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- 1990 Goodwill Games
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- Abe Lemons
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1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same year since 1924, and place them in alternating even-numbered years, beginning in 1994. The 1992 Summer Games were the last to be staged in the same year as the Winter Games. Due to the end of the Cold War, these games were the first without boycotts since 1972.
Barcelona, the birthplace of then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, was selected over Amsterdam, Belgrade, Birmingham, Brisbane and Paris in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 17, 1986, during the 91st IOC Session. It had bid for the 1936 Summer Olympics, losing out to Berlin.
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
169 nations sent athletes to compete in these Games (the number of competitors for each country below is given in brackets). With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, twelve states formed a Unified Team, while the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had their own teams. For the first time, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina competed as independent nations after separation from Socialist Yugoslavia. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was banned due to UN sanctions, but individual Yugoslav athletes were allowed to take part as Independent Olympic Participants. It was also the first Olympics since 1964 that a unified Germany competed at the Olympics. This was the Olympic debut for Namibia and the unified team of Yemen, after several separate participations of North and South Yemen. South Africa returned to the Games after 32 years. Four National Olympic Committees didn't send their athletes to compete: Afghanistan, Brunei, Liberia and Somalia.
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Chicago
Chicago (
i/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in the US state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. The city has around 2.7 million residents. Its metropolitan area, sometimes called "Chicagoland", is the third largest in the United States, with an estimated 9.8 million people. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, though a small portion also extends into DuPage County.
Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, Chicago is listed as an alpha+ global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranks seventh in the world on the 2012 Global Cities Index. The city retains its status as an international hub for finance, industry, telecommunications and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements. In 2008[update], the city hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors. Among metropolitan areas, Chicago has the 4th largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, ranking just behind Tokyo, New York City, and Los Angeles. Chicago is one of the most important Worldwide Centers of Commerce and trade.
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Krzyzewskiville
Coordinates: 35°59′50″N 78°56′26″W / 35.99728°N 78.94049°W / 35.99728; -78.94049
Krzyzewskiville, or K-ville for short, is a phenomenon that occurs before major men's basketball games at Duke University. In simplest terms, it is the line for undergraduate students wishing to gain access to the designated tenting games. It is often mistakenly referred to as a ticket line. However, there are no student tickets; students are admitted from the line an hour and a half before each game.
Krzyzewskiville is named for Mike Krzyzewski, often called "Coach K", the much loved coach who has helped make Duke's basketball program one of the best in the nation. He has been known to buy pizza for the K-ville residents from time to time and has held open-forum "team meetings" with the Cameron Crazies before games against their arch-rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Graduate and professional students do not participate in Krzyzewskiville, as Duke's Graduate and Professional Student Council operates a separate weekend-long campout each September followed by a lottery for a small number of graduate and professional student season tickets.
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New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. The city is referred to as New York City or The City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part. As a global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.
Located on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which comprises a state county. The five boroughs—The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a Census-estimated 2011 population of 8,244,910 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km2), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States' largest, with 18.9 million people distributed over 6,720 square miles (17,400 km2), and is also part of the most populous combined statistical area in the United States, containing 22.1 million people as of the 2010 Census.
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Spain
Spain (
i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] (
listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
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Tom Gola
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Gola (born January 13, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a retired American basketball player.
Gola was praised as a great all-around player as a high school student at La Salle College High School, where he led the Explorers to a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship. He entered La Salle a year after another Philadelphia basketball Hall of Famer, Paul Arizin, graduated from Villanova.
Gola was one of the most talented collegiate athletes in Philadelphia sports history. He came to national attention while playing for the hometown La Salle University Explorers men's basketball team in 1954 as an All-American forward. Gola paced the Explorers to the NCAA basketball championship in 1954 and was named Tournament MVP. That same season he was selected as National Player of the Year. As a senior, Gola helped La Salle finish as the runner-up in the 1955 NCAA Tournament. He averaged 20.9 points and 19.0 rebounds during 115 games and holds the NCAA record with 2,201 career rebounds. At 6'6" (198 cm), Gola was clearly a forward who could shoot/score, rebound and defend, but he also had the ballhandling (dribbling, passing) skills of a guard, and with his shooting range and All-Pro defensive skills, could play just as well in the backcourt. He was inducted into the La Salle Hall of Athletes in 1961 and the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1986. Gola was listed on "ESPN's Countdown to the Greatest" College basketball players as #17.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical style. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage.
In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. The third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.
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Abe Lemons
Abe Lemons (November 21, 1922 - September 2, 2002) was one of the most successful head basketball coaches in Oklahoma history.
Lemons grew up in the town of Walters, Oklahoma. He served in World War II in the Pacific and often referred to the pressures of his war experience to put sports pressures into perspective. He joined Oklahoma City University (OCU) as a student in 1947.
At OCU, Lemons excelled as a player and coach in basketball for more than 40 years. In 34 seasons of coaching, he accomplished 599 victories and 343 losses, ranking fifth among the winningest men's active collegiate coaches. He coached several All-America & future NBA players, such as Arnold Short & Hub Reed.
Lemons spent 25 years as head coach at OCU. His first 18 years at OCU from 1955–1973, during which he led OCU to a 309-181 record, two NIT berths and seven NCAA tournament appearances in 1956, 1957, 1963–1966 and 1973. OCU also won the All-College Tournament in 1965.
From 1973-1976 Lemons was head coach at Pan American University, where he was named 1974-1975 Texas Coach of the Year. He took the head coaching position at the University of Texas in 1976. He served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 1977 and was named National Coach of the Year in 1978. Lemons' last season at Texas was 1982.
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Abe Saperstein
Abraham M. Saperstein (July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was an owner and coach of the Savoy Big Five, which later became the Harlem Globetrotters. He was born in London, England to a Jewish family.
Saperstein was the commissioner of the American Basketball League and owned the Chicago Majors team in that league.
In the 1988 Harlem Globetrotters documentary 6 Decades of Magic, it was noted that Saperstein chose "Harlem" to indicate that the players were African-American, even though they were actually from Chicago, and the "Globetrotters" moniker to make it seem as though the team had traveled all around the world.
Saperstein, whose 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) stature may render him as Basketball Hall of Fame's shortest member, was elected to the Hall in 1971. In 1979, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He played baseball, basketball, and ran track while in high school. He played as a guard for the Chicago Reds.
He was buried in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois near Chicago.
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Adolph Rupp
Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was one of the most successful coaches in the history of American college basketball. Rupp is ranked 5th (behind Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Knight, Jim Boeheim, and Dean Smith) in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching. Rupp is also second among all men's college coaches in all-time winning percentage (.822), trailing only Clair Bee. Adolph F. Rupp was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 13, 1969.
Rupp was born outside Halstead, Kansas, to Mennonite German immigrants, the fourth of six children. He grew up on a 173-acre (0.70 km2) farm which his father Heinrich homesteaded. After his father's death in 1910, Rupp's oldest brother Otto took over farming responsibilities. As a youngster, Rupp worked on the farm and attended a school in a one-room school house in the country. He first became interested in the sport of basketball at the age of six when Halstead won the first of two consecutive Kansas state high school titles. According to interviews, he and his brothers stuffed rags into a gunnysack which his mother sewed up to use as a basketball on the family farm. Later, after growing to a sturdy 6-foot-2, Rupp was a star on his Halstead High School team, averaging over 19 points a game in both his junior and senior years. Rupp also served as team captain and unofficial coach.
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Adrian Dantley
Adrian Delano Dantley (born February 28, 1956 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American basketball player who played 15 seasons in the NBA, including seven as a member of the Utah Jazz. A forward/guard and six-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, he was appointed acting head coach of the Denver Nuggets in the absence of stricken head coach George Karl.
Dantley attended basketball powerhouse DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland where he played under legendary basketball coach Morgan Wootten.
Dantley was a forward at Notre Dame from 1973-76. He was a consensus first team All-American in 1974-75 and 1975–76 and was named 1976 National Player of the Year. He ranks second on the Notre Dame career scoring list with 2,223 points and holds the school record for free throws made (615) and free throws attempted (769).
Dantley had a stellar collegiate career for the Fighting Irish. As a freshman, he played an important role in one of the biggest games in college basketball history, Notre Dame's stunning 1974 upset to end UCLA's record 88-game winning streak. That UCLA team, coached by the legendary John Wooden, featured Bill Walton, Jamaal Wilkes (then known as Keith Wilkes), and Dave Meyer.
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Al Cervi
Alfred Nicholas Cervi (February 12, 1917 – November 9, 2009) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). One of the strongest backcourt players of the 1940s and 1950s, he was always assigned to defend against the opposing team's best scoring threat. He earned the nickname Digger because of his hard-nosed style of defense.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Cervi attended East High School in his hometown, where he captained the baseball and basketball teams and achieved All-City honors in both sports. He dropped out of school after his junior year when he was recruited by the Buffalo Bisons of the newly formed NBL. He played in all of the Bisons' nine games in 1937–38, the franchise's only season of existence.
He never attended college. Instead, he served five years in the United States Army Air Forces from 1940 through 1945.
After the conclusion of World War II, he joined the Rochester Royals, another NBL franchise entering its first year of operations. He immediately experienced success as the team captured the 1945–46 league title after sweeping the best-of-five championship series from the Sheboygan Red Skins. The Royals returned to the finals the following two seasons, but lost to the Chicago American Gears and Minneapolis Lakers in four games each. Cervi made the All-NBL First Team in 1947 and 1948. In the first of those two campaigns, he was named the circuit's Most Valuable Player as the leading scorer with 632 points.
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Al McGuire
Alfred James "Al" McGuire (September 7, 1928 – January 26, 2001) was the head coach of the Marquette University men's basketball team from 1964 to 1977. He compiled impressive numbers throughout his coaching career, resulting in his induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, and was also well known for his colorful personality.
He played three years of basketball at St. John's Prep., Queens, New York (graduated 1947), and went on to star at St. John's University (1947–1951), where he played for four years and captained the 1951 team that posted a 26–5 mark and finished third in the NIT.
After college, McGuire played in the NBA, first with the New York Knicks (1951–53) and then with the Baltimore Bullets (1954). While with the Knicks, he once famously pleaded with his coach for playing time, with this guarantee: "I can stop Cousy." Inserted into the lineup, McGuire proceeded to foul him on his next six trips down the court.
McGuire began his illustrious coaching career as an assistant at Dartmouth College (1955–1957). He then took his first head coaching job at Belmont Abbey College (1957–1964), where he recruited many high school players off the streets of New York. McGuire later became head coach at Marquette University in 1964 where he enjoyed success, including the NIT Championship in 1970 and a Final Four appearance in 1974, where McGuire became the first coach ejected from a championship game.
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Aleksandar Nikolić
Aleksandar "Aca" Nikolić (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Николић; 28 October 1924 – 12 March 2000) was a renowned Serb basketball player and coach from Yugoslavia. He is considered to be so instrumental and important to the game's development in the country, that he is often referred to as, The Father of Yugoslav Basketball.
Nikolić was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in what was at the time, part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but he moved to the capital Belgrade, at a young age. He studied medicine and law at the University of Belgrade, graduating in 1946.
Aleksandar Nikolić died on 12 March 2000, in Belgrade, He is buried in the Alley of the Greats, in Belgrade, Novo Groblje ("New Cemetery").
Nikolić was nicknamed, "The Professor", "Iron Sergeant", and, "The father of Yugoslav basketball". He was a Professor at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Sport and Physical Education. The future coaches taught by Nikolić include Božidar Maljković, Dušan Ivković, Bogdan Tanjević, Želimir Obradović, etc.
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Alex English
Alexander English (born January 5, 1954 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a retired American basketball player who played at the forward position. He is currently an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. He played at the University of South Carolina and most notably with the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets.
He averaged 21.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game during his NBA career and was the NBA's most prolific scorer during the 1980s. He was named to eight NBA All-Star teams, his #2 jersey was retired by the Nuggets, and he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.
English spent the majority of his career with the Nuggets, but also played briefly with the Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks. He was drafted in 1976 by the Bucks, and was part of a rookie class that includes fellow Hall of Famers Robert Parish, Adrian Dantley and Dennis Johnson.
Most of his time in Milwaukee was spent as a back-up on a rebuilding team that lost Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. However, it was not until he was sent to Indiana in 1978 that he began his reputation as a scorer, averaging 16 points there on another subpar team before being traded to Denver.
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Alex Hannum
Alexander Murray Hannum (July 19, 1923 — January 18, 2002) was a professional basketball player and Hall-of-Fame coach.
Hannum is mostly known for coaching the Wilt Chamberlain-led Philadelphia 76ers of 1966-67 to the NBA championship, ending the eight-year title streak of the Boston Celtics. He had also coached the Bob Pettit-led St. Louis Hawks team to the 1958 NBA Championship over the Celtics in the NBA Finals, thus making him the first of only three head coaches in NBA history to win championships with two different teams (the other two are Phil Jackson and Pat Riley). The aforementioned seasons were the only two in Bill Russell's 13-year career in which the Celtics' center did not win an NBA championship. In 1964, Hannum was named NBA Coach of the Year while with the San Francisco Warriors.
In 1968 Hannum was named head coach and executive vice president of the Oakland Oaks of the American Basketball Association. In Hannum coached the Rick Barry-led Oaks to the 1969 ABA Championship, becoming the first of two coaches to win championships in both the NBA and ABA. Hannum won the ABA Coach of the Year honors the same season.
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Alexander Gomelsky
Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky (Russian: Гомельский, Александр Яковлевич) (January 18, 1928 in Kronstadt, USSR – August 16, 2005 in Moscow, Russia) was a great Soviet and Russian basketball coach. Gomelsky was Jewish.[1]
Gomelsky began his coaching career in 1948, in Leningrad, with LGS Spartak. In 1953, he became the coach of ASK Riga, an army club, leading the team to five Soviet Union league titles, and three consecutive European Champions Cups (Euroleague), from 1958 to 1960.
In 1969, he was appointed the head coach of CSKA Moscow, where he coached until 1980, leading the club to 9 Soviet Union national league championships (1970–1974, 1976–1979), 2 Soviet union national cups (1972–1973), and one European Champions Cup (Euroleague) title in 1971. He also lead the club to two more European Champions Cup (Euroleague) finals, in 1970, and 1973.
He also coached in Spain, France, and the United States.
Gomelsky coached the Soviet Union national team for almost 30 years, leading them to 6 FIBA European Championship titles (1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1979, and 1981), 2 FIBA World Cup titles (1967, and 1982), and the Summer Olympic Games gold medal in 1988.
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Alexander Wolff
Alexander Wolff is a writer for Sports Illustrated and former owner of the Vermont Frost Heaves of the Premier Basketball League (PBL).
He has written several books about basketball, among them Big Game, Small World (ISBN 0-446-52601-0), a look at basketball around the world. His most notable and notorious work was a feature article in Sports Illustrated from June 12, 1995 entitled "Why the University of Miami should drop football." In it, Wolff wrote an open letter to then-president Tad Foote claiming that the Hurricanes were a "disease" that had ruined the school's image and needed to be at least temporarily shut down. Wolff wrote a follow up letter in 2011 to the current UM president, Donna Shalala, following the Nevin Shapiro booster controversy.
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Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. (born February 8, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat.
Nicknamed "Zo", Mourning played at center. His tenacity on defense twice earned him NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award and perennially placed him on the NBA All-Defensive Team. He made a comeback after undergoing a kidney transplant and later won his only NBA Championship with the Heat. He has also played for the Charlotte Hornets and New Jersey Nets. On March 30, 2009, Mourning became the first Miami Heat player to have his number retired.
During his time at Indian River High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, he led the team to 51 straight victories and a state title his junior year (1987). As a senior he averaged 25 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocked shots a game. He was named Player of the Year by USA Today, Parade, Gatorade, and Naismith. Mourning played college basketball for the Georgetown University Hoyas. He led the nation in blocked shots his freshman year and was an All American his last year there.
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Alva Duer
Alva O. Duer (November 18, 1904, Sylvia, Kansas, US — November 18, 1987) was a college basketball coach and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and United States Olympic Committee administrator and is a member of the NAIA and Basketball Halls of Fame. He went to Stafford High School in Stafford, Kansas and was captain of the basketball team all four years he attended. He graduated from high school in 1923.
He coached college basketball at Pepperdine College in Los Angeles, California from 1939-1948. During that time, he had a record of 176-94 (.651). He led Pepperdine to six postseason appearances (5 NAIB and 1 NCAA), he also led Pepperdine to the 1945 NAIB final.
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Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at Springfield College (1890–1891), the University of Chicago (1892–1932), and the College of the Pacific (1933–1946), compiling a career college football record of 314–199–35. His Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 have been recognized as national champions. He was also the head basketball coach for one season at the University of Chicago (1920–1921), and the head baseball coach there for 19 seasons (1893–1905, 1907–1913).
At University of Chicago, Stagg also instituted an annual prep basketball tourney and track meet. Both drew the top high school teams and athletes from around the United States.
Stagg played football as an end at Yale University and was selected to the first College Football All-America Team in 1889. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach in the charter class of 1951 and was the only individual honored in both roles until the 1990s. Influential in other sports, Stagg developed basketball as a five-player sport and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in its first group of inductees in 1959.
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Andre Dawkins
Andre Wade Dawkins (born September 19, 1991) is an American college basketball player who currently plays for Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team as a shooting guard.
Dawkins was raised by his parents, Andre and Pamela Dawkins. He was born in Fairfax, Virginia, on September 19, 1991, to his biological mother, Tammy Hill.
He started his high school basketball career at Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, before transferring to Atlantic Shores Christian School, where he reclassified as a freshman.
Dawkins was a three-time first team all-state, all-conference, and all-state tournament team selection. He was named conference player of the year as a sophomore, after averaging 22.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
In June 2008 Dawkins committed to join Duke in 2010, but in July 2009 he announced he would graduate a year ahead of schedule to enroll at Duke University in time for the 2009–10 season, following the transfer of guard, Elliot Williams, to Memphis.
In December 2009 an automobile accident in West Virginia killed Dawkins' sister, Lacey, and injured their mother, Tamara Hill. The two had been on their way from Columbus, Ohio, to see Dawkins play against St. John's. He played in 38 games in the 2009–10 season, averaging 12.6 minutes and 4.4 points per game.
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Andre Iguodala
Andre Tyler Iguodala (born January 28, 1984) is an American professional basketball small forward with the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Iguodala is listed at 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) and 207 lbs. (94 kg). Iguodala played his high school basketball for Lanphier High School in Springfield, Illinois. He later attended the University of Arizona, playing for two years before declaring for the 2004 NBA Draft, where he was drafted 9th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. Iguodala is a swingman, meaning he can play the shooting guard or small forward positions. As an NBA player Iguodala is known for his ability to defend, his great athleticism and his ability to run his team playing the role of a point forward.
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Andy Landers
Andy Landers (born October 8, 1952 in Maryville, Tennessee) is the longtime head coach of the University of Georgia Lady Bulldogs basketball team. He married the former Pam McClellan in 1981 and has two children, Andrea Lauren and Drew Joseph.
Following the 2007-08 season, Landers had compiled an overall record of 789-246 (.762) and a record of 707-225 (.760) at Georgia.
Landers graduated from Friendsville (Tenn.) High School in 1970, then attended and graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 1974 with a degree in Physical Education.
In 1975, Landers began his coaching career at Roane State Community College, compiling an 82-21 record over four seasons before Vince Dooley made the 26-year-old his first hire as athletic director at Georgia.
The Lady Bulldog program Landers inherited had compiled a 37-85 record in its first six seasons and had virtually no budget. However, in his first season, Landers led the Lady Bulldogs to a 16-12 record, and by his fourth year in Athens, he had taken them to their first of five NCAA Final Fours. By 1985, the Lady Dogs were in the National Championship game.
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Andy Phillip
Andrew Michael "Handy Andy" Phillip (March 7, 1922 – April 29, 2001) was a guard/forward who had an 11 year career professional basketball career from 1948 to 1958. Born in Granite City, Illinois, Andy Phillip played for the Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America and the Philadelphia Warriors, Fort Wayne Pistons and Boston Celtics, all of the National Basketball Association.
Phillip led his high school, Granite City, to the Illinois state championship in 1940. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he earned renown for his talents and for the Fighting Illini's success during war-interrupted, non-consecutive seasons, 1941–1943 and 1946–1947, . He was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Phillip served as a First Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in World War II at Iwo Jima.
Phillip played in the first five NBA All-Star Games, and was twice named to the All-NBA Second Team. He was the first player to record 500 assists in a season, and led the NBA in assists during the 1950-51 and 1950-52 seasons. Phillip's teams made it to the NBA Finals during his final four seasons — twice with Fort Wayne and twice with Boston. The 1957 Boston team won the NBA Championship.
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Ann Meyers
Ann Meyers Drysdale (born Ann Elizabeth Meyers March 26, 1955 in San Diego) is a retired American basketball player and sportscaster. She was a standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and the professional levels.
Meyers was the first player to be part of the U.S. national team while still in high school. She was the second woman to be signed to a four-year athletic scholarship for college, at UCLA. She was also the only woman to sign a contract with a National Basketball Association team, the Indiana Pacers (1979).
Meyers currently resides in Huntington Beach, California, and serves as the president and general manager for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and vice president of the NBA's Phoenix Suns. For over 26 years, she served as a network television sports analyst for ESPN, CBS, and NBC. Meyers is a Board Member for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, and is given annually to college football's Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.
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Anne Donovan
Anne Donovan (born November 1, 1961) is an American retired basketball player and the current head coach of the women's basketball team at Seton Hall University. She was formerly an assistant coach, then interim head coach of the New York Liberty of the WNBA. She is the only person to have both played to a national women's college title and coached a team to a professional title. She is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Donovan joined the New York Liberty as an assistant coach in the spring of 2009, then took over as interim head coach of the Liberty on July 31, 2009. She accepted the women's basketball head coaching position at Seton Hall on March 29, 2010, although she completed the 2010 season with the Liberty.
Donovan attended Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, New Jersey. The six-foot-one--at the time--Donovan led her high school team to consecutive undefeated seasons, including two state championships. She averaged 25 points per game and 17 rebounds her senior year.
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Antawn Jamison
Antawn Cortez Jamison (
/ˈæntwɑːn/; born June 12, 1976) is an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He currently plays power forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers and was a member of the USA National Team for the 2006 FIBA World Championships
Jamison was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His name was accidentally printed as "Antawn" instead of "Antwan" on his birth certificate. However, his family decided to keep the misspelling as they felt it would be more distinctive. His first name is still pronounced as though it were spelled "Antwan" or "Antoine". Jamison played middle school basketball and was a quarterback in football at Quail Hollow Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jamison played high school basketball at Providence High School in Charlotte, North Carolina and was named a McDonald's All-American after his senior season.
Jamison played college basketball at University of North Carolina for three seasons, averaging 19.0 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. In his junior year, he was awarded both the Naismith and Wooden Awards as the most outstanding men's college basketball player for the 1997–98 season. Jamison decided to forgo his senior year of eligibility and enter the NBA draft in 1998 thus ending his college career. On March 1, 2000 Jamison's #33 was retired at the Dean E. Smith Center. He became only the seventh North Carolina basketball player to have his number retired.
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Antonio Lang
Antonio Maurice Lang (born May 15, 1972) is an American professional basketball player. He played his college basketball at Duke, where he won back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 1991 and 1992.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lang graduated as valedictorian from LeFlore Magnet High School in 1990. The year before, he helped the school win a state championship in basketball. Lang had a productive collegiate basketball career, as he was a member of a Duke team that won two championships in three Final Four appearances. Lang was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the second round (29th overall) in the 1994 NBA Draft; however, he saw limited action during his rookie year due to a knee injury. He was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1995 along with Dan Majerle. Lang also had stints with the Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, and Miami Heat. In addition, Lang played in the Continental Basketball Association (with the Fort Wayne Fury and Grand Rapids Hoops) and in the Philippine Basketball Association, with the Red Bull Thunder. Lang began playing in 2001 for the Mitsubishi Melco Dolphins (now the Mitsubishi Diamond Dolphins) of the Japan Basketball League. Foot problems, though, prompted Lang to retire from playing basketball in 2006, and he became an assistant coach for the Dolphins. On May 19, 2010, Lang was named as the Dolphins' head coach.
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Arad McCutchan
Arad A. McCutchan (July 4, 1912 – June 16, 1993) was a well-known collegiate basketball coach. The Evansville, Indiana native coached his hometown University of Evansville from 1946 to 1977, guiding the Purple Aces to a 515-313 record.
McCutchan spent seven years coaching Bosse High School (1936-43) before serving in the United States Navy during World War II. In 1946 he took over the head coaching position at University of Evansville . In the following years he guided them to five NCAA College Division championships (1959, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1971) as well as three undefeated seasons in their conference (1964, 1965, 1971). McCutchan was named NCAA College Division Coach of the Year two times (1964, 1965). He was an assistant coach to Gene Bartow for the US national team in the 1974 FIBA World Championship, where he won the bronze medal. On April 27, 1981 he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
His first name, Arad, was inherited from a grandfather who was named from the Bible. He often said the name was Hebrew for "wild ass."
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Archie Griffin
Archie Mason Griffin (born August 21, 1954) is a former American football running back. Griffin played seven seasons in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals. He is college football's only two-time Heisman Trophy winner. Griffin won four Big Ten Conference titles with the Ohio State Buckeyes and was the first player ever to start in four Rose Bowls.
Griffin rushed for 1,787 yards and scored over 170 points in 11 games, including 29 touchdowns, as a senior fullback at Eastmoor High School (now Eastmoor Academy) in Columbus, Ohio. That year he led Eastmoor to the Columbus City League championship, rushing for 267 yards on 31 carries in the title game against Linden-McKinley High School. In his junior year, Griffin had also rushed for over 1,000 yards.
Griffin played for the Ohio State University Buckeyes from 1972-75. Among Ohio State University college football fans, Griffin holds a status akin to a living folk hero. His freshman year was the first year Freshman could play on the varsity team, so when he got the starting position a lot of Sophomores were disappointed because Griffin took their spots. Former Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes said of Griffin, "He's a better young man than he is a football player, and he's the best football player I've ever seen."
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Arnie Risen
Arnold D. Risen (born October 9, 1924 in Williamstown, Kentucky) is a retired American basketball player.
A 6'9" center from the Ohio State University, he led the Buckeyes to two straight Final Four appearances.
Risen played professionally in the NBA for ten seasons (1948–1958) as a member of the Rochester Royals and Boston Celtics. Risen was a four-time All-Star and two-time NBA Champion, and he scored 7,633 points in his career. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. Nicknamed "The King," he is one of golf's most popular stars and its most important trailblazer, because he was the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s. He is part of "The Big Three" in golf, along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who are widely credited with popularizing and commercialising the sport around the world.
Palmer won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Palmer was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He learned golf from his father, Deacon Palmer, who was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club, allowing young Arnold to accompany his father as he maintained the course. He attended Wake Forest University, on a golf scholarship. He left upon the death of close friend Bud Worsham and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, where he served for three years and had some time to continue to hone his golf skills. Palmer returned to college and competitive golf. His win in the 1954 U.S. Amateur made him decide to try the pro tour for a while, and he and new bride Winifred Walzer (whom he had met at a Pennsylvania tournament) traveled the circuit for 1955.
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Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was a former World No. 1 professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States. Ashe, an African American, was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is also remembered for his efforts to further social causes.
Born in Gum Spring, Virginia, to parents Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe, Arthur and his younger brother, Johnnie, suffered a tragic loss when their mother died suddenly from heart related complications during routine surgery. Arthur Ashe first attended Maggie L. Walker High School, being coached by Ronald Charity, and later coached by Robert Walter Johnson. Tired of having to travel great distances to play Caucasian youths in segregated Richmond, Ashe accepted an offer from a St. Louis tennis official to move there and attend Sumner High School. Young Ashe was recognized by Sports Illustrated for his playing.
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Arthur Schabinger
Arthur August Schabinger (August 6, 1889 in Sabetha, Kansas, USA – October 13, 1972) was an American football and basketball coach, and then later administrator. Schabinger is credited (although disputed) with throwing the first forward pass in college football history. Even if it was not the first forward pass, most certainly Schabinger was one of the early adopters and innovators of the play.
Schabinger coached college basketball for 20 seasons, including stints with Ottawa University, Emporia Teachers College and Creighton University. He was one of the founders of National Association of Basketball Coaches and the president of that organization in 1932. He authored the association's Constitution and By-Laws. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1961.
In 1910, Schabinger led the College of Emporia Presbies to a 17-0 victory over Washburn University. During this game, he threw what some have credited (but many other records disputed) to be the first forward pass in college football history. That same year, "Schabie" scored seven touchdowns in a 107-0 win over Pittsburg Normal.
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Arthur Trester
Arthur L. Trester (June 10, 1878 in Pecksburg, Indiana, USA – September 18, 1944) was an American basketball administrator. He was the commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association from 1922 to 1944, that organization was the force behind Hoosier Hysteria in Indiana. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1961.
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Artis Gilmore
Artis Gilmore (born September 21, 1949) is a retired American Hall of Fame basketball player who played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA). Artis was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on August 12, 2011. A star center during his two collegiate years at Jacksonville University, in Jacksonville, Florida, Gilmore led the Dolphins to the NCAA Division I championship game in 1970, where his team was beaten 80-69 by the UCLA Bruins. Gilmore remains the top player in rebounds per game in the history of NCAA Division I basketball.
Gilmore followed 5 All-Star seasons with the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA by becoming the 1st overall pick of the 1976 NBA dispersal draft, which was held after the ABA was disbanded, as four teams transferred to the NBA. In Gilmore's complete pro basketball career, he was an eleven-time All-Star, the ABA Rookie of the Year, and an ABA MVP, and he remains the NBA career leader for field goal percentage.
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Arvydas Sabonis
Arvydas Romas Sabonis (born December 19, 1964 in Kaunas, Lithuania SSR, USSR) is a Lithuanian retired professional basketball player and a businessman. He was an eight-time European Player of the Year, winning the Euroscar Award six times, and the Mr. Europa Award twice, as the best European player and played in a variety of leagues, including seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Sabonis played the center position and also won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea for the Soviet Union, and later earned bronze medals at the 1992 and 1996 games while playing for Lithuania. He retired from professional basketball in 2005.
Sabonis is considered one of the best big man passers as well as one of the best overall centers in the history of the game. Bill Walton once called Sabonis a 7'3" Larry Bird due to his unique court vision, shooting range, rugged in-game mentality, and versatility.
On August 20, 2010, Sabonis was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in recognition of his great play in international competition. On April 4, 2011, Sabonis was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and he was inducted on August 12, 2011. Sabonis has the distinction of being the tallest player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. On 24 October 2011, Sabonis was voted to be the next president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation.
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Bailey Howell
Bailey E. Howell (born January 20, 1937 in Middleton, Tennessee) is a former professional basketball player now enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A 6'7" forward from Mississippi State University, he played 12 seasons (1959–1971) in the NBA as a member of the Detroit Pistons, Baltimore Bullets, Boston Celtics, and Philadelphia 76ers. A six-time All-Star with 17,770 career points, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997. He won two NBA championships with the Boston Celtics. The best years of his career were during his time with the Bullets and the Celtics.
Despite playing at the college level for only three years, Howell set and still holds Mississippi State records for single-game points scored, career scoring average, single-season and career free throws made, single-season and career free throws attempted, single-game free throw percentage, single-game rebounds, single-season rebounds, career rebounds, and single-season and career rebounding average. His scoring records are particularly impressive, since there was no three point line or shot clock at the time that he played. He is considered a legend to the Bulldog basketball faithful, and one of best-known players to have played at MSU. He is probably most known for his hook shot, rebounding ability, and work ethic as a player and person. After his career ended, he went to work with the Converse shoe company, particularly with the Converse All-Star. He resides in Starkville, Mississippi where he is very active in Mississippi State athletics fund-raising, specifically the Bulldog Club, an organized fund to pay for MSU athletic scholarships. He currently serves as an elder for the Starkville Church of Christ.
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Barney Sedran
Barney Sedran (January 28, 1891 – January 14, 1964) was one of the great early pro basketball players in the 1910s and 1920s.
Nicknamed "Mighty Mite", the New York City native who grew up on the Lower East Side, Sedran (shortened from Sedransky) was a member of the well-known New York Whirlwinds and Cleveland Rosenblums, among many other teams in New York as well as in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. Occasionally he teamed with Marty Friedman, forming one of the finest backcourt duos in basketball history.
Sedran played for the Lower East Side's University Settlement House because he was too small to make his DeWitt Clinton High School (Bronx, New York) team. The Settlement team won the 115-pound division championship in 1905–06, and the Metropolitan AAU title 1906–07.
At City College of New York(CCNY) Sedran was the school’s leading scorer for three consecutive seasons, 1909–11, and was named to various college all-star teams.
The smallest player enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, “The Mighty Might of Basketball” turned pro after leaving CCNY, teaming successfully and often with 5’ 7” hall of famer (Naismith and IJSHOF) Max Friedman. They were known as the “Heavenly Twins”. In an era of barnstorming, short-lived leagues, and schedules that often called for as many as three games a day, Sedran is said to have been pro basketball’s highest paid star.
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Ben Carnevale
Bernard Louis "Ben" Carnevale (October 30, 1915 – March 25, 2008) was an American college men's basketball coach.
Born in Raritan, New Jersey, Carnevale was a graduate of Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey. He graduated from New York University, where he was a member of the 1935 national championship team and played in the first National Invitation Tournament in 1938. While at NYU he was coached by the legendary Howard Cann. He served as a Navy officer during World War II, receiving the Purple Heart.
Carnevale was the head basketball coach the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1944 to 1946 and the Navy between 1947 and 1967, compiling a 257-160 record despite the Naval Academy height restrictions, at that time 6'5" (1.96 m). Carnevale was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970.
While coaching at UNC, he led the team to their first appearance in the title game. The Tar Heels lost the game to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), who won their second national crown under legendary coach Henry Iba.
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Ben Howland
Ben Howland (born May 28, 1957) is an American college head coach of men's basketball.
He has been the head coach of the University of California, Los Angeles since 2003, and in 2008 signed an extension of his contract to run through 2015. Aggressive man-to-man defense is the trademark of Ben Howland-coached teams.
Howland was born in Lebanon, Oregon. He first attended Dos Pueblos High School, Goleta, California for a year then transferred to Cerritos High School, Cerritos, where he earned his diploma. While at Cerritos he was a two-time All-CIF and two-time Suburban League Most Valuable Player in basketball.
After high school Howland played college basketball at Santa Barbara City College and Weber State University, and later played professional basketball in Uruguay. He was known as a defensive specialist.
He earned a degree in physical education at Weber State and a master's degree in administration at Gonzaga University.
Howland wanted to be a coach since his teenage years living in Santa Barbara. At the age of twenty-four, he became a graduate assistant at Gonzaga University. His childhood friend Jay Hillock, the new head coach, recruited Howland. At Gonzaga, one of Howland's duties was to guard future NBA player John Stockton in practice.
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Bennie Borgmann
Bernhard "Bennie" Borgmann (November 22, 1900 in Haledon, New Jersey - November 11, 1978 in Hawthorne, New Jersey) was one of the early pro basketball players. He played for 17 years between 1919 and 1936, and is mostly known for his time with the Kingston Colonials and Original Celtics. Borgmann is regarded as the best offensive player of his era. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961. Borgmann also played as a middle infielder in the baseball minor leagues from 1928 to 1942, managed in the minors from until 1950, and scouted until 1974.
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Bertha Teague
Bertha F. Teague (September 17, 1906 in Carthage, Missouri, USA – June 13, 1991) was an American basketball coach. She coached Byng High School team in Ada, Oklahoma for 42 years (from 1927 to 1969) with a career record of 1,157-115 (.910 winning percentage). Her teams won 8 Oklahoma state titles and 98 consecutive games from 1936 to 1939. She was named Coach of the Decade for 1930s, 1940s and 1970s by the Jim Thorpe Athletic Awards Committee in 1974. She was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985 and in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Bill Bradley
William Warren "Bill" Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.
Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St. Louis and excelled at basketball from an early age. He was a member of the Boy Scouts, did well academically and was an all-county and all-state basketball player in high school. He was offered 75 college scholarships, but declined them all to attend Princeton University. He earned a gold medal as a member of the 1964 Olympic basketball team and was the NCAA Player of the Year in 1965. After graduating in 1965, he attended Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, delaying a decision for two years on whether or not to play in the NBA.
While at Oxford, Bradley played one season of professional basketball in Europe, and eventually decided to join the New York Knicks in the 1967–68 season, after serving six months in the Air Force Reserve. He spent his entire ten-year professional basketball career playing for the Knicks, winning two championship titles. Retiring in 1977, he ran for a seat in the United States Senate the following year, from his adopted home state of New Jersey. He was re-elected in 1984 and 1990, left the Senate in 1997, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination.
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Bill Guthridge
Bill Guthridge (born July 27, 1937) is a retired American college basketball coach. Guthridge initially gained recognition after serving for 30 years as Dean Smith's assistant at the University of North Carolina. Following Dean Smith's retirement in 1997, Guthridge served as head coach of the Tar Heels for three seasons. He took the team to the NCAA Final Four twice in his three seasons and was named national coach of the year in 1998, before retiring in 2000.
Guthridge attended Kansas State University, and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1960 and an M.A. in Education in 1963. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. While a student at Kansas State, Guthridge played guard under head coach Fred "Tex" Winter, and helped the team advance to the 1958 Final Four. After graduating from Kansas State, he coached at Scott City High School in Kansas for two seasons before returning to his alma mater as an assistant coach for Tex Winter from 1962-1967. In five years on Winter's staff, Guthridge helped lead the Wildcats to a 93-43 record, a pair of Big Eight Conference crowns and the 1964 NCAA Final Four. He also was head golf coach for the Wildcats.
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Bill Hodges
Bill Hodges is a former NCAA Head Basketball Coach. He was the Head Coach at Indiana State University from 1979–1982; at the Georgia College and State University from 1986–1991 and at Mercer University from 1991-1997.
As an assistant basketball coach at Indiana State University, he recruited Larry Bird after Bird had dropped out of Indiana University. Before the start of the 1978-79 season, he got the Indiana State University job after head coach Bob King suffered a brain aneurysm. He would lead the Sycamores to a second place finish in the 1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. During that year, he won several coach of the year awards, including the UPI's and AP's. The Sycamores were selected as the United Press International Collegiate Champions. His later Indiana State teams would fail to compete at the national level, leading to his resignation from ISU after the 1982 season.
Hodges is currently #7 in coaching wins at Indiana State with a record of 67-48 (.583) and #5 in wins at Mercer with a record of 62-107 (.367). His record at Georgia College was 110-53 (.675). His overall collegiate head coaching record is 239-208 (.535). A graduate of Purdue University; He is currently coaching at North Cross School in Roanoke, VA.
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Bill Mokray
William G. "Bill" Mokray (June 6, 1907 in Passaic, New Jersey, USA – March 21, 1974) was a leading basketball statistician and historian.
Mokray's love of basketball stats began while attending Passaic High School in Passaic, New Jersey. After graduating from the University of Rhode Island, he worked as a public relations director first for Rhode Island State College and, beginning from 1946, for the Boston Celtics basketball team. He founded and was the editor for The Official NBA Guide, authored the history of basketball article for the Encyclopædia Britannica and wrote a 900-page Ronald Basketball Encyclopedia. He was considered the number one authority on basketball's history and owned what was considered to be the world's largest basketball library, most of which was donated to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965 as a contributor.
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Bill Russell
William Felton "Bill" Russell (born February 12, 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a twelve-time All-Star, Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won eleven NBA Championships during Russell's thirteen-year career. Along with Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Before his professional career, Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 1956). He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team.
Russell is widely considered one of the best players in NBA history. Listed as between 6'9" (2.06 m) and 6'10" (2.08 m), Russell's shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' success. He also inspired his teammates to elevate their own defensive play. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds four times, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than fifty rebounds in a game. Though never the focal point of the Celtics' offense, Russell also scored 14,522 career points and provided effective passing.
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Bill Self
Bill Self (born December 27, 1962) is an American college men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas, where he led the Jayhawks to the 2008 NCAA national championship.
Self was named 2012 Naismith College Coach of the Year, The Sporting News National Coach of the Year in 2000, 2009 and 2012, the Associated Press National Coach of the Year in 2009, the USBWA Henry Iba Award winner in 2009, CBS/Chevrolet National Coach of the Year in 2009, ESPN.com national Coach of the Year in 2009 and won the Adolph Rupp Cup in 2012. He was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2012. He is also a five-time finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2009). He was a 2010 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Award nominee for his work with Boys Clubs/Girls Clubs Of America and the Boy Scouts. From 2007–2012, Self had the best six-year record of any men's basketball coach in Division 1 history.
Self played collegiate basketball at Oklahoma State University, where he was a four-year letter winner between 1982 and 1985 and was an All-Big Eight freshman selection in 1982. He received his bachelor's degree in business in 1985 and a master's degree in athletic administration in 1989, both from Oklahoma State University.
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Bill Sharman
William Walton "Bill" Sharman (born May 25, 1926 in Abilene, Texas) is a former professional basketball player and coach. Sharman completed high school in the rural city of Porterville, California and is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what some consider the greatest backcourt duo of all time. While Cousy was primarily the playmaker, Sharman was the shooter.
