Chapter One
Back when the university was first started, Las Vegas was quite a different city than it is today. It was still a small town where virtually everyone knew each other. Gaming drove the economy exclusively, and those who started UNLV and its sports program knew they had to put an exciting basketball team on the court in order to compete with the excitement of the casinos.
In just a few years, players all over the country who didn’t even know who UNLV was, much less know anything about their basketball program, wanted to play for the team. It all began in 1951, when someone had a vision of creating a university in Southern Nevada. This notion had been a long time coming, as there had been an established university up north in Reno since the 1860s, with some classes being taught in Las Vegas as an extension.
By 1955 the stirrings became reality as the Board of Regents expanded the curriculum in Southern Nevada, laying the foundation for a separate school with its own identity. With the support of the local community, the regents were able to acquire 163 acres of land bordering Maryland Parkway, just south of the Las Vegas city limits.
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