Loyola Ramblers men's basketball

Loyola Ramblers men's basketball
2024–25 Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team
UniversityLoyola University Chicago
First season1914 (1914)
All-time record1,317–1,151 (.534)
Head coachDrew Valentine (4th season)
ConferenceAtlantic 10
LocationChicago, Illinois
ArenaJoseph J. Gentile Arena
(capacity: 4,486)
NicknameRamblers
Student sectionThe Pack
ColorsMaroon and gold
   
Uniforms
Home
Away
NCAA tournament champions
1963
Other NCAA tournament results
Final Four1963, 2018
Elite Eight1963, 2018
Sweet Sixteen1963, 1964, 1985, 2018, 2021
Appearances1963, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1985, 2018, 2021, 2022
Conference tournament champions
1985, 2018, 2021, 2022
Conference regular-season champions
1980, 1983, 1985, 1987, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2024

The Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team represents Loyola University Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The Ramblers participate as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Ramblers joined the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013, and stayed until 2022. Prior to 2013, the team had spent 34 seasons as a charter member of the Horizon League.

In 1963, Loyola won the 1963 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (then the "NCAA University Division") men's basketball national championship under the leadership of All-American Jerry Harkness, defeating two-time defending champion Cincinnati 60–58 in overtime in the title game. All five starters for the Ramblers played the entire championship game without substitution.

Surviving team members were honored on July 11, 2013, at the White House to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their victory. The entire team was inducted in November of that year in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. As of 2025, Loyola remains the only school from the state of Illinois to win a men's Division I basketball NCAA tournament. Loyola's first-round regional victory over Tennessee Tech on March 11, 1963, remains a record for margin of victory (69 points) for any NCAA men's basketball tournament game.

The team gained national publicity again in 2018, as a result of both their Cinderella Story-esque performance in the tournament, in which they upset numerous teams to reach the Final Four as an 11-seed, tying for the lowest seed ever to do so, and the cultural popularity of their team chaplain, the then-98-year-old nun Sister Jean.

As of February 17, 2021, the team had achieved its highest Kenpom ranking ever, at number nine in the country, with the number one ranked defense.