From 1950 to 1955 Sharman played professional baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league system. He was called up to the Dodgers late in the 1951 season but did not appear in a game; as a result of a September 27 game in which the entire Brooklyn bench was ejected from the game for arguing with the umpire, Sharman holds the distinction of being the only player to have ever been ejected from a major league game without ever appearing in one.
Sharman was one of the first guards to shoot better than .400 from the field. He led the NBA in free throw percentage seven times, and his mark of 93.2% in the 1958–59 season remained the NBA record until Ernie DiGregorio topped it in 1976–77. Sharman still holds the record for consecutive free throws in the playoffs with 56. Sharman was named to the All-NBA First Team from 1956 through 1959, and was an All-NBA Second Team member in 1953, 1955, and 1960. Sharman played in eight NBA All-Star games, and was named the 1955 NBA All-Star Game MVP. Sharman ended his career after 11 seasons in 1961.
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Bill Walton
William Theodore "Bill" Walton III (born November 5, 1952) is a retired American basketball player and television sportscaster. The "Big Red-Head", as he was called, achieved superstardom playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early '70s, winning three straight College Player of the Year Awards, while leading the Bruins to two Division I national titles. He then went on to have a prominent career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) where he was a league Most Valuable Player (MVP) and won two NBA championships. His professional career was significantly hampered by multiple foot injuries. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 10, 1993 and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame that same year. He is the father of current Cleveland Cavaliers forward Luke Walton.
Walton was born in La Mesa, California, the son of Gloria Anne (née Hickey) and William Theodore "Ted" Walton. His listed adult playing height was 6 feet 11 inches; it has been reported that Walton was actually taller (7 feet 2 inches, or more), but did not like being categorized as a seven-footer.
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Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society. She won "The Battle of the Sexes" in 1973, in which she defeated Bobby Riggs, a former Wimbledon men's singles champion, for $100,000, winner take all. She completed a career tour all surfaces win-loss performance of 81.76% (696-165). Her win-loss performance in all Grand Slam singles tournaments was 82.00% (190-39), at the French Open 77.77% (21-6), at Wimbledon 86.36% (95-15), at the US Open 80.55% (58–14), and at the Australian Open 80.00% (16-4).
King is the founder of the Women's Tennis Association, the Women's Sports Foundation, and owner of World Team Tennis, which was founded by her former husband, Larry King, Dennis Murphy, Frank Barman, and Jordan Kaiser.
Billie Jean Moffit was born in Long Beach, California, into a conservative Methodist family, the daughter of a fireman father and housewife mother. Her younger brother Randy Moffitt grew up to become a professional baseball player, pitching for 12 years in the major leagues for the San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays.
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Billie Moore
Billie J. Moore (born May 5, 1943 in Westmoreland, Kansas, USA) is an American basketball coach. She was the first coach in women's basketball history to lead teams from two different schools to national championships. She coached California State-Fullerton team from 1969 to 1977 (she won the AIAW national title in 1970 in her first year with the team) and UCLA team from 1977 to 1993 (winning the AIAW national title in 1978). Her overall college coaching record is 436-196.
Moore didn't play basketball for her high school because the school was too small to sponsor any athletic teams. However, she was invited to play for an industrial team sponsored by Ohse Meats Company. Moore started her coaching experience as an assistant at Southern Illinois University where she pursued her Master's degree. In addition to basketball, she played softball for the Raybestos Brakettes, with Lou Albrecht, who was the women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Albrecht left that position and recommended Moore for an interview. Moore was hired as women's basketball coach and athletic director. In her first year as coach, her team would go on to win the national championship. Moore coached teams would make it to the Final Four in 1970, 1972, 1975, 1978, and 1979.
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Billy Cunningham
William John "Billy" Cunningham (born June 3, 1943) is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid.
Billy Cunningham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His fame began while he was playing at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where he was the MVP in the Brooklyn League in 1961. That year, he was the First-Team All-New York City, and a member of the Parade Magazine All-America Team.
Cunningham then went to the University of North Carolina, where he excelled. He once grabbed a record 27 rebounds in a game vs. Clemson on February 16, 1963. Cunningham also set a single-game North Carolina record with 48 points against Tulane on December 10, 1964. In his UNC career, he scored 1,709 points (24.8 points per game), and grabbed 1,062 rebounds (15.4 rebounds per game). Upon graduation, his 1,062 rebounds were the best in North Carolina history and he held seasonal records for most rebounds (379 in 1964) and rebound average (16.1 in 1963).
In 1965, Cunningham joined the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association as a sixth man and played well enough to be named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.
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Billy Donovan
William John Donovan, Jr. (born May 30, 1965) is an American college basketball coach and a former college and professional basketball player. Donovan is the head coach of the Florida Gators men's basketball team of the University of Florida. He is best known for leading the Florida Gators to two consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships.
Donovan has coached the Gators in three NCAA championship game appearances in 2000, 2006 and 2007. The Gators lost to the Michigan State Spartans in the 2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball final. The Gators won the national championship in 2006 with a 73–57 win over UCLA and again in 2007 with an 84–75 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes, making Donovan the first coach since Mike Krzyzewski to win back-to-back NCAA titles. He is one of only four men (Dean Smith, Joe B. Hall and Bobby Knight being the others) to appear in the NCAA Final Four as a player and win the NCAA national championship as a coach.
After a brief stint as head coach of the Orlando Magic that lasted only five days, Donovan re-signed with the Gators on June 7, 2007. The deal made him the highest-paid head coach in college basketball at $3.5 million per year.
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Billy King
Billy King (born January 23, 1966) is the general manager of the New Jersey Nets, and former general manager and team president of the Philadelphia 76ers. King grew up in Sterling, Virginia where he played basketball at Park View High School, and received a scholarship to play at Duke University. He was known primarily for his tough defense. In his senior season, he served as a captain of Duke's 1988 Final Four team. King joined the 76ers on June 2, 1997, as Vice-President of basketball administration. On May 19, 1998, he was promoted to General Manager, and on April 5, 2000, he signed a new year contract to stay with the team for an extended term. On May 26, 2003 he was named President along with General Manager. He married Melanie Lynn Frantz on August 27, 2005.
In 2005, King and other individuals became prominent investors in a Foxwoods slots casino proposed for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In September 2008, facing massive opposition at the originally proposed waterfront location, backers for the slots casino decided to seek a new location in the Center City area, next to Philadelphia's Chinatown community. As of January, 2009, the casino still does not have a building permit.
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Billy McCaffrey
Billy McCaffrey (born May 30, 1971 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is a retired American professional basketball player and college basketball star. He is also former interim head coach at St. Bonaventure University.
McCaffrey began his college career at Duke University where as a sophomore he was the team's second leading scorer during its 1991 NCAA Championship season. He scored 16 points in the 1991 title game win over Kansas. McCaffrey then sat out the 1991-92 season as he transferred to Vanderbilt University.
As a Commodore, McCaffrey was named a two-time All-American. A 6'3" shooting guard, he averaged 20.6 points in both his seasons at Vanderbilt, leading the school to a high national ranking of number 5, an SEC regular season title with a 14-2 record, and number 3 regional seed in the 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament where Vanderbilt lost in the Sweet 16s to Temple. His 20.6 point average and .464 three-point field goal ranks second all-time in school history, and he is first in career free throw percentage at 88%. He also holds the Vanderbilt record for most assists in a game, 14, scored January 13 against Kentucky. He shared SEC Player of the Year honors with Jamal Mashburn in 1993.
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Billy Owens
Billy Eugene Owens (born May 1, 1969, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania) is an American former professional basketball player.
As a high school senior, Owens averaged 34 points per game, and helped lead Carlisle High School (Pennsylvania) to four consecutive state titles. He was considered to be the second best prep player of 1988, behind Alonzo Mourning. Owens and Mourning were co-MVP's in the McDonalds' Game.
He played for the US national team in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.
As a 6' 9" small forward/shooting guard from Syracuse University, he was selected by the Sacramento Kings in the 1991 NBA Draft. However, after Owens remained a holdout beyond the start of the regular season, he was traded to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for high-scoring guard Mitch Richmond. Although the trade was considered lopsided by some, Owens gave the Warriors much-needed size and rebounding. He averaged over 15 points and nearly eight rebounds over his first three seasons with Golden State. Owens spent ten seasons with the Warriors, Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings, Seattle SuperSonics, Philadelphia 76ers, and Detroit Pistons before a string of injuries finally took its toll.
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Bo Ryan
William "Bo" Francis Ryan, Jr. (born December 20, 1947) is an American college basketball coach and current head coach of the University of Wisconsin–Madison men's basketball team.
Bo Ryan began playing basketball at a very young age. His father, Butch Ryan, coached basketball to under-privileged children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bo's father taught him the skills to be a successful point guard, generally the position of the team leader. With these skills, he became a star basketball player, leading his high school team to a 25–1 record in his senior year. In addition to basketball, Bo was a high school quarterback. The center snapping him the ball was Ted Cottrell, who later served as a defensive coach and coordinator for a number of teams in the NFL. Ryan lettered in football, basketball and baseball, and was president of his class. After high school, Ryan starred as a point guard at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His love for the game drove him to remain involved with the sport, choosing to delve into the coaching profession.
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Bob Bender
Robert Michael "Bob" Bender (born April 28, 1957 in Quantico, Virginia) is a basketball coach, currently working as an assistant with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. He attended Bloomington High School in Bloomington, IL, where he was an All-American in basketball. Bender has the distinction of being the only individual to play on two different teams in two different NCAA Championship games. He was a freshman on Bob Knight's undefeated 1976 Indiana team and played point guard at Duke from 1977-80, including an appearance in the title game against Kentucky. Bender was drafted by the San Diego Clippers in the sixth round before his senior year, but did not play.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at Duke under Mike Krzyzewski. He later served as head coach at Illinois State University and the University of Washington, and was an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Bender is married to his wife, Alice, with whom he has two children: Mary Elizabeth and Robert Michael III.
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Bob Bourne
Robert Glen Bourne (born June 21, 1954) is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played for the New York Islanders and the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL between 1974 and 1988.
Bourne was drafted 38th overall by the Kansas City Scouts in the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft, though he would never play for the organization. On September 13, 1974, he was traded to the Islanders for Bart Crashley and the rights to Larry Hornung.
Bourne spent the entire 1974–75 season with the Islanders but found himself in the minor leagues the following year. He returned to the Islanders for the 1976–77 season, and spent the next ten seasons on Long Island, recording at least thirty goals three times and between twenty and thirty goals three others. He won the Stanley Cup 4 times — 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983. He led the Islanders in playoff scoring en route to their fourth Stanley Cup in 1983.
Bourne's career ended on a high note. He was claimed by the Los Angeles Kings on waivers in October 1986 and played 2 seasons with the Kings. In his final year in the NHL he was awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance. He was also honored by Sports Illustrated as one of several Sportsmen of the Year in 1987, as one of eight "Athletes Who Care" for their work in humanitarian causes. Bourne was singled out for his work with a school for disabled children.
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Bob Cousy
Robert Joseph "Bob" Cousy (born August 9, 1928) is a retired American professional basketball player. Cousy played point guard with the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963 and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals in the 1969-70 season. Cousy first demonstrated his basketball abilities while playing for his high school varsity team in his junior year. He obtained a scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, where he led the Crusaders to berths in the 1948 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and 1950 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and was named an NCAA All-American for 3 seasons. Cousy was initially drafted as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1950 NBA Draft by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, but after he refused to report, he was picked up by Boston. Cousy had a very successful career with the Celtics, playing on six championship teams, being voted into 13 NBA All-Star Games and 12 All-NBA First and Second Teams and winning the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 1957.
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Bob Davies
Robert Edris Davies (January 15, 1920 – April 22, 1990) was a professional basketball player in the 1950s. Alongside Bobby Wanzer he formed one of the best backcourt duos in the NBAs early years. Davies and Wanzer led the Rochester Royals to the 1951 NBA championship. Davies was also a former basketball coach at the Seton Hall University and was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 11, 1970.
Although Bob Cousy is often considered the originator of the behind-the-back dribble, Davies actually deserves the credit. His Seton Hall coach, "Honey" Russell, once said, "He had such uncanny control of the ball behind his back that it never concerned me. He made it look as easy as the conventional dribble."
Davies entered Seton Hall in 1938 on a baseball scholarship, but Russell persuaded him to concentrate on basketball after seeing him practice once. Never a high scorer—his best college average was 11.8 points a game—Davies was a consummate passer and play-maker.."
Known as the "Harrisburg Houdini," Davies led Seton Hall to 43 consecutive victories from 1939 into 1941. His spectacular skills helped attract the largest crowd in basketball history at the time, 18,403 people, to Madison Square Garden in March 1941, when Seton Hall beat Rhode Island in a quarter-final game of the National Invitation Tournament.
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Bob Douglas
Robert L. "Bob" Douglas (November 4, 1882 - July 16, 1979) was the founder of the New York Renaissance basketball team. Nicknamed the "Father of Black Professional Basketball", Douglas owned and coached the Rens from 1923 to 1949, guiding them to a 2,318-381 record (.859). He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972, the first African American enshrined.
The Rens barnstormed throughout the United States, mostly in the Midwest, and played any team that would schedule them, black or white. Traveling as far as 200 miles for a game, they often slept on the bus and ate cold meals; they were barred from many hotels and restaurants by Jim Crow laws and norms of racial discrimination which prevailed in the northern United States at the time.
The Rens soon became a dominant team, winning as many as 88 consecutive games during the 1932–33 season. In the twenties and early thirties, their matches with the Original Celtics were basketball's greatest gate attraction. At the World Professional Basketball Tournament they won in 1939, lost to the eventual champion Harlem Globetrotters in 1940, and finished second to the National Basketball League champion Minneapolis Lakers in 1948.
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Bob Gaillard
Bob Gaillard is a college basketball coach and former businessman. He coached the San Francisco Dons as an assistant beginning in 1968, and became head coach in the 1970-71 season. Under Gaillard, the Dons finished 29-2 in the 1976-77 season, which saw them ranked number one in the nation. In 1977 he was recognized as the Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year.
After leaving San Francisco, Gaillard worked for several years in the private sector, becoming director of sales and advertising for the San Francisco Giants in 1981.
He was the men's basketball head coach at Lewis & Clark College from 1989 to 2011. He was succeeded by Dinari Foreman. The Pioneers gave Gaillard his 500th career victory in 2009.
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Bob Houbregs
Robert J. "Bob" Houbregs (born March 12, 1932) is a former professional basketball player.
A 6'8", 225 pound forward-center, Houbregs attended the University of Washington from 1949 to 1953. In 1952, Houbregs was a Second Team Consensus All-America selection. In 1953, as a senior, he was named NCAA Player of the Year, was a Consensus All-America selection, helped lead the University of Washington to the Final Four, and was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 34.8 points per game in the post-season.
Houbregs was drafted by the NBA's Milwaukee Hawks with the 3rd overall pick in 1953 and played five seasons (1953–1958) in the NBA with four teams: the Hawks, the Baltimore Bullets, the Boston Celtics, and the Fort Wayne (later Detroit) Pistons. Houbregs' career scoring average was 9.3 points per game, and he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987.
Houbregs served as general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics from 1970 to 1973.
Houbregs is a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.
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Bob Hurley
Robert Matthew "Bob" Hurley, Sr. (born July 31, 1947) is the basketball coach at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. Hurley has amassed 26 state championships and more than 1000 wins in 39 years as a coach, creating a national powerhouse despite older facilities and financial limitations. On February 2, 2011, Hurley became the tenth coach in high school history to win 1000 games. Five of his teams have gone undefeated, including his 2007-08 team. On April 5, 2010, he was announced as the only coach to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame that year and only the third high-school coach in history to be so honored; he was formally inducted on August 13 of that year. Hurley is the father of Bobby Hurley, a former All-American point guard at Duke, and Danny Hurley, who was hired in April 2010 to coach Wagner College after years of coaching at Newark's Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, also one of the top high school programs in the nation. Danny has since hired Bobby as an assistant at Wagner.
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Bob Knight
Robert Montgomery "Bob" Knight (born October 25, 1940) is a retired American basketball coach. Nicknamed "The General", Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men's college basketball games, second all-time to his former player, Mike Krzyzewski. He is most well known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971–2000. He also coached briefly at Texas Tech (2001–2008) and at West Point (1965–1971).
While at Indiana, Knight led his teams to three NCAA championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, and 11 Big Ten Conference championships. He received the National Coach of the Year honor four times and the Big Ten Coach of the Year honor eight times. In 1984, he coached the USA men's Olympic team to a gold medal, becoming one of only three basketball coaches to win an NCAA title, NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal.
Knight was one of college basketball's most successful and innovative coaches, having perfected and popularized the motion offense. He has also been praised for running clean programs (none of his teams was ever sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations) and graduating most of his players. However, Knight has also attracted controversy; he famously threw a chair across the court during a game, was once arrested for assault, and regularly displayed a combative nature during encounters with members of the press. Knight remains "the object of near fanatical devotion" from his former players and Indiana fans.
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Bob Kurland
Robert Albert "Bob" Kurland (born December 23, 1924 in St. Louis, Missouri) was a 7 feet (2.1 m) basketball center, who played for Henry Iba's Oklahoma A&M Aggies (now Oklahoma State Cowboys) basketball team. He was an integral part of the team's consecutive NCAA titles in 1945 and 1946.
Because Kurland often leaped above the rim to grab opponents' shots, the NCAA banned defensive goaltending in 1945. Kurland was also the first person to regularly dunk during games. The rivalry between him and De Paul's George Mikan would foreshadow similar matchups, especially those of "Big Men".
Kurland never played professional basketball, passing up the newly formed Basketball Association of America and National Basketball League (which would merge, forming the National Basketball Association), to play for Phillips Petroleum's A.A.U. team, the 66 Oilers. Kurland played for six years with Phillips, winning three championships. Since he never played professionally, he was eligible as an amateur for the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.
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Bob McAdoo
Robert Allen 'Bob' McAdoo (born September 25, 1951) is a retired American professional basketball player who spent a fourteen-year career playing the center and power forward positions in the National Basketball Association. McAdoo is currently an assistant coach for the Miami Heat.
Drafted in the first round of the 1972 NBA Draft by the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) following two seasons at Vincennes Junior College, and one season at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, McAdoo soon became one of the NBA's premier players. McAdoo won the 1973 NBA Rookie of the Year Award in his first season, and earned the first of three consecutive NBA scoring titles in only his second season. His 2nd season (1973–74) remains the last time an NBA player has averaged both 30.0 points per game and 15.0 rebounds per game over the course of a season. McAdoo also led the NBA in field goal percentage in 1973-74, shooting 54.7 percent. That year he enjoyed his first of five All-Star selections. In 1974-75 he was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, averaging 34.5 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.12 blocks per game, while shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 80.5 percent from the free throw line. He also led the league in fan voting for the 1975 All-Star Game with 98,325 votes.
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Bob McKillop
Robert "Bob" McKillop (born July 13, 1950) is an American college basketball coach and current head coach of the Davidson College Wildcats men's basketball team.
Born in Queens, New York, McKillop grew up in Queens and on Long Island and played for Chaminade High School in Mineola. McKillop went on to play college ball for East Carolina University before transferring to Hofstra University. At Hofstra he was named team MVP. After graduating in 1972 with a degree in history, he was briefly signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia 76ers, but was cut.
He then accepted a job teaching history and coaching basketball back on Long Island at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville. There, McKillop achieved an 86–25 record. In 1978 he became an assistant coach at Davidson for one year before returning to high school ball at Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School in Brookville. McKillop compiled a record there of 182–51, winning five New York State Championships.
In 1989, McKillop returned to Davidson as head coach. He has coached Davidson longer than any other, has won more games there than any coach, and his 230 Southern Conference wins are more than any coach in league history. He has been the SoCon Coach of the Year seven times, has won ten conference division titles, five tournament championships, and taken his team to five NCAA tournaments and four postseason NITs. All this winning hasn't come at any academic sacrifice, as 95 per cent of his Davidson lettermen have graduated. In 2006 the Wildcats won the Southern Conference tournament and went on to face No. 2 seeded Ohio St. in the NCAA tournament. Fifteenth seeded Davidson led 29–25 at halftime before falling 70–62. On January 27, 2007, McKillop reached 300 wins with a 79–59 victory over Western Carolina in Belk Arena. On February 26, 2011 he reached 400 wins with a 78-67 victory over UNC Greensboro.
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Bob Pettit
Robert Lee "Bob" Pettit Jr. (born December 12, 1932, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.) is a retired American professional basketball player. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks (1954-1965). He was the first recipient of the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970. He also went by the nickname "Dutch" in college. He also won the NBA All-Star MVP award four times.
Pettit's basketball career had humble beginnings. At Baton Rouge High School, he was cut from the varsity basketball team as both a freshman and sophomore. His father, Sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish (1932-1936), pushed him to practice in the backyard of the Kemmerly house until he improved his skills. It worked: Pettit became a starter as a junior, and led Baton Rouge High to its first State Championship in over 20 years in his senior year.
After high school, Pettit accepted a scholarship to play at Louisiana State University. He was a three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection and a two-time All American as a member of the LSU men's basketball team. (Freshmen were not allowed to play varsity basketball in those days.) During those three years, Pettit averaged 27.8 points per game. He was also a member of the Zeta Zeta Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon at LSU.
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Bob Vanatta
Bob Vanatta (born c. 1919) was an American head basketball coach for Central Methodist, Southwest Missouri State, Army, Bradley, Memphis State, Missouri, and Delta State University. At Southwest Missouri State, he won the 1952 and 1953 NAIA Championship. At Memphis State, he compiled a 109-34 record, including making it to the 1957 NIT Championship game. After coaching, he later served as athletic director at Oral Roberts University, commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference, commissioner of the Atlantic Sun Conference, executive director of the Independence Bowl, athletic director at Louisiana Tech University, commissioner of the Sunshine State Conference, president of the NCAA Division II Conference Commissioner's Association, and associate athletic director at Florida Atlantic University. He is still an active member of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission, which presents the Lou Groza Award to the nation's top placekicker.
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Bobby Cremins
Bobby Cremins (born July 4, 1947) is a retired American college basketball coach, having formerly served as a head coach at Appalachian State, Georgia Tech, and, most recently, the College of Charleston.
Cremins attended the All Hallows High School in the Bronx, New York, where he was born to Irish immigrants. In 1966, he entered the University of South Carolina on a basketball scholarship, where he played under the legendary basketball coach Frank McGuire. While Cremins was there, the South Carolina team won 61 games, with only 17 losses, while Cremins was the starting point guard for three years for the Gamecocks. Cremins, known affectionately as "Cakes", was also the captain of South Carolina's powerful 1969–70 team which went 25-3. He graduated from South Carolina in 1970 with a B.S. degree in marketing, before playing professional basketball for one year in Ecuador.
Cremins started his coaching career at in 1971 as an assistant coach at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He next returned to South Carolina to become McGuire's assistant coach and to earn a M.S. degree in guidance and counseling in 1972.
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Bobby Hurley
Robert Matthew 'Bobby' Hurley (born June 28, 1971) is an American former basketball player and currently the associate head coach at the University of Rhode Island along with his brother Dan Hurley, who was named head coach on March 20, 2012.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Hurley was a basketball star at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, where his father, Bob Hurley Sr., is the longtime coach. While at St. Anthony, from 1985 to 1989, Hurley led the team to four consecutive Parochial B state titles. In his senior year he averaged 20 points, 8 assists and 3 steals, as St. Anthony racked up a 32-0 record, the school's first Tournament of Champions crown, and the No. 1 ranking in the United States. In his high school career the team's overall record with Hurley as point guard was 115-5.
Hurley was a point guard for Duke University's men's basketball team from 1989-1993. He was a first-team All-American in 1993, went to the Final Four three times, and led the Blue Devils to back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992, earning Final Four MVP honors in 1992. Hurley remains the NCAA all-time assists leader with 1076 assists, and Duke's single game assist leader with 16 (against Florida State on February 24, 1993). His Duke jersey number 11 was retired in 1993. In 2002, Hurley was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team as one of the fifty greatest players in Atlantic Coast Conference history. At Duke, Hurley was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
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Bobby McDermott
Robert "Bobby" McDermott (January 7, 1914 in Whitestone, Queens, New York – October 3, 1963 in Yonkers, New York) was an American professional basketball player, in the 1930s and 1940s.
He was known as an outstanding shooter and has been called "the greatest long-distance shooter in the history of the game" by contemporaries.
During the 1940s the most common offenses were motion offenses that were supposed to open up players close to the goal. This was because most players were awful shooters. The most common defenses were zones, that clogged passing lanes and packed the paint. For zone defense to be successful, all the defenders have to be close together and close to the goal.
Bob spread the defenders like nobody ever did before or has since. He was an accurate shooter for his day but not legendarily accurate. His free throw percentage was below 80% most of his career and he used a two-handed set shot from the chest that was easy to block. However, he could score from anywhere within the half court. Al Cervi, a great defensive player who often had to guard him, said of McDermott, "Oh, he could shoot! If he shot ten times from thirty feet, I'd guarantee he'd make eight in game conditions."
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Bobby Morrow
Bobby Joe Morrow (born October 15, 1935) is a former American athlete, winner of three Olympic gold medals in 1956. Morrow has been called "the dominant sprinter of the 1950s" and "the most relaxed sprinter of all time, even more so than his hero Jesse Owens".
Bobby Joe Morrow was born in Harlingen, Texas, and raised on a farm in San Benito, Texas. Before becoming a sprinter, Morrow played football for San Benito High School. Morrow also was a sprinter at Abilene Christian University and a member of the men's club Frater Sodalis.
Morrow won the 1955 AAU 100 yard title. His most successful season was in 1956, when he was chosen by Sports Illustrated as "Sportsman of the Year". Morrow won the sprint double in the national college championships and defended his AAU title. Morrow then went to the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where he won three gold medals and was the leader of the American sprint team.
In all, Morrow won three gold medals. First, he was victorious in the 100 meter dash. He then led an American sweep of the medals in the 200 meter dash, while equaling the World Record at that distance. He won his third gold by anchoring the 4×100 meter relay team to a World Record time. The three performances are encapsulated in this youtube video.
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Bobby Orr
Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, OC (born March 20, 1948) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Orr played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for his entire career, the first ten seasons with the Boston Bruins, joining the Chicago Black Hawks for two more. Orr is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time. A defenceman, Orr used his ice skating speed and scoring and play-making abilities to revolutionize the position. As of 2011[update], Orr remains the only defenceman to have won the league scoring title with two Art Ross Trophies and holds the record for most points and assists in a single season by a defenceman. Orr won a record eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the NHL's best defenceman and three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player (MVP). Orr was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979 at age 31, the youngest to that day to be inducted into the Hall.
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Bobby Wanzer
Robert Francis (Bobby) Wanzer, also known as "Hooks" Wanzer (born June 4, 1921) is a former basketball player and coach. A 6'0" guard, he played collegiately at Seton Hall University, and was selected by the Rochester Royals in 1947. Royals star Bob Davies was a Seton Hall assistant and steered the star guard to the NBL contender. Initially a reserve behind Al Cervi and Red Holzman, Wanzer later teamed with Davies to form a potent backcourt for the day. The Royals were very successful 1947-1954, and their smaller stars, like Wanzer, were considered their biggest assets. With Wanzer, Rochester won the 1950-51 National Basketball Association (NBA) title.
He played his entire career with the Royals, retiring from play after the end of the 1957 season. Wanzer was a five-time All-Star with the Royals, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. Wanzer was the first player to ever shoot over 90% from the free throw line in a season.
Wanzer would also coach the Royals as well. He was a player-coach for two years, and then (after the franchise moved to Cincinnati, Ohio) coached for another season. His 1957-58 Cincinnati Royals were a NBA contender, but injuries stopped the team short. When star Maurice Stokes was permanently injured, Wanzer moved on early the following NBA season. He later coached St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, New York.
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Bones McKinney
Horace Albert "Bones" McKinney (born January 1, 1919 in Lowlands, North Carolina – May 16, 1997) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
A 6'6" forward-center who played at both North Carolina State University (2 years) and the University of North Carolina (1 year after the war interrupted his playing career), McKinney had a six-year playing career in the NBA, most of them with the now-defunct Washington Capitols. He also played for the Boston Celtics. His final year with the Capitols (in the 1950-1951 season), McKinney was a player-coach; the team folded midway through the season.
McKinney, known for his sideline antics, would later coach the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, leading them to two Atlantic Coast Conference titles and an appearance in the Final Four in 1962.
McKinney also coached Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association from 1969 through 1971. He coached them to a 42-42 record during the 1969-1970 season, good for third place in the East Division. The Cougars then lost in the first round of the 1970 ABA playoffs to the Indiana Pacers, 4 games to 0. As the 1970-71 season got under way, McKinney was named a vice president of the team. After a 17-25 start, halfway through the season McKinney was replaced as head coach by his assistant coach Jerry Steele. Steele also went 17-25 for the remainder of the season for a 34-50 record that failed to get the Cougars into the 1971 ABA playoffs. During the 1970-71 season, McKinney provided color commentary for the television broadcast of the 1971 ABA All Star Game.
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Bonnie Blair
Bonnie Kathleen Blair (born March 18, 1964 in Cornwall, New York) is a retired American speedskater. She is one of the top skaters of her time, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, and in her Olympic career won five gold medals and one bronze medal.
Blair was raised in Champaign, Illinois. She attended Jefferson Middle School. After graduation from Centennial High School in Champaign, she moved to the Milwaukee area to train with the United States national speed skating team.
Blair appeared at her first Olympic games in Sarajevo in 1984. She failed to medal but finished eighth in the 500 meters. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Blair won gold in the 500 meters and bronze in the 1000 meters. In the 500 meters race, Blair set a world record by completing the event in 39.10 seconds. She won both the 500 and 1000 meters (1:21.90) again at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
Blair took advantage of a change of Olympic rules. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee voted to stage the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics in alternating four year cycles. Thus, the next Winter Games would be held in February 1994 rather than in February 1996. The 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, were a coronation of sorts for Blair: She again won gold in the 500 meters (39.25) and 1000 (1:18.74) meters races, in dominating fashion. Blair finished 0.36 seconds ahead of the second best time in the 500 meters, and her 1.38 second margin in the 1000 meters race is the largest margin of victory in the history of the event. In the process she became the first American woman to win five gold medals. She also was the only American to have 6 medals at any Winter olympics, which record stood until Apolo Ohno tied it and then surpassed it at the 2010 Winter Olympics when he won a silver and two bronze medals in short track speed skating for eight career medals.
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Borislav Stanković
Borislav "Bora" Stanković (Serbian Cyrillic: Борислав Станковић; born July 9, 1925) is a Serbian former basketball player and coach, as well as a longtime administrator in the sport's various governing bodies. For his contributions to the game of basketball he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.
Stanković was born in Bihać, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Early in his life he moved to Novi Sad and then to Syrmian town of Ledinci during World War II. After the war, Stanković went to Belgrade where he graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in veterinary medicine.
Simultaneous to his studies Stanković played professionally for KK Crvena zvezda (1946-1948) and Železničar Beograd (1948-1950) and was on the Yugoslav national team for five years in early 1950s. After he retired from the game, he coached OKK Beograd for ten consecutive seasons (1953–1963) and for a season in 1965. He then moved on to Italian club Pallacanestro Cantù, spending three seasons as its head coach (1966–1969).
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Bowie Kuhn
Bowie Kent Kuhn (/ˈbuːi ˈkjuːn/; October 28, 1926 – March 15, 2007) was an American lawyer and sports administrator who served as the fifth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from February 4, 1969, to September 30, 1984. He served as legal counsel for Major League Baseball owners for almost 20 years prior to his election as commissioner.
Kuhn was born in Takoma Park, Maryland, grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School. He then attended Franklin and Marshall College in the V-12 Navy College Training Program before going to Princeton University in 1945. He graduated from Princeton with honors in 1947 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He then received his law degree in 1950 from the University of Virginia where he served on the editorial board of the law review.
Following his graduation from law school, Kuhn became a member of the New York City law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher because the firm represented the National League. While working in baseball's legal affairs, Kuhn served as a counselor for the NL in a lawsuit brought against it by the City of Milwaukee when the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta following the 1965 season.
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Brad Brownell
Brad Brownell (born November 15, 1968 in Evansville, Indiana) is an American college basketball coach and the current head basketball coach at Clemson University. Prior to coming to Clemson, he held the same position at Wright State and UNC Wilmington.
Brownell played high school basketball at William Henry Harrison High School with current Golden State Warriors assistant coach and Indiana University legend Calbert Cheaney. Brownell graduated from DePauw University in 1991, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He immediately went into coaching after graduating. He spent one season as an assistant to Jim Crews at the University of Evansville, then spent the next two seasons on the bench at the University of Indianapolis while earning his master's degree.
Upon completing his master's degree in 1994, Brownell began his tenure at UNC Wilmington as an assistant to then-head coach Jerry Wainwright. Brownell helped guide the Seahawks to four postseason tournament berths while serving as an assistant, including a memorable upset win over the fourth-seeded USC Trojans in the first round of the 2002 NCAA tournament. Following that season, Wainwright left UNC Wilmington to take over at Richmond, and Brownell was promoted to head coach.
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Brad Stevens
Brad Stevens (born October 22, 1976) is an American college basketball coach and former player. He is currently the head men's basketball coach at Butler University. He grew up in Zionsville, Indiana, where he starred on the Zionsville Community High School basketball team, setting four school records. After high school, he attended DePauw University, where he played basketball and earned a degree in economics. He made the all-conference team multiple times and was a three-time Academic All-America nominee. Stevens joined the Butler basketball program as a volunteer prior to the 2000–01 season after quitting his job at Eli Lilly and Company. He was promoted to a full-time assistant coaching position for the 2001–02 season. On April 4, 2007, he became the head coach after Todd Lickliter left to coach the Iowa Hawkeyes.
In his first year, Stevens led Butler to 30 wins, becoming the third-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I history to have a 30-win season. In 2010, his third year as head coach, Stevens broke the NCAA record for most wins in a coach's first three years, exceeding the previous record by eight. The 2009–10 team finished undefeated in conference play, becoming the first Horizon League team to do so. In the postseason, Stevens coached Butler to the first Final Four in school history. At 33 years old, Stevens became the second-youngest head coach to make a NCAA National Championship game, losing 61-59 to Duke. Shortly after the season ended, he signed a contract extension with Butler through the 2021–22 season. With the 2010–11 team making the Final Four, Stevens became the youngest coach to go to two Final Fours. Stevens coached the Bulldogs in their second consecutive national championship game on April 4, 2011, where the team lost to the Huskies of the University of Connecticut.
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Branch McCracken
Branch McCracken (June 9, 1908 – June 4, 1970) was a hall of fame coach for the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team.
As a player at Indiana, McCracken was a three-year letter winner. At 6-4 and 200 lb (91 kg), McCracken played center, forward and guard, pacing the Hoosiers in scoring for three years. His coach and predecessor, Hall of Fame coach Everett Dean, called McCracken "rough and tough." McCracken never missed a game. Once, when slowed by injuries, he planted himself near the foul line, back to the basket, from there passing off to players cutting by him or keeping the ball and rolling to the basket himself. "Once we saw what he could do, we let him go," Dean said. "He was one of the first college centers who played the pivot the way it's played today."
McCracken scored 32.3 percent of the points his three Hoosier teams scored. He led the Big Ten Conference with a 12.3 average his senior year and graduated as the league's career scoring record holder.
McCracken was a consensus All-American in 1930. Upon his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960, he was the first man ever voted there for his performance as an Indiana player.
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Brett Favre
Brett Lorenzo Favre (born October 10, 1969) is a former American football quarterback who spent the majority of his career with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He was a 20-year veteran of the NFL, having played quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons (1991), Green Bay Packers (1992–2007), New York Jets (2008) and Minnesota Vikings (2009–2010). Favre is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 70,000 yards, over 500 touchdowns, over 300 interceptions, and over 10,000 pass attempts. He officially retired on January 17, 2011.
Favre started at the quarterback position for the University of Southern Mississippi for four years before being selected in the second round of the 1991 NFL Draft by Atlanta (33rd overall). He was traded to Green Bay on February 10, 1992, for the 19th pick in the 1992 NFL Draft.
Favre became the Packers' starting quarterback in the fourth game of the 1992 season, and started every game through the 2007 season. He was traded to the New York Jets and started at quarterback for the 2008 season before signing with the Vikings on August 18, 2009 as their starting quarterback. He made an NFL record 297 consecutive starts (321 including playoffs).
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Brian Gregory
Brian Gregory (born (1966-12-15)December 15, 1966 in Mount Prospect, Illinois) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball team. He has previously been head coach for the Dayton Flyers and an assistant for the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team.
From 1985 to 1986, Gregory attended the U.S. Naval Academy where he played on the Navy team that featured David Robinson and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He then went to Oakland University where he was a three-time all conference selection and in 1990 was named an Academic All-American. In 1990, Gregory graduated from Oakland University with a bachelor of arts in secondary education. He went on to earn a master of arts in athletic administration at Michigan State, graduating in 1992.
He was an assistant for the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team for five years, from 1999 to 2003, under head coach Tom Izzo. During that time, the Spartans reached the Final Four three times and won the 1999-2000 national title.
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Brian Zoubek
Brian Henry Zoubek (born April 6, 1988, in Haddonfield, New Jersey) is a 7'1" basketball center. He was a member of the Duke Blue Devils' 2010 NCAA Championship team.
Zoubek's father, Paul, played football and baseball at Princeton University, and his mother, Liza Cartmell, rowed crew at Wellesley. His older sister, Sarah, played basketball at Yale University.
At Haddonfield Memorial High School he led the Bulldawgs to a four-year record of 110–10 with three straight championships, was a 2006 fourth team Parade All-America selection, named to the 2006 Jordan All-America team, a two-time Newark Star-Ledger first team all-state selection, and a three-time all-conference and All-South Jersey selection, as well as 2006 New Jersey state Player of the Year.
Zoubek averaged 24.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 4.2 blocks per game as a senior. He was rated 33rd overall by The Recruiting Services Consensus Index, and ranked 24th in the Rivals.com Top 150 prospects of 2006.
Zoubek started his Duke career with two double figure scoring games, against UNC Greensboro and Columbia.
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Bruce Drake
Bruce Drake (December 5, 1905 – December 4, 1983) was a college men's basketball coach. The Gentry, Texas native was head coach at the University of Oklahoma between 1938 and 1955, compiling a 200-181 record. He also coached the Air Force team to a 34-14 record in 1956
Prior to coaching, he was also a star for Hugh McDermott's Oklahoma team. He was a 1928-29 Helms Foundation All American.
As a coach Drake made 2 Final Fours the first one in 1939 Where they lost to Oregon 55-37 and in 1947 where he lost in the Championship Game to Holy Cross 58-47. He made 1 more additional NCAA tournament appearance in 1943 though he coached at a time when only 8 team made the tournament. In all he won or tied for 6 conference championships (Big Six and Big Seven).
He coached 5 Olympic (Wayne Glasgow and Marcus Freiberger of University of Oklahoma, 1952; Bill Evans, Ron Tomsic and Gib Ford of Air Force team, 1956) and three All-Americans (Jimmy McNatt, 1940; Gerald Tucker, 1943, 1947; Allie Paine, 1944)
Drake was selected as the assistant coach for the 1956 USA Men's Basketball Gold Medal Olympic Team
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Bryant Stith
Bryant Lamonica Stith (born December 10, 1970 in Emporia, Virginia) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA.
A 6'5" (1.96 m) shooting guard, Bryant was selected from the University of Virginia with the 13th overall pick by the Denver Nuggets in the 1992 NBA Draft. Bryant played eight seasons with the team before being traded to the Boston Celtics. He was also traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers and to the Los Angeles Clippers along with Andre Miller for Darius Miles. He retired before ever playing for the Clippers.
He played for the US national team in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.
Since retiring from the NBA, Stith has been involved in NASCAR, in which he owns a team with race car driver and fellow Emporia native, Hermie Sadler.
In 2007, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Stith is now the head coach of the Brunswick (VA) High School Bulldogs, and has led them to the state championship game in each of his six seasons as head coach. Coach Stith and the Brunswick Bulldogs have won back-to-back championships in 2011 and 2012.[citation needed]
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Bucky Waters
Raymond Chevalier "Bucky" Waters (born December 17, 1935) is a current basketball broadcaster with ESPN and MSG Network and a retired NCAA basketball head coach. He served as head coach for the West Virginia University men's basketball team from 1965–69 and was head coach for the Duke University men's team from 1969-1973. His overall head coaching record is 133-96 and includes four postseason appearances.
As a player, Waters played under Hall of Fame Coach Everett Case at North Carolina State University. Only N. C. State's National Championship teams of 1974 and 1983 surpassed the Wolfpack’s Nationally 2nd ranked team of the Waters’ era.
As a coach, Waters spent four years at West Virginia University and ten years at Duke University producing winning records and postseason tournament teams at both universities. Waters is one of only four individuals in ACC history to be on ACC basketball championship teams at two different universities—first as a player at N. C. State (1956), then later as an assistant coach at Duke University (1960, 1963, 1964). He is also one of only six ACC players to become an ACC head basketball coach.
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Buddy Jeannette
Harry Edward "Buddy" Jeannette (September 15, 1917 – March 11, 1998) was a professional basketball player and coach.
