The 1939 NAIA basketball tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 3rd annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. This was also the year the NCAA basketball tournament was started.
This tournament also featured the lowest-scoring game in tournament history between Loras College (Iowa) and Central Missouri State University, the two-time champions. Loras scored a total of 16 points, a tournament low as well, Central Missouri State won the game with a total score of 20. The total combined score of the game was 36, resulting in the all-time lowest scoring game in tournament history.
New Mexico A&M and Mississippi College were selected for the tournament, but did not make the trip to Kansas City. They were replaced by Wayne State and Culver-Stockton respectively. Notre Dame had also been given an invite to compete, but because of scheduling conflicts, the Fighting Irish declined.
The championship game featured Southwestern (KS) defeat San Diego State by a score of 32-31. It would be the closest final score until the 1981 tournament which ended in overtime with a score of 86-85. (1939, 1981, and 2016 are the only three years a team has won by one point, to date.)
This year the NAIA awarded the first Chuck Taylor Most Valuable Player Award. The first award went to Edgar Hinshaw of Southwestern College
Many of the records set by the 1939 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later: