] | ||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||
| Announcers | Dick Enberg, Billy Packer, and Al McGuire | ||||||||||||
The 1981 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game took place on March 30, 1981, between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Indiana Hoosiers at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The matchup was the final one of the forty-third consecutive NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship single-elimination tournament — commonly referred to as the NCAA Tournament — organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is used to crown a national champion for men's basketball at the Division I level.[2]
Because of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, there was talk of postponing or cancelling the title game; but once NCAA officials learned that Reagan had made it through surgery and would survive his injuries, the game was played as scheduled.[3] Howard Cosell criticized the NCAA for not postponing the game due to the Reagan assassination attempt.
Indiana defeated North Carolina by a 63–50 score to win their second national title in six years and fourth overall. As of 2024, this remains the only time a team from the Big Ten defeated an ACC team in the championship game.
The 1980–81 season was the last before the NCAA began sponsoring a championship for Division I women's basketball. All future NCAA men's tournaments and championship games would include "Men's" in their official titles.
- ^ "The Final Four" (PDF). 2014 NCAA Men's Final Four Records. NCAA. 2014. p. 20. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
- ^ Hager 2012, p. 21.
- ^ "Indiana, UNC meet 35 years after Reagan shooting jeopardized title game". FoxSports.com. 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2017.