“I got it up and stuffed it in, that started it, I guess” – Bob Kurland recalls the first dunk in college basketball history originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The dunk is one of basketball’s most electrifying moves — a moment of dominance and flair. Today, it fuels highlights, swings momentum and can define a player. But it wasn’t always that way.
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The first recorded dunk in college basketball history came not as a spectacle, but as a regular play under the basket. Bob “Foothills” Kurland, a towering 7-footer from Oklahoma A&M (Oklahoma State) in the 1940s, who — almost by accident — helped change the course of the sport forever.
“The ball happened to be under the basket. I got it up and stuffed it in. That started it, I guess.” Kurland reflected.
Kurland’s first dunk didn’t come with publicity or purpose. As he later recalled, it was sort of an accident.
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An Accidental Revolution
At the time, basketball was still a game mostly played below the rim, and the dunk was a foreign skill to many players. Most of the players were vertically challenged guards, so dunking was a serious obstacle for them.
Kurland, nonetheless, was special. He was 7 feet tall, with surprising agility for his size, so he didn’t need to jump high to reach the rim. What seemed like an easy finish — dropping the ball through the hoop — soon became a movement.
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Other tall players began to follow the trend. Gradually, the dunk became a legitimate, high-percentage scoring method. His dominance and the dunk’s rising usage didn’t go unnoticed. Kurland led Oklahoma A&M to back-to-back NCAA championships in 1945 and 1946 and became a three-time All-American.
The Ban on Dunks
Ironically, the dunk’s growth eventually led to its ban, primarily due to dominant big men Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Due to his athletic abilities, he was able to dunk quite often and the NCAA wanted to limit him.
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In 1967, dunking was banned in college basketball, a rule widely believed to target Alcindor’s dominance at UCLA. It remained prohibited for the next nine years.
This decision, often called the “Lew Alcindor Rule,” highlighted how far the dunk had come since Kurland’s understated start. It was no longer an accident; it was now considered too adequate and disruptive a move that needed to be removed from the game to maintain balance.
Ironically, banning it only made fans want it more. When the NCAA reinstated the dunk in 1976, the players were ready to display their dunks in a new era of athleticism that continues today.
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Kurland didn’t set out to make history with a dunk. He wasn’t trying to start a revolution or reshape how basketball was played. But in that spontaneous moment under the basket, he unknowingly sparked one of the most influential developments in basketball.
Today, the dunk is more than just two points — it’s a statement. And every time a player throws one down, they mirror Kurland’s first gutsy dunk. He may not have meant to change the game, but he did just that in stuffing the ball through the hoop.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
