INDIANAPOLIS – It’s been a while since the Wisconsin basketball team has brought home a national championship title to Madison.

In 1941, when Wisconsin defeated Washington State by a barn-burning score of 39-34 to win the national title, the average cost of a gallon of gas at the time was just 41 cents, you could buy a new house for $4,075 and a brand new car only set you back $850.

America’s favorite elephant, Dumbo, was on its way to movie theaters in October while the Chattanooga Choo Choo was spreading like wild fire across the country. And it’s no wonder why.

Seventy-four years ago the NCAA tournament itself was a new idea. The tournament was only in its third year of existence when the Badgers won the championship, and it had only eight teams participate.

Expectations weren’t too high for Wisconsin heading into the season. The Badgers had gone only 5-15 in the previous season.

Tickets for the 1940-41 season at the UW Field House were shockingly inexpensive. All 10 games on the side of the court cost $7.50 total while season tickets behind the basket, for the more common folk, were only $5.

And like the previous season, the Badgers did not start the 1940-41 season on the best note. Wisconsin went just 5-3 over the first eight games of the season with one of those wins coming on the road at Ripon College in the season opener.

The third loss of the season came in the Big Ten opener against Minnesota — a game in which the Badgers did not score a single field goal in the second half. The shot at a national championship seemed about as far away as the three-point line that did not exist.

But the tides turned in a hurry for the Badgers after the loss to the Gophers as the Badgers ran off with 12 consecutive wins to close out the regular season, finishing with a 17-3 record and taking first place in conference with an 11-1 mark in Big Ten play. The Big Ten title was Wisconsin’s first undisputed Big Ten title since 1918.

Led by Naismith Hall of Fame head coach Harold “Bud” Foster, Wisconsin continued its fury into the NCAA tournament that was made up of North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Arkansas, Creighton, Washington State, Dartmouth, Wyoming and Wisconsin.

The Big Green of Dartmouth awaited the Badgers in the opening round of the NCAA tournament at the UW Field House. Wisconsin narrowly escaped with a 51-50 win before knocking off Pittsburgh by a score of 36-30 at the Field House in the second round to advance to the national championship game against Washington State at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Wisconsin was an underdog against Washington State but a column in the Kansas City Star the day of the game provided the Badgers and all-American Gene Englund some extra motivation. The column was titled “Don’t go Cougar-hunting with a Badger”

“Reading the newspapers, it was as though we were only going to Kansas City for the train ride,” Englund said. “That riled me up.”

Englund, the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player who also set the Big Ten scoring record with 162 points that season, scored a team-high 13 points for Wisconsin against Washington State en route to a 39-34 win over the Cougars.

Neither team shot above 25 percent for the game as the Badgers shot just 23.9 percent as a team and the Cougars shot just 22.2 percent overall.

But nevertheless, Wisconsin brought home the first – and so far only – national championship in program history.

The game was much different back then, as the video below shows. If you were looking for a dunk contest, you probably weren’t going to find it there.

About 10-12,000 fans waited at the Northwestern railroad station for the Badgers to return to Madison. The team didn’t arrive until 1:20 a.m. on Monday morning. In a shocking move for the time, house mothers allowed female students to stay out for the event.

But now, 74 years later, Wisconsin has another shot at bringing home a national championship to Madison with a win over Duke in the national championship game on Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

A Badger win on Monday probably wouldn’t have people dancing to the Chattanooga Choo Choo in the middle of State Street, but it would certainly cause an all-night party with Jump Around blasting from every speaker across the state of Wisconsin.

Times have changed, but the ultimate goal for any college basketball team has remained the same — win a national championship — and in two days, Wisconsin could have its second championship in program history.

Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong final score of the 1941 championship game.