The Maroons history in basketball dates to the 1893-94 season in which an organized team representing the university played a schedule of games primarily against YMCA opponents.

However, during the 1895-96 season the team added a head coach named Horace Butterworth.

The most notable event during the 1895-96 season for the Maroons was being a part of the first five-on-five college basketball game played in United States history.

[4] The game was played at Iowa City with the Maroons finishing victorious by a score of 15–12.

[5] Childs would coach the Maroons through the 1905–06 season, turning the position over to Joseph Raycroft who would guide the team to four Big Ten Conference championships (then known as the Western Conference), and 1907, 1908, and 1909 teams were all retroactively named national champions by the Helms Athletic Foundation;[6] his 1909 team was also retroactively named the national champion by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.