Jeannette was widely regarded as the premier backcourt player between 1938 and 1948. He was named to the First Team of the NBL four times, and won titles with the NBL's Sheboygan Red Skins (1943) and Fort Wayne Pistons (1944, 1945). Jeannette also won a title with the ABL's Baltimore Bullets in 1947.
Most of his playing career came prior to the formation of the modern NBA or its predecessor leagues; however Jeannette did serve three years as a player-coach for the original Baltimore Bullets of the Basketball Association of America. In the 1948 BAA playoffs, he became the first player-coach to win a professional championship. After his playing career ended, he coached the original Bullets for one more season. He then became the head coach at Georgetown University for four seasons.
Jeannette returned to the ranks of professional coaching to lead the modern Bullets twice, once for a full season and once as an interim coach. He later would coach the ABA's Pittsburgh Pipers.
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Calvin Murphy
Calvin Murphy (born May 9, 1948) is a retired American professional basketball player who played as a guard for the NBA's San Diego/Houston Rockets from 1970-1983. He is a former member of the Houston Rockets' broadcast team. He was also the host of ESPN Radio's The Calvin Murphy Show. Standing at a height of 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m), Murphy has the distinction of being the shortest player inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Before basketball Calvin Murphy was a world class baton twirler. He says he was "bullied into it" as his mother and all six of her sisters were twirlers. As an 8th grader, in 1963, he won a national championship in baton twirling. His reputation as a twirler earned him invitations to perform at major sporting events and the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1977, at the height of his basketball career in Houston, Murphy won the Texas State Men's Twirling Championship.
He played basketball for Norwalk High School, where he was All-State three times and All-America twice. He is a member of the Connecticut Coaches Association Hall of Fame and a Connecticut Sportswriters Gold Key Award winner. Norwalk High School's address is now 23 Calvin Murphy Rd. in his honor.
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Carl Yastrzemski
Carl Michael Yastrzemski ( /jəˈstrɛmski/; nicknamed "Yaz"; born August 22, 1939) is a former American Major League Baseball left fielder and first baseman. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989. Yastrzemski played his entire 23-year baseball career with the Boston Red Sox (1961–1983). He was primarily a left fielder, with part of his later career played at first base and as a designated hitter. Yastrzemski is an 18-time All-Star, the possessor of seven Gold Gloves, a member of the 3000 hit club, and the first American League player in that club to also accumulate over 400 home runs. He is second on the all-time list for games played, and third for total at-bats. He is the Red Sox' all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played, and is second on the team's list for home runs behind another Red Sox great, Ted Williams, his predecessor in left field. In 1967, Yastrzemski achieved a peak in his career, leading the Red Sox to the American League pennant for the first time in over two decades, in that season being voted the American League MVP, and being the most recent winner of the triple crown for batters in the major leagues.
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Carlos Boozer
Carlos Austin Boozer, Jr. (born November 20, 1981) is an American professional basketball player with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association. As a member of the Team USA, Boozer won an Olympic bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Although born at a military base in Aschaffenburg, West Germany, Boozer grew up in Juneau, Alaska, in the US. As a child, Boozer and his father practiced outside at his local middle school, throughout the cold Alaska seasons. He attended Juneau-Douglas High School. Boozer was married to his wife CeCe for six years before he filed for divorce in March 2009. Boozer and CeCe have three children together: Carmani (who had a bone marrow transplant in 2007 to treat sickle-cell disease), and twins, Cameron and Cayden. He also has a younger brother, Charles, who previously played basketball for the Iowa State Cyclones. Boozer was reported as having an affair with actress Michelle Money, which Money later confirmed.
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Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (born May 29, 1984), nicknamed "Melo", is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a successful high school career at Towson Catholic High School and Oak Hill Academy, Anthony attended Syracuse University for college where he led the Orangemen to their first National Championship in 2003. He earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award and was named the Most Valuable Player of NCAA East Regional. After one season at Syracuse University, Anthony left college to enter the 2003 NBA Draft, where he was selected as the third pick by the Nuggets. He was traded to the Knicks several days prior to the 2011 trade deadline.
Since entering the NBA, Anthony has emerged as one of the most well-known and popular players in the league. He was named to the All-Rookie team, to the All-Star team five times and to the All-NBA team five times. Anthony led the Nuggets to two division titles and to the playoffs every year from 2004 to 2010. In 2009, he helped the Nuggets advance to the Conference Finals for the first time since 1985. As a member of the USA National Team, Anthony won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics.
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Carol Blazejowski
Carol Ann Blazejowski (born September 29, 1956, in Elizabeth, New Jersey) is an American retired professional women's basketball player and the former President and General Manager of the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Blazejowski is the daughter of Leon and Grace (John) Blazejowski. She resides with her family in Nutley, New Jersey.
Using a jump shot patterned after what she saw in televised professional games, Blazejowski became one of the greatest scorers in the history of women's basketball, although she didn't begin serious competition until her senior year at Cranford High School in Cranford, New Jersey.
At Montclair State College in Montclair, New Jersey, the 5-foot-10 (1.78 m) forward was a three-time All-American, from 1976 through 1978. Blazejowski won the inaugural Wade Trophy as the nation's finest collegiate woman player in 1978. She led the nation in scoring with 33.5 points per game in 1976/77 and 38.6 points per game in 1977/78. Blazejowski scored 40 or more points in each of her last three games, including the semifinal loss to eventual champion UCLA. Sports Illustrated would call her, "the most relentlessly exciting performer in the history of women's basketball". She set a Madison Square Garden record for either sex with 52 points in a 1978 game against Queens College. Similar to all-time men's collegiate scoring record holder, Pete Maravich, "The Blaze" played during an era without the three point shot.
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Carolyn Peck
Carolyn Arlene Peck (born January 22, 1966) is an American television sportscaster and former college basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's basketball teams of Purdue University and the University of Florida, and also the first head coach-general manager in the history of the WNBA's Orlando Miracle. Currently, Peck is a basketball analyst for ESPN.
As a senior in high school, Peck, a 6-4 center, was named Tennessee’s Miss Basketball after averaging 35 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. She played college basketball at Vanderbilt University from 1985 to 1988, averaging 10.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. She also blocked 180 shots, to break a Vanderbilt women’s basketball career record.
Peck graduated from Vanderbilt with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications in 1988. She passed up on an opportunity to play professionally in Spain to work as a marketing consultant at a Nashville television station, as well as sell pharmaceutical products for a Fortune 500 company for two years.
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Cathy Rush
Cathy Rush (born April 7, 1947) was the head women's basketball coach at Immaculata from 1972-1977. She led Immaculata to three consecutive AIAW national titles from 1972-1974. She led the Mighty Macs to six consecutive final four appearances in her six seasons with the school, attaining a 149-15 record. Rush was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 7, 2008. She had also been inducted to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
A resident of Ventnor, New Jersey, Rush grew up in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey and graduated from Oakcrest High School in 1964. She received a Bachelor of Science in 1968 and a Masters in Education in 1972, both from West Chester University. She has two children with her ex-husband, former National Basketball Association referee and Supervisor of Officials Ed T. Rush.
The Mighty Macs, a movie about the season leading to the winning of the first women's national basketball championship in 1972, was released in October 2011. Rush is played by Carla Gugino.
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Cesare Rubini
Cesare Rubini (2 November 1923 – 8 February 2011) was an Italian basketball player and coach, and water polo player. One of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time, Rubini was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994, the first, and to this day, one of the few Italian basketball figures to receive such an honour, together with Dino Meneghin and Sandro Gamba. He has also been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rubini started to play basketball for his high school team in his native Trieste, where he graduated in 1941. The same year he began to play for Olimpia Milano, the most prestigious Italian League basketball club at that time. He however had a long-lived passion for water polo: this led him later to become one of the rare world sportsmen to play at the highest level in two different team sports.
In 1946, he won a silver medal with the Italian national basketball team at the EuroBasket 1946, held in Geneva. The following year, he also won a silver medal at the European Championships, but this time with the Italian national water polo team. In the meantime he had assumed the role of player-coach of Olimpia Milano: in 1948, however, he was called by the national teams of both sports. Rubini chose water polo, and won a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London, beating the Netherlands in the final. With Rubini as a full-time player, Italy could boast what was to be called the "Golden Settebello", one of the most valuable water polo teams ever, which also won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics and at the Turin European Championship of 1954. In both the events, Italy was behind traditional rivals of Yugoslavia and Hungary.
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Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is a former American professional basketball player and current analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's (NBA's) most dominating power forwards. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team five times, the All-NBA Second Team five times, and once to the All-NBA Third Team. He earned eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances and was named the All-Star MVP in 1991. In 1993, he was voted the league's Most Valuable Player and during the NBA's 50th anniversary, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States' Dream Team. In 2006, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he mistakenly spat on a young girl, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Short for a power forward, Barkley used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists.
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Charles Doak
Charles Glenn "Chick" Doak (October 7, 1884 – April 21, 1956) coached baseball at North Carolina State University from 1924 to 1939 where he accumulated 145 wins, 131 losses, 6 ties.
Doak also played in the minor leagues and coached several college teams, such as at Guilford College, the University of North Carolina, and Trinity College.
Doak led the Wolfpack (the players were known as the "Doakmen") to the South Atlantic Championship only twice in his 16 seasons as coach (1924 and 1928), but his view that "the best defense is a hell of an offense" made for exciting games. Doak remained on NC State's physical education faculty until 1955. The baseball field to the east of Reynolds Coliseum (a space now occupied by the Coliseum parking deck) was named in his honor, and the name persisted to the fields current site. His sons, Charles and Robert, both played baseball for NC State.
After Nat Cartmell was fired as the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball coach in 1914 for playing dice with known gamblers, Doak took over as the second head coach for the Tar Heels. Doak was generally more interested in coaching baseball and was not fully focused on coaching basketball. During the 1915-16 season, it was too difficult to get referees and so on some occasions Doak would actually referee games that the Tar Heels were playing. Doak was fairly successful as the head coach of the basketball team, but stepped down as head coach after the 1916 season to be replaced by Howell Peacock.
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Charlie Finley
Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918–February 19, 1996), nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who is best remembered for his tenure as the owner of the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, moving it to Oakland in 1968.
Finley was born in Ensley, Alabama, but was raised in Gary, Indiana, and later lived in La Porte, a small town 60 miles east of Chicago. In 1946 he had a bout of tuberculosis that nearly killed him. Finley made his fortune in the insurance business, being among the first to write group medical insurance policies for those in the medical profession.
Finley showed a penchant for flair and inventive business practices. Sometimes, when wooing prospective customers, Finley would drive the client through the richest section of Gary. Pointing out a large mansion, Finley would declare "That's my place there, but I'm having it remodeled right now." Finley's fortunes grew and he ended up owning a 40 story insurance building in downtown Chicago. When Finley bought his personal property in Laporte, he hired John Mihelic as his ranch caretaker. The property was a working cattle ranch which consisted of an 18th century 11 room colonial manor house and 9 barns and various outbuildings. Finley had a large mansion built on the property which featured rounded portico's and columns which resembled the White House in Washington D.C. Mihelic and his family then moved into the original house and lived there as manager and caretakers.
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Chauncey Billups
Chauncey Ray Billups (born September 25, 1976, in Denver, Colorado) is an American professional basketball guard for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A star at the University of Colorado, he was chosen third overall in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics.
A 5 time NBA All-Star and a 3 time All-NBA selection, Billups has played for the Celtics, the Toronto Raptors, the Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Detroit Pistons, the New York Knicks, the Clippers, and Team USA. He won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004, helping the Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, and was given the nickname "Mr. Big Shot" for making late-game shots with Detroit.
In 2004 he was honored by the University of Colorado as the fifth player to have his jersey (number 4) retired.
Billups attended Denver's George Washington High School, where he was a four-time All-State first team pick, Colorado Mr. Basketball three times, and Colorado Player of the Year as a sophomore and as a junior. He was selected to the 1995 McDonald's All-American Team but did not play due to a shoulder injury, an injury that he would have a problem with off and on throughout his early career.
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Cherokee Parks
Cherokee Bryan Parks (born October 11, 1972, in Huntington Beach, California) is an American professional basketball player.
A 6' 11" (211 cm), 240 lbs (109 kg) center, Parks played his college basketball at Duke University under coach Mike Krzyzewski and won the 1992 national title during his freshman year. After college, he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1st round (12th overall pick) of the 1995 NBA Draft. In his ten season NBA career (1995–2004), he played for the Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Vancouver Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards, and Golden State Warriors. He averaged career-highs of 7.1 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game during the 1997–98 season with Minnesota. Parks came out of retirement in 2011 to play in France.
Parks' mother named him Cherokee in honor of his great-grandmother, who was a member of the Cherokee tribe.
His sister Corey Parks was the original bassist for Nashville Pussy.
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Cheryl Miller
Cheryl D. Miller (born on January 3, 1964 in Riverside, California) is a former college basketball player, coach and sportscaster for TNT. She is currently a sideline reporter for NBA games on TNT Sports and also works for NBA TV as a reporter and analyst having worked previously as a sportscaster for ABC Sports, TBS Sports and ESPN. She was also head coach and General Manager of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury.
In 1995, Miller was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1999, she was inducted into the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee. On August 20, 2010, Miller was also inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame for her success in international play.
She is the sister of retired National Basketball Association star Reggie Miller and of former Major League Baseball catcher Darrell Miller.
Miller played at Riverside Polytechnic High School (1978–1982) where she was a four-year letter winner and led her team to a 132-4 record. She was awarded the Dial Award for the national high-school scholar-athlete of the year in 1981. She was the first player, male or female, to be named an All-American by Parade magazine four times. Averaging 32.8 points and 15.0 rebounds a game, Miller was Street & Smith's national High School Player of the Year in both 1981 and 1982. During her senior year she scored 105 points in a game against Norte Vista High School.
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Chick Hearn
Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster. Known primarily as the long-time play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, Hearn was remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, inventing colorful phrases such as slam dunk, air ball, and no harm, no foul that have become common basketball vernacular, and for broadcasting 3,338 consecutive Lakers games starting on November 21, 1965. Additionally, Hearn started the now common tradition of estimating the distance of shots taken.
Of note is that most of Hearn's games in the television era were simulcast on both radio and television, even after most teams chose to use different announcers for the different media.
Hearn grew up in Aurora, Illinois in west suburban Chicago and attended high school at Marmion Academy and college at Bradley University. He earned the nickname "Chick" while an Amateur Athletic Union basketball player at Bradley, when teammates played a prank on him: giving him a shoebox to see his surprised reaction when he opened it and found not sneakers inside, but instead a dead chicken.
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Chip Engelland
Chip Engelland (born May 9, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player and currently an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. He became a naturalized Filipino when he played for the Philippine National Team back in the 80's.
A native of Los Angeles, Engelland, who also served as a ball boy for coach John Wooden’s NCAA champions UCLA Bruins in 1975, began his basketball career at Pacific Palisades High School, leading Los Angeles in scoring as a senior in 1979. Subsequently, he lettered four season at Duke University, scoring more than 1,000 points for coach Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils and being named the team's captain in his senior year.
After graduating from Duke in 1983, Engelland went on to play professionally for nine years. First in the Philippines, where he spent two seasons and was a member of the San Miguel Beermen that captured the 1985 Jones Cup Championship, then back in North America, playing for the Topeka Sizzlers of the CBA and the Calgary 88's of the WBL.
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Chris Bosh
Christopher Wesson Bosh (born March 24, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who plays power forward for the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
A high school "Mr. Basketball" in Texas, Bosh left college at Georgia Tech after one season with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball team to enter the 2003 NBA Draft. He was selected fourth overall by the Toronto Raptors in a very competitive draft class. While at Toronto, Bosh emerged as one of the young stars in the league; he became a five-time NBA All-Star, was named to the All-NBA second team once, appeared for the US national team (with whom he won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics), and took over former fan-favorite Vince Carter as the face and leader of the Raptors franchise. In the 2006–07 season, Bosh led the Raptors to their first NBA Playoffs berth in five years, and their first ever division title. He left Toronto as its all-time leader in points, rebounds, blocks, double doubles, free throws made and attempted, and minutes played.
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Chris Carrawell
Chris Carrawell (born November 25, 1977 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American professional basketball player who was selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2nd round (41st overall) of the 2000 NBA Draft.
Born in a rough inner-city neighborhood in north St. Louis and never getting to meet his father, Carrawell attended high school at Cardinal Ritter College Prep in St. Louis. Among his teammates were future NBA players Loren Woods and Jahidi White. In four years on the Cardinal Ritter varsity, he led the team to an overall 80-13 record, including a three-year undefeated streak at home. Carrawell was a USA today Top 40 All American going into his junior season, where he averaged 20.6 points per game as Cardinal Ritter won the state's Class AA championnship. The following season, Cardinal Ritter defended its state title. Carrawell again led the team, averaging 17 points and 8 rebounds per game. Carrawell was named conference Player of the Year twice, earned Central Region honors as Gatorade Player of the Year, and was a fourth-team Parade All-American. He set school career records for points, rebounds, and assists. Cardinal Ritter made USA Today's list of the top 25 high school teams in the country twice during Carrawell's prep career.
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Chris Duhon
Chris Nicholas Duhon (born August 31, 1982, in Mamou, Louisiana) is an American professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic. Duhon was a point guard for the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team from 2000 to 2004, the Chicago Bulls from 2004 to 2008, and the New York Knicks from 2008 to 2010, and presently plays for the Orlando Magic. Fellow NBA player Jarrett Jack is his cousin.
In his senior year at Salmen High School in Slidell, Louisiana, Duhon was voted Mr. Basketball for the state of Louisiana, made the McDonald's All-American Team, and won the McDonald's Three Point Shootout.
Duhon arrived at Duke in 2000, where he was an important role player, playing backup to point guard Jason Williams. Following the injury of teammate Carlos Boozer, Duhon was placed into the starting lineup as point guard, with Williams moving to shooting guard, a combination which Duhon played well in. The Duke Blue Devils went on to win the 2001 national championship, defeating Arizona in the finals.
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Chris Evert
Christine Marie "Chris" Evert (born December 21, 1954) is a former world #1 professional tennis player from the United States. She won 18 Grand Slam singles championships, including a record seven championships at the French Open and a record six championships at the U.S. Open. She was the year-ending World No. 1 singles player in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1981.
Evert's career win–loss record in singles matches of 1,309–145 (90.05%) is the best of any professional player, man or woman, in the Open Era. On clay courts her career match win loss rate of 94.05% (316/20) remains a WTA record. In tennis writer Steve Flink's book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, he named Evert as the third best female player of the 20th century, after Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. Evert never lost in the first or second rounds of a Grand Slam singles tournament. She won 157 singles championships. In women's doubles, Evert won three Grand Slam titles and 29 regular tour championships.
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Chris Gatling
Chris Raymond Gatling (born September 3, 1967 in Elizabeth, New Jersey) is a retired American professional basketball player. Gatling played for numerous NBA teams from 1991 to 2002. He played for the US national team in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.
Chris Gatling played three years at Old Dominion University after transferring from the University of Pittsburgh. He is ODU's sixth all-time scorer with 1,811 points. He also hauled down 859 career rebounds which rank him ninth all-time. Gatling is the school's all-time field goal percentage leader at .606 (697-1150), and is second all-time at ODU with (12) 30-point games. He shot .620 (251-405) from the field in 1991.
Gatling scored 36 points in a game against UNC Charlotte in 1991 and against Alabama-Birmingham in March 1989. He earned honorable mention All-American honors in 1990 and 1991. Gatling was named sophomore of the year in 1988, junior of the year in 1990 and senior of the year in 1991 by the Sun Belt Conference. In 1991, he was named the Sun Belt Conference tournament MVP as he led the then seventh seeded Monarchs to the finals before losing to South Alabama.
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Chris Paul
Christopher Emmanuel Paul Sr. (born May 6, 1985) is an American professional basketball point guard for the Los Angeles Clippers. Paul was born and raised in North Carolina. Despite only playing two varsity basketball seasons in high school, he was a McDonald's All-American and accepted a scholarship with nearby Wake Forest University. After his sophomore year with the Demon Deacons, he declared for the draft. Since being selected 4th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets, Paul has been a NBA Rookie of the Year (2006), a five-time All-Star, and a multiple All-NBA and All-Defensive team honoree. He led the Hornets to the second round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs. He has also won an Olympic Gold Medal with the United States national basketball team.
Off the court, Paul has also achieved success in the sport of bowling and is a sponsored spokesperson for the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). He has participated in numerous celebrity and youth bowling events as the head of the CP3 Foundation to benefit programs in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, and charities in Winston-Salem.
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Chris Weller
Chris Weller is a former University of Maryland, College Park women's basketball coach from 1975-2002.
She led the Lady Terps to 2 NCAA and 1 AIAW Final Four appearances. She also attended the University of Maryland graduating in 1966. Weller retired with 499 wins in 27 seasons as the Lady Terps head coach. Weller was replaced with current women's basketball coach, Brenda Frese.
Weller was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2010.
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Christian Laettner
Christian Donald Laettner (born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player, entrepreneur, and basketball coach. He had a distinguished college and national career, and played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for thirteen seasons, from 1992–2005. He was also a minority holder in the Major League Soccer (MLS) club D.C. United from 2007 until 2009, when William Chang bought out the remaining investors to take full control of the club. He is a current assistant coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League.
Laettner played college basketball for the Duke University Blue Devils, starring on the 1991 and 1992 NCAA champion teams. He was the only college player selected for the 1992 United States men's Olympic team, nicknamed the "Dream Team." Sometimes considered the greatest team ever assembled in any sport, the Dream Team went on to win the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Laettner was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1992 NBA draft and went on to play 13 seasons in the NBA.
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Christian Steinmetz
Christian "Chris" Steinmetz (June 28, 1882 – June 11, 1963) was an American basketball player. He played forward for the University of Wisconsin from 1903 to 1905. He was college basketball's leading scorer in the game's first 25 years from 1895 to 1920. He became known as the "Father of Wisconsin Basketball" and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961.
Steinmetz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1882. He was the son of Chris, a Milwaukee real estate man, and Frances Steinmetz.
Steinmetz attended Milwaukee's South Division High School where he was a member of the school's basketball and track teams. He led South Division to the state high school basketball championship in 1902 and was the state champion in the high jump that year.
Steinmetz enrolled at the University of Wisconsin where he was a member of the Badgers' track and basketball teams from 1903 to 1905. Despite his modest size at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and 137 pounds (62 kg), he became one of the greatest scorers in basketball history. One writer who saw him play wrote: "He was a human dynamo on the basketball floor. Possessed of an uncanny eye for the basket and a bulldog on defense, Steinmetz always seemed to be at the right place at the right time. He was to basketball what Willie Heston (of Michigan) was to football."
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Chuck Daly
Charles Jerome "Chuck" Daly (July 20, 1930 – May 9, 2009) was an American basketball head coach. He led the Detroit Pistons to consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) Championships in 1989 and 1990, and the Dream Team to the men's basketball gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He had a 14-year NBA coaching career.
Born in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, to Earl and Geraldine Daly on July 20, 1930, Daly attended Kane Area High School in nearby Kane. He matriculated at St. Bonaventure University for one year before transferring to Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1952. After serving two years in the military, he began his basketball coaching career in 1955 at Punxsutawney (PA) High School.
After compiling a 111–70 record in eight seasons at Punxsutawney (PA) High School, Daly moved on to the college level in 1963 as an assistant coach under Vic Bubas at Duke University. During his six seasons at Duke, the Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and advanced to the Final Four, both in 1964 and 1966. Daly then replaced Bob Cousy as head coach at Boston College in 1969. The Eagles recorded an 11–13 record in Daly's first year at the school, and improved to 15–11 in 1971.
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Chuck Hyatt
Charles D. "Chuck" Hyatt (February 28, 1908 – May 8, 1978) was a well-known collegiate basketball player in the late 1920s.
The Syracuse, New York native played three seasons at University of Pittsburgh under Hall of Fame coach Clifford Carlson (1927–30). An exceptional shooter, Hyatt scored then-outstanding 880 points throughout his college career. He was named an All-American three consecutive times, and additionally Helms Foundation Player of the Year in 1930, when he led the nation in scoring with 12.6 ppg.
After his college career, Hyatt played AAU basketball, and later coached in the Professional Basketball League of America. Hyatt was inducted into the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in its inaugural class in 1959, and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in its inaugural class of 2006.
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Cito Gaston
Clarence Edwin "Cito" Gaston ( /ˈsiːtoʊ ˈɡæstən/; born March 17, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. His major league career as a player lasted from 1967–1978, most notably for the San Diego Padres and the Atlanta Braves. His managerial career was with the Toronto Blue Jays where he became the first African-American manager in Major League history to win a World Series title.
Cito Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997, and again from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he managed the Blue Jays to four Division Titles (1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), two American League Pennants (1992 and 1993) and two World Series (1992 and 1993).
Gaston grew up in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a truck driver. His career ambitions were either to be a truck driver like his father, or make into the Major Leagues. He adopted his nickname 'Cito' in preference to his given name 'Clarence'. Gaston later told Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters that the name was taken from a Mexican-American wrestler he watched as a young man in Texas. Other reports state that Gaston was given this nickname from a friend named Carlos Thompson who thought that Gaston resembled a Mexican wrestler named "Cito".
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Clair Bee
Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American basketball coach, who led the team at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles (1939, 1941). He was born in Grafton, West Virginia.
Bee's teams won 95 percent of their games from 1931 to 1951, including 43 in a row from 1935 to 1937. Bee holds the Division I NCAA record for highest winning percentage, winning 82.6% of the games he was head coach. Bee resigned in 1951 after several of his players were implicated in the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal. LIU shut down its athletic program shortly afterward.
Bee also coached the football team at LIU until it was disbanded in 1940.
He coached the National Basketball Association's Baltimore Bullets from 1952 to 1954, amassing a 34-116 record under his tenure.
Bee was known as the "Innovator". His contributions to the game of basketball include the 1-3-1 zone defense and the three-second rule. Bee also served as co-host of the early NBC sports-oriented television program "Campus Hoopla" on WNBT from 1946 - 1947.
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Clarence Gaines
Clarence Edward "Big House" Gaines, Sr. (May 21, 1923 – April 18, 2005) was a college men's basketball coach with a 47-year coaching career at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Gaines was born in Paducah, Kentucky to Lester and Olivia Bolen Gaines. He helped his family by working in a garage. He attended local Lincoln High School where he excelled academically, played basketball, was an All-State football player, and played trumpet in the school band. He graduated as class salutatorian in 1941.
Despite his academic qualifications, Jim Crow Era segregation laws and the suggestions of a friend of the family led him to attend Morgan State University (then Morgan State College) in Baltimore, Maryland. He entered in the fall of 1941 on a football scholarship.
It was at Morgan State that Gaines got his nickname "Big House": a student saw the 6 ft. 3in., 265 lb Gaines and declared: "You're as big as a house." Gaines played as a lineman for the Bears football team, was a member of the basketball team, and participated in track. Gaines was an All-CIAA selection as a lineman in football all four seasons and twice elected an All-American. When it came to basketball, he described himself as "a very average basketball player." In 2004, he explained that "I was an All-America in football, but I was just on the basketball team to have something to do."
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Clem Haskins
Clem Smith Haskins (born August 11, 1943) is a retired American college and professional basketball player and college basketball coach. He and star player Dwight Smith became the first black athletes to integrate the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers basketball program in the fall of 1963. This put Western Kentucky at the forefront to integrate college basketball in the South. He served 13 years (1986–1999) as head coach of the University of Minnesota's men's basketball team, but was forced to resign due to one of the worst academic fraud scandals in the history of NCAA sports. He was effectively blackballed from coaching college basketball for seven years, one of the most severe penalties handed down by the NCAA to an individual.
Haskins was born in Campbellsville, Kentucky, the fifth of eleven children of Charles Columbus and Lucy Edna Haskins, who were sharecroppers. He spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at the all-black Durham High School, and in 1961 Haskins attended Taylor County High School, the first African American to do so.
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Cliff Ellis
Cliff Ellis (born December 5, 1945) is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach at Coastal Carolina University. Going into the 2011–2012 season, Coach Ellis's 614 victories rank him 50th on the list of all-time career coaching victories in Division 1 basketball. He was national coach of the year in 1999 at Auburn, when his Tigers won 29 games and captured the school’s first SEC championship in 40 years. In 1990 he coached Clemson to its only ACC regular-season first-place finish. His South Alabama teams won Sun Belt Conference regular-season championships in 1979, 1980 and 1981. At both Clemson and South Alabama he holds school records for coaching victories and he is the second-winningest coach in Auburn history.
Ellis was born in Marianna, Florida. He is a musician, an author and a gourmet cook. He has even been an ostrich farmer. He and his music group, the Villagers, were one of the Southeast's hottest acts in the mid-1960s. Before he'd ever coached a college game, he had published a book on the 1–3–1 zone press.
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Cliff Hagan
Clifford Oldham Hagan (born December 9, 1931, in Owensboro, Kentucky) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-4 forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed "Li'l Abner," played his entire 10-year NBA career (1956–1966) with the St. Louis Hawks. He was also a player-coach for the Dallas Chaparrals in the first two-plus years of the American Basketball Association's existence (1967–1970).
Hagan played college basketball at the University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp. As a sophomore in 1951 he helped Kentucky win the NCAA Championship with a 68-58 victory over Kansas State.
In the fall of 1952, a point shaving scandal involving three Kentucky players (one of whom was a teammate of Hagan on Kentucky’s 1951 NCAA champions) over a four-year period forced Kentucky to forfeit its upcoming season, the senior year of Hagan, Frank Ramsey and Lou Tsioropoulos. The suspension of the season made Kentucky's basketball team, in effect, the first college sports team to get the "death penalty."
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Clifford Carlson
Henry Clifford "Doc" Carlson (July 4, 1894 – November 1, 1964) is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee as the men's college basketball coach of his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, from 1922 to 1953. At Pitt he compiled a record of 367–247 record (.595) and led the Panthers to a 21–0 record and the Helms Athletic Foundation national championship in 1928, another Helms national championship in 1930, and the Final Four in 1941. As a student at the university, Carlson was also a First Team All-American end on Pitt's football team under coach "Pop" Warner. Carlson also lettered in basketball and baseball.
Carlson was born in Murray City, Ohio. He played high school football, basketball, and baseball (1910–1914) at Bellefonte Academy in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. During his undergraduate years at the University of Pittsburgh (1914–1918) he earned three letters in basketball, two in baseball, four in football. He played on the 1916 Pitt football team that is widely regarded as that season's national champion and was selected as an All-American football player while playing for Pitt's undefeated 1917 team.
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Clifford Fagan
Clifford B. "Cliff" Fagan (March 3, 1911 – January 18, 1995) was a high school basketball referee who became executive director of the National Federation of High School Athletic Associations (NFHSAA) and eventually president of the Basketball Hall of Fame and board member for FIBA, the international governing body for the sport of basketball. He was born in Mankato, Minnesota.
For his contributions to the sport of basketball, including his service as a member of the board of directors for the United States Olympic Committee, Fagan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1984.
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Clifford Wells
W. R. Clifford "Cliff" Wells (March 17, 1896 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA – August 15, 1977) was an American basketball coach and administrator. As a high school basketball coach in Indiana he led his teams to winning more than 50 tournaments, including two Indiana state championships in 1919 and 1934. He also coached the Tulane University team from 1945 to 1963. He was the first full-time executive secretary and director of the Basketball Hall of Fame from 1963 to 1966. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972.
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Clyde Drexler
Clyde Austin "The Glide" Drexler (born June 22, 1962) is a former American professional basketball shooting guard and small forward. A ten-time All-Star and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, the NBA named him one of basketball's fifty greatest players as of 1996. Drexler won an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and an NBA championship in 1995 with the Houston Rockets. He is the color commentator for Rockets home games.
Drexler lived in the South Park area in Houston. Drexler attended Ross Sterling High School in Houston, Texas, where he was a classmate of tennis player Zina Garrison. As a sophomore, he made the varsity baseball team as a first baseman, but soon quit in order to focus on basketball. He didn't try out for the basketball team until his junior year, and was promptly cut during tryouts due to lack of conditioning. Drexler played as a 6'6" center as a senior, and started receiving attention from college coaches following a 34-point, 27-rebound performance against Sharpstown High School during a 1979 Christmas tournament.
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Clyde Lovellette
Clyde Edward Lovellette (born September 7, 1929 in Petersburg, Indiana) is a former professional basketball player; the first basketball player in history to play on an NCAA, Olympics and NBA championship squad. His high school team fell one game short of a state championship.
Lovellette fostered the trend of tall, physical and high-scoring centers. A two-time All-State performer at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, Indiana, the six-foot-nine Lovellette later attended the University of Kansas where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. While at the University of Kansas he led Jayhawks to the 1952 NCAA title, capturing MOP honors and scoring a then-NCAA-record 141 points. A three-time All-America at Kansas, Clyde led the Big Seven in scoring in each of his three seasons. Playing for Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Forrest "Phog" Allen, Lovellette led the nation in scoring his senior year (1952, 28.4 ppg) and was named the Helms College Player of the Year. Lovellette played alongside basketball legend Dean Smith at Kansas. He is still the only college player to lead the nation in scoring and win the NCAA title in the same year. Lovellette's dominance in the paint landed him a place on the 1952 Summer Olympics gold medal team in Helsinki, Finland and he was the team's dominating player and leading scorer.
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Connie Hawkins
Cornelius (Connie) L. Hawkins (born July 17, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former National Basketball Association and American Basketball Association player, Harlem Globetrotter and New York City playground legend. It was on the New York City courts that he earned his nickname The Hawk.
Hawkins was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where he attended Boys High School. Hawkins soon became a fixture at Rucker Park, a legendary outdoor court where he battled against some of the best players in the world.[citation needed]
Hawkins did not play much until his junior year at Boys High. Hawkins was All-City first team as a junior as Boys went undefeated and won New York's Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) title in 1959. During his senior year he averaged 25.5 ppg, including one game in which he scored 60, and Boys again went undefeated and won the 1960 PSAL title. Hawkins then signed a scholarship offer to play at the University of Iowa.
During Hawkins' freshman year at Iowa, he was a victim of the hysteria surrounding a point-shaving scandal that had started in New York City. Hawkins's name surfaced in an interview conducted with an individual who was involved in the scandal. While some of the conspirators and characters involved were known to or knew Hawkins, none - including the New York attorney at the center of the scandal, Jack Molinas - had ever sought to involve Hawkins in the conspiracy.
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Connie Yori
Connie Yori (born October 3, 1963) is the current head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers women's basketball team representing the University of Nebraska in NCAA Division I competition. She formerly coached Loras College (a Division III school) from 1990–92 and Creighton from 1992–2002. In 2009–10, Yori was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year after guiding Nebraska to a 32–2 record and the school's first-ever trip to the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Sweet 16.
Yori was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and attended Ankeny High School in Ankeny, Iowa, where she graduated in 1982. In her six-on-six high school basketball career (girls' rules were different back then, using six players instead of five), Yori compiled 3,068 points in her career. In 1980 the Hawkettes were state champions and in 1981 were runners–up. She was also a star softball player, garnering four First Team All-State selections as a shortstop while leading Ankeny to three state championships in 1979, 1980 and 1981. Yori is a two-time inductee into the Iowa Girls' High School Athletic Union Hall of Fame—once as a basketball player, the other as a softball player.
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Crawford Palmer
Henry Crawford Palmer (born 14 September 1970 in Ithaca, New York, United States) is a French-American men's basketball player formerly with Strasbourg IG in France and the French men's national basketball team. Palmer, born in the United States, attended Duke University from 1989-91, then transferred to Dartmouth College for his final two years. Palmer won a silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
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Curt Schilling
Curtis Montague Schilling (born November 14, 1966) is a former American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 1993 and won World Series championships in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2004 and 2007 with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling retired with a career postseason record of 11–2. His .846 postseason winning percentage is a major-league record among pitchers with at least 10 decisions.
After retiring, he founded Green Monster Games which was renamed 38 Studios. The company released Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in February 2012, but just three months later, Schilling laid off his entire staff amid severe financial troubles that resulted in the company missing payroll the previous week.
Schilling graduated from Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1985, before attending Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona.
Schilling began his professional career in the Red Sox farm system as a second-round pick in what would be the final January draft in MLB. He began his professional career with the Elmira Pioneers, a then Red Sox affiliate. After two and a half years in the minor leagues, he and Brady Anderson were traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1988 for Mike Boddicker. His major league debut was with the Orioles (1988–1990), and he then spent one year with the Houston Astros (1991).
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Dale Murphy
Dale Bryan Murphy (born March 12, 1956 in Portland, Oregon) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and first baseman. During an 18-year baseball career, 1976–1993, he played for three different teams, but is noted for his time with the Atlanta Braves. Murphy won consecutive National League Most Valuable Player Awards (1982–1983), the National League's Silver Slugger Award four straight years (1982–1985), and the National League's Gold Glove award five straight years (1982–1986).
In 1976 Murphy began his major league career with a nineteen game stint catching with the Atlanta Braves. He appeared in only eighteen games the following season. In 1978, Murphy played first base mostly. At the plate, he slumped to a .226 batting average, though he also showed hints of his future power by hitting 23 home runs.
Murphy switched to the outfield in 1980, a move that would help initiate a decade of highly productive play in the National League. Beginning in left field, he soon switched to center field, the position at which he would find his greatest success. By 1982, the most decorated year of Murphy's career, the former bench-riding catcher had transformed himself into an All-Star MVP outfielder who appeared in each of Atlanta's 162 games. His turnaround as a fielder was equally stark. In 1978, as a first baseman, Murphy had led all National League first-baggers in errors; in 1982, spending time at each of the three outfield positions, he won his first of five consecutive Gold Gloves.
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Dallas Shirley
Dallas Shirley (June 7, 1913 in Washington, D.C., US – March 1, 1994) was a basketball referee. He officiated more than 2000 basketball games in his 33-year career, which ended in 1966. He was the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials president from 1952 to 1953. He took part in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, officiating basketball. He was a member of the first NBA officiating crew. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.
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Dan Issel
Daniel (Dan) Paul Issel (born October 25, 1948 in Batavia, Illinois) is a retired American Hall of Fame professional basketball player and coach.
An outstanding collegian at the University of Kentucky, he was twice named an All American en route to a still school record 25.7 points per game. The ABA Rookie of the Year in 1971, he was a six-time ABA All-Star and one-time NBA pick.
Issel played college basketball at the University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp. Issel was at UK 1966-1970 and scored 2,138 points (an average of 25.7 per game) while being named an All American for two of the three seasons he was eligible for the award. His career points total remains the highest among UK men's players.
On February 7, 1970, Issel scored 53 points in a 120-85 victory over Mississippi, breaking Cliff Hagan's single-game Wildcat record of 51. Issel's mark held for almost four decades, finally falling to Jodie Meeks' 54 in a win against University of Tennessee on January 13, 2009.
Upon Issel's graduation in 1970 he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons of the NBA and the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA. Issel signed to play basketball for the Colonels and the ABA.
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Daniel Biasone
Daniel Biasone (February 22, 1909 – May 25, 1992) was the founding owner of the Syracuse Nationals, an NBA team now known as the Philadelphia 76ers. Biasone, who was a childhood immigrant to the United States from Italy, was mostly known for advocating the use of the shot clock in basketball. Biasone was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 for his contributions to the sport.
Although he did not originate the idea of a shot clock, he strongly supported its adoption in professional basketball. Biasone successfully lobbied the NBA to institute the shot clock in 1954. He was responsible for establishing the NBA shot clock at twenty-four seconds, where it has remained to this day. He supported the twenty-four second rule on the basis of his observations, experience, and basic arithmetic. Biasone asserted that basketball proved most exciting when it achieved a balance between stalling contests and wild shootouts. He envisioned a well-paced match up in which each team took around sixty shots per game. Given that professional basketball games lasted forty-eight minutes, Biasone divided 2880 (the number of seconds in forty-eight minutes) by 120 (the total number of shots taken per game when each team attempted sixty shots) and arrived at a figure he considered optimal: one shot every 24 seconds. Additionally, he was also a primary force in convincing the NBA to adopt the backcourt foul rule in 1953.
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Danny Ferry
Daniel John Willard "Danny" Ferry (born October 17, 1966) is a retired American professional basketball player and the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Considered one of the best high school basketball athletes in the country from the class of 1985, Danny Ferry was Parade Magazine's prep Player of the Year and one of the most highly recruited high school seniors in the nation before committing to Duke University. Known for his superb outside shooting, strong rebounding abilities and full-court vision while in college, Ferry's talents on the court likened him to that of a younger Larry Bird during his career with the three-time Final Four-bound Duke Blue Devils. The consensus All-American standout left Duke setting many school records while earning several national player of the year awards as one of the country's most celebrated college basketball athlete during his senior year. Drafted into the NBA in 1989 as the second overall pick in the draft, Ferry would go on to spend the majority of his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers where he became the team's all-time leader in games played (723 games) until Žydrūnas Ilgauskas surpassed his record on December 2, 2009. Danny Ferry is ranked among the top 50 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) men's basketball players of all-time as well as one of Duke's top basketball players in the school's history.
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Danny Granger
Danny Granger, Jr. (born April 20, 1983) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. He is mainly a small forward, though he does log time at the power forward position. He is also able to initiate the team's offense and so is regarded as one who can play the point forward position. Before his professional career, he went to Grace King High School in Metairie, Louisiana where he was a McDonald's All-American nominee before his senior year. He was a good student who scored a 30 on the ACT and was offered admission to Yale University. He played for Bradley University and then transferred to University of New Mexico in the middle of his sophomore year.
