The Oklahoma City Stars men's basketball team is the basketball team that represents Oklahoma City University (OCU) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States.  The school's team currently competes in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

History
Oklahoma City competed in NCAA Division I for many years, and the program was especially noted for its success under coaches Doyle Parrack (1950–1955) and his successor Abe Lemons (1955–1973 and 1984–1990).  OCU appeared in eleven NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournaments.

In 1985, the school moved from the NCAA to the NAIA and has since won six national championships.

National championships

Tournament results

NCAA tournament results
The Chiefs appeared in 11 NCAA Division I basketball tournaments from 1952 to 1973, making them the most prolific tournament team that is no longer in Division I. Their record in tournaments was 8-13, giving them the second most wins of non-DI teams after New York University.

NIT results
The Chiefs played in the National Invitation Tournament twice.

NAIA results

Note: The NAIA shifted from national to regional seeds in 2016.

Frederickson Fieldhouse 
Frederickson Fieldhouse was an athletics facility on the campus of Oklahoma City University. It was built in honor of a major OCU benefactor George Frederickson of Oklahoma City. It was built by the John Henry Frederickson Jr. Construction company, also of Oklahoma City. John Frederickson was the General Contractor, and his son, Chris Frederickson, also worked on the job as a laborer. George Frederickson was the uncle of John Henry Frederickson Jr. In his gift to OCU,  George stipulated that the building should be built by his nephew, John Henry.

Frederickson Field House  facility was at the time of its construction (1959) the largest hyperbolic paraboloid structure on earth. The Frederickson construction company was in fact a pioneering company in the design and building of extremely thin-shell concrete buildings, of which Frederickson Field House was one. Another famous thin-shell concrete structure built by John Henry Frederickson was the First Christian Church, also in Oklahoma City. That building has an "eggshell" shaped roof that is actually thinner (in proportion) that a real eggshell.

The Frederickson Field house venue held 3,400 for basketball. Asked why the scoreboard at the Field House was the first one to have a three digit placement for the team scores, Abe Lemons, the coach at the time, said come to the first game and you will find out.  Teams rarely scored in the 100s at the time (late 1950s) but in the first game at the Field House OCU beat Florida State Univ by scoring 129 points in the game. The Chiefs (now the STARS, due to the OCU administration's caving in to political correctness) were to be one on the highest scoring teams in the country, scoring over 100 points a game on many occasions.  A Division I team the OCU teams were an Independent team until joining the Midwestern City Conference, now known as the Horizon League. OCU dropped to NAIA status in 1985. It was replaced with the more modern Henry J. Freede Wellness and Activities Center in 2000, and torn down in 2005.

References

External links