Granger started his collegiate career at Bradley University where he played the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. After a lackluster 12–18 season in 2002–03, he transferred to the University of New Mexico, where he began playing during the second semester of his junior season in 2003–04, although he wasn't eligible to start playing for the Lobos until January, 2004. He said the reason for the transfer was because of Braves head coach Jim Les's intimidating tactics, including being 'verbally abusive'. In 2004–05, he became the first player in school history to get 60 assists, 60 blocks and 60 steals in a season. He won the Mountain West Conference tournament MVP and led the Lobos to the NCAA tournament.
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Dave Bing
David "Dave" Bing (born November 24, 1943) is the mayor of Detroit, Michigan, a businessman, and a retired American professional basketball player who played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), primarily for the Detroit Pistons (1966–75). He was a seven-time All-Star. After retiring, he founded the Bing Group, which was one of the largest steel companies in Michigan.
His #21 was retired by the Detroit Pistons, and in 1996 he was named as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players of all time.
He was elected mayor of Detroit in a special election on May 5, 2009 and was sworn in on May 11, 2009. Bing won the full-term mayoral election on November 3, 2009, defeating challenger Tom Barrow.
Bing was born and raised in northeast Washington, D.C., as a son of a bricklayer. At age five, Bing accidentally poked his left eye with a nail of a wooden horse that he improvised. With the family unable to afford an eye operation, the eye healed on its own but left Bing with fuzzy vision since then.
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Dave Cowens
David William Cowens (born October 25, 1948, in Newport, Kentucky) is a retired American professional basketball player and NBA head coach. At 6'9", he played the center and occasionally the power forward position. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. He was recently an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, and currently serves as a special assistant to Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars.
After starring in high school at Newport Catholic High in his hometown of Newport, Kentucky, Cowens played his collegiate basketball at Florida State University from 1967 to 1970. He scored 1,479 points in 78 games at Florida State, at 19.0 points per game, and ranks among Florida State's top 10 all-time scoring leaders.
He is the all-time Florida State leading rebounder with 1,340 rebounds (17.2 rebounds per game). He holds the team record for best seasonal rebound average (17.5 in the 1968-1969 season). He once grabbed 31 rebounds (second best all-time) against LSU in the 1968-69 season.
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Dave DeBusschere
David Albert DeBusschere (October 16, 1940 – May 14, 2003) was an American NBA and major league baseball player and coach in the NBA. In 1996, DeBusschere was named as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
DeBusschere was born in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Austin Catholic Preparatory School, where he founded the "white shirted league" -- the tradition of wearing white shirts to the school's games, so as to make fans more visible. He was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after a twelve-year career (1962–1974), in which he averaged 16.1 points and eleven rebounds while being named to eight NBA All-Star teams; he was renowned for his physical style of play and tenacious defense, as he was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team six times.
DeBusschere was drafted by the Detroit Pistons out of the University of Detroit in 1962 as a territorial draft selection (common at the time). During his rookie season he averaged 12.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, and was later named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. However, DeBusschere was injured during his second season and only played in 15 games, resulting in the Pistons finishing with a disappointing record of 23-59.
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Dave Gavitt
David "Dave" Gavitt (October 26, 1937, Westerly, Rhode Island – September 16, 2011) was a American college basketball coach and athletic director at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. He was also well known as the first commissioner of the Big East Conference and as part of the committee which created the 1992 Olympic Basketball "Dream Team."
Gavitt graduated from Dartmouth College in 1959, where he was a member of the 1959-1960 varsity basketball team, the last Dartmouth basketball team to win the Ivy League championship. He spent two years as an assistant basketball coach at Worcester Academy before becoming an assistant coach at Providence under the legendary Joe Mullaney in 1962. He left in 1966 to become and then head coach at his alma mater before taking over for Mullaney at Providence in 1969.
Under his ten-year tenure, the Friars advanced to the postseason eight straight years (1971–78; five NCAA appearances, 1972-'74, '77-'78, and three NIT appearances, 1971, '75, 76). In 1973, Gavitt's team made it to the Final Four for the first time in school history. He also served as director of athletics at PC from 1971 to 1982, and was at that position when the school's women's athletics programs were started as a result of Title IX.
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Dave Leitao
Dave Leitao (born May 18, 1960) is the head coach of the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League and the former head men's basketball coach of the University of Virginia. Previously, he was head coach at Northeastern University and DePaul University. He was named the 2006-07 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, but finished at 10th and 11th place in the conference during his final two years with the Cavaliers. He resigned as the UVA basketball coach on March 18, 2009.
The 6'7" forward was recruited by Jim Calhoun to play basketball at Northeastern University. From 1978 to 1982 Leitao played at Northeastern, where he averaged 6.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. The teams made it to the NCAA tournament twice, and posted an overall 79-34 record.
Leitao was recruited by Calhoun to join his staff at Northeastern University in 1984, and followed him to the University of Connecticut as an assistant from 1986–1994. He returned to serve as Head Coach at his alma mater, Northeastern, from 1994–1996. Leitao returned to Calhoun's staff for six seasons, including the Huskies National Championship in 1999.
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Dave Odom
Dave Odom (born October 9, 1942) is a retired American men's college basketball coach, who most recently coached at the University of South Carolina. He had previously held the same position at East Carolina University and Wake Forest University, and was an assistant coach at the University of Virginia.
Odom began his career in sports at Goldsboro High School, in North Carolina, as the captain of his American football, basketball and baseball teams. After graduating in 1961, he attended Guilford College where he played quarterback on the football team for three years, as well as playing basketball for all four years. As a senior in 1965, Odom was named the college's most outstanding athlete. He was also inducted into the Guilford College Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983.
After graduation in 1965, Odom accepted a job as the coach of Goldsboro High School while enrolled at East Carolina University in pursuit of a masters degree in physical education. Odom coached Goldsboro High School for four seasons between 1965 and 1969. After graduating from East Carolina in 1969, Odom took a job at Durham High School. He coached at Durham for seven years (1969–1976) where he was voted his league's coach of the year five times.
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Dave Strack
Dave Strack is a former university athletic director for the University of Arizona and and head basketball coach of the University of Michigan. He is an inductee of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Strack grew up in Indiana. He graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Indiana where he was the basketball team's captain and MVP in 1941 and named to the Indian All-Star team. Strack played basketball for the University of Michigan (UM), earning MVP honors in 1943 and 1946.
He briefly played professionally for the Indianapolis Kautskys of the NBL. He returned to UM and served as an assistant basketball coach from 1948 to 1959. Strack left to become the head coach at the University of Idaho for one year.
The following year he was hired as the head coach for men's basketball at the University of Michigan and served from 1960 to 1968. He led the Wolverines to three Big 10 conference titles (1965, 1966, 1967) and to the 1965 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament title game. Following his team's 24–4 record and runner-up finish in 1965, Strack was named the UPI College Basketball Coach of the Year.
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David Tobey
David "Dave" Tobey (May 1, 1898 in New York, New York, USA – July 25, 1988) was an American basketball referee. He refereed many notable pro games in New York between 1918 and 1925. In 1926 he refereed the Syracuse vs. West Point game, which featured two future Hall of Famers, Vic Hanson and John Roosma. After that game he became popular and refereed many important games from 1926 to 1945, such as the first game with a three-man officiating crew (Georgetown vs. Columbia). He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961.
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Dean Smith
Dean Edwards Smith (born February 28, 1931) is a retired American head coach of men's college basketball. Originally from Emporia, Kansas, Smith has been called a “coaching legend” by the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith is best known for his successful 36-year coaching tenure at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record at that time. Smith has the 9th highest winning percentage of any men’s college basketball coach (77.6%). During his tenure as head coach of North Carolina, the team won two national titles and appeared in 11 Final Fours.
Smith is also known for running a clean program and having a high graduation rate for his players, with 96.6% of his athletes receiving their degrees. While at North Carolina, Smith helped promote desegregation by recruiting the University’s first African American scholarship basketball player, Charlie Scott, and pushing for equal treatment for African Americans by local businesses. Smith coached and worked with numerous individuals at North Carolina who went on to achieve notable success in basketball, as either players or coaches or both. Smith retired as head coach from North Carolina in 1997, saying that he was not able to give the team the same level of enthusiasm that he had given it for years. Since retirement, Smith has used his influence to help out in various charitable ventures and political activities.
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Debbie Ryan
Debbie Ryan (born November 4, 1952) is the former head coach for the women's basketball team at the University of Virginia. Ryan also coached the American women's basketball team at the 2003 Pan American Games. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000 but is currently in remission. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
The US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) awarded her the Coach of the Year award in 1991.
In 1977, Ryan had recently completed graduate school in Virginia when she was asked to become the head coach of the women's basketball program. She accepted, to become only the third head coach in the program's history. Ryan resigned after 34 years of head coaching duties at UVA at the completion the women's 2010-2011 basketball season.
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Denise Curry
Denise Curry (born August 22, 1959 in Fort Benton, Montana) is an American former basketball player and college and professional basketball coach. As of the 2007-2008 season, she is in her fifth year as an assistant basketball coach for the Cal State Long Beach women's basketball team.
Curry moved to Davis, California by the time she was in high school. She graduated from Davis Senior High School. During her college playing career she led UCLA to AIAW National Championship in 1978, has been named All-America three times (1979, 1980, 1981), set fourteen school records and was all-time leading scorer (3,198 points) and rebounder (1,310 points). She scored in double figures in every one of the 130 games she played for UCLA. She averaged 24.6 points per game. Only one other Bruin player, Natalie Williams, averaged over 20 points per game at 20.4. As of 2008, she is still the top record holder in 10 categories for UCLA.
She was named MVP of Western Collegiate Athletic Conference three times and UCLA All-University Athlete of the Year in 1981. She was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 1981.
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Dennis Johnson
Dennis Wayne Johnson (September 18, 1954 – February 22, 2007) nicknamed "DJ", was an American, professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics and coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. He was an alumnus of Dominguez High School, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University.
A prototypical late bloomer, Johnson overcame early struggles and had a successful NBA playing career. Drafted 29th overall in 1976 by the Seattle SuperSonics, Johnson began his professional career as a shooting guard. He eventually led the Sonics to their only NBA championship in 1979, winning the Finals MVP Award. After a short stint with the Phoenix Suns, he became the starting point guard for the Boston Celtics, with whom he won two more championships. Johnson was voted into five All-Star Teams, one All-NBA First and one Second Team, and nine consecutive All-Defensive First and Second Teams. Apart from his reputation as a defensive stopper, Johnson was known as a clutch player who made several decisive plays in NBA playoffs history.
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Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is a retired American Hall of Fame professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" and "The Worm" and was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. Playing small forward in his early years before becoming a power forward, Rodman earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and was voted NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships (1989, 1990, 1996, 1997, 1998). His biography at NBA.com states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history". On April 1, 2011, the Pistons retired Rodman's #10 jersey. Later that same year, Rodman was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rodman experienced an unhappy childhood and was shy and introverted in his early years. After aborting a suicide attempt in 1993, he reinvented himself as a "bad boy" and became notorious for numerous controversial antics. He dyed his hair in artificial colors, presented himself with many piercings and tattoos and regularly disrupted games by clashing with opposing players and officials. He famously wore a wedding dress to promote his autobiography. Rodman pursued a high-profile affair with singer Madonna and was briefly married to actress Carmen Electra.
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Denny Crum
Denzil E. "Denny" Crum (born March 2, 1937) is a former American men's college basketball coach at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001, compiling a 675–295 record. He guided the Cardinals to two NCAA championships (1980, 1986) and six Final Fours. Honored in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame since 1994, Crum is one of the major figures in the history of sports in Kentucky and in college basketball in general.
As the head coach at U of L, Crum is widely credited with pioneering the now-common strategy of scheduling tough non-conference match-ups early in the season in order to prepare his teams for March's NCAA tournament, where one defeat ends the season. Crum's prolific post-season play and calm demeanor earned him the monikers "Mr. March" and his most well-known nickname, "Cool Hand Luke."
Crum was born in San Fernando, California. From 1954–1956, Denny Crum played basketball at Los Angeles Pierce College. In 1956, he transferred to UCLA to play for John Wooden. While at UCLA, Crum was honored with the Irv Pohlmeyer Memorial Trophy for outstanding first-year varsity player. He also received the Bruin Bench Award for most improved player the following year.
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Denny McLain
Dennis Dale "Denny" McLain (born March 29, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player. He played as a pitcher in Major League Baseball for ten seasons, most notably for the Detroit Tigers. In 1968, McLain became the last pitcher in Major League Baseball to win 30 or more games during a season (31–6)— a feat accomplished by only thirteen players in the 20th century.
McLain was brash and outspoken, sometimes creating controversy by criticizing teammates and fans with little provocation. His stellar performance at the beginning of his professional baseball career was a marked contrast to his personal life, where he became associated with organized crime and was eventually convicted on charges of embezzlement and served time in prison.
McLain was born in Markham, Illinois and attended Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago, where he played on the baseball team as a shortstop and pitcher. As a teenager, he met his future wife, Sharyn Boudreau, the daughter of former major league player, Lou Boudreau. McLain was also musically talented, learning to play the organ from his father.
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Derek Jeter
Derek Sanderson Jeter ( /ˈdʒiːtər/; born June 26, 1974) is an American baseball shortstop who has played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. A five-time World Series champion, Jeter has been a central figure of the Yankees during their success of the 1990s and 2000s due to his clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning. He is the Yankees' all-time career leader in hits (3,155), games played (2,472), stolen bases (342), and at bats (10,066). His accolades include twelve All-Star selections, five Gold Glove Awards, four Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, and the Roberto Clemente Award. Jeter is the all-time MLB leader in hits by a shortstop, and the 28th player to reach 3,000 hits.
The Yankees drafted Jeter out of high school in 1992, and he debuted in the major leagues in 1995. The following year, he became the Yankees' starting shortstop, won the Rookie of the Year Award, and helped the team win the 1996 World Series. Jeter continued to contribute during the team's championship seasons of 1998–2000; he finished third in voting for the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in 1998, recorded multiple career-high numbers in 1999, and won both the All-Star Game MVP and World Series MVP Awards in 2000. He has consistently placed among the AL leaders in hits and runs scored for the past ten years, and since 2003 has served as the Yankees' team captain.
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Deron Williams
Deron Michael Williams ( /ˈdɛrən/ DERR-in; born June 26, 1984), is an American basketball player currently with the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Williams has also played for the Utah Jazz of the NBA and Beşiktaş of the Turkish Basketball League. Williams was drafted 3rd overall in the 2005 draft by the Utah Jazz, for whom he played before being traded in the middle of his sixth season to the Nets. He is a three-time All-Star and was a gold medal winner at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Williams played college basketball at the University of Illinois.
In elementary school and middle school, Williams won two state wrestling championships. In 1993, as an eight-year-old, he won the 67 lb. weight class Texas State championship. Four years later in 1997, he won the twelve-year-old 116 lb. weight class championship. Williams attended The Colony High School in The Colony, Texas and averaged 17 points, 9.4 assists, and 2 steals per game as a junior in 2001. That year he led his team, the Cougars, to a 32–2 record and the Class 5A state semifinals against Bryan High. In 2002, as a senior, he averaged 17.6 points, 8.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.6 steals per game. His team, the Cougars, went 29–2 that season, losing the 5A Texas State semifinals. Williams was a teammate of Bracey Wright who went on to play for Big Ten rival Indiana University.
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Derrick Rose
Derrick Martell Rose (born October 4, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Born in Chicago, Rose learned the game of basketball from his three older brothers. In high school, he won two state championships and was rated by scouts as the top point guard prospect in the country after graduation.[citation needed] He played for the University of Memphis Tigers and reached the NCAA national championship game in 2008. Shortly after, Rose declared for the 2008 NBA Draft and was selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls. In his first year of professional basketball, Rose was voted the Rookie of the Year and was selected to the All-Rookie Team. In his second season, Rose was selected as an NBA All-Star for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game; he was also named a starter for the U.S. team at the 2010 FIBA World Championships. Since being drafted, Rose has led the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs every year. In 2011, he received the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the youngest player ever to win this award. He joined Michael Jordan as the only Chicago Bulls players to win the honor.
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Dick McGuire
Richard Joseph "Dick" McGuire (January 26, 1926 – February 3, 2010) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
One of the premier guards of the 1950s, McGuire spent eleven seasons in the NBA (1949–60), eight with the New York Knicks and three with the Detroit Pistons. McGuire led the league in assists during his rookie season with a then-record 386 assists, and was among the league's top ten playmakers for ten of his eleven seasons. He was an NBA All-Star seven times (1951,'52, '54-'56, '58, '59), and was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1951.
McGuire became player-coach for the Pistons in his last season (1959-60), and coached them until 1963. He also coached the Knicks for three seasons, beginning in 1965. He compiled a 197-260 coaching record. McGuire was working as a senior consultant for the Knicks when he died on February 3, 2010 of a ruptured aortic aneurysm at age 84.
McGuire's brother Al was also a prominent figure in basketball who coached Marquette University to the 1977 NCAA basketball championship. They are the only pair of brothers inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. His nephew, Allie, also played in the NBA.
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Dick Vermeil
Richard Albert "Dick" Vermeil (pronounced /vərˈmiːl/; born October 30, 1936) is a former American head coach for the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles (1976–1982), St. Louis Rams (1997–1999) and Kansas City Chiefs (2001–2005). He is in the Sid Gillman coaching tree and has coached at every level; Vermeil owns the distinction of being named “Coach of the Year” on four levels: High School, Junior College, NCAA Division I and Professional Football.
In all three of his stops as an NFL head coach, Vermeil has taken every team—Philadelphia, St. Louis and Kansas City, each of which had a losing record before he arrived—and brought them to the playoffs by his third season at the helm.
Vermeil graduated in 1959 with an M.A. from San Jose State University, where he was the backup quarterback. After serving as assistant coach for San Jose’s Del Mar High School football team for one season and for Hillsdale High School in nearby San Mateo, he then went to Foothill College with coach Bill Walker. During the 1964-1965 school year he was weightlifting coach at College of San Mateo with his brother as an assistant. The following year he was at Diablo Valley College as a football coach. In 1965-1966, he coached Stanford University's freshman football team. Vermeil was hired as the NFL's first ever Special Teams coach by George Allen's Los Angeles Rams in 1969. Except for 1970, when he was an assistant coach with UCLA, he would remain with the Rams until 1974 when he was named as head coach by UCLA. Vermeil compiled a 15–5–3 record in two seasons (1974–1975) as head coach at UCLA, including a 9–2–1 record in 1975 when Vermeil led the Bruins to their first conference championship in 10 years, and a win in the Rose Bowl over an undefeated and number 1 ranked Ohio State team.
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Dick Vitale
Richard J. "Dick" Vitale (pronounced /vaɪˈtæl/; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known as a college basketball broadcaster and for the enthusiastic and colorful remarks he makes during games, although many sports fans feel he subtracts from the sport coverage, rather than enhancing it. He is known for his catchphrases such as "baby" and "diaper dandy" (outstanding freshman player), as well as an overbearing and often bombastic style, and has authored nine books and appeared in several movies.
Vitale took his first job as a coach at an elementary school in Garfield, New Jersey in 1959. Eventually he moved up to the high school level to become head coach at Garfield High School for one season, and then at East Rutherford High School (his alma mater).
In 1971, Vitale moved to Rutgers University as an assistant coach under head coach Dick Lloyd. After two seasons there, he was hired in 1973 by the University of Detroit to become its head coach. Vitale took Detroit to the 32-team NCAA tournament in 1977. Vitale had a 78-30 record during his tenure at Detroit, which included a 21-game winning streak during the 1977 season. During that streak the Titans defeated the eventual champion Marquette on the road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Following the 1977 season, his fourth as Detroit head coach, Vitale was named the university's athletic director.
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Digger Phelps
Richard "Digger" Phelps (born July 4, 1941) is a former American college basketball coach, most notably of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball team from 1971 to 1991. Since 1993, he has served as an analyst on ESPN.
Phelps began his coaching career in 1963 as a graduate assistant at Rider College (now Rider University), where he had played basketball. After a move to St. Gabriel's High School in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, he obtained his first full assistant job in 1966 at the University of Pennsylvania. His first head coaching job came in 1970 at Fordham University. After leading the Fordham Rams to a 26-3 record in the 1970-71 season, he was named head coach at the University of Notre Dame.
During his 20 seasons at Notre Dame (1971–91), his teams went 393-197, with 14 seasons of 20 wins or more. In 1978, Notre Dame made its only Final Four to date. His most-remembered game was on January 19, 1974, when the Fighting Irish scored the last 12 points of the game to defeat top-ranked UCLA 71-70, ending the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak. He shares the NCAA record for most upsets over a #1 team at seven (Gary Williams also has 7).
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Dino Gaudio
Dino Joseph Gaudio (born 1957) is the former head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University. He previously served as the head coach at the United States Military Academy and Loyola College in Maryland.
Gaudio was named head coach of the Wake Forest men's basketball team on August 8, 2007. He had served as an assistant to his predecessor, Skip Prosser, who died suddenly in July 2007. Gaudio's association with Prosser began in 1981 when he served as an assistant coach at Central Catholic High School in Wheeling, West Virginia, while Prosser was head coach.
Gaudio is a graduate of Ohio University (1981) and Xavier University (master's in Secondary Education, 1991).
Gaudio remained loyal to Prosser, his mentor and predecessor at Wake Forest. In the final days of his life, Prosser attended the games of three 5-star recruits in Las Vegas and Orlando. These recruits remained committed to Wake Forest and made up an eventually number three-ranked recruiting class for the 2008-2009 season, signed by Gaudio as a memory to Prosser.
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Dino Meneghin
Dino Meneghin (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdino meneˈɡin]; born January 18, 1950) is an Italian former professional basketball player. He is widely considered as the best Italian player ever, as well as one of Europe's all time greats. A 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall center, Meneghin was born in Alano di Piave, Veneto (northeast Italy). On November 20, 1966, when he was 16 years old, he played his first match in the Italian League with Ignis Varese. He played the last match of his career at the age of 45. Today, he works for the Italian Basketball Federation and for the club Olimpia Milano. On August 20, 2010, Meneghin was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame, in recognition of his play in international competition.
In total, he played in 836 games and scored 8,560 points in the Italian Championship. With the Italian national basketball team, he played in 271 games and totaled 2,847 points scored. Meneghin became the second player from a European league to be drafted by an NBA team when the Atlanta Hawks manager Marty Blake selected him with a late-round pick in the 1970 NBA Draft. He never played in the USA, however.
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Doggie Julian
Alvin Fred "Doggie" Julian (April 5, 1901 – July 28, 1967) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach. He served as the head basketball coach at Muhlenberg College from 1936 to 1945, at the College of the Holy Cross from 1945 to 1948, and at Dartmouth College from 1950 to 1967, compiling a career college basketball record of 379–332. Julian led Holy Cross to the NCAA title in 1947. His team, which included later NBA great Bob Cousy, almost repeated this feat in 1948, losing in the semifinals. Julian was engaged by the Boston Celtics after his college success, but he recorded only a 47–81 mark before he was dismissed in 1950. Julian was also the head football coach at Albright College from 1929 to 1930 and at Mulhlenberg from 1936 to 1944, amassing a career college football record of 56–49–2. In addition, he served as Mulhlenberg's head baseball coach from 1942 to 1944, tallying a mark of 16–18. Julian was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 1968.
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Dolph Schayes
Adolph "Dolph" Schayes (born May 19, 1928) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach in the NBA. A top scorer and rebounder, he was a member of the 1955 NBA champion Syracuse Nationals and a 12-time All-Star.
Schayes played his entire Hall of Fame career with the Nationals and their successor, the Philadelphia 76ers, from 1948 to 1964. In his 16-year career, he led the team into the post-season 15 times.
Schayes was born in New York, New York, the son of Carl, a truck driver for Consolidated laundries, and his mother Tina, a housewife. Schayes was Jewish, and both his parents were Romanian Jewish immigrants. “Dolph” grew up on Davidson Avenue and 183rd Street, off Fordham.
He is the father of retired NBA center Danny Schayes, who played in the NBA for 18 seasons. He is the grandfather of Abi, Carla, and Rachel Goettsch, who won silver medals for the U.S. volleyball team at the 2001 Maccabiah Games, Mickey Ferri, who won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay at the 2005 Maccabiah Games. Schayes settled in Syracuse in 1948, and still makes his home there, where he is a real estate developer.
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Dominique Wilkins
Jacques Dominique Wilkins (born January 12, 1960) is a retired American professional basketball player who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. Wilkins was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and one of the best dunkers in NBA history, earning the nickname "The Human Highlight Film." In 2006, Wilkins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame [2].
Wilkins was born in Paris, France because his father was stationed there while in the U.S. Air Force. Wilkins' family then moved to Washington, North Carolina, where he attended Washington High School. He was the back-to-back MVP for the team's consecutive Class 3-A State Championships (1978-1979). Wilkins then starred in the McDonald's Game, The Capital Classic, The Kentucky Derby Festival Classic, and The Dapper Dan Classic All-Star Games. He had 16 points and 12 rebounds in the McDonald's, 26 points in the Capital, and 22 points in the Derby Classic. He entered the University of Georgia in 1979 with an established reputation as an exciting player. Wilkins averaged 21.6 points a game over his career and was named SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year in 1981. He left college after his junior year and was selected third overall (behind James Worthy and Terry Cummings) by the Utah Jazz in the 1982 NBA Draft.
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Don Haskins
Donald Lee Haskins (March 14, 1930 – September 7, 2008), nicknamed "The Bear", was an American collegiate basketball coach and player. He played for three years under legendary coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He was the head coach at Texas Western College (renamed the University of Texas at El Paso in 1967) from 1961 to 1999, including the 1966 season when his team won the NCAA Tournament over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by coaching great Adolph Rupp.
In his time at Texas Western, he compiled a 719–353 record, suffering only five losing seasons. He won 14 Western Athletic Conference championships, four WAC tournament titles, had fourteen NCAA tournament berths and made seven trips to the NIT. Haskins led UTEP to 17 20-plus win seasons and served as an assistant Olympic team coach in 1972.
He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997 as a basketball coach. The 1966 team was nominated in its entirety to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was inducted to the Hall on September 7, 2007.
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Don Monson
Donald L. "Don" Monson (born April 1933 in Menahga, Minnesota) is a former college basketball head coach and the father of head coach Dan Monson. He was a high school head coach for 18 seasons and college head coach for 14 seasons: five at Idaho and nine at Oregon.
Born in rural Minnesota, Monson moved with his family when he was in the second grade to Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. During his sophomore year at Coeur d'Alene High School, the Vikings won the state title under longtime coach Elmer Jordan, defeating Burley 53-43 in far-away Pocatello. Monson graduated in 1951 and then attended the University of Idaho, where he lettered for three years in basketball and graduated in 1955. (team photo)
After a stint in the service, Monson was a successful high school coach in eastern Washington, a head coach for 18 seasons from 1958–76, compiling a record of 266-134 (.665). Monson first led Cheney High School, where he stayed for nine seasons going 105-69 (.603). While in Cheney, he earned a master's degree at Eastern Washington State College. In 1967, Monson moved over to Pasco High School for another nine seasons, going 161-65 (.709)
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Don Shula
Donald Francis "Don" Shula (born January 4, 1930) is a former American football cornerback and coach.
He is best known as coach of the Miami Dolphins, the team he led to two Super Bowl victories, and to the National Football League's only perfect season. Shula was named 1993 Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated. He currently holds the NFL record for most career wins with 347. Shula only had two losing seasons in his 36-year career of coaching in the NFL. He has been head coach for a record six Super Bowls. In his first, he set the record for the longest period to be shut out (not scoring until 3:19 remaining). His next Super Bowl he set the record for the lowest points by any team (with only one field goal). The very next year he turned that all around during his perfect season, breaking his record of longest period with a shut out, this time with him on the winning side (not giving up any points until 2:07 remaining). As of 2012, Shula's perfect NFL season remains unmatched, and his three Super Bowl records and total NFL wins remain unbroken.
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Dražen Dalipagić
Dražen Dalipagić , born (1951-11-27) November 27, 1951 (age 60) in Mostar, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia) is a retired Yugoslavian professional basketball player. He was selected the best athlete of Yugoslavia in the year 1978, and is one of the most decorated athletes in Yugoslavian history. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. Dalipagić was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame, as a player, on September 10, 2004. He was enshrined as a player, into the FIBA Hall of Fame, in 2007. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors.
Dalipagić was one of the most dominating players in Europe, during the late 1970s and early 1980s era, and while playing for the pro club Partizan (1971–78, 1979–80, 1981–82), he won the European Player of the Year Mr. Europa award twice, in the years 1977 and 1978, and the European Player of the Year Euroscar award, in the year 1980. He was declared the best athlete of Yugoslavia in 1978. In 1976, he led Partizan to the Yugoslav League title, and also to the FIBA Korać Cup title in 1978. He also played for Crvena zvezda in the 1990-91 season.
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Dražen Petrović
Dražen Petrović (pronounced [drǎʒɛn pɛ̌trɔʋit͡ɕ]) (October 22, 1964 – June 7, 1993) was a Yugoslav and Croatian professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he initially achieved success playing professional basketball in Europe in the 1980s before joining the American NBA in 1989. Petrović died in a car accident at the age of 28.
A star on multiple stages, Petrović earned two silver medals and one bronze in Olympic basketball, a gold and a bronze in the FIBA World Championship, a gold and a bronze in the FIBA European Championship, earned six European Player of the Year awards (four Euroscar Awards, and was named Mr. Europa in basketball twice). In 1985 he received the Golden Badge award for best athlete of Yugoslavia.
Seeking a bigger arena after his career start in Europe, Petrović joined the National Basketball Association in 1989 as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. After playing mostly off the bench that year, Petrović experienced a break-out following a trade to the New Jersey Nets. While starting for the Nets, he became one of the league's best shooting guards.
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Drew Brees
Andrew Christopher "Drew" Brees (pronounced /ˈbriːs/; born January 15, 1979) is an American football quarterback for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He played college football at Purdue.
Brees has been selected to the Pro Bowl six times in his career – with the Chargers in 2004 and the Saints in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. He was named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year in 2004, the Offensive Player of the Year in 2008, and the MVP of Super Bowl XLIV. He was also selected by voters to appear on the cover of EA Sports' Madden NFL 11.Sports Illustrated named him as its 2010 Sportsman of the Year.
Brees holds the single-season record for most passing yards in a single season, with 5,476 yards passing during the 2011 season.
Brees was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Mina (née Akins), an attorney, and Eugene Wilson Brees II, a medical malpractice attorney. He was named after Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Drew Pearson. His uncle, Marty Akins, was an All-American starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns college football team from 1975 to 1977. Chip Brees played basketball for the Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball team, and his grandfather, Ray Akins, had the third-most victories as a Texas high school football coach.
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Dutch Dehnert
Henry G. "Dutch" Dehnert (April 5, 1898 in New York, New York – April 20, 1979 in Far Rockaway, New York) was an American basketball player whose career lasted from 1915 to 1935.
Dehnert, a bulky forward, is mostly known for his time with the Original Celtics and is sometimes credited with inventing the pivot play. He later coached several teams in the NBL, ABL and BAA.
One of those teams Dehnert coached was the Sheboygan Red Skins, who won NBL divisional titles in 1944-45 and 1945-46 under Dehnert's guidance. Dehnert's greatest coup during his time in Sheboygan was his signing of three East Coast stars: Al Lucas of Fordham, Al Moschetti of St. John's and Bobby Holm of Seton Hall. Buoyed by this added strength, the Red Skins took a 2-0 lead over the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in the 1945 NBL championship series, only to be swept in the remaining three games. In 1946, Dehnert led Sheboygan to a meeting with the vaunted Rochester Royals in the championship series. Rochester swept the Red Skins. The next season, Dehnert became first head coach of the Cleveland Rebels for the Basketball Association of America's first season.
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Dutch Lonborg
Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg (March 16, 1898 – January 31, 1985) was an American collegiate basketball and football coach.
The Gardner, Illinois native coached for 23 years at McPherson College, Washburn College, and Northwestern University. Lonborg graduated in 1921 from University of Kansas, having played two years under coach Phog Allen.
In 1921 Dutch won an AAU title as a player with the Kansas City Athletic Club Blue Diamonds. In 1925 he coached Washburn College to an AAU title, the last time a college team won that championship. Later he coached at Northwestern, getting 237 wins during his time there, and leading them to the Big Ten Conference Championship in 1931 and in 1933 and a Helms Foundation title in 1931. He had an overall 323-217 college coaching record at all three schools.
After he retired from coaching, he became chairman of the NCAA Tournament Committee from 1947–60, succeeding Harold Olsen. He was the U.S. Olympic team manager for the 1960 Olympics. He also served as Kansas Jayhawks Athletic director from 1950-63.
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Dwight Howard
Dwight David Howard (born December 8, 1985) is an American basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Howard, who usually plays center but can also play power forward, had an outstanding high school career at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. He chose to forgo college and entered the 2004 NBA Draft, and was selected first overall by the Magic. A six-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA team selection, five-time All-Defensive member, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Howard has been ranked consistently as one of the best in the league in rebounds, blocks, field goal percentage and free throw attempts, and has set numerous franchise and league records. He has led the Magic to three division titles and one conference title, and he was the winner of the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. In the 2008 Olympics, he was the starting center for Team USA, which went on to win the gold medal.
Before he was drafted in 2004, Howard said that he wanted to use his NBA career and Christian faith to "raise the name of God within the league and throughout the world". In November 2009, he was named one of the 10 finalists for the Jefferson Awards for Public Service, which awards athletes for their charitable work.
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Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Tyrone Wade, Jr. (born January 17, 1982), nicknamed Flash or D-Wade, is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat. Awarded 2006 Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, Wade has established himself as one of the most well-known and popular players in the league. He had the top selling jersey in the NBA for nearly two years, as he led the NBA in jersey sales from the 2005 NBA Playoffs, until the mid-point of the 2006–07 season.
After entering the league as the fifth pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, Wade was named to the All-Rookie team and the All-Star team the following eight seasons. In his third season, Wade helped lead the Miami Heat to their first NBA Championship in franchise history. He was named the 2006 NBA Finals MVP as he helped lead the Heat to a 4–2 series win over the Dallas Mavericks. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wade led the United States Men's Basketball team, commonly known as the "Redeem Team", in scoring, as they captured gold medal honors in Beijing, China. In the 2008–09 season, Wade led the league in scoring and earned his first NBA scoring title.
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Earl Lloyd
Earl Francis Lloyd (born April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia) is a retired American basketball player. He was the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association, in the 1950-51 NBA season. Three other African Americans played in the same season: Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton, and Hank DeZonie.
Lloyd, a forward known for his defense, played collegiately at West Virginia State College, was selected in the ninth-round of the 1950 NBA Draft by the Washington Capitols. On October 31, 1950, Lloyd became the first African-American to play in an NBA game, against the Rochester Royals.
Lloyd led West Virginia State to two CIAA Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949. He was named All-Conference three times (1948–50) and was All-American twice, as named by the Pittsburgh Courier (1949–50). As a senior, he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, while leading West Virginia State to a second place finish in the CIAA Conference and Tournament Championship. In 1947-48, West Virginia State was the only undefeated team in the United States.
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Earl Monroe
Vernon Earl Monroe (born November 21, 1944, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American former professional basketball player known for his flamboyant dribbling, passing, and play-making. He was nicknamed both "Earl the Pearl" and "Jesus".
From an early age, Monroe was a playground legend. His high school teammates at John Bartram High School called him "Thomas Edison" because of the many moves he invented.
Monroe rose to prominence at a national level while playing basketball at then Division II Winston-Salem State University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Under the coaching of Hall of Fame coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines, Monroe averaged 7.1 points his freshman year, 23.2 points as a sophomore, 29.8 points as a junior and an amazing 41.5 points his senior year. In 1967, he earned NCAA College Division Player of the Year honors and led the Rams to the NCAA College Division Championship.
In 1967, the two-time All-American was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) in the first round of the NBA draft (2nd overall pick). He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in a season in which he averaged 24.3 points per game, and scored 56 points in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers. This still stands as the third-highest rookie total in NBA history. It was also a franchise record, later broken by Gilbert Arenas on December 17, 2006.
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Earl Strom
Earl "Yogi" Strom (December 15, 1927 – July 10, 1994) was a professional basketball referee for 29 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and for three years in the American Basketball Association (ABA). Strom is credited as the greatest referee in the history of the NBA and was known for his flamboyant style and ability to control the game. Nicknamed "The Pied Piper", the assertive Strom made foul calls with his whistle by using a "tweet-pause-tweet-tweet" tune and pointing at the offending player. In addition to calling fouls with flair, he was known for ejecting players from games with style and he sometimes supported his rulings with physical force.
Over the course of his career, he officiated 2,400 professional basketball regular season games, 295 playoff games, 7 All-Star games, and 29 NBA and ABA Finals. For his extensive contributions to the game, Strom was posthumously elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.
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Ed Jucker
Edwin Louis "Ed" Jucker (July 8, 1916 – February 2, 2002) was an American college basketball player and coach. He was the former head basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati in the 1960s. Jucker also attended Cincinnati as an undergraduate student and played on the school's basketball teams during the 1938, 1939, and 1940 seasons. He was the captain of the 1940 team. Also, while an undergraduate Ed Jucker became a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was born in Norwood, Ohio.
Under Jucker's coaching direction in the early '60s, Cincinnati won back-to-back NCAA basketball championships in 1961 and 1962 and almost won a then-unprecedented third consecutive title in 1963 until the Bearcats were upended 70-68 in overtime by Loyola of Chicago and All-American Jerry Harkness. Jucker holds the record for the highest winning percentage (.917) in NCAA tournament play.
Ed Jucker was a professional baseball prospect until he decided to start coaching instead of trying to make it into Major League Baseball. His coaching career began at Batavia High in Clermont County, Ohio, east of Cincinnati. Following service in the Navy during World War II, he joined the college coaching ranks as assistant basketball coach at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1946. Two years later, he became head basketball coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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Ed Macauley
Charles Edward "Ed" Macauley (March 22, 1928 – November 8, 2011) was a professional basketball player in the NBA. His playing nickname was "Easy Ed."
Macauley spent his prep school days at St. Louis University High School, then went on to Saint Louis University, where his team won the NIT championship in 1948. He was named the AP Player of the Year in 1949.
Macauley played in the NBA with the St. Louis Bombers, Boston Celtics, and St. Louis Hawks. Macauley was named MVP of the first NBA All-Star Game (he played in the first seven), and was named to the NBA's All-NBA First Team three consecutive seasons. He was named to the All-NBA second team once, in 1953–54—the same season he led the league in field goal percentage. Macauley's trade (with Cliff Hagan) to St. Louis brought Bill Russell to the Celtics.
Macauley scored 11,234 points in ten NBA seasons and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960. At age 32, he still holds the record for being the youngest player to be admitted. His uniform number 22 was retired by the Boston Celtics, and he was also awarded a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
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Ed Steitz
Edward S. "Ed" Steitz (November 7, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, USA – May 21, 1990) was an American basketball coach and official. He was considered the leading worldwide authority on amateur basketball rules. A graduate of Cornell University, he was a coach of Springfield College for ten years and a director of athletics from 1956 to 1990. He worked for the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee as a secretary, editor and national interpreter from 1965 to 1990. In 1974 he founded and served as a president for Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America (ABAUSA), now USA Basketball. He was a member of the Technical Commission of FIBA. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984. In 2007, he was enshrined as a contributor in the FIBA Hall of Fame.
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Ed Wachter
Edward A. Wachter (June 30, 1883 – March 12, 1966) was one of the first professional basketball players. The 6 ft. 1 in. Wachter is widely regarded as the greatest center of the 1910s.[citation needed]
Wachter, a native of Troy, New York, played for several professional teams, like the Troy Trojans, in his 25-year career. He later coached at several schools, including Harvard University. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961.
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Eddie Cameron
Edmund McCullough "Eddie" Cameron (April 22, 1902 – November 25, 1988) was an American football and basketball player, coach, and college athletics administrator in the United States. He served as the head basketball coach at Washington and Lee University for one season in 1924–25 and at Duke University from 1928 to 1942, compiling a career college basketball record of 234–104. Cameron was also the head football coach at Duke University from 1942 to 1945, tallying a mark of 25–11–1, and the athletic director at the school from 1951 to 1972. Cameron was part of Duke athletics from 1926 to 1972, the second longest tenure in the school's history. Duke's home basketball arena was renamed as Cameron Indoor Stadium in his honor in 1972.
Cameron attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana before becoming a fullback at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. At Washington and Lee, he was captain of both the basketball and football teams, and tied for the national scoring title in football.
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Eddie Fogler
Eddie Fogler (born (1948-06-12)June 12, 1948 in Queens, New York) is a retired American college basketball player and coach. He played for the University of North Carolina from 1967 to 1970 where he played as a point guard on two NCAA Final Four teams. Fogler was an All-City guard at Flushing High School in Flushing, New York.
“I was a pretty good high school player growing up and did pretty well,” said Fogler. “North Carolina always had a tradition of looking in New York for players from Coach (Frank) McGuire who passed that down to Coach Smith. “I went to a summer camp in North Carolina before my senior year. I loved it and they felt I might be good enough to help their program. It worked out for me to become a student-athlete at Chapel Hill in 1966-1970. We played freshman ball and my freshman coach was Larry Brown.” As a junior, Fogler was a solid starter at guard and the Tar Heels reached the Final Four again as ACC Champions and ACC Tournament champions finishing with a 27–5 record. North Carolina lost in a semifinals game to Purdue (92–65) who was led by All-American Rick Mount.
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Eddie Hickey
Edgar S. "Eddie" Hickey (December 20, 1902 – December 5, 1980) was college men's basketball coach. He coached at his alma mater of Creighton University (1934–1943, 1946–1947), St. Louis University (1947–1958) and Marquette University (1958–1964), compiling a 429–230 record. Hickey also served as the head football coach at Creighton in 1934, tallying a mark of 2–7. After retiring from coaching, Hickey managed the American Automobile Association headquarters in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. Hickey died of a heart attack on December 5, 1980 in Mesa, Arizona.
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Eddie Sutton
Eddie Sutton (born March 12, 1936) is an American former college head coach with 36 years of Division I basketball coaching experience at Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State (his alma mater), and the University of San Francisco. Sutton became the first coach to take four schools to the NCAA tournament, and he reached the Final Four with Arkansas in 1978 and Oklahoma State in 1995 and 2004. He is one of only eight major college men's basketball coaches to have over 800 career wins.
Eddie Sutton was born in Bucklin, Kansas. He played for Oklahoma State (known as Oklahoma A&M until his senior year of 1957–1958) under legendary coach Henry Iba. While at Oklahoma A&M Sutton became a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.
In his college coaching career, Sutton was the head coach of Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State,and University of San Francisco. He has the rare distinction of having taken two schools (Arkansas and Oklahoma State) to the Final Four, and was the first coach to lead four schools to the NCAA tournament.
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Edgar Diddle
Edgar Allen Diddle (March 12, 1895 in Gradyville, Kentucky, United States - January 2, 1970) was a college men's basketball coach. He is known for coaching at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky from 1922 to 1964. Diddle became the first coach in history to coach 1,000 games at one school. Diddle was known for waving a red towel around along the sidelines during his games. He was known to wave, toss, and chew on this towel, and even cover his face in times of disappointment. His red towel is now part of WKU's official athletic logo. Diddle experienced only five losing seasons in 42 years and overall, averaged 25 wins per year.
Diddle's teams claimed 32 conference championships, played in 11 postseason tournaments; won 20+ games eighteen different times, (including one stretch of ten years in a row); became the first team from the South to participate in the Olympic Trials; and won an amazing 759 games. When he stepped down in 1964 Diddle had won more games than any coach in NCAA history and today he still ranks in the top ten on the all-time list.
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Edward Gottlieb
Edward Gottlieb (born Isadore Gottlieb, September 15, 1898 – December 7, 1979), known as "Mr. Basketball" and "The Mogul", was the first coach and manager of the Philadelphia Warriors in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the former owner and coach of the team from 1951 to 1962 (when he sold the Philadelphia Warriors to Franklin Mieuli, who moved them to San Francisco). A native of Kiev, Ukraine, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor on April 20, 1972. The NBA Rookie of the Year "Eddie Gottlieb Trophy" is named after Gottlieb.
A small, overweight, balding man with deep eyes and penchant for wearing bow ties, Gottlieb was described by Red Smith as "a wonderful little guy about the size and shape of a half-keg of beer."
Gottlieb organized, and played for, the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association teams in the 1920s. Along with a few other sports promoters, he organized the Basketball Association of America, the league that later became the NBA.
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Edwin Moses
Edwin Corley Moses (born August 31, 1955) is a former American track and field athlete, who won gold medals in the 400 m hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and set the world record in his event four times. In addition to his running, Moses was also an innovative reformer in the areas of Olympic eligibility and drug testing. In 2000, he was elected the first Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, an international service organization of world-class athletes.
Moses was born in Dayton, Ohio. Having accepted an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, he majored in physics and industrial engineering, while competing for the school track team. Morehouse did not have its own track, so he used public high school facilities around the city to train. Initially, Moses competed mostly in the 120-yard hurdles and 440-yard dash. Before March 1976, he ran only one 400 m hurdles race, but once he began focusing on the event he made remarkable progress. His trademark technique was to take a constant 13 steps between each of the hurdles, pulling away in the second half of the race as his rivals changed their stride pattern. That summer, he qualified for the US team for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In his first international meet, Moses won the gold medal and set a world record of 47.63 seconds.
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Elgin Baylor
Elgin Gay Baylor (born September 16, 1934 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired Hall of Fame American basketball player and former NBA general manager who played 13 seasons as a forward for the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers/Los Angeles Lakers.
Baylor was a gifted shooter, strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer. Renowned for his acrobatic maneuvers on the court, Baylor regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots. The No. 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie of the Year in 1959, and an 11-time NBA All-Star, he is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players. In 1977, Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Baylor spent twenty-two years as GM of the Los Angeles Clippers, being named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2006, before being relieved of his duties shortly before the 2008-09 season began.
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Eli Manning
Elisha Nelson "Eli" Manning (born January 3, 1981) is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He is the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and the younger brother of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning played college football at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) after attending prep school at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. He was drafted as the first overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers and immediately traded to the New York Giants, who in return gave up a package highlighted by fourth overall selection Philip Rivers.
Manning won the Most Valuable Player award in Super Bowl XLII in 2008 after leading the Giants to victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots. On February 5, 2012 he again led his team to victory in Super Bowl XLVI, a rematch with the Patriots, in which Manning again won MVP honors and also set a new Super Bowl record with nine consecutive completions to start the game. Manning is one of five quarterbacks who have won multiple Super Bowl MVP awards.
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Elmer Ripley
Elmer H. Ripley (July 21, 1891 – April 29, 1982) was an American college men's and professional basketball coach. In over 30 years, he coached collegiately at seven different schools as well as professionally for several teams. Once celebrated, Ripley now is an almost forgotten figure in the history of American basketball.
Ripley was born in Staten Island, New York on July 21, 1891. After graduating from local Curtis High School, he attended Brown University.
Considered to be one of the great basketball coaches of the last century, Ripley began his career as a player before making the switch to coach in 1922. At age 19, Ripley decided to leave Brown to play basketball professionally with the Interstate League Brooklyn Trolly Dodgers, the New York League's Uyica Utes and the "Original Celtics" club. Ripley would enjoy numerous achievements including being voted among the ten best pro players from 1909 to 1926.
After playing, he went on to coach basketball at several major American universities and traveled the world teaching the game. Ripley began his first professional coaching tenure with Wagner College in 1922, before moving into a position at Georgetown University in 1927. His skills as a coach were evident as he won 12 of his first 13 games. During his many years with the Georgetown, he achieved a 133–82 record and lead the Hoyas to the NCAA tournament twice. Ripley was in high demand and was hied away by several prestigious colleges including Columbia University, University of Notre Dame, and Yale University, which he coached to the 1933 Ivy League championship.
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Elton Brand
Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979 in Cortlandt Manor, New York[citation needed]) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the 1st overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, selected by the Chicago Bulls.
At the age of thirteen, Brand enrolled in Peekskill High School, where he was immediately added to the varsity basketball roster. He averaged 40 points and 20 rebounds per game, played AAU basketball with future NBA players Lamar Odom and Ron Artest, and by his senior year he was consistently ranked among the top high school basketball players in the country and was selected as New York State Mr. Basketball. At the same time, he became something of a cult hero in Peekskill, helping his team win two state championships while demonstrating a humble calm and an articulate intelligence. The former Governor of New York, fellow Peekskill native George Pataki, was once asked about being the town's favorite son, and he answered that Peekskill's favorite son was not the Governor but Elton Brand. Recruited heavily after his successful high school career, Brand decided to enroll at Duke University alongside a cluster of other high school stars, including Shane Battier.
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Elvin Hayes
Elvin Ernest Hayes (born November 17, 1945 in Rayville, Louisiana) is a retired American basketball player and radio analyst for Houston Cougars men's basketball, where he played college basketball. He is a member of the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, and an inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A quiet, introverted youth, Hayes first picked up a basketball in eighth grade, by accident. He was wrongly blamed for playing a classroom prank and was sent to the principal's office. But another teacher, Reverend Calvin, saw Hayes and said he was welcome in his class. Although the youngster showed no inclination for any sports, Calvin thought he would benefit by playing basketball and put him on the school team. Hayes was so clumsy, however, that he evoked laughter with his awkward attempts at shooting and dribbling.
But young Hayes was determined to improve, and during the summers he practiced long hours. As a 6'5" ninth grader he was a benchwarmer on the junior varsity squad at Britton High School when he became determined to crack the starting lineup. "I was too weak to shoot the turnaround then," Hayes recalled, "so all summer long I shot with a small rubber ball at a basket in my yard. My development was almost overnight."
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Emil Liston
Emil S. "Liz" Liston (August 21, 1890 – October 26, 1949) was an athletic coach and administrator. He coached basketball, football and baseball at Wesleyan University and Baker University. He was the founder of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, organized the NAIA college basketball tournament in 1937 and served as the first executive director of the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (predecessor to the NAIA) from 1940 to 1949. He was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975.
A native of Stockton, Missouri, Liston attended Michigan College of Mines (now known as Michigan Technological University) where he was a star football player.
In September 1918, Liston was hired by Wesleyan University as coach of the school's football team. He left Wesleyan in June 1919 to play professional baseball for the Wichita, Kansas team in the Western League. After spending the summer playing baseball in Wichita, Liston returned to Wesleyan as the head football coach in the fall of 1919. In two years as Wesleyan's football coach, Liston compiled a 10-3-0 record. His .769 winning percentage at Wesleyan remains the highest of any Wesleyan football coach with at least ten games as coach. Liston also coached the basketball and baseball teams at Wesleyan. In April 1920, Liston announced his resignation from Wesleyan.
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Emmitt Smith
Emmitt James Smith, III (born May 15, 1969) is a retired American football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for fifteen seasons during the 1990s and 2000s. Smith played college football for the University of Florida, where he was an All-American. A first-round pick in the 1990 NFL Draft, he played professionally for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals of the NFL.
During his long professional career, he became the NFL's all-time rushing leader, breaking the record formerly held by Walter Payton, and played for three Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboys teams. Smith is the only running back to ever win a Super Bowl championship, the NFL Most Valuable Player award, the NFL rushing crown, and the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award all in the same season (1993). He is also one of only four running backs to lead the NFL in rushing three or more consecutive seasons, joining Steve Van Buren, Jim Brown and Earl Campbell. Smith led the league in rushing and won the Super Bowl in the same year three times (1992, 1993, and 1995) when to that point it had never been done. Smith is also one of only two non-kickers in NFL history to score more than 1,000 career points (the other being Jerry Rice). Smith was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010, and is the first player from the 1990 NFL Draft to be inducted.
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Eric Gordon
Eric Ambrose Gordon, Jr. (born December 25, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA. In high school, he was named "Mr. Basketball" of Indiana during his senior year while playing at North Central High School. He is known, in part, as the subject of a major recruiting battle between the University of Illinois and Indiana University in the spring and summer of 2006; because of Gordon's talent and high level of play that year, his recruitment was the subject of a great deal of media coverage.
Gordon played one season of college basketball at Indiana and was considered one of the top collegiate players in the nation that year. He finished his freshman season leading the Big Ten in scoring and tied for 19th in the nation at 21.5 points per game. Gordon entered the 2008 NBA Draft and was selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers. Gordon is represented by agent Rob Pelinka.
Born in Indianapolis, Gordon began playing sports at the YMCA at 4, playing soccer, and then moved quickly on to basketball. He also played football but his true love was basketball. At the age of 7 he began playing competitive basketball at the historical Municipal Gardens. He spent the majority of his time across the street from his home at the Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis (JCC). There Gordon spent many hours playing pick ball, swimming and hanging out with friends. It was at the JCC that Gordon announced his departure from college to enter his name into the NBA Draft.
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Erik Meek
Erik Joal Meek (born (1973-01-17)January 17, 1973) is an American basketball player who played for four years at Duke University, before being drafted by the Houston Rockets in the 1995 NBA Draft. However, he did not play in the NBA.
He is the cousin of Miami Marlins closer Heath Bell.
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Ernest Blood
Ernest A. Blood (October 4, 1872 in Manchester, New Hampshire, United States – February 5, 1955) was a high school and college men's basketball coach. He was best known for his "Wonder Teams" at New Jersey's Passaic High School, which lost only one game in the span of a decade and set an American high school record for most consecutive victories.
As a basketball innovator who focused on team play and a clean lifestyle in which players were prohibited from drinking or smoking, Blood emphasized the fast break, well-controlled passing and the full-court press over individual performance. Known as the "Professor", he was also a showman who would wrestle the team's bear cub mascot at halftime and could toss a 16-pound shot put into the air and catch it on the back of his neck.
Between 1915 and 1924 he coached Passaic High School to a remarkable 200-1 record, winning seven state basketball championships during his tenure, though the team's success on the court created conflict between Blood and the school's principal, Arnold D. Arnold, who thought that the team's overwhelming athletic accomplishments were distracting students from their academics. Passaic High's 1921–22 basketball team finished the season with a record of 33–0 and outscored its opponents by a margin of 2,293–612, scoring almost four times as many points as their foes did in each game. Passaic was unbeaten for more than five seasons, and won 159 consecutive games from 1919 to 1925, a feat which is considered to be the longest winning streak in high school basketball history in the United States. The streak ended on February 6, 1925, after Blood had already left Passaic High, in a game the Hilltoppers lost 39–35 to the Hackensack High School Comets. The game, played at the Hackensack Armory, was said to have been designed to slow down the Passaic High fast break through the placement of sawdust on the playing surface.
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Ernest Schmidt
Ernest J. Schmidt (February 12, 1911 in Nashville, Kansas, USA – September 6, 1986) was an American college basketball player. He played college basketball for Kansas State Teachers College in the early 1930s and was considered one of the best players of his time. He led the team to 47 straight victories and four straight conference titles. He was nicknamed "One Grand" for scoring exactly 1,000 points during his college career. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1974.
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Everett Case
Everett Norris Case (June 21, 1900 – April 30, 1966), nicknamed "Gray Fox", was a basketball coach most notable for his tenure at North Carolina State University, from 1946 to 1964.
Born in Anderson, Indiana, Case graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1923. He compiled a 726-75 record while coaching 23 years in high school basketball, including winning 4 Indiana state championships while coaching in Frankfort, Indiana (1925, 1929, 1936, 1939). Frankfort's Case Arena is named after him. Case is one of only five coaches to win at least 4 state titles in Indiana basketball (the others being Marion Crawley, Glenn M. Curtis, Jack Keefer with 4 and Bill Green with 6).
Case enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941. He was commissioned a senior-grade lieutenant and reported to Annapolis for a four-week training course. He then traveled to Chicago for five weeks training before reporting to Naval Pre-flight school at St. Mary's College in California, where he served as assistant athletic director and director of basketball. He also served as athletic director at the Alameda Naval Air Station.
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Everett Dean
Everett S. Dean (March 18, 1898 – October 26, 1993) was a college men's basketball and baseball coach.
Born in Livonia, Indiana, Dean was the head baseball and basketball coach at his alma mater, Indiana University, from 1924 to 1938. In 1938, Dean was named head basketball coach at Stanford University, where he coached the team to the 1942 NCAA championship. Dean was named baseball coach at Stanford in 1950, and led Stanford's baseball team to the 1953 College World Series.
Dean is the only coach named to both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965. He also has the distinction of being the first basketball All-American from Indiana University.
His fondness for the local history of his native Washington County, Indiana led him to push for the creation of the John Hay Center of Salem, Indiana.
NCAA, NCAA March Madness: Cinderellas, Superstars, and Champions from the NCAA Men's Final Four : Chicago: Triumph Books, 2004. ISBN 1-57243-665-4
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Everett Shelton
Everett F. Shelton (May 12, 1898 – April 16, 1974) was a well-known college men's basketball coach in the 1940s and 1950s. Shelton played quarterback for the Phillips University football team. The Cunningham, Kansas native coached 46 years at the high school, college and AAU levels and compiled an 850-437 record. He is mostly known for coaching the University of Wyoming Cowboys basketball team from 1939 to 1959. While at Wyoming, Shelton had a record of 328 wins and 201 losses for a .620 winning percentage. He guided the Cowboys to eight conference championships and eight NCAA Tournament appearances. During his career, he was President of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Ev's 1943 team at Wyoming, captained by broadcasting legend Curt Gowdy, won the fifth NCAA national championship. Ev nearly repeated the feat of winning a national championship at Sacramento State College, where his Hornets lost in overtime to Mount St. Mary's in the NAIA championship in the early 1960s.
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Ferenc Hepp
Dr. Ferenc Hepp (November 3, 1909 in Békés, Hungary – November 27, 1980) was a basketball administrator. He is considered "the father of Hungarian basketball". He became the president of the Hungarian Basketball Federation in 1954 and was a member of the FIBA Central Board in the 1950s and 1960s. He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1981. In 2007, he was enshrined as a contributor into the FIBA Hall of Fame
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Forrest DeBernardi
Forrest S. "Red" DeBernardi (February 3, 1899 – April 29, 1970) was a well-known collegiate basketball player in the 1920s. Standing 6 ft. 1 inches tall, DeBernardi was one of the best centers of his era, but played all five positions. Born in Nevada, Missouri, he attended University of Kansas from 1920 to 1921, but transferred to Westminster College, where he played from 1921 to 1923. He was named All-Conference in both 1922 and 1923.
Following his impressive collegiate career, DeBernardi became an outstanding Amateur Athletic Union player. Between 1920 and 1929, when he played with Kansas City Athletic Club (1920–22), Hillyard Shine Alls (1923–27) and Cook's Painter Boys (1928–29), he participated in 10 national AAU tournaments and was named to the AAU All American team eight times. Five times he has been part of a national championship team.
In 1938 the Associated Press selected DeBernardi as the center on its All-Time All America college basketball team. He was also awarded with the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame Award in 1952. In 1961, DeBernardi was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Frank Keaney
Frank William "Menty" Keaney (June 5, 1886 – October 10, 1967) was a college men's basketball coach and known as the architect of modern "run-and-shoot" basketball.
Keaney was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Cambridge Latin School, graduating in 1906. He graduated from Bates College, where he played several sports, in 1911. He coached at Rhode Island State College (now the University of Rhode Island) from 1920 to 1948 and taught a style of basketball using a fast-breaking offense and a full-court defense. In his 28 years at Rhode Island, Keaney never had a losing season. In 1939, Keaney's Rams became the first college team to score more than 50 points per game, and in 1943 the team had an average of more than two points per minute (80.7 points per game), which led to the Rams being dubbed "The Firehouse Gang". During his tenure the URI team had four National Invitation Tournament appearances. Keaney's career record was 401-124 (.764).
After retiring from coaching collegiate basketball, Keaney almost became head coach of the Boston Celtics. Keaney's doctor, however, refused to let him take the job. He remained as Rhode Island State/URI's athletic director until 1959. URI named the Frank W. Keaney Gymnasium-Armory in his honor in 1953. Keaney was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960.
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Frank McGuire
Frank Joseph McGuire (November 8, 1914 – November 11, 1994) was an American athletic coach who gained his greatest renown in collegiate basketball.
Born in New York City as the youngest of thirteen children in an Irish-American family, to New York police officer, Robert McGuire and his wife, the former Anne Lynch (his father dying when Frank was only two years old). He attended Xavier High School graduating in 1933, McGuire graduated from St. John's University in 1936. He served in the United States Navy during World War II, interrupting his work as a teacher and coach at his high school. Prior to 1947 he also played pro basketball briefly in the American Basketball League; he then became the head basketball and baseball coach at his alma mater.
After bringing the baseball team to the College World Series in 1949 and the basketball team to the Final Four in 1952 – becoming one of only three coaches to achieve both accomplishments – he left St. John's to become basketball coach at the University of North Carolina.
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Frank Morgenweck
Frank (Pop) Morgenweck (July 15, 1875 in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, USA – December 8, 1941) was an American basketball player, coach and team owner. He began his career in the National League in 1901, and won that league's championship with the Camden Electrics in 1904. After retiring in 1916, he became a coach and an owner of professional teams, operating teams in ten different leagues and in more than 18 cities. As a coach, he won the Metropolitan League title with Paterson Legionnaires in 1923 and Kingston Colonials in 1928. He retired as a coach in 1938 with over 500 career victories. He was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1962.
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Fred Zollner
Fred Zollner (January 22, 1901 – June 21, 1982) was called "Mr. Pro Basketball" as the founder and longtime owner along with his sister Janet of the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (now the Detroit Pistons) and a key figure in the merger of National Basketball League and Basketball Association of America into the National Basketball Association in 1949.
Zollner, an industrialist, was born in Little Falls, Minnesota and received a degree from the University of Minnesota in 1927. Zollner Corporation, formed in 1912, was a Tier-1 supplier of pistons to companies such as Ford, General Motors, International Harvester (now Navistar), John Deere and Outboard Marine. At one time, he employed more than 1200 people in his Fort Wayne, Indiana foundry. The company had 230 employees when it was acquired by Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG in 1999.
The Zollner Pistons began playing in 1941 in an industrial league. In 1974, he recalled that, "Instead of making friends, we made enemies, because no one could beat us." He personally recruited his players, including later Hall of Famers Andy Phillip, Bob McDermott, Bob Houbregs, Buddy Jeannette and George Yardley. The Zollner Pistons were a very popular franchise, winning the world championship in 1944 and 1945, and reaching the NBA Finals in 1954 and 1955, losing both times. He was the first pro basketball team owner to hire a bench coach.
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Fuzzy Vandivier
Robert P. "Fuzzy" Vandivier (December 26, 1903 – July 30, 1983) was a well-known high school and collegiate basketball player during the 1920s. At Franklin High School he led a squad nicknamed "Franklin Wonder Five", a team that compiled an 89-9 record, won three state championships (1920, 1921, 1922) and is considered the greatest Indiana High School team of all-time.
Vandivier has been named All-State three times (1920, 1921, 1922), being the first player ever to achieve this feat (since then, John Wooden, Oscar Robertson and George McGinnis also achieved this level of success). Hall of Fame coach John Wooden considered Vandivier the greatest high school basketball player of all time.
Following his outstanding high school career, Vandivier attended local Franklin College (1922–26). In each year he was named All-State, and in 1926 he was an All-Midwest College All-Star. Due to a painful back ailment in his senior year, Vandivier's playing career was cut short. After graduating from Franklin, he returned as basketball coach to his high school. Vandivier coached the Franklin High School basketball team from 1926 to 1944. In 1939, under his leadership, they earned a place in the Indiana state finals.
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Gail Goestenkors
Gail Ann Goestenkors (born February 26, 1963 in Waterford, Michigan), is the former women's basketball head coach for The University of Texas, having accepted the position on April 3, 2007, replacing the legendary Jody Conradt. Goestenkors resigned as the head coach at Texas on March 19, 2012, stating that her heart was telling her to "take a break" from basketball. Goestenkors was the Duke University women's basketball head coach from 1992–2007. During her tenure at Duke, she led the Blue Devils to 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, 10 consecutive appearances in at least the Sweet Sixteen (1997–2007), and an NCAA-record seven consecutive 30-win seasons from 2000-2007.
Goestenkors attended Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, where she played under future Purdue head coach Marsha Reall. After graduating in 1985, Goestenkors became a graduate assistant coach at Iowa State. After one season, she left to become an assistant coach at Purdue under Lin Dunn, where she remained until becoming head coach at Duke in 1992.
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Gail Goodrich
Gail Charles Goodrich Jr. (born April 23, 1943 in Los Angeles, California) is a retired American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is best known for scoring a then record 42 points in the 1965 NCAA championship game vs. Michigan, and his part in the Los Angeles Lakers' 1971–72 season. During that season the team won a still-record 33 games consecutively, posted what was at the time the best regular season record in NBA history, and also won the franchise's first NBA championship since relocating to Los Angeles. Goodrich was the leading scorer on that team. He is also acclaimed for leading UCLA to its first two National Championships under the legendary coach John Wooden, the first in 1963-64 being a perfect 30-0 season. In 1996, 17 years after his retirement from professional basketball, Goodrich was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A native of the Los Angeles area, Goodrich was the captain of the John H. Francis Polytechnic High School basketball team that dominated the 1961 Los Angeles City high school basketball championship.
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Gary Williams
Gary B. Williams (born March 4, 1945) is an American university administrator and former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Maryland, Ohio State University, Boston College, and American University. In 2002, he led Maryland to the NCAA Tournament Championship. Williams retired after the 2010–11 season, and is now a college basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network.
A native of Collingswood, New Jersey, Williams played for Maryland as the starting point guard under coach Bud Millikan. He was a member of the 1966 Charlotte Invitational Tournament championship team and the 1965 Sugar Bowl Tournament championship team. He set a Maryland record for field goal percentage, going 8-for-8 from the field in an ACC game against South Carolina in 1966 (35 years later a Williams pupil, Lonny Baxter, would break that record, hitting all ten of his field goal attempts.) Williams was the Maryland team captain in 1967. He graduated in 1968 with a B.S. in Marketing. While at the University of Maryland, Williams was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.
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Gene Bartow
B. Gene Bartow (August 18, 1930 – January 3, 2012) was an American men's college basketball coach. The Browning, Missouri, native coached 36 years at six universities after coaching two high schools in Missouri for six years. In 1972 Bartow coached the Puerto Rico national basketball team in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
Bartow began his coaching at the prep level in Missouri, coaching Shelbina and St. Charles High School basketball squads to a 145–39 win-loss mark in six seasons. His 1957 St. Charles team won the state championship, defeating North Kansas City in the Class L finals by a score of 60–54.
Bartow coached at Central Missouri State University from 1961 to 1964, Valparaiso University from 1964 to 1970, and Memphis State University from 1970 until 1974, and he led the Memphis State Tigers to the 1973 NCAA national championship game and consecutive Missouri Valley Conference titles in the 1971–72 and 1972–73 seasons. He coached the US national team in the 1974 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.
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Gene Keady
Lloyd Eugene "Gene" Keady (born May 21, 1936) is a basketball coach. Currently an assistant coach at St. John's, he is most notable for being the head basketball coach at Purdue University for 25 years, from 1980 to 2005.
Gene's father instilled in him a passion for sports. This became evident as Keady was a four sport athlete at Garden City Junior College in Garden City, Kansas. At the junior college level, Keady was named an All-American in football for playing quarterback. Keady continued his education at a higher level at Kansas State University. At Kansas State, Keady was a letter-winner in three sports: football, baseball, and track. In the summer of 1958, Keady graduated from Kansas State with a B.S. in biological sciences and physical education.
Keady was drafted in the 19th round of the 1958 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers (223rd overall pick) but did not play.
With his football playing career over, Keady returned to Kansas in 1959 where he accepted a teaching and coaching position at Beloit High School in Beloit, Kansas. The only coaching position open at the school was for the basketball team. Keady coached in Beloit for six years from 1959 to 1965. Keady understood the value of education and never stopped learning, even while he was coaching. In 1964, he earned his master's degree in education from Kansas State. While coaching high school basketball, he compiled a record of 142 wins to 47 losses.
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Geno Auriemma
Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954 in Montella, Italy) is an American college basketball coach and the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team, which he has led to seven NCAA Division I national championships (in 1995, 2000, 2002–2004, 2009 and 2010). He has won six national Naismith College Coach of the Year awards. Auriemma is also the head coach of the 2009-12 United States women's national team.
He emigrated with his family to Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S. when he was seven years old,. and spent the rest of his childhood there. After graduating from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 1977, Auriemma was hired as an assistant coach at Saint Joseph's University, where he worked in 1978 and 1979. He then took a two-year absence from college basketball, serving as an assistant coach at his former high school, Bishop Kenrick, before assuming an assistant coaching position with the University of Virginia Cavaliers in 1981. Auriemma became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994, noting in his autobiography that he finally decided to naturalize when his UConn team was slated to tour Italy that summer and he was concerned about potential problems because he had never done any required national service.
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George Brett
George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953), is an American former Major League Baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history, and 16th all-time. Brett is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average with the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 on the first ballot.
Brett was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia. He was the youngest of four sons of a sports-minded family which included Ken, the second oldest, a major league pitcher who had pitched in the 1967 World Series at age 19. Brothers John (eldest) and Bobby had brief careers in the minor leagues. Although his three older brothers were born in Brooklyn, George was born in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. Jack & Ethel Brett then moved the family to the Midwest and three years later to El Segundo, a suburb of Los Angeles, just south of Los Angeles International Airport. George grew up hoping to follow in the footsteps of his three older brothers. He graduated from El Segundo High School in 1971 and was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the second round (29th overall) of the 1971 baseball draft. His high school teammate was pitcher Scott McGregor.
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George Buchheit
George Clifford Buchheit (March 22, 1898 – May 24, 1972) was an American college basketball coach. He was the head of the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team of the University of Kentucky from 1920 to 1924, where he complied a 44-27 record. From 1924 to 1928, Buchheit was the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team of Duke University.
From 1932 to 1945, he was the head coach for the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania football team and compiled a 15–27–4 record.
Buchheit attended University of Illinois.
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George Gervin
George "The Iceman" Gervin (born April 27, 1952) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Virginia Squires, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls. Gervin averaged at least 14 points per game in all 14 of his ABA and NBA seasons, and finished with an NBA career average of 26.2 points per game. Gervin is widely regarded to be one of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history.
Nicknamed Iceman for his cool demeanor on the court, Gervin was primarily known for his scoring talents. He led teams at both Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Long Beach State. After leaving college due to an altercation, Gervin was set to try out for the Virginia Squires of the ABA. According to legend, Gervin made 22 of 25 three-point attempts at the tryout; he was immediately signed despite the fact that Virginia officials had never seen him play competitively.
His first scoring crown came in 1978, when he narrowly edged David Thompson for the scoring title by seven hundredths of a point (27.22 to 27.15). Although Thompson came up with a memorable performance for the last game of the regular season, scoring 73 points, Gervin maintained his slight lead by scoring 63 points (including an NBA-record at the time 33 points in the second quarter) in a loss in his last game of the season. With the scoring crown in hand, he sat out some of the third, and all of the fourth quarter. Gervin went on to lead the NBA in scoring average three years in a row from 1978 to 1980 (with a high of 33.1 points per game in 1979-80), and again in 1982. The Spurs drafted high scoring guards Oliver Robinson of UAB and Tony Grier from South Florida to take some offensive pressure off Gervin. Prior to Michael Jordan, Gervin had the most scoring titles of any guard in league history.
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George Hepbron
George T. Hepbron (August 27, 1863 in Still Pond, Maryland, US – April 30, 1946) was one of basketball's first referees and rules pioneers. He is also credited with writing the game's first book, How to Play Basketball, in 1904.
Hepbron was a close friend of Dr. James Naismith, and subsequently played a major role in the early development of the game, especially in the area of rules. Active in many sports organizations, Hepbron was the first secretary of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Basketball Committee (1896) and in 1915, became secretary of the newly formed National Basketball Rules Committee (NBRC).
Hepbron was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960 as a referee.
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George Hoyt
For 34 years, George Hoyt was known as New England's foremost basketball referee, earning him the moniker "Mr. Basketball". A tireless worker, Hoyt's talents were not merely requested, but demanded. He would often officiate two games a day at both the high school and college level. A champion in developing a uniform set of rules and procedures, Hoyt penned The Theory and Practice of Basketball Officiating, a classic textbook that discussed many officiating distinctions, including the difference between Eastern and Western referees.
George Hoyt was born on August 9, 1883 in Boston, Massachusetts. After years of officiating both high school and college games, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall Of Fame as a referee in 1961. He was a pioneer of the more open style of play that we see in today's basketball, he created rules to discourage defensive holding and to free up offensive players. While serving as Chief of Officials for the Eastern Massachusetts High School Basketball Tournament (which became Honorary Chief Official on retirement), he helped found the New England Interscholastic Basketball Tournament. George Hoyt died on November 11, 1962.
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George Keogan
George E. Keogan (March 8, 1890 – February 17, 1943) was an American collegiate basketball coach, most known for coaching University of Notre Dame from 1923 to 1943. Keogan never had a losing season in his 20 years at Notre Dame.
The Minnesota Lake, Minnesota native attended University of Minnesota from 1909 to 1913. He began coaching high school varsities after his freshman year in college, guiding first Lockport High School (1910–11) followed by Riverside High School (1911–12). Meanwhile he was also coaching several college basketball teams: Charles City College in Iowa (1909–1910), Superior State Teachers College in Wisconsin (1912–14), Saint Louis University (1914–15) and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota (1915–16). During World War I he served at Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
After briefly coaching Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania (1917–18) and Valparaiso University (1918–20), Keogan arrived at University of Notre Dame. He served as head basketball and baseball coach, as well as assistant to the legendary football coach Knute Rockne. Keogan compiled a 327-96-1 at Notre Dame. After he died at age 52, his greatest player and fellow Hall of Famer Moose Krause took over his job.
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George Mikan
George Lawrence Mikan, Jr. (June 18, 1924 – June 1, 2005), nicknamed Mr. Basketball, was an American professional basketball player for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBL, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Invariably playing with thick, round spectacles, the 6 ft 10 in 245 lb. Mikan is seen as one of the pioneers of professional basketball, redefining it as a game of so-called big men with his prolific rebounding, shot blocking and his talent to shoot over smaller defenders with his ambidextrous hook shot, result of his own Mikan Drill.
Mikan had a successful player career, winning seven NBL, BAA and NBA championships, an All-Star MVP trophy, three scoring titles and being member of the first four NBA All-Star and the first six All-BAA and All-NBA Teams. Mikan was so dominant that he caused several rule changes in the NBA, among them widening the foul lane—known as the "Mikan Rule"—and introducing the shot clock.
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George Raveling
George Raveling (born June 27, 1937) is a former college men's basketball coach and FOX Sports Net color commentator. He was the head coach at Washington State University (1972–1983), the University of Iowa (1983–1986), and the University of Southern California (1987–1994). The Washington, D.C. native attended St. Michael's High School in Hoban Heights, Pennsylvania, and was an assistant coach at his alma mater Villanova, and at Maryland.
On August 28, 1963, as Dr. Martin Luther King waved goodbye to an audience of over 200,000 "March on Washington" participants, he handed Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" speech.
Raveling guided the Washington State men's basketball team from 1972-1983 with two NCAA tournament appearances during his 11 years. The first appearance was in 1980 and marked the first time WSU was included in the NCAA bracket since finishing second in 1941. Three years later Raveling returned WSU to the NCAA tournament. Raveling was one of the winningest coaches in Washington State basketball history, finishing his WSU career with 167 wins, 136 losses, and seven winning seasons, including five straight from the 1975-76 campaign through the 1980 season.
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George Yardley
George Harry Yardley III (November 3, 1928 in Hollywood, California – August 12, 2004 in Newport Beach, California, USA), best known as simply George Yardley, was an NBA Hall of Fame basketball player. He was the first player in history to score 2,000 points in one season, breaking the 1,932-point record held by fellow Hall of Famer George Mikan. He was nominated (but not selected) into NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971.
A two-time All-American at Stanford University, Yardley was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and earned the nickname "Yardbird" due to the chores he was required to complete by his fraternity brothers. [1] The nickname was later shortened to "Bird". After his three year career at Stanford, Yardley played one year of AAU basketball and served in the United States Navy for two years. During his navy stint, Yardley's amateur team won the national A.A.U. championship in 1951, with Yardley being selected the national amateur player-of-the-year. He was drafted by the NBA Fort Wayne Pistons in 1950.
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Grant Hill
Grant Henry Hill (born October 5, 1972) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. As a collegian with Duke University and early in his professional career with the Detroit Pistons, Hill was widely considered to be one of the best all-around players in the game, often leading his team in points, rebounds and assists. His time in the league has been hampered by career-threatening injuries, notably during the prime of his career. At age 39, Hill is the second-oldest player in the NBA, one day younger than the oldest player, Kurt Thomas.
Grant Hill was born in Dallas, Texas. His father, Calvin Hill, graduated from Yale University with a degree in history, later attended Southern Methodist University and was a three-time All-Pro running back for the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys, winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award in 1969. His mother, Janet, is a Wellesley College graduate. After his father's NFL career ended, the family settled in Reston, Virginia, where Grant became a high-school superstar at South Lakes High School and he was selected for the 1990 McDonald's All-American Team.
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Greg Koubek
Greg Koubek (born March 15, 1969 in Clifton Park, New York) is a retired American basketball player best known for his collegiate career at Duke University between 1988 and 1991. He also played professionally overseas after college for several years.
A native of the greater Albany area, Koubek attended Shenendehowa High School from 1985 to 1988. He led the basketball team to a state championship as a senior in 1987 and later became the first athlete in school history to have his jersey number retired. Following the 1987 season he was named a McDonald's All-American, and he was the co-honoree of the Mr. New York Basketball award, given to the state's best high school boys' basketball player. Koubek finished his high school career having scored 1,972 points and grabbed 682 rebounds, both being the most in school history.
Koubek's career playing for the Duke Blue Devils was an overall inauspicious one in terms of personal statistics. Through his first two seasons, he only started in one total game, but he did play in all 71 contests. Between his freshman and sophomore seasons he scored 312 points. Duke won the ACC Tournament in 1988, his freshman year, and also made it all the way to the NCAA Tournament Final Four – the first of four straight Final Four appearances. As a junior in 1990, Duke made it to the 1990 National Championship but lost to UNLV, 103–73, which is still the worst margin of defeat in NCAA Championship Game history. Koubek played in all 38 games and started 12 of them.
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Greg LeMond
Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961 in Lakewood, California) is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California and raised in Reno, Nevada.
In 1986, LeMond became the first American and the first non-European cyclist to win the Tour de France. The following year he was shot and seriously injured in a hunting accident. He was able to return to the Tour in 1989, winning it dramatically in its final stage. He won again for the third time the following year in 1990. He is one of only nine cyclists to have won the Tour three or more times.
Greg LeMond was a standout junior rider who quickly established himself as one of the most talented cyclists in the professional circuit. After his initial success on the junior circuit he began competing against older, more seasoned competitors. He gained the attention of the US Cycling Federation's national team, riding for them at the 1979 Junior World Championships held in Argentina. There he won gold, silver and bronze medals, the highlight being his spectacular victory in the road race. He was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic cycling team, the youngest ever, at 18, to make the U.S. team; however, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from competing there.
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Guy Lewis
Guy Vernon Lewis II (born March 19, 1922 in Arp, Texas) is a former NCAA basketball coach who led the University of Houston Cougars program for 30 years from 1956-86.
After serving in World War II, Lewis played basketball for the University of Houston until his graduation in 1947. He became an assistant coach there in 1953, and head coach in 1956. As a coach, he was known for championing the once-outlawed dunk, which he characterized as a "high percentage shot", and for clutching a brightly-colored red and white polka dot towel on the bench during games. Lewis was a major force in the racial integration of college athletics in the South during the 1960s, being one of the first major college coaches in the region to actively recruit African-American athletes. His recruitment of Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney in 1964 ushered in an era of tremendous success in Cougar basketball. The dominant play of Hayes led the Cougars to two Final Fours and sent shock waves through Southern colleges that realized that they would have to begin recruiting black players if they wanted to compete with integrated teams.
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Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (/ɵˈlaɪdʒəwɒn/; [olaɟuwɔ̃]; born January 21, 1963) is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Listed at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) (but closer to 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) by his own admission), Olajuwon is considered one of the greatest centers ever to play the game.
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Hal Greer
Harold Everett Greer (born June 26, 1936, in Huntington, West Virginia) is a retired American professional basketball player.
He attended Douglass Junior and Senior High School in Huntington. He played college basketball at Marshall University and was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA in 1958. Greer played for Syracuse for five seasons, raising his scoring average to 22.8 points a game in 1961. He was selected for the NBA All-Star team that year. In 1963, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers. There, Greer became well known as a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain, and starred on the powerful 1966-67 team that ended the eight-year championship reign of the Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics. In the 76ers' 15 playoff games that season, Greer averaged a team-best 27.7 points. Greer had an unusual but highly effective free throw technique, shooting a jump shot from the charity stripe. He is usually considered the third-best guard of the 1960s, behind Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.
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Hank Luisetti
Angelo "Hank" Luisetti (June 16, 1916 - December 17, 2002) was an American college men's basketball player and one of the great innovators of the game. In an era that featured the traditional two-handed set shot, Luisetti developed the running one-handed shot. Equipped with such an offensive weapon, Luisetti became one of the most dominant players in American college basketball history.
A graduate of Galileo High School in his native city, San Francisco, he went on to play for Stanford. He became the first player to score 50 points in a game on January 1, 1938, against Duquesne. Luisetti was named the second-best player of the mid-century (behind George Mikan) by an Associated Press poll of sportswriters and broadcasters in 1950.
Luisetti’s influence was aided by a celebrated game between Long Island University and Luisetti’s Stanford Indians. Long Island, at the time of the game, had a 43 game winning streak. The game was played in the evening of Dec. 30, 1936, in Madison Square Garden and a crowd of 17,623 was on hand to see Long Island, the nation's No. 1 team, play Stanford.
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Harlan Page
Harlan Orville "Pat" Page (March 20, 1887 – November 23, 1965) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach. He was one of basketball's first star players in the early 1900s. The 5'9" Chicago, IL native played guard at the University of Chicago (1906–1910) and was known as a defensive specialist. While leading Chicago to three national championships (1908–1910), the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively named him an All-American each time and named National Player of the Year in 1910. Page also played football at Chicago. Walter Camp selected him as a second-team All-American at the end in 1908 and a third-team All-American at the same position in 1909.
Following his playing days, Page embarked on a coaching career. He served as the head basketball coach at the University of Chicago (1911–1920), Butler University (1920–1925) and the College of Idaho (1936–1938), compiling a career college basketball record of 269–140. In 1924, he coached Butler to the AAU title. Page was also the head football coach at Butler from 1920 to 1925 and at Indiana University from 1926 to 1930, tallying a career college football mark of 51–38–5. In addition, Page coached baseball at the University of Chicago from 1913 to 1920 and again in 1931, amassing a record of 63–35. In 1962, he was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player.
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Harold Anderson
W. Harold Anderson (September 11, 1902 – June 13, 1967) was a college men's basketball coach at Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo. As a player, he played at Otterbein College, a small liberal arts college outside of Columbus, Ohio. As a coach, he was one of the first to win more than 500 games on the collegiate level. While pioneering the run and gun, up-tempo style of play, the Akron, Ohio native Anderson developed a host of All-America athletes, the most prominent being Nate Thurmond.
The Bowling Green Falcons now play basketball in Anderson Arena, named in honor of their legendary coach. Anderson was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985.
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Harold Olsen
Harold G. Olsen (May 12, 1895 – October 29, 1953) was a college men's basketball coach. The Rice Lake, Wisconsin native was the head coach of the Ohio State University from 1922 to 1946. That year he became the first head coach of the BAA's Chicago Stags, where he coached almost three seasons before being replaced by Philip Brownstein. Olsen also coached a single season at Northwestern University (1950–1951).
While playing at University of Wisconsin–Madison (1913–17), Olsen was named two-time All-Big Ten. After graduating from Wisconsin, he began his coaching career at Ripon College. In 1922 Olsen followed George Trautman as head coach of the Ohio State University. In 24 years he guided the Buckeyes to a 265–81 record, as well as five Big Ten championships (1925, 1933, 1939, 1944, 1946). In 1939, Olsen spearheaded efforts to create the NCAA postseason national playoffs, now known as the NCAA Tournament. Olsen also helped initiate the 10-second rule. In 1959 he was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.
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Harry Gallatin
Harry J. " The Horse" Gallatin (born April 26, 1927) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach. Gallatin played nine seasons for the New York Knicks in the NBA from 1948 to 1957, as well as one season with the Detroit Pistons in 1958. In 1954 Gallatin led the NBA in rebounding, and was named to the All-NBA First Team. Gallatin was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1955. For his career, Gallatin played in seven NBA All-Star Games. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he is is also a member of the SIU Edwardsville Athletics Hall of Fame, the Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame, the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Hall of Fame, and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame.
Growing up in Roxana, Illinois, Gallatin had taken interest in all sports and has been quoted as saying, "Competition has always been my cup of tea." His drive for competition was amplified during his first year in high school as he attended Wood River High School from 1940–41. Since Roxana and some other outlying communities like Bethalto did not have high schools of their own at the time, all of the athletes in the area attended Wood River and thus increased the level of competition among the athletes. The following year, Roxana had a high school of its own. He graduated from Roxana High School in 1944 and was granted a basketball scholarship by Northeast Missouri State Teachers' College (now known as Truman State University). However, after graduating from Roxana High School, Gallatin enlisted in the United States Navy and served until the end of World War II.
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Harry Litwack
Harold "Chief" Litwack (September 20, 1907 – August 7, 1999) was a college men's basketball coach. He served as head coach of Temple University from 1947 to 1973, compiling a 373-193 record.
Litwack was born in Poland, but raised in Philadelphia, USA. He graduated from Temple in 1930. He began his coaching career at Simon Gratz High School (1930–31), then he became head coach of the freshman team at Temple. Meanwhile he was playing pro basketball with Eddie Gottlieb's all-Jewish Philadelphia Sphas, from 1930 to 1936. After he became head coach at Temple in 1947, he also served briefly as assistant coach for the Philadelphia Warriors (1948–51).
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Henry Iba
Henry Payne "Hank" Iba (pronounced /ˈaɪbə/; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball and baseball coach.
Iba was born and raised in Easton, Missouri. He played college basketball at Westminster College, where he became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.
After coaching stints at Maryville Teachers' College (now Northwest Missouri State University) and the University of Colorado, Iba came to Oklahoma A&M College in 1934. He stayed at Oklahoma A&M, renamed Oklahoma State University in 1957, for 36 years until his retirement after the 1969–70 season. For most of his tenure at A&M/OSU, he doubled as athletic director. Additionally, Iba coached OSU's baseball team from 1934 to 1941.
Iba's teams were methodical, ball-controlling units that featured weaving patterns and low scoring games. Iba's "swinging gate" defense (a man-to-man with team flow) was applauded by many, and is still effective in today's game. He was known as "the Iron Duke of Defense." Iba is thought to be one of the toughest coaches in NCAA history. He was a very methodical coach, and he always wanted things done perfectly.
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Herb Magee
Herb Magee (born June 20, 1941), commonly referred to as the Shot Doctor, is a Division II men's college basketball coach at his alma mater, Philadelphia University, known as Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science until 1999. He will be entering his 45th year as head coach and 52nd year as both a player and a coach, amassing 941 wins all at the same university. On August 12, 2011, Magee became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2011.
Magee played his high school basketball at Philadelphia's famed West Catholic High, where his teammates included former Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Jim Lynam and former St. Joseph's coach Jim Boyle.
As a five-foot-ten inch, 150-pound Philadelphia Textile player, he scored 2,235 points (before the introduction of the 3-point shot), leading his team to 75 victories. Magee was a two-time All-American and drafted by the Boston Celtics (the 62nd pick of the 1963 NBA draft)
His exploits as a coach have not gone unnoticed, as his list of awards and achievements can attest. The Kodak District Coach of the Year in 1993, Magee was also tabbed New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year that season and again in 1994. In addition, he has been honored as regional Coach of the Year four times, national Coach of the Year twice, and Co-Coach of the Year in the Mideast Collegiate Conference twice. He was also inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1979. He led the Rams to the College Division National Championship in 1970.
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Herb Sendek
Herbert J. Sendek (born February 22, 1963) is an American college basketball coach and the current men's basketball coach at Arizona State University.
Sendek was formally introduced as the ASU head coach on April 3, 2006. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, he served as an assistant coach at Providence College and the University of Kentucky under Rick Pitino. He was then the head coach at Miami University and at North Carolina State University. He was the head coach at N.C. State for 10 years. He is the grandson of a coal miner. Herb Sr., his father, is a teacher and basketball coach at both the high school and junior college levels. During his youth, Sendek was influenced by several coaches who had a great impact on him, including legendary junior college coach Bill Shay. Sendek became a standout guard as a senior at Penn Hills High School, earning All-East Suburban notice as the team captain. He was also a leader in the classroom, graduating with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. He was recently named to the Penn Hills Hall of Fame and to the East Boros Chapter of the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame. From there, Sendek opted to attend Carnegie Mellon University, earning a Carnegie Merit Scholarship and the opportunity to play for coach Dave Maloney.
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Hortência Marcari
Hortência Maria de Fátima Marcari (born September 23, 1959 in Potirendaba, São Paulo, Brazil) is a former basketball player who is often considered to be one of the greatest women's basketball players in Brazil, alongside with Paula, and regarded by specialists as one of the world's greatest women's basketball players of all time. Marcari is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 2002), the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 2005), and FIBA Hall of Fame (inducted in 2007). She is known in her country as Hortência, and her nickname is The Queen.
Hortência is of Italian background, her grandparents having moved to Brazil from that European nation. Hortência's father was a laborer.
When Hortência was ten years old, her family moved to São Paulo, and Hortência became interested in sports. Her family disapproved of her choice to play sports—her father had been disabled on the field so they wanted her to work bringing home part of the earnings her father used to--- but they eventually gave up trying to prevent her from doing her favorite activity.
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Howard Cann
Howard Gardsell Cann (October 11, 1895 - December 18, 1992) was an American sportsman best known as the long-time men's basketball coach at New York University. He was also an Olympic shot putter and a college basketball and football player.
Cann was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, into a family of accomplished sportsmen. His father, Frank Cann, was the director of physical education at New York University, which both Howard and his younger brother Tedford Cann attended. Tedford was an Olympic swimmer and world-record holder in the 200 meter freestyle.
Howard first attended Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey, and then the High School of Commerce in New York City. At Commerce he was captain of the basketball team, member of the track team and member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity.
He briefly attended Dartmouth College and then transferred to New York University. During his freshman year in 1914, Howard was the leading scorer on the NYU Violets men's basketball team. He was captain of the 1916-1917 football team, where he played as a tackle, a punter, and also played in the backfield.
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Howard Hobson
Howard Andrew "Hobby" Hobson (July 4, 1903 – June 9, 1991) was a college basketball coach, who authored numerous books on the subject. He also has the distinction of coaching the team who won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship with the Oregon Ducks in its inaugural year of 1939.
Hobson played basketball for four years at Franklin High School in Portland, Oregon, from which he graduated in 1922. During his time there, he was team captain for two years, and led the state championship-winning team in 1921.
He was captain of the University of Oregon's basketball team from 1924 to 1926, and in 1925, his team tied Oregon State Agricultural College for the conference title. However, they lost in the playoffs. A year later, the team won the conference title, but lost to the University of California in the playoffs. This 1926 team was nevertheless undefeated in the conference, with a win record of 10-0. In the same year, he graduated from the University with a bachelor's degree. He went on to obtain a master's degree in 1929 and a doctorate in 1945, both from Columbia University.
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Hubie Brown
Hubert Jude "Hubie" Brown (born September 25, 1933 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, USA) is a retired American basketball coach and a current television analyst. Brown is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, the honors being separated by 26 years. Brown was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.
Born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Brown moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey at the age of 3 and was raised there, graduating from St. Mary of the Assumption High School in 1951.
Hubie Brown played college basketball at Niagara University, graduating in 1955 with a degree in education. After leaving Niagara, Brown joined the U.S. Army where he joined the Army's basketball team. After being honorably discharged in 1958, Brown briefly played for the Rochester Colonels of the Eastern Professional Basketball League (the forerunner to the Continental Basketball Association) before they folded after just eight games. He averaged 13.8 points per game in his brief stint as a pro and was an excellent defender as a player.
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Ingemar Johansson
Jens Ingemar Johansson (September 22, 1932 – January 30, 2009) was a Swedish boxer and former heavyweight champion of the world. Johansson was the fifth heavyweight champion born outside the United States. In 1959 he defeated Floyd Patterson by TKO in the third round, after flooring Patterson seven times in that round, to win the World Heavyweight Championship. As a result, Johansson won the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year and was named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year".
Johansson enjoyed a successful career as a heavyweight. When he retired in 1963 he had a record of 26 wins, 17 by KO, and only 2 losses. He called his right fist "toonder and lightning" for its concussive power (it was also called "Ingo's Bingo" and the "Hammer of Thor"), and in 2003 he was ranked at #99 on The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. He reputedly had bone trouble in his right hand on and off throughout his career as a result.
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Isiah Thomas
Isiah Lord Thomas III ( /aɪˈzeɪ.ə/; born April 30, 1961), nicknamed "Zeke", is a retired American basketball player who played collegiately for the Indiana University Hoosiers. He went on to play professionally as point guard for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 until 1994 and led the "Bad Boys" to the NBA Championship in the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was a 12-time NBA All-Star and named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. After his playing career, he was an executive with the Toronto Raptors, a television commentator, an executive with the Continental Basketball Association, head coach of the Indiana Pacers, and an executive and head coach for the New York Knicks. He was later the men's basketball coach for the Florida International University (FIU) Golden Panthers for three seasons from 2009 to 2012.
Thomas was born on April 30, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois. The youngest of nine brothers and sisters, he commuted from the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago to play high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois for Gene Pingatore. He would wake up at 5 am and commute 90 minutes to attend the private school. During his junior year, he led St. Joseph to the State Finals and was considered one of the top college prospects in the country.
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Jack Hartman
Jack Hartman (October 7, 1925 – November 6, 1998) was an American college men's basketball coach.
He spent 16 seasons as head coach at Kansas State University, where he won 294 games and finished in first or second place in 10 of those 16 seasons in the Big Eight Conference. After his retirement he worked local television color commentary for Kansas State games and his former player and assistant coach Lon Kruger took over as head coach at Kansas State.
Hartman played basketball and football collegiately at Oklahoma State University. After college he played quarterback in the CFL before becoming a basketball coach. He was the head coach at Southern Illinois University before taking over at Kansas State when Cotton Fitzsimmons left to coach in the NBA.
Hartman died in 1998. He has a street near Bramlage Coliseum named "Jack Hartman Drive" after him. His wife, Pat, still lives in Manhattan, Kansas.
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Jack Kraft
John J. "Jack" Kraft coached Villanova for 12 years, from 1961 through 1973. He compiled a 238-95 record (.715). Kraft led Villanova to the NCAA Tournament six times, and five times to the NIT. Only once did Kraft's teams fail to earn a post-season bid, in his final season. The 1971 team, led by Howard Porter, reached the NCAA Championship game, and lost to UCLA at the height of the UCLA dynasty.
Notable players who played for Jack Kraft at Villanova include Chris Ford, Tom Ingelsby, Wali Jones, Bill Melchionni, Howard Porter, Hank Simeontkowski, Jim Washington, and Hubie White.
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Jack McCracken
Jack "Jumping Jack" McCracken (June 15, 1912 - January 5, 1958) was a basketball player in 1930s and 1940s. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) players of all time and was officially named as the greatest player of all time by the AAU organization.
A native of Chickasha, Oklahoma, McCracken went to Classen High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College (now Northwest Missouri State University) in Maryville, Missouri and played for legendary coach Henry Iba, who had also coached him in high school. McCracken never turned pro.
After leaving Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, he went to Denver, Colorado to play in the AAU.
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Jack McKeon
John Aloysius McKeon (pronounced /məˈkiːən/; born November 23, 1930 in South Amboy, New Jersey), nicknamed "Trader Jack", is a former Major League Baseball manager. McKeon played baseball for the College of the Holy Cross. In 2003, he won a World Series with the Florida Marlins. When he took over as manager of the Marlins in 2011 at age 80, he became the second oldest manager in major league history, behind only Connie Mack.
McKeon previously managed the Kansas City Royals from 1973 to 1975, the Oakland Athletics in 1977 and 1978, the San Diego Padres from 1988 to 1990, and the Cincinnati Reds from 1997 to 2000. From 1981 to 1990, he served as general manager of the Padres, forming the team which won the 1984 National League pennant.
As a player, McKeon, a catcher, spent his entire career in the minor leagues. He managed in the farm system of the original Washington Senators franchise, and its successor, the Minnesota Twins, handling Triple-A assignments for the Vancouver Mounties (1962), Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers (1963), and Atlanta Crackers (part of 1964). He then scouted for the Twins before joining the Royals in 1968 as skipper of their Class A High Point-Thomasville farm team. He led their AAA affiliate, the Omaha Royals of the American Association, from 1969 through 1972, and won two league championships. He also managed the Richmond Braves and the Denver Bears during the 1970s, after his firing by the Royals.
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Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. By winning a total of 18 career major championships while producing 19 second place and 9 third place finishes in major events on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years, he is widely regarded as the most accomplished professional golfer of all time. Nicklaus did not play that many tournaments because he wanted to focus on the Majors, but is still second on the PGA-tournament winning list, with 73 victories.
After winning two U.S. Amateurs in 1959 and 1961, and challenging for the 1960 U.S. Open, Nicklaus turned professional toward the end of 1961. The 1962 U.S. Open was both Nicklaus' first major championship victory and his first professional win. This win over Arnold Palmer began the on-course rivalry between the two. In 1966, Nicklaus won the Masters Tournament for the second year in a row, becoming the first golfer to achieve this, and also won The Open Championship, completing his career slam of major championships. At age 26, he became the youngest to do so at the time. In 1968 and 1969, Nicklaus did not win a major tournament. He then won another Open Championship in 1970.
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Jack Ramsay
Jack T. Ramsay (born February 21, 1925, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American former basketball coach, commonly known as "Dr. Jack" (as he holds an earned doctorate, see below). He is best known for coaching the Portland Trail Blazers to the 1977 NBA Title, and for his broadcasting work with the Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat, and for ESPN TV and ESPN Radio. Ramsay is among the most respected coaches in NBA history and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Ramsay graduated from Upper Darby High School (UDHS) in 1942. He was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1979. He received his bachelor's degree from Saint Joseph's College in 1949, and his master's and doctorate degrees (the latter in education) from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 and 1963, respectively.
After coaching in the high school and minor-league ranks for the early postwar years, he became head coach at his alma mater, Saint Joseph's College, in 1955. In his first season, Ramsay would lead the Hawks to their first Big 5 crown and their first-ever postseason berth (in the NIT). Ramsay would remain there through 1966, leading the Hawks to six more Big 5 crowns and ten postseason appearances (including a Final Four) in all.
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Jack Twyman
John Kennedy "Jack" Twyman (May 21, 1934 – May 30, 2012) was an American professional basketball player and sports broadcaster.
A 6'6" forward from the University of Cincinnati, he spent eleven seasons (1955–1966) in the NBA as a member of the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals franchise (now the Sacramento Kings). Along with Wilt Chamberlain, Twyman became the first NBA player to average more than 30 points per game in a single season when he averaged 31.2 points per game during the 1959–60 season. He scored a career high 59 points in a game that same season. Twyman scored 15,840 points in his career, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team in both 1960 and 1962, and he appeared in six NBA All-Star Games.
Twyman was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983.
Twyman was also known for his humanitarian efforts. He became the legal guardian of his teammate Maurice Stokes, who was paralyzed due to the aftereffects of a head injury suffered during the final game of the 1958 regular season, to help with medical finances. Twyman also organized the NBA's Maurice Stokes Memorial Basketball game, held at Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello, New York, to raise funds for needy former players from the game's early years – first to raise funds for Stokes's care and after his death, for other players. (The fundraising effort later became replaced by a pro-am golf event featuring NBA players.) Twyman also helped Stokes to obtain workers’ compensation and helped him to learn to communicate by blinking his eyes to denote individual letters.
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Jackie Stewart
Sir John Young 'Jackie' Stewart, OBE (born 11 June 1939) is a Scottish former racing driver. Nicknamed the 'Flying Scot', he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am. He is well known in the United States as a color commentator (pundit) of racing television broadcasts, and as a spokesman for Ford, where his Scottish accent has made him a distinctive presence. Between 1997 and 1999, in partnership with his son, Paul, he was team principal of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team. In 2009 he was ranked fifth of the fifty greatest Formula One drivers of all time by journalist Kevin Eason who wrote: "He has not only emerged as a great driver, but one of the greatest figures of motor racing."
Stewart's family were Austin, later Jaguar, car dealers and had built up a successful business, Dumbuck Garage, in Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland where Stewart was born and was educated at Dumbarton Academy. His father had been an amateurmotorcycle racer, and his brother Jimmy was a racing driver with a growing local reputation who drove for Ecurie Ecosse and competed in the 1953 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, until he went off at Copse Corner in the wet.
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James Enright
James Enright (April 3, 1910 – December 20, 1981) was a college and professional basketball referee and sportswriter. He was born in Sodus, Michigan and began officiating at 20 years old.
After retiring in 1964 from a refereeing career that saw him officiate the 1954 NCAA tournament Final Four and the 1948 and 1952 Olympic basketball qualifying tournaments, Enright resumed a career he had abandoned for refereeing in 1930 and covered basketball and baseball for such publications as The Sporting News and the Chicago Evening American.
In 1968, Enright became president of the United States Basketball Writers’ Association and, in 1978, in view of his contributions to the game of basketball as a referee, Enright was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.
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James Naismith
James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian sports coach and innovator. He invented the sport of basketball in 1891 and is often credited with introducing the first football helmet. He wrote the original basketball rulebook, founded the University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of both the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1939).
Born in Canada, Naismith studied physical education in Montreal before moving to the United States, where he developed basketball in late 1891 while teaching at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith also studied medicine in Denver, taking his MD in 1898 before moving to the University of Kansas. After a decade (1898–1907) serving there as a faculty member and part-time basketball coach during the sport's fledgling years, he became the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director. He became a U.S. citizen in 1925.
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James Worthy
James Ager Worthy (born February 27, 1961) is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion. A standout for the North Carolina Tar Heels, the 6 ft 9 in (2.05 m) small forward was the MOP of the 1982 NCAA Tournament and #1 pick of the 1982 NBA Draft. He was born in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Worthy was an All-American high school basketball player at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia. Worthy averaged 21.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists during his senior season, for a team that lost in the state championship game. Worthy was also selected to play in the 1979 McDonald's All-American game that also featured future Naismith Hall of Famers Isiaih Thomas, Dominique Wilkins and Ralph Sampson.
After graduating high school, Worthy attended the University of North Carolina (UNC). He quickly became a standout at UNC but saw his freshman year cut short by a broken ankle suffered near mid-season. As a sophomore he was a key member of that school's 1981 NCAA runner-up team, playing with Al Wood and Sam Perkins.
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Jamie Dixon
Jamie Dixon (November 10, 1965) is an American basketball head coach. He has served as the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh men's basketball team since 2003. In 2009 he was the head coach for the FIBA Under-19 2009 gold-medal winning United States national basketball team for which he was named the 2009 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year. Dixon was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2004, Naismith College Coach of the Year in 2009, Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year in 2010, and the Sporting News National Coach of the Year award in 2011. Dixon played college basketball at Texas Christian University, was selected by the Washington Bullets in the 1987 NBA Draft, and played professionally with the Continental Basketball Association's Lacrosse Catbirds and for Hawke's Bay Hawks of the New Zealand National Basketball League.
Dixon began his coaching career in 1989 as the head coach at Te Aute College, a secondary school in New Zealand, before serving as an assistant at Los Angeles Valley College from 1989-1991. He then became an assistant coach at UC-Santa Barbara and then at the University of Hawaii. Dixon then became an assistant coach to Ben Howland at Northern Arizona University and later moved to Pittsburgh as part of Howland's staff when Howland accepted the Pitt head coaching job in 1999. Dixon was promoted as Pittsburgh's head coach when Howland left for UCLA following the 2002–03 season.
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Jason Kidd
Jason Frederick Kidd (born March 23, 1973) is an American professional basketball point guard who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Raised in Oakland, California, Kidd played college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley and was drafted second overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft. Then, from 1996 to 2001, Kidd played for the Phoenix Suns and later for the New Jersey Nets from 2001 to 2008. In the middle of the 2007–2008 season, Kidd was traded back to Dallas. Along with his three NBA Finals appearances including a championship win in 2011, Kidd won two Olympic gold medals with the US national team in 2000 and 2008.
He led his former team, the New Jersey Nets to two consecutive NBA Finals appearances (2002 and 2003) before winning in 2011 with Dallas. His on-court versatility also makes him a regular triple-double threat, and he is in third place all-time for regular season triple-doubles in the NBA with a career total of 107 and second in playoffs triple-doubles with a career total of 11.
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Jay Bilas
Jay Scot Bilas (born December 24, 1963 in San Pedro, California) is an American lawyer and basketball analyst for ESPN and CBS Sports. He is also a former college basketball player.
Bilas was a consensus Top 50 recruit at Rolling Hills High School in Rolling Hills, California, where he averaged 23.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in 1982. That season, Bilas was named First Team All-CIF, First Team All-South Bay, MVP of the Bay League, Best in the West by the Long Beach Press Telegram.
Bilas was a four-year starter for Mike Krzyzewski on the Duke University men’s basketball team from 1983–1986, and helped lead Duke to the Final Four and National Championship game in 1986. Krzyzewski’s 1982 recruiting class of Bilas, Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie and David Henderson still ranks as the highest scoring single class in college basketball history. In his college career, Bilas scored 1,062 points and grabbed 692 rebounds while shooting over 55% from the field.
Bilas graduated in 1986 with a degree in political science, and was selected in the fifth round of the 1986 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. He played professionally overseas for teams in Italy and Spain where he averaged over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game for his career. In 1985, Bilas represented USA Basketball on the U.S. National Select Team in the Jones Cup in Taipei, Taiwan.
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Jeff Bzdelik
Jeff Bzdelik (born December 1, 1952) is an American basketball coach, currently coaching at Wake Forest University. He formerly coached the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association for slightly over two seasons, from 2002 through 2004. As an NBA coach, he is best remembered for leading the 2003-04 Nuggets to a 43–39 record, a 26-game improvement over the 2002-03 campaign when the team went 17–65.
Head coach of the Denver Nuggets from 2002 until he was fired on December 28, 2004.
He was the head coach at the US Air Force Academy including a first round NCAA tournament appearance his first year, and a NIT semifinal appearance his second year.
Bzdelik left Air Force to become the head basketball coach for the Colorado Buffaloes.
On April 13, 2010, Bzdelik was hired as the 21st head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University.
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Jerry Buss
Gerald Hatten "Jerry" Buss (born January 27, 1934) is an American businessman, real estate investor, and a former chemist. He is the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers professional basketball team along with other professional sports franchises in Southern California. Announced as a member of the 2010 induction class of the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 5, 2010, he was formally enshrined as a contributor to the sport on August 13 of that same year.
Buss worked his way through the University of Wyoming, graduating with a B.S. degree in two and a half years in 1953. He moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California, where he earned a M.S. and Ph.D. in physical chemistry by age 24. Buss started as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines (now the Mine Safety and Health Administration); he then briefly worked in the aerospace industry and was on the faculty of USC's chemistry department. He originally went into real estate investing in order to provide an income so he could continue teaching. His first investment in the 1960s was $1,000 in a West Los Angeles apartment building. Finding great success in the real estate business, he pursued real estate investing full time. In 1979 Jerry purchased Pickfair Mansion in Beverly Hills from the estate of Mary Pickford. He was also the co-owner of a real estate investment company called Mariani-Buss Associates with his long time business partner Frank Mariani.
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Jerry Colangelo
Jerry Colangelo (born November 20, 1939), is an American businessman and sports executive.
He formerly owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball. He was also instrumental in the relocation of the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL to Phoenix to become the Phoenix Coyotes.
In the summer of 2005, Colangelo was named director of USA Basketball whose team represented the United States in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 FIBA World Championship. Colangelo also serves as Chairman of the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), a nonprofit nonpartisan educational foundation that promotes Italian American culture and heritage.
Colangelo has been known for a no-nonsense ownership style. Players like the Suns' Dennis Johnson and Jason Kidd and the Diamondbacks' Bobby Chouinard have been traded or released after their personal problems became public.
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Jerry Lucas
Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is a former basketball player who played from the 1950s to the 1970s. He is now a memory education expert. In 1996, the NBA's 50th anniversary, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in National Basketball Association history. He was named to Sports Illustrated's five-man College All-Century Team in 1999.
Lucas was born in Middletown, Ohio, then a community of 30,000+ halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati, that in the 1940s and 1950s boasted one of the most respected high school basketball programs in the United States. Greatly encouraged, Lucas began pouring hours each day into the town's game during his early teens.
Lucas had become a local playground legend by age 15, in Sunset Park. Sunset Park was then a regional summer hotbed for high school, college and even some pro players. Future Cincinnati Royals teammates Wayne Embry and Oscar Robertson were visitors there. Lucas was already at almost his full-grown height of 6 ft 8 in (2.06 m) by age 15, out-playing college players with his advanced game.
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Jerry Sloan
Gerald Eugene "Jerry" Sloan (born March 28, 1942), is an American former National Basketball Association player and head coach, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. NBA commissioner David Stern called Sloan "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history." Sloan had a career regular-season win–loss record of 1,221–803, placing him third all-time in NBA wins at the time he retired. Sloan was only the fifth coach in NBA history to reach the 1,000 victories and is the only coach in NBA history to record 1,000 wins with one club (the Utah Jazz). He also coached for one team longer than anyone in NBA history. The 2009–10 season was his 22nd season (and 21st full season) as coach of the Jazz. Sloan coached the Jazz to 15 consecutive playoff appearances from 1989–2003. Although he never won a Coach of the Year award, he is one of only three coaches in NBA history with 15-plus consecutive seasons with a winning record (Pat Riley and Phil Jackson are the others). He led Utah to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998 but lost to the Chicago Bulls both times.
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Jerry Tarkanian
Jerry Tarkanian (born August 8, 1930), also known as "Tark the Shark", is a retired college basketball coach known as one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history. He is also well known for his colorful behavior, including habitually chewing on a towel during games, and for his public criticisms and legendary clashes with the NCAA, which eventually paid Tarkanian the largest settlement in NCAA history.
With a 729–201 career coaching record (78.4%) across all college divisions, Tarkanian is in the top 21 for collegiate wins among all men's coaches. Only four other coaches have a higher winning percentage. He is also one of few college coaches to lead three different schools to 20-win seasons. He accomplished a 20-win season at each school in his first year.
One of Jerry's sons, Danny Tarkanian, was an Academic All-American college basketball player while playing for Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV.
Tarkanian, the son of Armenian immigrants, was born in Euclid, Ohio and attended Pasadena City College in California. He later transferred to Fresno State where he played basketball for the Bulldogs in 1954 and 1955. He graduated in 1955. Later, he earned a master's degree in educational management from the University of Redlands.
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Jerry West
Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch," for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; "The Logo," in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek," after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome, a squad that would be inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Jim Boeheim
James Arthur "Jim" Boeheim ( /ˈbeɪhaɪm/; born November 17, 1944) is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Syracuse University. Boeheim has guided the Orange to nine Big East regular season championships, five Big East Tournament championships, and 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, including three appearances in the national title game. In those games, the Orange lost to Indiana in 1987 and Kentucky in 1996 before defeating Kansas in 2003.
Boeheim currently stands in third place on the wins list of Men's NCAA Division I coaches. Among active coaches, only Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University has more wins, with a career record of 927 wins, achieved at two different schools, Army and Duke. Boeheim earned his 880th win on February 8, 2012, surpassing Dean Smith's 879 wins at North Carolina, for the most career wins as head coach at a single school.
Boeheim has served as an assistant coach for the United States men's national basketball team at the 1990 FIBA World Championship, the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2010 FIBA World Championship. In these outings, Team USA finished with two bronze medals and two gold medals, respectively. He will continue to serve in the same capacity at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In addition, Boeheim currently serves as the chairman of the USA Basketball 2009–12 Men's Junior National Committee, has served as the 2007–08 President of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and currently sits on its Board of Directors. For his accomplishments, Boeheim was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2005.
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Jim Calhoun
James A. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942) is the head coach of the University of Connecticut's men's basketball team. His teams have won three national championships (1999, 2004, 2011), played in four Final Fours (most recently in 2011), won the 1988 NIT championship, and have won seven Big East tournament championships (in 1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2011). In 2005 he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. On Feb 25, 2009, Jim Calhoun won his 800th game when Connecticut beat Marquette, 93–82. On April 4, 2011, Calhoun won his third NCAA Men's Championship as the Connecticut Huskies defeated the Butler Bulldogs 53–41. The victory over Butler made Calhoun, at 68, the oldest coach to win an NCAA Division I men's basketball title.
A self-described Irish Catholic, Calhoun was born and raised in Braintree, Massachusetts, where he was a standout on the basketball, football, and baseball teams at Braintree High School. After his father died of a heart attack when Calhoun was 15, he was left to watch over his large family that included five siblings.
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Jim Crews
Jim Crews is the former head men's basketball coach at the United States Military Academy. He previously held the same position at the University of Evansville.
Crews also played college basketball at Indiana University playing on the 1976 NCAA Championship winning team, which was the last team to go undefeated throughout the tournament.
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Jim Harrick
Jim Harrick (born July 25, 1938) is an American former basketball coach who coached at Pepperdine University, UCLA, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Georgia over a combined total of 23 seasons.
Born in Charleston, West Virginia, Harrick graduated in 1960 from Morris Harvey College, now known as the University of Charleston. He is of Lebanese ancestry. On November 20, 2009 Sally Lee Harrick, his wife of 49 years, died aged 70 from complications of scleroderma.
Harrick's coaching career began at Morningside High School in Inglewood, California where he served as an assistant coach from 1964–1969 and as head coach from 1970–1973. He was then hired as an assistant coach at Utah State from 1974–1977. Harrick then spent two seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA from 1978–1979. His first collegiate head coaching job was at Pepperdine University in 1979, where he led the school to four NCAA Tournament appearances and was a conference coach of the year four times.
In 1988, he returned to UCLA to assume head coaching duties after the firing of Walt Hazzard. During the recruiting period before his first season, he recruited Don MacLean which was the most significant recruit to commit to UCLA in several years and helped start a revival of the basketball program. During the 1994–1995 season, he led UCLA to the school's eleventh national championship, its first since the 1974–75 season. Shortly before the start of the 1996–97 season, he was accused of falsifying receipts at a student-athlete recruiting dinner, although the NCAA exonerated Harrick of this offense. UCLA fired him for lying to university investigators. Harrick did not tell the athletic department accurately about who attended a recruiting dinner with a $1000 expense report from Monty's Steakhouse, where two extra current team members joined the table. He is the third-winningest coach in UCLA history, behind John Wooden and UCLA's current coach, Ben Howland.
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Jim Larranaga
James Larranaga ( /ˌlɛərəˈneɪɡə/ LAIR-ə-NAY-gə; born October 2, 1949) is an American college basketball coach and the head coach of the University of Miami men's basketball program. He was most notably the men's basketball coach of George Mason where he coached the Patriots to 13 consecutive winning seasons and became a media sensation during the Patriots' improbable run to the Final Four of the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.
Growing up in the Bronx, one of six children, Larranaga attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, where he starred on the basketball varsity under coach Jack Curran, graduating in 1967. He went on to play basketball at Providence College, He was the basketball team captain as a senior, 1970–71, leading Providence College to a 20–8 record and a NIT appearance. He graduated as the school’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,258 points and was the team’s top scorer as a sophomore and junior, being named New England’s Division I Sophomore of the Year in 1969. (Larranaga's time at Providence was recognized with his induction into the Providence College Hall of Fame in 1991.) He graduated from Providence in 1971 with an economics degree, and was selected in the sixth round of the 1971 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. He never sought an NBA career, opting instead to go into coaching.
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Jim Pollard
James Clifford "Jim" Pollard (July 9, 1922 – January 22, 1993) was an American professional basketball player.
In college, Pollard played for Stanford and was a key member of Stanford's 1942 national championship team (though due to illness, he did not play in the final game). During WWII he starred in Coast Guard teams from Alameda to Honolulu. Following the War, Pollard played for the San Diego Dons and the Oakland Bittners, making four trips to Denver for AAU playoffs. In the NBA, Pollard was considered one of the best forwards in the 1940s and 1950s, and was known for his leaping ability (Pollard would occasionally dunk from the free throw line during warmups) earning him the nickname "The Kangaroo Kid".
In 1952, players who had performed in the NBA since its inception (after the merging of the NBL and the BAA) selected Pollard as the best player of the period. Pollard teamed with George Mikan and Vern Mikkelsen for the Minneapolis Lakers, forming one of the best front courts in basketball history. The Lakers won six professional basketball titles: 1948 (NBL), 1949 (BAA), 1950 (NBA), 1952 (NBA), 1953 (NBA), 1954 (NBA).
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Jim Ryun
James Ronald ("Jim") Ryun (born April 29, 1947) is an American former track athlete and politician, who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing the 2nd District in Kansas. In the 2006 election, Ryun was defeated by Democratic challenger Nancy Boyda. In the Kansas Republican primary on August 5, 2008, he was defeated by Kansas State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins.
Years prior to his political career, Ryun had an athletic career that saw him become a world-class runner and the last American to hold the world record in the mile run. His career was highlighted by many world record times and a silver medal in the 1500 m at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
In 1966, at age nineteen, Ryun set world records in the mile and the half-mile runs, and received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award, as well as the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete, the ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year, and was voted Track & Field News' Athlete of the Year as the world’s best track & field athlete. Ironically, Ryun did all of this before he was permitted to run for the school he attended, University of Kansas, since NCAA rules at the time did not allow freshmen to compete in NCAA competition. In 1967 Ryun ran a world record in the indoor half mile (1:48.3) and outdoors lowered his world-record time in the mile from 3:51.3 to 3:51.1, a record that stood for almost eight years. That same year he set the world record for the 1500 meters in 3:33.1, running his last lap in a blazing 53.3 seconds and his final 1,200 meters in an amazing 2:46.6.
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Jim Valvano
James Thomas Anthony "Jim" Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball coach.
While the head basketball coach at North Carolina State University, he won the 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament against long odds. Valvano is not only remembered for running up and down the court after winning the 1983 NCAA championship, seemingly in disbelief and looking for someone to hug, but also for his inspirational 1993 ESPY Awards speech, given just eight weeks before he died of cancer.
Valvano was the middle child of Rocco and Angelina Valvano, and was born in Corona, Queens, New York. Valvano attended Seaford High School in Seaford, New York. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Pamela Levine. They had three daughters: Nicole, Jamie, and Lee Ann.
Vince Lombardi was Valvano's role model. Valvano told an ESPY audience, on March 3, 1993, that he took some of Lombardi's inspirational speeches out of his book Commitment to Excellence and used them with his team. Valvano discussed how he planned to use Lombardi's speech to the Green Bay Packers in front of his Rutgers freshman basketball team prior to his first game as a coach.
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Jody Conradt
Jody Conradt (born May 13, 1941) is a retired women's basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's team at University of Texas at Austin (UT). Her coaching career spanned 38 years, with the last 31 years at UT from 1976 to 2007. She also served concurrently as the UT women's athletic director from 1992 to 2001. During her tenure at UT, she achieved several notable personal and team milestones in collegiate basketball. At retirement, she had tallied 900 career victories, second place in all time victories for a NCAA Division I basketball coach.
She was born in Goldthwaite, Texas, United States. She was a standout basketball player at Goldthwaite High School (Texas), where she averaged 40 points per game. After high school, she played collegiate basketball at Baylor University, earning a degree in physical education in 1963. She finished her collegiate basketball career averaging 20 points per game. After graduation, she taught and coached at Waco Midway High School and earned her master's degree from Baylor in 1969.
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Joe Dumars
Joe Dumars III (born May 24, 1963), nicknamed Joe D, is a retired American basketball player in the NBA, and currently the Detroit Pistons' President of Basketball Operations. At 6'3" (190 cm) Dumars could play either shooting guard or point guard on offense and was a highly effective defender. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dumars and Isiah Thomas combined to form one of the best backcourts in NBA history. Initially a shooting guard, Dumars moved over to point guard following Thomas's retirement in 1994, sharing ball-handling duties with Grant Hill. Dumars was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Dumars was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dumars' mother, Ophelia, was a custodian at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches while his father, Joe (Big Joe), was a truck driver.
Dumars grew up in an athletic family, but, surprisingly, basketball was not his favorite sport as a child. Football was more popular in the region and all five of his brothers were defensive standouts at Natchitoches Central High School. His brother David later played professional football in the USFL. Dumars followed in his brothers’ footsteps playing defensive back on the football team until junior high school when a big hit on the field directed him toward basketball. Ever the supportive father, Big Joe built a hoop, made of an old bicycle wheel and half of a wooden door, in the Dumars' backyard where Little Joe spent hours practicing his jumper.
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Joe Fulks
Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks (October 26, 1921 - March 21, 1976) was an American professional basketball player, sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was one of the first players, albeit posthumously, enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. The 63 points Fulks scored on February 10, 1949, was the most in an NBA game (then called the Basketball Association of America) until Elgin Baylor scored 64 points on November 8, 1959. Fulks' 63-point outburst came during a Warriors 108-87 victory over the Indianapolis Jets. Fulks made 27 of 56 field goal attempts and nine of 14 free throws. Along the way he shattered the record for most points in one half (33), field goals, and field goal attempts.
Fulks was born in Birmingham, Kentucky, a small town in the state's far-western Purchase region that was inundated in the 1940s after the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake. He played college ball at Murray State University for two years before leaving school to join the Marines.
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Joe Lapchick
Joseph Bohomiel Lapchick (b. April 12, 1900 in Yonkers, New York – d. August 10, 1970 in New York City) was a professional basketball player, mostly known for playing with the Original Celtics in the 1920s and 30s. He is commonly regarded as the best center of his era, overshadowed (if anything) in his later years only by Tarzan Cooper. After ending his playing career in 1937, Lapchick became head coach at St. John's University, a position he held until 1947, when he took over the New York Knicks in the NBA. Lapchick coached the Knicks until 1957, leading them to three consecutive NBA Finals appearances (1951–53). He returned to St. John's, coaching them until 1965.
From star player to successful coach to popular author to respected dignitary, Joe Lapchick played a variety of roles in his more than 50 years in the game of basketball. He was an eminently influential figure who helped nurture the sport from its crude beginnings into its modern form.
Lapchick picked up a basketball for the first time just two decades after the game was invented. Basketball became his life. As a star center with the Original Celtics and other barnstorming teams, a college coach at St. John’s, an NBA coach with the New York Knicks, and an ambassador of the sport, Lapchick cast a broad shadow across the game and its history.
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Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. (born June 11, 1956), nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired professional football player, a hall of fame quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with San Francisco, where he played for the next 14 seasons. Traded before the 1993 season, he spent his final two years in the league with Kansas City. While a member of the 49ers, Montana started in four Super Bowl games and won all of them. Montana was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, his first year of eligibility.
In 1989, and again in 1990, the Associated Press named Montana the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and Sports Illustrated magazine named Montana the 1990 "Sportsman of the Year". Four years earlier, in 1986, Montana won the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Montana was elected to eight Pro Bowls, as well as being voted 1st team All-Pro by the AP in 1987, 1989, and 1990. Montana had the highest passer rating in the National Football Conference (NFC) five times (1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1989); and, in both 1987 and 1989, Montana had the highest passer rating in the entire NFL.
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Joe Paterno
Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno (pronounced /pəˈtɜrnoʊ/; December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012), often referred to as "JoePa", was an American college football coach who was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions for nearly 46 years, from 1966 through 2011. At the time of his death he held the record for the most victories by an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) football coach with 409 and was the only FBS coach to reach 400 victories. He coached five undefeated teams that won major bowl games and, in 2007, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach. Despite his achievements as a coach, Paterno's career ended abruptly in 2011 after he was fired for his "failure of leadership" in the child sex abuse scandal surrounding his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Paterno was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended Brown University, where he played football both as the quarterback and a cornerback. Originally planning to be a lawyer, he instead signed on as an assistant football coach at Penn State in 1950, persuaded by his college coach Rip Engle who had taken over as Penn State's head coach. Sixteen years later, in 1966, Paterno was named as Engle's successor. Before long, he had coached the team to two undefeated regular seasons in 1968 and 1969. He went on to win two national championships—in 1982 and again in 1986. In all, he led the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins all while turning down offers to coach NFL teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots. Paterno became the winningest coach in Division I history on October 29, 2011.
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Joe Torre
Joseph Paul Torre ( /ˈtɔri/; born July 18, 1940) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. A nine-time All-Star, he played in Major League Baseball as a catcher, first baseman and a third baseman for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, and the St. Louis Cardinals. After his retirement as a player, he later managed all three teams.
Torre managed the New York Yankees from 1996 to 2007. The Yankees reached the post season each year and won ten American League East Division titles, six American League pennants, four World Series titles, and compiled a .605 winning percentage overall. With 2,326 wins, he is currently ranked 5th on the list of Major League Baseball all-time managerial wins.
Torre followed in his brother Frank's footsteps when he was signed by the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent in 1960. In his first season in the minor leagues with the Class A Eau Claire Braves, he won the 1960 Northern League batting championship with a .344 batting average. Torre made his major league debut late in the season on September 21, 1960. He was assigned to the Triple A Louisville Colonels for the 1961 season where, the Braves had planned to groom him as the eventual successor to their All-Star catcher, Del Crandall. However, those plans were changed when Crandall injured his throwing arm in May 1961, forcing the Braves to promote Torre to the major leagues with just over a year of minor league experience. Torre rose to the occasion, hitting for a .278 batting average with 21 doubles and 10 home runs. He finished the season ranked second to Billy Williams in the 1961 National League Rookie of the Year voting.
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Johann Olav Koss
Johann Olav Koss (born 29 October 1968) is a former speed skater from Norway, considered to be one of the best in history, and current assistant coach of Norway's speed skating team.
Johann Olav Koss was born in Drammen, Buskerud County, Norway. Johann Olav Koss became the Norwegian Junior Champion in 1987, but he could not compete with the world top skaters in the 1986 and 1987 World Junior Championships. In 1988, he debuted with the seniors at the World Championships in Alma-Ata, but failed to qualify for the final distance. The following year, he finished eighth in the same tournament (after a fifteenth place in the European Allround Championships), placing second on the 1,500 m. His breakthrough came in 1990, winning the World Allround Championships in Innsbruck, Austria. The following four years, he would win two more world titles (1991 and 1994), while finishing second in 1993 and third in 1992. He won the European Allround Championships in 1991 and finished second in the next three editions. Koss had a total of twenty-three World Cup wins, while winning four overall World Cup titles (the 1,500 m in 1990 and 1991, and the combined 5,000/10,000 m in 1991 and 1994).
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John Beckman
John Beckman (October 22, 1895 in New York, NY – June 22, 1968 in Miami, Florida) was an early professional basketball player.
During his 27 years lasting pro career (1914–41) he was known as the "Babe Ruth of basketball". He is mostly known for his time with the Original Celtics (1918/19, 1921–27, 1929).
He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1973.
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John Bunn
John W. Bunn (September 26, 1898 – August 13, 1979) was an American basketball coach and key contributor to the game of basketball. The Wellston, Ohio native played three seasons under coach Phog Allen at University of Kansas while earning his bachelors degree (1917–21). He later became an assistant to Allen for nine seasons (1921–30). In 1930 he became men's basketball head coach at Stanford University, where he coached college all-time great Hank Luisetti. After he left Stanford, Bunn went on to coach Springfield College (1946–56) and Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado) (1956–63).
Bunn served as Chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame form 1949 to 1963. On October 1, 1964, Bunn was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. For his contribution, the Basketball Hall of Fame annually presents an award in his name.
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John Calipari
John Calipari (born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach. Since April 2009, he has been the men's head coach at the University of Kentucky.
Calipari is the former head coach of the University of Memphis Tigers, the University of Massachusetts Minutemen, and the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets. He is the only coach to direct three different colleges to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, although two of those appearances (1996 at UMass and 2008 at Memphis) have been officially vacated by the NCAA. Calipari is also one of only two coaches to direct three different schools to a Final Four (1996- UMass, 2008- Memphis, 2011, 2012- Kentucky), with the UMass and Memphis appearances later being vacated by the NCAA. As a result, he is the only head coach to have a Final Four appearance vacated at more than one school, although Calipari himself was not personally implicated by the NCAA in either case. As a college coach, Calipari has 18 20-win seasons (17 official), 8 30-win seasons (7 official), and has been named National Coach of the Year 3 times.
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John Havlicek
John J. "Hondo" Havlicek (pronounced /ˈhævlɨtʃɛk/ HAV-lə-chek; born April 8, 1940 in Martins Ferry, Ohio) is a retired American professional basketball player who competed for 16 seasons with the Boston Celtics, winning eight NBA titles, half of them coming in his first four seasons.
In the NBA, only teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones won more championships during their playing careers. Havlicek is considered one of the best NBA players in history, especially on defense, and was inducted as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984. He was a three sport star at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Ohio and one of his boyhood friends was Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro. The Bridgeport High School Gymnasium was renamed the "John J Havlicek Gymnasium" in January 2007. He shares the honor with National High School Hall of Fame member Frank Baxter, a long time coach at Bridgeport High School. The court is named after Baxter.
One of the most famous play-by-play calls in NBA history came on April 15, 1965, when Celtics broadcaster Johnny Most exclaimed "Havlicek steals it! Havlicek stole the ball!" after Havlicek intercepted Hal Greer's inbound pass to clinch the Eastern Conference Championship against the Philadelphia 76ers.
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John Kundla
John Albert Kundla (born July 3, 1916 born in Star Junction, PA) is a former college and professional basketball coach.
After attending and playing baseketball for Minneapolis Central High School in Minneapolis (which closed in 1982), Kundla was a standout for the Minnesota Gophers basketball team in the late 1930s. Following graduation, he stayed on at the university as an assistant coach to Dave MacMillan. He would then move to the high school ranks as the head coach of DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, MN. After two years there, the United States entered World War II and Kundla joined the Navy, where he was assigned to LST units in both the European and Pacific theaters. After the war, he was hired to coach the College of St. Thomas.
Following the Tommies' 1946-47 season, the infant Minneapolis Lakers would extend an offer to Kundla to coach the team, then playing in the National Basketball League. However, Kundla turned the offer down as he was not impressed with the professional ranks. Team representatives returned, and this time the offer had been upped to $6,000 (twice his St. Thomas salary) and Kundla took the job.
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John Mauer
John W. Mauer (September 4, 1901 – December 20, 1978) was an American college basketball, baseball and football coach and multi-sport college athlete. During the course of his thirty-six-year coaching career, Mauer was the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, Miami University, the University of Tennessee, the U.S. Military Academy, and the University of Florida.
Mauer was born in 1901. Both of his parents died by the time he was 13 years old, and he was raised by his older sister. With the financial assistance of a local businessman, he was able to enroll in college.
Mauer attended the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois from 1922 to 1926, where he played for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team. As a player, he was remembered for being one of the pioneers of one-handed shooting. While attending Illinois, his roommate was Illini football great Red Grange. Mauer was named Outstanding Athlete and Scholar in the Big Ten Conference as a senior, and graduated from Illinois with a bachelor's degree in 1926.
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John McLendon
John B. McLendon, Jr. (April 15, 1915 – October 8, 1999) was a pioneering American basketball coach who is recognized as the first African American basketball coach at a predominantly white university. He was a major contributor to the development of modern basketball and coached on both the college and professional levels during his career. He is enshrined in both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Born in Hiawatha, Kansas, McLendon was part African American and part Delaware Indian. He soon became an all-around athlete who chose basketball as his favorite sport. He studied in the 1930s at the University of Kansas, where he learned the intricacies of basketball from the sport's inventor, Dr. James Naismith, who was the athletic director at the school. However, McLendon was not permitted to actually play college basketball, as the KU varsity team was segregated and would not suit up its first black player until 1951.
He went on to become a successful high school and college coach, at schools such as North Carolina College for Negroes, the Hampton Institute, Tennessee State A&I University, Kentucky State College and Cleveland State University. In his early years, his teams were restricted to playing only against other all-black teams. However, while coaching at North Carolina College, McLendon participated in "The Secret Game", a match against a team from Duke University, which was the first collegiate basketball contest where blacks and whites competed on the same floor. McLendon's teams were credited with increasing the pace of the game of basketball from the slow tempo of its early years to the faster tempo that prevails today.
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John Nucatola
John Nucatola (b. 17 November 1907, New York City -9 May 2000, aged 92) was a professional basketball player, coach and referee. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on 1 May 1978.
John Nucatola officiated some of the greatest games in the ECAC, Atlantic Coast, Southern and Big Eight Conferences, along with the NCAA and NIT tournaments. He also dabbled in the professional arenas of the American Basketball League, Basketball Association of America, and the NBA.
Nucatola was one of the original referees in the NBA when the league was organized as the BAA in 1946. Nucatola was one of the founding fathers of the College Basketball Officials Association and served as supervisor of officials for the Ivy League and the ECAC before being named the NBA Supervisor of Officials. In a life dedicated to the development of basketball and basketball officiating, Nucatola conducted more than 1,200 clinics worldwide, as well as authoring Officiating Basketball.
He was called basketball's "greatest official" by Hall of Famer Clair Bee. Nucatola believed the referee's most important duty was to make the right call rather than merely assert authority. He often urged officials to be willing to reconsider their calls, and was a strong advocate of the three-man officiating crew.
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John Roosma
John S. Roosma (September 3, 1900 – November 13, 1983) was an amateur basketball great during the 1920s. He played for the United States Military Academy for five years, graduating in 1926. The Passaic, New Jersey native was a prolific scorer and became the first college player to total 1,000 points for his career.
As a member of Ernest Blood's Passaic "Wonder Teams" Roosma gained almost legendary status already in high school on a team that won 179 consecutive games. Roosma captained the team and led them as scorer in three state tournaments (1919–21). After graduating from Passaic High School in 1921, General Douglas MacArthur recruited Roosma to play for the Army Black Knights. In five years the Roosma-lead Black Knights compiled a 73-13 record and won 33 consecutive games at one point. After a 74-game career, Roosma totaled 1,126 points, being the first college player to score more than 1,000 in his career (Christian Steinmetz held the record with 950 points, nevertheless he played only 40 games in three years overall). Roosma was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961. West Point's basketball Most Valuable Player award is named after him.
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John Schommer
John J. Schommer (January 29, 1884 – January 11, 1960) was an outstanding American multi-sport athlete in the 1900s. The Chicago, Illinois native was the first athlete in University of Chicago history to win 12 letters in American football, basketball, baseball and track. Schommer was a four-time All-American in basketball and led the Maroons to three straight Big Ten championships (1907–09). He was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.
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John Stockton
John Houston Stockton (born March 26, 1962) is a former American professional basketball player who spent his entire career as a point guard for the Utah Jazz of the NBA from 1984 to 2003. John Stockton is regarded as one of the best point guards of all time, holding the NBA records for most career assists and steals by considerable margins. Stockton is a former All-Star and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Stockton was born in Spokane, Washington to Clementine Frei and Jack Stockton and had Irish and Swiss German ancestry. He attended grade school at St. Aloysius and moved on to high school at Gonzaga Prep, graduating in 1980. He then played college basketball for Gonzaga University in his hometown where he averaged 20.9 points per game while shooting 57% from the field in his senior year. His grandfather, Houston Stockton had also been a well known athlete at Gonzaga University. John Stockton was selected by the Utah Jazz with the 16th overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.
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John Wooden
John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period—seven in a row—as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games. He was named national coach of the year six times.
As a player, Wooden was the first to be named basketball All-American three times and he won a national championship at Purdue. Wooden was named a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (inducted in 1961) and as a coach (in 1973), the first person ever enshrined in both categories. Only Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman have since had the same honor.
He was one of the most revered coaches and was beloved by his former players, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. Wooden was renowned for his short, simple inspirational messages to his players, including his "Pyramid of Success". These often were directed at how to be a success in life as well as in basketball.
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Johnny Dawkins
Johnny Earl Dawkins, Jr. (born September 28, 1963) is a retired American basketball player and the current head coach of the Stanford Cardinal men's basketball team, a position he assumed in 2008. He was a two-time All-American and national player of the year as a senior in 1986 at Duke. Dawkins subsequently played nine seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the San Antonio Spurs (1986–1989), Philadelphia 76ers (1989–1994), and Detroit Pistons (1994–1995). From 1998 to 2008, he served at an assistant basketball coach as his alma mater, Duke.
Dawkins was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He played basketball at Mackin High School in Washington, D.C. before enrolling at Duke University. At Duke, he became the team's all-time leading scorer with 2,556 points, which stood until 2006 when J. J. Redick surpassed it. In Dawkins' senior year at Duke, the 1985–86 season, the Duke Blue Devils attained a win-loss record of 37–3, which was an NCAA record for both games played and games won in a single season. They reached the 1986 NCAA championship game, where they lost to Louisville, 72–69. In his senior season, Dawkins averaged 20.2 points per game and won the Naismith College Player of the Year Award, presented to the nation's top Collegiate Basketball Player. He also served as alternate on the 1984 United States Olympic basketball team. He graduated with a degree in political science.
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Johnny Orr
John M. "Johnny" Orr (born June 10, 1927) is a retired American basketball player and coach, best known as the head coach of men's basketball at the University of Michigan and at Iowa State University.
Orr was born in Yale, Kansas. He grew up in the central Illinois town of Taylorville during the Great Depression. Orr attended Taylorville High School under coach Dolph Stanley and in his senior year (1944) led the Tornadoes to a state championship and a 45–0 record, the first team to ever finish a season undefeated in the Illinois High School Association's history. In 2007, Orr was voted one of the "100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament," recognizing his superior performance in his appearance in the tournament. After high school Orr went to the University of Illinois and was the youngest freshman to compete in three sports. After joining the United States Navy for the end of World War II, Orr returned to the college game at Beloit College. This reunited him with his high school coach Dolph Stanley, who had came to Beloit College as athletic director, head basketball and football coach.
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Johnny Podres
John Joseph Podres (September 30, 1932 – January 13, 2008) was an American left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. He is perhaps best remembered for being named the Most Valuable Player of the 1955 World Series, pitching a shutout in Game 7 against the New York Yankees to help bring the Dodgers their first World Series title. He later led the National League in earned run average and shutouts in 1957, and in winning percentage in 1961.
Podres helped the Dodgers win World Series championships in 1955, 1959, 1963 and 1965, although he did not pitch in the 1965 World Series itself. After the Dodgers lost the first two games to the New York Yankees, Podres pitched a complete game, seven-hit victory on his 23rd birthday in Game 3. In the climactic Game 7, Podres pitched a 2–0 shutout to bring Brooklyn its only World Series championship. Podres was given the first-ever World Series MVP Award by Sport magazine and presented with a red two-seater Corvette. Later he was honored as the Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine.
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Jon Scheyer
Jonathan James "Jon" Scheyer (born August 24, 1987) is an American-Israeli 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) professional basketball player. He plays shooting guard for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Super League in that competition, the Adriatic League, and the Euroleague. Scheyer led his high school team to an Illinois state basketball championship as a high school All American, and the 2009–10 Duke Blue Devils to the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship as a college All American. He was a prolific high school scorer, and later an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) leader in numerous statistical categories, ranging from free throw percentage and three point shots/game to assists/turnover ratio.
A high school All American, he once scored 21 points in a game's final 75 seconds of play in an attempt to spark a comeback. The 4th-leading scorer in Illinois high school history, he led his team to a state championship in 2005, and was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2006. He chose to attend Duke for college, for whom he moved from shooting guard to point guard towards the end of the 2008–09 season, and was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2009 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.
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Joseph Stilwell
General Joseph Warren Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army four-star General known for service in the China Burma India Theater. His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname "Vinegar Joe". Although distrustful of his allies Stilwell showed himself to be a capable and daring tactician in the field but a lack of resources meant he was forced continually to improvise. He famously differed as to strategy, ground troops versus air power, with his subordinate, Claire Chennault, who had the ear of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. George Marshall acknowledged he had given Stilwell "one of the most difficult" assignments of any theater commander.
Stilwell was born on March 19, 1883, in Palatka, Florida of patrician Yankee stock. His parents were Doctor Benjamin Stilwell and Mary A. Peene. Stilwell was an eighth generation descendant of an English colonist who arrived in America in 1638, whose descendants remained in New York up through the birth of Stilwell's father. Named for a family friend, as well as the doctor who delivered him, Joseph Stilwell, known as Warren by his family, grew up in New York, under a strict regimen from his father that included an emphasis on religion. Stilwell later admitted to his daughter that he picked up criminal instincts due to,"...being forced to go to Church and Sunday School, and seeing how little real good religion does anybody, I advise passing them all up and using common sense instead."
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Jud Heathcote
George Melvin "Jud" Heathcote (born May 27, 1927) is a former college basketball coach. He was a head coach for 24 seasons at the collegiate level: five at Montana (1971–76) and 19 at Michigan State (1976–95). Heathcote is perhaps best known for having coached Magic Johnson during his two years at Michigan State University, including the 1979 National Championship Team.
Heathcote was born in Harvey, North Dakota, to Marion Grant Heathcote and Fawn (Walsh) Heathcote. Two years after his father died in a diphtheria epidemic of 1930, he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Manchester, Washington, where he lived the entire time he grew up.
The stint at Montana was the first for Jud as head coach of a college varsity program. Previously, he had coached at West Valley High School in Spokane for 14 seasons, and at Washington State for seven years, five seasons as freshman coach and two seasons as frosh-varsity coach.
In the 1974-75 season at Montana, he led them to their first Big Sky championship. The Grizzlies advanced to the NCAA regionals, losing to eventual tournament champion UCLA. Heathcote was then hired by Joseph Kearney to take on the head basketball coaching job at Michigan State in 1976 and began the most successful phase of his coaching career.
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Judi Brown
Judith ("Judi") Lynne Brown-King (born July 14, 1961) is an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metre hurdles.
She competed for the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where she won the silver medal in the women's 400 metre hurdles event.
Brown was a two-time gold medalist at the Pan American Games (1983, 1987), and was a twelve-time Big Ten champion in track and field events. In 1987, she was selected Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine for her community involvement.
Brown holds two degrees from Michigan State University, a Bachelors degree in Audiology and Speech Science, and a Masters degree in Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Policy from Western Michigan University, from which she graduated with honors. She also is a member of the Michigan Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Consortium.
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Julius Erving
Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is a retired American basketball player who helped launch a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA). He was the best known player in the ABA when the ABA-NBA merger joined it with the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1976 season.
Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player Awards, and three scoring titles while playing with the ABA's Virginia Squires and New York Nets, and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. He is the fifth-highest scorer in professional basketball history, with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He was well known for slam dunking from the free throw line in Slam Dunk Contests and was the only player to have been voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA.
Erving was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time team and in 1993 was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. Many consider him among the most spectacular basketballers ever, and one of the best dunkers of all time. While players such as Connie Hawkins, "Jumping" Johnny Green, Elgin Baylor, and Gus Johnson were performing spectacular dunks before Erving's time, "Dr. J" is usually the one most people credit with bringing the practice into the mainstream. His signature dunk was the "slam" dunk, since incorporated into the vernacular and basic skill set of the game, in the same manner as the "cross-over" dribble and the "no look" pass.
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Karl Malone
Karl Anthony Malone (born July 24, 1963), nicknamed "The Mailman," is a retired American professional basketball power forward. In his basketball career, Malone spent his first 18 seasons (1985–2003) with the Utah Jazz and formed a formidable duo with his teammate John Stockton. He played his final season (2003–04) with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Malone grew up in rural Summerfield, Louisiana and played college basketball at Louisiana Tech University. In his three seasons with Louisiana Tech, he helped the Bulldogs basketball team to its first-ever NCAA tournament in 1984 and to first place in the Southland Conference in 1985. The Jazz drafted Malone in 1985 with the 13th overall pick in the first round.
Having scored 36,298 points in his career, the second most career points in NBA history, and holding the record for most free throws both attempted and made, Malone is generally considered one of the greatest NBA power forwards. In 1997 and 1999, Malone won the NBA Most Valuable Player award. Malone appeared in the playoffs every season in his career, including three NBA Finals: in 1997 and 1998 with the Jazz and in 2004 with the Lakers. Internationally, Malone competed with the United States national team in the Summer Olympic games of 1992 and 1996; in both years he won gold medals. After retiring from the NBA, Malone joined the staff of the Louisiana Tech basketball team in 2007 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Kay Yow
Sandra Kay Yow (March 14, 1942 – January 24, 2009) was an American basketball coach. She was the head coach of the NC State Wolfpack women's basketball team from 1975 to 2009. A member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, she had more than 700 career wins. She also coached the U.S. women's basketball team to an Olympic gold medal in 1988 despite having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987. In April 2010, CollegeInsider.com created a new award called the Kay Yow National Coach of the Year Award in her honor. It will be presented annually to the women's college basketball head coach who displays great personal character on and off the court.
Yow received her Bachelor of Science degree in English from East Carolina University in 1964, she was a member of the Delta Zeta Sorority. After graduation she worked as English teacher, librarian and girls' basketball coach at Allen Jay High School in High Point, North Carolina. She then earned her Master's degree in Physical Education from the UNC-Greensboro in 1970 and then took the position of women's athletics coordinator and women's basketball coach at Elon College.
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Kelvin Sampson
Kelvin Sampson (born October 5, 1955) is an assistant coach of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association. He previously was a men's college basketball coach at Montana Tech (1981–85), Washington State University (1987–94), the University of Oklahoma (1994–2006) and Indiana University (2006–08).
Sampson was born in the Lumbee Indian community of Deep Branch in Robeson County, North Carolina, where he excelled in the classroom and the athletic arena during his prep days at Pembroke High School, in Pembroke, North Carolina. Sampson was captain of his high school basketball team for two years, and played for his father John W. "Ned" Sampson. His father was also one of the 500 Lumbee Native Americans who made national news by driving the Ku Klux Klan out of Maxton, North Carolina in what is annually celebrated by the Lumbee as the Battle of Hayes Pond. Later he played at Pembroke State University (now UNC Pembroke), concentrating on basketball and baseball. The point guard was team captain for the Braves as a senior and earned four letters in basketball and three in baseball. He earned Dean's List recognition throughout his collegiate career and was awarded the Gregory Lowe Memorial Award as the school's outstanding physical education major his senior year.
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Ken Loeffler
Kenneth D. Loeffler (April 14, 1902 – January 1, 1975) was an American collegiate and professional basketball coach. He was mostly known for guiding the La Salle University men's basketball team to the 1954 NCAA Championship and the 1952 National Invitation Tournament Championship.
After earning a Bachelor's degree at Pennsylvania State University (1920–24) and a short pro basketball career (1924–29), the Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania native began his collegiate coaching career at Geneva College (1928–34). In 1934 he became basketball head coach at Yale University, and also assistant coach to the football and baseball varsity. In seven years at Yale Loeffler put up a 61-82 record. During World War II he served in the U.S. Air Force.
After the war Loeffler began coaching pro teams in the Basketball Association of America. First the St. Louis Bombers (1946–48), then the Providence Steamrollers (1948–49). In 1949 he returned to the college ranks when he became head coach at La Salle. With players like future Hall of Fameer Tom Gola, Loeffler's La Salle teams went on to dominate college basketball over half a decade in the early 1950s. In six seasons at La Salle, Loeffler led the Explorers to a post-season appearance in every single season. Under Loeffler, La Salle made four trips to the NIT (before it was considered "second-rate") and two visits to the NCAA Tournament. In 1955 Loeffler moved on to become the head coach at Texas A&M College, a post he held until 1957.
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Ken Venturi
Kenneth Venturi (born May 15, 1931) is an American former professional golfer and golf broadcaster.
Venturi was born in San Francisco, California. He learned golf from an early age, and developed his game at Harding Park Golf Course and other public courses in the area. In the early 1950s, Venturi had been a pupil of the great Byron Nelson, and was also influenced by playing partner Ben Hogan. He won the California State Amateur Championship in 1951 and 1956, serving in the Army in Korea in the interim. Venturi first gained national attention in 1956 while still an amateur; he finished second in that year's Masters, by one shot to Jack Burke, Jr., after leading from the first round. Venturi shot a final-round 80 in very windy conditions, and relinquished a four-shot lead, which prevented him from winning outright and thus becoming the first amateur to do so in the history of The Masters. Years later it would be compared to Greg Norman's back nine collapse in 1996.
Venturi was a regular winner during his early years on the PGA Tour after turning pro at the end of 1956. He again come close to winning the Masters in 1958 and 1960, both times being edged out by Arnold Palmer.
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Kevin Durant
Kevin Wayne Durant (born September 29, 1988) is an American professional basketball forward with the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A 6'9" small forward, Durant was the consensus 2007 National College Player of the Year and the 2006–2007 Big 12 Player of the Year, amongst other awards. After a standout freshman season at the University of Texas, Durant opted to enter the NBA Draft, where he was selected second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics. There he went on to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award after his debut season. In 2007, Durant signed an endorsement contract with Nike. In the 2009–10 season Durant led the NBA in scoring and became the youngest player ever to win the NBA scoring title. He would later be named to the 2010 All NBA First Team.
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Kevin Love
Kevin Wesley Love (born September 7, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The two-time All-Star is one of the top rebounders in the NBA, and he holds the longest streak for consecutive games recording double figures in points and rebounds since the merger between the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the NBA. The Associated Press called Love the new face of the Timberwolves franchise. He is also known for his outlet passing, which led to comparisons to Wes Unseld.
A top ranked prospect out of Lake Oswego High School in Oregon, Love played one season of college basketball for the UCLA Bruins and led the team to a Final Four appearance in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Love was named the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year and consensus First Team All-American following the season. Love chose not to complete his three remaining years of college eligibility and entered the 2008 NBA Draft. He was taken fifth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies, and was traded to the Timberwolves on draft night for the third overall selection, O. J. Mayo, in an eight-player deal. Love was a member of the gold medal-winning United States men's national basketball team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.
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Kim Mulkey
Kimberly Duane Mulkey (born May 17, 1962 in Santa Ana, California) is the head women's basketball coach at Baylor University. She is the first person in NCAA history to win a basketball national championship as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. In 2011, she won her 300th career game, all with the Lady Bears.
Kim Mulkey was one of the first girls in the USA to play organized baseball with boys. After playing basketball at Nesom Junior High School in Tickfaw, Louisiana, she led her Hammond High School basketball team to four consecutive state championships. As high school valedictorian, she posted a perfect 4.0 GPA.
The 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) Mulkey was an All-American point guard at Louisiana Tech University, winning two national championships as a player—the AIAW title in 1981 and the inaugural NCAA title in 1982—and in 1984 was the inaugural winner of the women's version of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, given to the nation's top college senior under 5'6"/1.68 m (the height limit was later raised to 5'8"/1.73 m). She was also a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 1984 Summer Olympics. She became an assistant at Tech in 1985 and was promoted to associate head coach in 1996. During her 15-year tenure as assistant and associate head coach under Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech posted a 430-68 record and advanced to seven Final Fours. Mulkey and the Lady Techsters won the 1988 NCAA Championship.
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Kipchoge Keino
Kipchoge ("Kip") Keino (born 17 January 1940), chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee (KOC), is a retired Kenyan track and field athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Kip Keino was among the first in a long line of successful middle and long distance runners to come from the country and has helped and inspired many of his fellow countrymen and women to become the athletics force that they are today.
Keino was born in Kipsamo, Nandi District, Kenya. Both of his parents died while he was young. He was then brought up by his aunt. After finishing school, he joined Kenya Police. Before taking athletics, he played rugby
He began his international career at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia where he came eleventh in the three miles. At the 1964 Summer Olympics he finished fifth in 5000 m and barely missed the 1500 m final.
On 27 August 1965, Keino lowered the 3000 m world record by over 6 seconds to 7:39.6 at his first attempt at the distance. He won two gold medals (1500 & 5000 metres) at the inaugural All-Africa Games. Later in that year he broke the 5000 m world record held by Ron Clarke clocking 13:24.2. At the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica he won both the mile run and three mile run. In the next Commonwealth Games, Keino won the 1500 metres and was third in the 5000 metres.
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Kirk Hinrich
Kirk James Hinrich (born January 2, 1981) is an American professional basketball player, currently a guard for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. He has also been a member of the USA National Team. Growing up in Sioux City, Iowa, Hinrich was exposed to basketball at an early age. His father, Jim, coached him from the third grade through high school.
As a high school senior, Hinrich was named the 1999 Co-Iowa Mr. Basketball, along with future college teammate and roommate Nick Collison. Hinrich originally committed to play basketball at Iowa State but when the coach at the time, Tim Floyd, took the head coaching position for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, Hinrich changed his mind and decided to attend the University of Kansas. While playing college basketball for Kansas, Hinrich helped his team reach the Final Four in the NCAA basketball tournament in 2002 and the championship game against the Carmelo Anthony-led Syracuse University in 2003. Hinrich played all four years at Kansas before being drafted into the NBA. He is often referred to as "Captain Kirk" because he was voted as team captain for the Bulls for four consecutive years. Hinrich is the Bulls' all-time leader in three point field goals. After seven seasons with the Bulls, he was traded to the Washington Wizards on June 8, 2010. He then was traded to the Atlanta Hawks on February 23, 2011.
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Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978) is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school basketball player in the country. He decided to declare his eligibility for the NBA Draft upon graduation, and was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Bryant earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest.
Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. A heated feud between the duo and a loss in the 2004 NBA Finals was followed by O'Neal's trade from the Lakers after the 2003–04 season. Following O'Neal's departure Bryant became the cornerstone of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. He led the NBA in scoring during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons, setting numerous scoring records in the process. In 2006, Bryant scored a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second most points scored in a single game in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962. He was awarded the regular season's Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in 2008. After losing in the 2008 NBA Finals, Bryant led the Lakers to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010, earning the NBA Finals MVP Award on both occasions.
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Krešimir Ćosić
Krešimir Ćosić (November 26, 1948 – May 25, 1995) was a Croatian professional basketball player who represented Yugoslavia internationally, a member of FIBA Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also a notable church leader and missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as the deputy ambassador of Croatia to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.
He was born in Zagreb and raised in Zadar, where he started his basketball career in 1965, playing for KK Zadar. He came to the United States to play college basketball at Brigham Young University from 1971 to 1973. In April 1972 at the 1972 NBA Draft he was picked by Portland Trail Blazers as the number 1 pick in the 10th round (144th overall). The following year at the 1973 NBA Draft he was picked by Los Angeles Lakers as the pick number 15 in the 5th round (84th overall). He was the first foreign player to earn All-American honors from the United Press International, garnering them in 1972 and 1973. After his college career, he rejected several professional offers and returned home to Yugoslavia.
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Kurt Warner
Kurtis Eugene "Kurt" Warner (born June 22, 1971) is a former American football player. He played quarterback for three National Football League (NFL) teams: the St. Louis Rams, the New York Giants, and the Arizona Cardinals. He was originally signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 1994 after playing college football at Northern Iowa. Warner would go on to be considered one of the best undrafted players of all time, following a 12-year career regarded as one of the greatest stories in NFL history.
Warner first attained stardom while playing for the St. Louis Rams from 1998–2003, where he won two NFL MVP awards in 1999 and 2001 as well as the Super Bowl MVP award in Super Bowl XXXIV. He led the 2008 Arizona Cardinals to Super Bowl XLIII (the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl berth), and owns the three highest single-game passing yardage totals in Super Bowl history. Warner currently holds the seventh-highest career passer rating of all-time (93.7), and the third-highest career completion percentage in NFL history with 65.5%.
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Kyle Singler
Kyle Edward Singler (born May 4, 1988) is a professional basketball player for Real Madrid in Spain. He was a four-year starter for the Duke men's basketball team and was instrumental in their 2010 NCAA Championship run, earning MVP of the Final Four. In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons selected Singler in the second round with the overall 33rd pick.
Singler attended South Medford High School and was ranked as the fourth best college recruit in the nation from the class of 2007. In high school, he averaged 29.3 points per game and 10.6 rebounds per game as a senior.
In 2007, Singler led South Medford to its first-ever state basketball championship, winning 58–54 over defending champion Lake Oswego and national standout Kevin Love. A year earlier, Love and Lake Oswego had defeated Singler and South Medford for the state championship.
Singler was a member of the Legends AAU team, along with former UCLA player Kevin Love, and participated in many prestigious all-American camps, including the Nike All-American Camp (Indianapolis), the Nike Peach Jam (Augusta), and the Main Event (Las Vegas). In 2006 Singler played against Brandon Jennings in the championship game of The Les Schwab Invitational. Singler was also named to the 2006 U18 USA Junior National team, alongside fellow top prospects Michael Beasley, Jerryd Bayless, and 2006 star recruit Spencer Hawes. Singler is also one of eight players featured in Gunnin' for That #1 Spot, a 2008 documentary directed by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys which was filmed in 2006.
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Lamar Odom
Lamar Joseph Odom (born November 6, 1979) is an American professional basketball forward with the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA.
Odom was born in South Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York. His father was a heroin addict and his mother died of colon cancer when he was twelve years old. He was raised by his grandmother Mildred.
In his first three years of high school, Odom played for Christ The King Regional High School in Middle Village, Queens. He transferred first to Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, New York for the basketball season and then to St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Britain, Connecticut. Odom was named the Parade Magazine Player of the Year in 1997. He was named to the USA Today All-USA 1st Team as a senior. During his youth, Odom was teamed with Elton Brand of the Philadelphia 76ers and Ron Artest of the Los Angeles Lakers on the same AAU team.
In 1997, Odom attended the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and was enrolled in summer classes. Following an academic scandal, an NCAA inquiry found Odom received payments amounting to $5,600 from booster David Chapman. Coach Bill Bayno was fired and UNLV was placed on probation for four years. Odom transferred to the University of Rhode Island but was forced to sit out the 1997–98 season.
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Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support. He last rode for UCI ProTeam Team RadioShack, a team he helped found.
In October 1996 he was diagnosed as having testicular cancer with a tumor that had metastasized to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor. He went on to win the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005, and is the only person to win seven times having broken the previous record of five wins shared by Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, and Jacques Anquetil.
In 1999, he was named the ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. In 2000 he won the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports. In 2002, Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year. He was also named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the years 2002–2005. He received ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 2003. Armstrong announced his retirement from racing on July 24, 2005, at the end of the 2005 Tour de France but returned to competitive cycling in January 2009 and finished third in the 2009 Tour de France. He confirmed he had retired from competitive cycling for good on February 16, 2011.
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Lance Thomas
Lance Thomas (born April 24, 1988) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA. Thomas formerly played for Duke University Blue Devils men's basketball team. He is from Scotch Plains, New Jersey but was born in Brooklyn, New York. He started at power forward for Duke's national champion 2010 team. For the 2010–11 season and parts of the 2011-12 season, Thomas played for the Austin Toros of the NBA D-League.
Thomas originally attended Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. He was highly recruited out of high school, choosing Duke over Rutgers, Wake Forest, Connecticut, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia Tech.
While playing for Danny Hurley, former Seton Hall point guard, (brother of former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley) at Newark Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, he led the school to two Prep A Division New Jersey State titles while averaging 14.5 PPG and 6.5 RPG his senior year. He was named to the 2006 McDonald's All-America team, and had nine points and two steals in the McDonald's All-American game.
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Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Due to chronic back problems, he retired as a player in 1992. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. He served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of basketball operations for the Pacers, which he currently holds. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.
Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana, the son of Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird. He grew up in both West Baden and the adjacent town French Lick, which earned him the nickname "the Hick from French Lick" in his professional basketball career. Bird recalled how his mother would make do on the family's meager earnings: "If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first." According to Bird, his being poor as a child "motivates me to this day". He sometimes was sent to live with his grandmother due to the family's struggles. The Bird family's struggle with poverty was compounded by the alcoholism and personal difficulties of Joe Bird, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Korean War. Joe Bird committed suicide on February 3, 1975, when Larry was 18 years old.
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Lauren Gale
Lauren "Laddie" Gale (April 22, 1917—July 29, 1996) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player.
A native of Oakridge, Oregon, the 6'4" Gale played forward for the University of Oregon under head coach Howard Hobson. He was the second-tallest player (behind 6'8" Urgel "Slim" Wintermute) on the team, which was dubbed "The Tall Firs."
Gale led the Ducks in scoring in 1938 and 1939, earning all-Pacific Coast Conference honors in each season. In 1939, Gale led the Ducks to a national championship in the first-ever Division I men's basketball tournament.
After graduation, Gale played professionally in 1939 and 1940 for the Detroit Eagles of the National Basketball League. He left the Eagles in to serve in World War II, reportedly after being the first Oregon draftee selected by lottery. After the war, he played on several semi-pro teams and retired from basketball in 1949.
He died in Gold Beach, Oregon on July 29, 1996.
For his stellar collegiate play, for being the first college player regularly to employ a one-handed shot, and for helping to popularize the sport of basketball in the American West, Gale was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977 and was an inaugural inductee of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. He is also a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame.
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Lawrence Fleisher
Lawrence "Larry" Fleisher (September 26, 1930, Bronx, New York, US — May 4, 1989) was an American attorney and sports agent.
Fleisher, a 1953 graduate of Harvard Law School, at the request of professional basketball player Tom Heinsohn, helped found the National Basketball Association Players’ Association, of which he would serve as president from 1962 to 1968, during which time pensions, minimum salaries, and disability pay were secured for the membership.
For 19 additional years, Fleisher would continue to serve, without salary, as general counsel for the Players’ Association, notably arguing before Congress and the National Labor Relations Board to gain players the right of free agency, which right was eventually won in 1976.
Having guided players to the American Basketball Association in the late 1960s, Fleisher later helped broker the merger between the ABA and NBA and worked to set up relationships between the NBA and professional leagues in Europe and South America; he would represent little-known foreign players as well as established American stars, including Bill Bradley, John Havlicek, Bob Lanier, Willis Reed, and Jerry West, and, in an effort to promote basketball globally, would lead his clients on playing tours to Europe, South America, and Asia.
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LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James (/ləˈbrɒn/; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a sophomore at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School. He was selected with the number one pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Listed as a small forward, James has set numerous youngest player records since joining the league. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003–04, was named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2009, 2010, and 2012 and has been both an All-NBA selection and an All-Star every season since 2005. In 2010, a much-publicized free agency process ended with James signing with the Miami Heat.
James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to consecutive playoff appearances from 2006 through 2010. In 2007, the Cavaliers advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2011, James and the Miami Heat advanced to the NBA Finals but lost to the Dallas Mavericks. James has been a member of the USA national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and gold at the 2008 Olympics.
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Lee Mayberry
Orva Lee Mayberry, Jr. (born June 12, 1970 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a retired American professional basketball player, spending seven seasons in the National Basketball Association.
Mayberry played high school basketball at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, where he led them to a state championship in 1988.
Mayberry played collegiately at the University of Arkansas and scored 1,940 points for the Razorbacks. Mayberry was a teammate of Todd Day and Oliver Miller, who also had lengthy NBA careers, and helped lead Arkansas to the 1990 Final Four in Denver, Colorado, where they lost in the national semifinals to Duke.
Selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1st round (23rd overall) of the 1992 NBA Draft, Mayberry played from 1992–1999 for the Bucks and Vancouver Grizzlies, averaging 5.1 points per game. For the first four years of his career, he played in 328 consecutive games, never missing a regular season game.
Mayberry also played for the US national team in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.
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Lee Trevino
Lee Buck Trevino (born December 1, 1939) is a Mexican American professional golfer. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "The Merry Mex" and "Supermex". He won six major championships over the course of his career.
Trevino was born in Dallas, Texas into a family of Mexican ancestry. He was raised by his mother, Juanita Trevino, and his grandfather, Joe Trevino, a gravedigger. Trevino never knew his father, Joseph Trevino, who left when his son was small. Trevino's childhood consisted of attending school occasionally and working to earn money for the family. At age five, he started working in the cotton fields.
Trevino was introduced to golf when his uncle gave him a few golf balls and an old golf club. He then spent his free time sneaking into nearby country clubs to practice, and began as a caddy at the Dallas Athletic Club. He soon began caddying full-time. Trevino had to leave school at 14 to go to work. He earned $30 a week as a caddy and a shoeshiner. He was also able to practice golf, since the caddies had three short holes behind their shack. After work, he would hit at least 300 balls. Trevino has claimed to have earned extra money by challenging competitors to rounds of golf where he used only a shovel and taped-up 32-ounce glass Dr. Pepper bottle.
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Lefty Driesell
Charles Grice "Lefty" Driesell (born December 25, 1931) is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Maryland, Davidson College, James Madison University, and Georgia State University. During his 41-year coaching career, Driesell led teams from each school to the NCAA Tournament and earned a reputation as a tireless recruiter. He is the only coach to win 100 games at four different colleges.
He was born on December 25, 1931 in Norfolk, Virginia to Frank Driesell, a jeweler who had emigrated from Germany. In the fourth grade, Driesell received the nickname "Lefty" for his handedness. He attended Granby High School in Norfolk and was selected to the All-State basketball team. After graduating high school in 1950, Driesell attended college at Duke University from 1950 to 1954. He played on the basketball team there as a center under head coach Harold Bradley. Driesell graduated from Duke with a bachelor's degree in 1954.
After college in 1954, he took an office job which paid a $6,200 salary ($53,657 adjusted for inflation), but soon quit to return to Granby High School as its junior varsity basketball coach for $3,200 per year ($27,694 adjusted for inflation). Driesell was promoted to varsity coach the following year. In 1957, he became the head coach at Newport News High School, where he compiled a 57-game winning streak.
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Lenny Sachs
Leonard David Sachs (August 7, 1897 - October 27, 1942) was an American basketball and football coach and player. In 1961, he was posthumously enshrined as a coach in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 7, 1897. Sachs attended Carl Schurz High School in Chicago, Illinois, where he earned 11 varsity letters before his graduation in 1914. Upon graduation from high school, Sachs joined the US Navy during World War I, where he continued playing sports, earning an All-Service team honorable mention in football in 1918 while playing on the Cleveland Naval Reserves football team.
After the war, Sachs enrolled at Chicago's American College of Physical Education (which later merged with DePaul University) and graduated in 1923. While at college, Sachs played for the Chicago Cardinals in the National Football League from 1920 to 1922.
Sachs was hired as basketball coach in 1923 at Loyola University Chicago, even while continuing his NFL career. From 1923 to 1926 Sachs played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros, and Louisville Colonels, ending his career as a player-coach for the 1926 Louisville Colonels, a road-only team based in Chicago. Sachs was also an assistant football coach at Loyola on the staff of head coach Roger Kiley.
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Lenny Wilkens
Leonard Randolph "Lenny" Wilkens (born October 28, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) is a retired American basketball player and coach in the NBA. He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as a player, as a coach in 1998, and as part of the US Olympic "The Dream Team" for whom he was an assistant coach.
He is only three victories behind Don Nelson for most career regular season wins as an NBA coach, with 1332, but he has five more playoff wins than Nelson.
Wilkens grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His father was African American and his mother was Irish. Wilkens was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.
At Boys High School, Wilkens was a basketball teammate of longtime Major League Baseball star Tommy Davis.
Wilkens was a two-time All-American (1959 and 1960) at Providence College. He led the team to their first NIT appearance in 1959, and to the NIT finals in 1960. When he graduated, Wilkens was, with 1,193 points, the second-ranked scorer in Friar history (he has since dropped to twentieth as of 2005). In 1996, Wilkens' No. 14 jersey was retired by the college, the first alumnus to receive such an honor.
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Leon Barmore
Leon Barmore (born June 3, 1944, in Ruston, Louisiana, United States) is a college women's basketball coach. He coached at Louisiana Tech University from 1982 to 2002, serving the first three years as co-head coach with Sonja Hogg, who had begun the program in 1974 at the invitation of university president F. Jay Taylor. Upon his retirement, Barmore's .869 winning percentage was the best in major-college basketball history (both men's and women's).
Barmore was born June 3, 1944 to Jasper Barmore and Flora McCurry. He earned All-State honors as a basketball player at Ruston High School. He went on to play basketball at Louisiana Tech and earned Gulf States All-Conference honors.
After a stint as head men's coach at Ruston High, Barmore joined the Louisiana Tech staff in 1977, nominally as Hogg's top assistant. In truth, Barmore handled nearly all game strategy. He was named associate head coach in 1980 and co-head coach in 1982. He took over the reins full-time in 1985, when Hogg left Ruston.
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Leonard Hamilton
Leonard Hamilton (born August 4, 1948) is an American college basketball coach and the current men's basketball head coach at Florida State University. He is a former head coach at Oklahoma State University, the University of Miami, and for the NBA's Washington Wizards. In his 23 years as a collegiate head coach, his teams have qualified for seven NCAA tournaments and eight NITs, highlighted by appearances in the NCAA Tournament's "Sweet Sixteen" in 2000 (with Miami) and 2011 (with Florida State). While with the NBA's Wizards his team posted a 19–63 record during his sole season with the franchise in 2000–01.
Hamilton played college basketball at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Hamilton is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. His brother, Ray Jones, coaches a minor league team.
Hamilton was an assistant coach and associate head coach at the University of Kentucky from 1974 to 1986 under then head coach Joe B. Hall. Hamilton was on the staffs of the Kentucky teams that finished as the NCAA runner up in 1975, won the 1978 NCAA Championship and went to the 1984 Final Four.
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Lester Harrison
Lester "Les" Harrison (August 20, 1904 – December 23, 1997) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and team owner and is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Upon his graduation from East High School in Rochester, New York, in 1923, Harrison began playing, coaching, and organizing semi-professional basketball, working for the Rochester Seagrams and later the Rochester Ebers.
In 1945, with his brother Joseph (Jack), Harrison founded his own semi-pro team, the Rochester Pros; in 1946, the franchise changed its name to Royals and began play in the National Basketball League (NBL). Harrison coached the NBL iteration of his team for three years, leading the Royals to three straight NBL finals (of which the team won one, over the Sheboygan Red Skins in 1946) and amassing a record of 99 wins and 43 losses. In 1946, Harrison, as team owner, signed Long Island University standout Dolly King; King became the first African-American to have played in the league since 1943 and the first to see substantial playing time for his team.
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Lloyd Leith
Lloyd R. Leith (December 7, 1902 – September 30, 1974) was an American basketball referee and high school coach. The San Francisco, California native officiated 16 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships between 1939 and 1955. He also served as head coach at Balboa High School (1931–36), George Washington High School (1936–42) and Mission High School (1945–72).
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Lou Brock
Louis Clark "Lou" Brock (born June 18, 1939) is an American former professional baseball player. He began his Major League Baseball career with the Chicago Cubs but, spent the majority of his career as the left fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. Brock was best known for breaking Ty Cobb's all-time major league stolen base record. He is currently a special instructor coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Brock was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
Brock was born in El Dorado, Arkansas to a family of sharecroppers. His family moved to Collinston, Louisiana when he was two years old. While his family didn't have much money, he said that he never felt poor because,"If you don't have something, you don't miss it." Brock grew up as a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team that included Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella. Although he didn't play in organized baseball until he reached the 11th grade, he learned much about the sport from listening to Cardinals radio broadcaster Harry Caray describe the way major league hitters stood at the plate. After attending high school in Mer Rouge, Louisiana, he received academic assistance to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge but, when a low grade in his first semester meant the possibility of losing his scholarship, he decided to try out for the school's baseball team in order to secure an athletic scholarship.
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Lou Carnesecca
Luigi P. "Lou" Carnesecca (born January 5, 1925 in New York City) is a retired American college basketball coach at St. John's University. He coached the men's basketball program to 526 wins and 200 losses over 24 seasons (1965–70, 1973–92). The colorful "Looie" (as he was popularly known by fans and by the media) reached the post-season in every season he coached the team, including a Final Four appearance in 1985. He was selected as the National Coach of the Year in 1983 and 1985 by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Carnesecca is widely known for his sense of humor and his signature sweaters. In November 2004, St. John's University officially dedicated and renamed the historic Alumni Hall to Carnesecca Arena.
Carnesecca graduated from St. John's in 1950. He also coached his high school alma mater, St. Ann's (now academic and athletic powerhouse Archbishop Molloy High School), where he was succeeded by Jack Curran. Carnesecca also coached the New York Nets of the defunct American Basketball Association, now the NBA's New Jersey Nets, in the early 1970s, when they were playing in Island Garden in West Hempstead, New York.
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Louis Wilke
Louis G. Wilke (October 10, 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, USA – February 28, 1962) was an American basketball coach and administrator. After coaching basketball on a high school level, he became the coach for Phillips University in 1928. He also coached the AAU Phillips 66ers from 1929 to 1931 to a 98-8 record. After his coaching career he served as a chairman of the AAU Basketball Committee for seven terms and was an executive board member of the US Olympic Committee from 1956 to 1960. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1983.
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Lusia Harris
Lusia "Lucy" Harris-Stewart (born Lusia Harris; February 10, 1955) is a former American basketball player. Harris is considered to be one of the pioneers of women's basketball. She played for Delta State University and won three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National Championships, the predecessors to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships, from 1975 to 1977. In international level, she represented the United States' national team and won the silver medal in the 1976 Olympic Games, the first ever women's basketball tournament in the Olympic Games. She played professional basketball with the Houston Angels of the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) and was the first and only woman ever officially drafted by the National Basketball Association (NBA), a men's professional basketball league. For her achievements, Harris has been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Lute Olson
Robert Luther "Lute" Olson (born September 22, 1934) is a retired American men's basketball coach. He was most recently head coach at the University of Arizona for a period of 25 years. He was also head coach at the University of Iowa for 9 years and California State University, Long Beach for one season. Olson was known for player development, and many of his former players have gone on to impressive careers in the NBA after having played under him. On October 23, 2008 Olson announced his retirement from coaching. Most recently, he was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity by the Gamma Delta chapter at the University of Arizona in 2012.
Olson was born in Mayville, North Dakota of Norwegian-American parentage, and is a graduate of Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to his tenure with the Arizona Wildcats, Olson coached the University of Iowa and Long Beach State basketball teams, Long Beach City College four years, after having coached high school teams in Mahnomen and Two Harbors, Minnesota, and Anaheim and Huntington Beach, California.
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Lynette Woodard
Lynette Woodard (born August 12, 1959 in Wichita, Kansas) is a retired American basketball player who made history by becoming the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters and who tasted success abroad before finally reaching, at age 38, her dream of playing in an American women's professional basketball league.
While at Wichita North High School, Woodard won two state basketball titles.
Woodard went on to play college basketball with the University of Kansas (KU) in 1978, playing there until 1981. She was a four-time All-American at KU, and she averaged 26 points per game and scored 3,649 points in total during her four years there, and was the first KU woman to be honored by having her jersey retired. She is major college basketball's career women's scoring leader.
In 1981, she was signed by an Italian team, UFO Schio (Vicenza), to participate in their league.
In 1984, she was a member of the United States' women's basketball team that won the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
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Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.
Johnson's career achievements include three NBA MVP Awards, nine NBA Finals appearances, twelve All-Star games, and ten All-NBA First and Second Team nominations. He led the league in regular-season assists four times, and is the NBA's all-time leader in average assists per game, at 11.2. Johnson was a member of the "Dream Team", the U.S. basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1992.
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Mariano Rivera
Mariano Rivera (born November 29, 1969) is a Panamanian right-handed baseball pitcher who has played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Mo", Rivera has served as a relief pitcher for most of his career, and since 1997, he has been the Yankees' closer. A 12-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB's all-time leader in saves (608) and games finished (892). His accolades include five American League (AL) Rolaids Relief Man Awards, the 1999 World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, and the 2003 AL Championship Series MVP Award.
Rivera was signed by the Yankees organization in 1990 as an amateur free agent in Panama, and he debuted in the major leagues in 1995. Initially a starting pitcher, he struggled in the role and was consequently converted to a relief pitcher. After a breakthrough season in 1996 as a setup man, he became the Yankees' closer in 1997. In the following years, he established himself as one of baseball's top relievers, leading the major leagues in saves in 1999, 2001, and 2004. Rivera's presence in the late innings of games to record the final outs has contributed to the Yankees' success in the late-1990s and 2000s, particularly in the postseason where he has set numerous records, including lowest earned run average (ERA) (0.70) and most saves (42). His pitching repertoire consists primarily of one pitch, a sharp-breaking, mid-90s mile per hour (mph) cut fastball that has been called an all-time great pitch.
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Mark Gottfried
Mark Frederick Gottfried (born January 20, 1964) is an American men's college basketball coach and former player. He was named head coach of NC State on April 5, 2011.
Gottfried played one season at Oral Roberts and three seasons at Alabama, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in each of his seasons with the Crimson Tide. He spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA, including the team's 1995 NCAA championship season, three years as head coach at Murray State, and eleven years as head coach at Alabama.
Gottfried is currently an honorary board of trustees member of the Athletes in Action sports ministry.
Gottfried was born in Crestline, Ohio. He played varsity basketball at Carterville High School in Carterville, Illinois and Carbondale High School in Carbondale, Illinois. He then played for UMS Prep (now known as UMS-Wright Preparatory School) in Mobile, Alabama during his senior year, averaging 21.6 ppg/11.2 rpg before graduating in 1982. As a student, he was selected to the National Honor Society. Gottfried was inducted into UMS-Wright's Hall of Fame and in 2004 was the UMS Alumnus of the Year.
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Mark McGwire
Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball player who played his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. He is currently the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals.
For his career, McGwire averaged a home run once every 10.61 at bats, the lowest at bats per home run ratio in baseball history (Babe Ruth is second at 11.76). In 1987, he broke the single-season home run record for rookies, with 49. In 1998, McGwire and Sammy Sosa achieved national fame for their home run-hitting prowess in pursuit of Roger Maris' single season home run record; McGwire broke the record and hit 70 home runs that year.Barry Bonds now holds the record, after hitting 73 home runs during the 2001 season.
After three years at Southern California and a stint on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, McGwire was drafted 10th overall by the Oakland Athletics in the 1984 Major League Baseball Draft.
McGwire made the major leagues in August. As a rookie in 1987 he hit 33 homers before the All-Star break and was a unanimous choice for AL Rookie of the Year after finishing with 49 homers, 118 RBI and a .289 average. His 49 longballs smashed the old rookie record of 38, jointly held by Frank Robinson and Wally Berger. He sat out the season's final two games and gave up a chance at 50 home runs to be present at the birth of his first child.
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Mark Turgeon
Mark Leo Turgeon (born February 5, 1965) is an American college basketball coach. He is currently the head coach for the University of Maryland Terrapins. Turgeon previously served as head coach at Texas A&M for 4 years.
Mark Turgeon was born and raised as one of five children in Topeka, Kansas. After graduating from Hayden High School, Turgeon attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Personnel Administration in 1987. He added a master's degree in Education from the University of Oklahoma in the same year. He is married to the former Ann Fowler, whom he met at KU, and together they have three children.
Turgeon played basketball at Hayden High School, helping the team post a 47-3 record and capture two consecutive Class 4A State Championships in 1982 and 1983. Turgeon earned All-State Tournament team honors in both of those years.
Although only 5 feet 10 inches out of high school, Turgeon earned a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Kansas under Coach Larry Brown. Turgeon played in four straight NCAA tournaments, becoming the first KU player to do so. He was a reserve point guard for the 1985–86 Jayhawk team that won the Big Eight Conference regular season and tournament title and also advanced to the Final Four in the 1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The team finished that season 35–4 overall. Turgeon was a team captain for both the 1986 and 1987 squads, a member of the Big Eight All-Freshmen Team in 1984, and was also a Big Eight All-Academic Performer in 1986. Fans called him "The Surgeon" because, in addition to the phrase rhyming with his surname, he had the ability to "carve up defenses."
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Marques Haynes
Marques Haynes (born October 3, 1926) is an American former professional basketball player and member of the Harlem Globetrotters, notable for his remarkable ability to dribble the ball and keep it away from defenders. According to the movie Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic(1988), Haynes could dribble the ball as many as six times a second.
Haynes learned to dribble the basketball from his sisters, and perhaps was aided by the skill of handling the ball on the dirt courts of his hometown. A native of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, he played basketball for Langston University from 1942-1946. While at Langston, he once dribbled out the clock in a conference tournament game to ridicule an opponent, Southern University, which had just run up the score against an inferior team (Sam Huston College, later Huston-Tillotson University), which incidentally, was coached by a young Jackie Robinson. Haynes' own coach, the legendary Zip Gayles, reprimanded him for the showboating display, but it helped draw the attention of the Globetrotters, always on the search for trick ballhandlers; Langston was invited to play an exhibition game against the Globetrotters in Oklahoma City. In that game, Haynes led Langston to a 4-point win and was immediately invited to join the Globetrotters, and (after returning to Langston to complete his degree) his long professional career began.
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Marshall Faulk
Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons. He played college football for San Diego State University, and was a three-time All-American. He was selected by the Indianapolis Colts as the second overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft, and he also played professionally for the NFL's St. Louis Rams. Faulk is one of only three NFL players (Marcus Allen and Tiki Barber being the others) to reach at least 10,000 rushing yards and 5,000 receiving yards; he is the only one to amass 12,000 yards rushing and 6,000 yards receiving. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
He is currently a pro football analyst for NFL Total Access, Thursday Night Football, and NFL GameDay Morning on the NFL Network.
Faulk was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended George Washington Carver High School in Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where he played for the Carver Rams high school football team.
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Marv Harshman
Marv K. Harshman (born October 4, 1917) is a former college men's basketball coach native to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA. He graduated from Lake Stevens High School in Lake Stevens, Washington.
Harshman started coaching at his alma mater of Pacific Lutheran University (1945–58), where he also was the head football coach from 1951 to 1957, compiling a 27-26-2 record. He later coached at Washington State University (1958–71) and then at the University of Washington from 1971 to 1985. He compiled a 642-448 collegiate record winning Pac-8 coach of the year in (1976), Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1982, 1984) and Kodak Coach of the Year for Division 1 basketball (1984).
Harshman was the coach of the gold medal winning US team at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City. Harshman was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in April 1985.
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Mary Decker
Mary Slaney (born Mary Teresa Decker August 4, 1958, Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey) is an American former track athlete. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships, and set 17 official and unofficial world records and 36 US national records.
Mary Decker was born in Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. A decade later her family moved to Southern California, where Decker started running. A year later, aged 11, she won her first local competition.
She joined her school athletics club and a local track club, and completely immersed herself in running, for which she would pay an injury-laden price later in her career. Aged 12, in one week she completed a marathon and four middle- and long-distance races, ending the week with an appendectomy operation.
In her early teens, Decker was already recognized as a world-class runner. Unable to attend the 1972 Olympics as she was too young, the pigtailed 89 pounds (40 kg) 14 year old nicknamed "Little Mary Decker," won international acclaim in 1973 with a win in the 800 meters at a US-Soviet meet in Minsk, beating the later Olympic silver medallist.
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Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around title.
Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, of Italian heritage (her family's original surname was "Rotunda"). Her father, Ronnie, operated a coal-industry transportation equipment business. She attended Fairmont Senior High School, but did not graduate. She competed in the Olympic games during her sophomore year.
Retton lived in Houston, Texas until 2009, when her family returned to West Virginia. She is married to former Houston real estate developer Shannon Kelley, who now works for the Fairmont State University athletic department. Together they have four daughters: Shayla Rae Kelley (born 1995), McKenna Lane Kelley (born 1997), Skyla Brae Kelley (born 2000), and Emma Jean Kelley (born 2002).
Inspired by watching Nadia Comăneci on television, Retton took up gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont. She was coached by Gary Rafaloski. She then decided to move to Houston, Texas, to train under Romanians Béla and Márta Károlyi, who had coached Nadia Comăneci before their defection to the United States. Under the Károlyis, Retton soon began to make a name for herself in the United States, winning the American Cup in 1983 and placing second to Dianne Durham (another Károlyi student) at the US Nationals that same year. Retton missed the World Championships in 1983 due to a wrist injury. Nevertheless, Retton won the American Classic in 1983 and 1984, as well as Japan's Chunichi Cup in 1983.
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Mason Plumlee
Mason Alexander Plumlee (born March 5, 1990) is a forward for the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team who stands 6 feet 10 inches (208 cm) tall. As a freshman in 2009–10, he was a back-up forward for Duke's national champion 2010 team. He was a 2009 McDonald's All-American in high school. He plays alongside his older brother Miles and his younger brother Marshall.
Mason Plumlee grew up with brothers Miles and Marshall (who both play at Duke with him) and sister Madeleine. He and his older brother Miles are the sixth pair of brothers to play at Duke at the same time.
His parents are Perky (a former Tennessee Tech basketball player) and Leslie (née Schultz) Plumlee (a former Purdue women's basketball player who set the school single-game rebound record with 25. The two met at a basketball camp during the summer of 1979. His grandfather Albert "Bud" Schultz played basketball at Michigan Tech (1944), his uncle William Schultz played basketball at Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1971–72), and his uncle Chad Schultz played basketball at Wisconsin-Oshkosh (1983–86).
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Matt Leinart
Matthew Stephen Leinart (born May 11, 1983), is an American professional football quarterback for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Leinart previously played for four seasons (2006–2009) with the Arizona Cardinals, largely in a backup role to the now-retired Kurt Warner, before being released on September 4, 2010. He also played for the Houston Texans (2010–2011).
Leinart played college football at the University of Southern California. In 2004, he led the Trojans to the BCS national championship and was named that year's winner of the Heisman Trophy as well as the winner of the inaugural Manning Award, which is awarded to the country's top quarterback. The championship was vacated by the BCS on June 6, 2011.
The left-handed passing Leinart was selected tenth overall in the 2006 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. Despite possessing what draft experts believed was a good frame for a quarterback (6'-5”, 230 pounds), they believed his lack of a strong throwing arm, such as that possessed by his predecessor, Carson Palmer (now with the Oakland Raiders), would be a detriment in his professional career.
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Maurice Podoloff
Maurice Podoloff (August 18, 1890 - November 24, 1985) was a U.S. lawyer and basketball and ice hockey administrator. He was the first president of the National Basketball Association. He served from the league's founding as the Basketball Association of America in 1946 until 1963.
Maurice Podoloff was born to a Jewish family in Yelisavetgrad, Russia (now a part of Ukraine and also known as (Elizabethgrad)]) on August 18, 1890. When he was a young boy his family emigrated to the United States, where he graduated from Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Connecticut in 1909. From there Podoloff went on to Yale University where he got his law degree in 1915.
A distinguished lawyer, Maurice Podoloff was a man of impeccable character and was instrumental in the development and success of professional basketball. On June 6, 1946, Podoloff, who was already serving as president of the American Hockey League, was appointed president of the newly formed Basketball Association of America (BAA), becoming the first person to lead two professional leagues simultaneously.
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Maurice Stokes
Maurice Stokes (June 17, 1933 – April 6, 1970) was an American professional basketball player in the 1950s, whose career was cut short by a debilitating injury. He was born in Rankin, Pennsylvania and graduated from Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania in 1955.
Playing for the National Basketball Association's Rochester Royals (which became the Cincinnati Royals in 1957) from 1955 to 1958, Stokes grabbed 38 rebounds in a single game during his rookie season, averaged 16.3 rebounds per game overall, and was named NBA Rookie of the Year. The next season, he set a league record for most rebounds in a single season with 1,256 (17.4 per game). Stokes played in the All-Star Game all three years of his career, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team three times. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in September 2004.
On March 12, 1958 in the last game of the 1957–58 NBA season, in Minneapolis, Stokes drove to the basket, drew contact and fell to the floor, hit his head, and was knocked unconscious. He was revived with smelling salts and returned to the game. Three days later, after a 12-point, 15-rebound performance in an opening-round playoff game at Detroit against the Pistons, Stokes became ill on the team's flight back to Cincinnati; "I feel like I'm going to die," he told a teammate. Stokes reported feeling ill during the flight back to Cincinnati; he later suffered a seizure, fell into a coma and was left permanently paralyzed. In the end, he was diagnosed with "post-traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor control center."
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Meadowlark Lemon
Meadow "Meadowlark" Lemon (born April 25, 1932) is an American basketball player, actor, and minister. For 22 years, Lemon was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters and is a 2003 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and attended Florida A&M University.
Lemon first applied to the Globetrotters in 1954 at age 22, finally being chosen to play the following year (1955). In 1980, he left to form one of his Globetrotters imitators, the Bucketeers. He played with that team until 1983, then moved on to play with the Shooting Stars from 1984 to 1987. In 1988, he moved on to "Meadowlark Lemon's Harlem All Stars" team. Despite being with his own touring team, Lemon returned to the Globetrotters, playing 50 games with them in 1994.
In 2000, Lemon received the John Bunn Award, the highest honor given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame outside of induction. He was inducted into the hall three years later.
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Mendy Rudolph
Marvin "Mendy" Rudolph (March 8, 1926 – July 4, 1979) was a professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 22 years, from 1953 to 1975. Regarded as one of the greatest officials in NBA history, Rudolph officiated 2,112 NBA games (a record held at retirement) and was the first league referee to work 2,000 games. He was also selected to referee eight NBA All-Star Games and made 22 consecutive NBA Finals appearances.
Following his career as a referee, he was a color commentator for CBS Sports' coverage of the NBA on CBS for two seasons from 1975 to 1977 and he appeared in a television advertisement for Miller Lite. He was a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2007.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rudolph was raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His father, Harry Rudolph, was a prominent basketball referee and baseball umpire. Mendy Rudolph played basketball as a child and eventually chose the same profession as his father. Upon graduating from James M. Coughlin High School, he began officiating basketball games at the Wilkes-Barre Jewish Community Center and later worked scholastic games. At age 20, he was recruited to referee games alongside his father, who served as Eastern Professional Basketball League (Eastern League) President from 1956 to 1970. During his career in the Eastern League, he officiated his first Eastern League President's Cup championship series in 1948 and was selected as a referee in at least one game in every President's Cup playoff and championship series between 1949 and 1953. At the same time, he also served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War.
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Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998) as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
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Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions. In doing so he has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five gold medals in individual events tied the single Games record set by compatriot Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics; his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972. Phelps' Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold. Phelps also holds the all-time record for most gold Olympic medals, at 14.
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Michael Redd
Michael Wesley Redd (born August 24, 1979) is an American professional basketball for the Phoenix Suns. He was drafted 43rd overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2000 NBA Draft. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, where he attended West High School. He was also a member of the U.S. national basketball team.
Standing 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall and weighing 215 pounds (98 kg), Michael Redd has spent both his collegiate and professional career at the shooting guard position. In the college ranks, he spent three years leading the offensive attack of Ohio State University garnering point averages of 21.9, 19.5, and 17.5, respectively. As a sophomore, Redd and Scoonie Penn led Ohio State to the NCAA Final Four. He was then drafted after his junior year in the 2000 NBA Draft as a second round pick (43rd overall) by the Milwaukee Bucks.
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Mike Brey
Mike Brey (born March 22, 1959) is an American college basketball coach. He has been the men's head coach at the University of Notre Dame since July 14, 2000.
Brey graduated from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland in 1977. As a two-year letter winner under coach Morgan Wootten, Brey helped the team to a 55–9 mark. He enrolled at Northwestern State University, where he played varsity basketball for three years (1977–80). In 1982 Brey graduated from George Washington University with bachelor's degree in physical education.
He returned to his former high school, becoming an assistant coach under Morgan Wootten. In 1987, he was hired by Duke University to assist Mike Krzyzewski, and in 1995 he took over his first head coaching job at the University of Delaware. Brey guided the Fightin' Blue Hens to a 99–51 record over five years, leading the team to two America East Conference Championships and subsequently two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
In 2000, he succeeded Matt Doherty as head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame had not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990 when Brey was hired. Brey led the Irish to the NCAA tournament in his first three years as head coach (2001–2003), notching a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2003. He since led the team to tournament appearances in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
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Mike Dement
Mike Dement is an American college basketball coach and the former head men's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is married to Southern Methodist University women's basketball head coach Rhonda Rompola.
From Louisburg, North Carolina, he was the head coach for UNCG from 1991 to 1995, leading them from a team with no conference affiliation to the top of the Big South Conference regular season standings in just four seasons. In his last two seasons at UNCG, Dement’s teams went 38–18, including a school-record 23 wins in 1994–95 winning the Big South regular season title.
In 2007–08, Dement won his 300th career game when the Spartans topped The Citadel in Charleston. He enters his 23rd year as a head coach with a mark of 312–313.
On December 13, 2011, Dement stepped down as head coach of the Spartans.
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Mike Krzyzewski
Michael William "Mike" Krzyzewski ( /ʃəˈʃɛvski/ shə-SHEV-ski; Polish: Krzyżewski [kʂɨˈʐɛ(f)ski]; nicknamed "Coach K"; born February 13, 1947) is an American basketball coach and former player. Since 1980, he has served as the head men's basketball coach at Duke University. At Duke, Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to four NCAA Championships, 11 Final Fours, 12 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season titles, and 13 ACC Tournament championships. Krzyzewski is also the coach of the United States men's national basketball team, whom he led to a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 FIBA World Championship. He was an assistant coach on the 1992 "Dream Team".
From 1975 to 1980, Krzyzewski was the head basketball coach at the United States Military Academy, where he played from 1966 to 1969 under Bob Knight. Krzyzewski has amassed a record 79 NCAA tournament victories, while averaging 25 wins per season. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame following the 2001 season. On November 15, 2011, Krzyzewski led Duke to a 74–69 victory over Michigan State at Madison Square Garden to become the winningest coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball history. Krzyzewski's 903rd victory surpassed the previous record of 902, held by his former coach, Bob Knight.
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Mike Montgomery
Mike Montgomery (born February 27, 1947) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the California Golden Bears men's basketball team. He was also the men's basketball coach at Stanford from 1986 to 2004 and at the University of Montana for eight seasons prior to coaching at Stanford. He also coached the Golden State Warriors of the NBA from 2004 to 2006.
Montgomery compiled a 547–244 (.692) overall record in 18 years at Stanford (1986–2004) and eight seasons at the University of Montana (1978–1986). He boasts 25 winning seasons in his 26 years as a head coach at both Stanford and Montana. Montgomery's Stanford teams reached the NCAA tournament ten straight times from 1995 to 2004. Stanford reached the Final Four under Montgomery in 1998, the school's first Final Four appearance in 56 years. He made his third appearance along the USA Basketball sidelines in 2002 when he was named an assistant under George Karl for the US national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship.
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Miles Plumlee
Miles Plumlee (born September 1, 1988) is a forward/center for the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team. As a sophomore, he was a reserve forward/center for Duke's national champion 2010 team.
Miles grew up with brothers Mason and Marshall, who both play alongside him at Duke, and sister Madeleine. He and his younger brother, Mason, are the sixth pair of brothers to play at Duke at the same time.
His parents are Perky (a former Tennessee Tech basketball player) and Leslie (née Schultz) Plumlee (a former Purdue women's basketball player who set the school single-game rebound record with 25). The two met at a basketball camp during the summer of 1979. His grandfather Albert "Bud" Schultz played basketball at Michigan Tech (1944), his uncle William Schultz played basketball at Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1971–72), and his uncle Chad Schultz played basketball at Wisconsin-Oshkosh (1983–86).
"Through the years, I've watched a lot of basketball," said their then-83-year-old grandfather before they played in the 2010 NCAA Championships.
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Mirko Novosel
Mirko Novosel (born June 30, 1938 in Zagreb, Croatia, formerly SFR Yugoslavia) is a former Yugoslav basketball player and coach. He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on September 7th, 2007.
Novosel played club basketball from 1952 to 1966.
As a coach, Novosel led the Yugoslavian national team to the silver medal at the 1974 FIBA World Championship, the silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and the bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
He also coached Cibona Zagreb to three Yugoslav League titles, seven Yugoslav Cups, and a European Champions Cup (Euroleague) title in 1985, when he was named the European Coach of the Year.
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Mitch Kupchak
Mitchell "Mitch" Kupchak (born May 24, 1954) is a retired American basketball player and current general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers since the 2000–01 NBA season after predecessor Jerry West moved to the Memphis Grizzlies organization.
Kupchak played for Brentwood High School, Brentwood, Long Island, NY, and was instrumental in Brentwood's Division Titles from 1970-72.
Kupchak was an All-American on the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team. Kupchak played on the gold medal winning team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Kupchak was drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1976 and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. He had four productive seasons with Washington and was part of the team that won the NBA Championship in 1978. He signed a long term contract with the Lakers in 1981 on the behest of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who told owner Jerry Buss, "If we could get Mitch Kupchak, I know we could win," after the team's playoff upset. Unfortunately, 26 games into the season, Kupchak injured his knee and did not play again until the 1983-84 season. However, Kupchak played a key role in the Lakers' 1985 championship team against the Boston Celtics, who had intimidated them in the prior year's Finals. Kupchak retired after the 1985-86 season, having played 510 regular season and 68 playoff games, with regular season averages of 10.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game (7.7 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game in the playoffs).
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Moose Krause
Edward Walter "Moose" Krause (February 2, 1913 – December 11, 1992) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player, track athlete, coach, and college athletics administrator. He lettered in four sports at the University of Notre Dame, where he was a three-time consensus All-American in basketball (1932–1934). Krause served as the head basketball coach at Saint Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, now Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, from 1934 to 1939, at the College of the Holy Cross from 1939 to 1942, and at Notre Dame from 1943 to 1944 and 1946 to 1951, compiling a career college basketball record of 155–114. He was Notre Dame's athletic director from 1949 to 1981. Krause was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Born Edward Walter Kriaučiūnas in Chicago to Lithuanian immigrant parents, Krause grew up in the Town of Lake section or, as it was once known as, Back of the Yards. His brother, Felix Krause, was the captain of Lithuania national basketball team in 1937. His surname was shortened to Krause by his high school football coach, who couldn't pronounce Kriaučiūnas (Lithuanian pronunciation: [krɪ.ɐutʃɪˈuːnɐs]).
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Morgan Wootten
Morgan Bayard Wootten (born April 21, 1931, Durham, North Carolina) is an American former high school basketball coach. From 1956 to 2002, he coached at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He has the most wins as a head coach in the history of basketball on any level. A number of his players went on to play in the NBA, including Adrian Dantley and Danny Ferry. Wootten gained legendary status in 1965, when his DeMatha team beat Lew Alcindor's Power Memorial Academy and ended their 71-game winning streak. His career coaching record stands at 1,274-192.
Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden (1910–2010) described his admiration for Wootten when he said, "I know of no finer coach at any level - high school, college or pro. I stand in awe of him."[citation needed] In October 2000, Coach Wootten was elected and inducted into the Hall of Fame, one of three high school basketball coaches ever so honored.
Wootten attended the University of Maryland. During his coaching career at DeMatha, located just two miles away from his alma mater, he received job offers from Georgetown and American and interest from Duke, Wake Forest, and Virginia. Wootten turned down the offers, according to Sports Illustrated, because the Maryland job, which was not forthcoming, was the only college job he wanted.
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Moses Malone
Moses Eugene Malone (born March 23, 1955 in Petersburg, Virginia) is a retired American Hall of Fame basketball player who starred in both the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association. A three-time NBA MVP and one of the NBA's 50 greatest players, Malone was the most successful prep-to-pro player of his era, going straight from Petersburg High to a 21-year career in professional basketball. By the time Malone retired after 19 seasons in the NBA he was the last former ABA player active and held numerous distinctions in both leagues, including a championship ring and NBA finals trophy won with the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers.
Right after graduating from Petersburg High School, Malone signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Maryland. However, Malone was drafted by the ABA's Utah Stars in 1974 and became one of the first basketball players to jump straight from high school into the professional leagues.
Malone began his professional career with the Utah Stars. He later played for the ABA's Spirits of St. Louis. In two seasons in the ABA, Malone averaged 17.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game. Malone's ABA career ended with the ABA–NBA merger in June 1976, when Malone moved to the NBA.
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Muffet McGraw
Ann "Muffet" McGraw (born December 5, 1955) is the current head women's basketball coach at Notre Dame. In 25 seasons at Notre Dame, she has compiled a 591-215 (.733) record. She's led her team to 4 Final Fours (1997, 2001, 2011 and 2012), and won the National Championship in 2001 against Purdue. Notre Dame has made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 6 out of the last 11 seasons, and has had 20-win seasons in 13 out of the past 14 seasons. She has led the Irish to 14 NCAA tournament appearances including a current streak of 12 straight. In the current streak, Notre Dame has made it to the second round in all but one of the appearances. McGraw graduated from Saint Joseph's University.
She has compiled 50 wins over ranked opponents, including 40 over the last 8 seasons. Her teams have appeared in the AP poll 139 times during her tenure. Notre Dame has finished in the Top 3 of the Big East in 9 out of the 11 seasons they have been in the league. Notre Dame has also gotten 11 consecutive Top 20 ranked recruiting classes. She is the 27th coach in NCAA history to win over 500 career games, and is currently 25th on the all-time NCAAWB wins list with 644 victories.
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Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified.
Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism.[clarification needed] In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.
Widespread protests against the Vietnam War had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.
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Nancy Lieberman
Nancy Elizabeth Lieberman (born July 1, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York), nicknamed "Lady Magic", is a former professional basketball player who played and coached in the WNBA.
Lieberman is regarded as one of the greatest figures in women's basketball.
In 2000, she was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. Lieberman is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Lieberman was born on July 1, 1958 to Jerome and Renee Lieberman. She is Jewish, and has become a born-again Christian. Her family lived in Brooklyn, when she was born, but soon moved to Far Rockaway, New York where she grew up with her older brother Clifford. Her mother brought up the children after a separation and divorce. While growing up, she was very interested in a variety of sports, playing baseball, softball and football with boys, before settling on basketball as her primary sport. She played basketball primarily on pickup teams with boys, not playing on a girl's team until she was a high school sophomore. While attending Far Rockaway High School in Queens, New York, she established herself as one of the top women's basketball players in the country by earning one of only 12 slots on the USA's National Team. In 1975, Lieberman was named to the USA Team designated to play in the World Championships and Pan American Games, where she brought home a gold medal and a silver medal in 1979.
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Nat Holman
Nat Holman (October 19, 1896 in New York, NY – February 12, 1995 in Bronx, New York) was one of the early pro basketball players and one of the game's most important innovators.
Known for his exceptional ball-handling and his accurate shooting, Holman was a star player at New York University.
He was also an important part of the Original Celtics (no relation to the Boston Celtics). Also a gifted passer and excellent floor leader, Holman has been a prototype to later playmakers.
Although he played pro basketball until 1930, he took over the head coaching position at the City College of New York in 1920. Known as Mr. Basketball, Holman guided CCNY to the so-called grand slam of college basketball, winning both the NCAA and NIT titles in 1950, a feat that has never been achieved since (and is no longer possible as both tournaments are now done concurrently). Holman compiled a 421–190 record in 37 seasons at CCNY, retiring in 1960.
Holman also founded Camp Scatico in 1921 and ran the camp until he sold it to his niece and her husband in 1964.
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Nate Archibald
Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born September 2, 1948, New York City) is a retired American professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the NBA, most notably with the Kansas City Kings and Boston Celtics.
Archibald was a willing passer and an adequate shooter from midrange. However, it was his quickness and speed and shiftiness that made him difficult to guard in the open court, as he would regularly drive past defenders on his way to the basket.
Archibald, a playground legend while growing up in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in the South Bronx, New York City, only played high school basketball for one-and-a-half seasons, and was cut from the varsity squad at DeWitt Clinton High School as a sophomore. He returned to the team as a junior. During his time without basketball, Archibald briefly flirted with dropping out of school after having been largely truant in past years. But with the help of two mentors, Floyd Layne and Pablo Robertson, Archibald turned it around. Robertson, a former standout at Loyola of Chicago and a Harlem, NY, playground impressario, had seen the gifted, mercurial Archibald in action on the playgrounds and convinced the young man's high school coach to re-instate him on the squad. Despite only playing in blowouts as a junior, the shy, quiet teen managed to blossom into a high-school star, being named team captain and an All-City selection in 1966. Off the court, Archibald began to attend school regularly and worked to improve his poor academic standing, which deterred most colleges from offering him a scholarship. To improve his chances of playing major college basketball, Archibald enrolled at Arizona Western College, transferring to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) the following year. He had three standout seasons at El Paso, from 1967 to 1970 under the legendary coach Don Haskins.
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Nate Thurmond
Nathaniel "Nate" Thurmond (born July 25, 1941, in Akron, Ohio) is a retired American basketball player. Dominant at both center and power forward, he was a seven-time All-Star and the first player in NBA history to record an official quadruple-double.
Thurmond remains one of the greatest rebounders and shot blockers ever, named both a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
Known to fans as "Nate the Great", Thurmond has had his #42 jersey retired by both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers franchises.
He played in high school with another future NBA star, Gus Johnson, at Akron Central. Their powerful team went undefeated before losing to Middletown, led by Jerry Lucas, in the Ohio state high school playoffs. Passing on a scholarship offer to Ohio State, to avoid becoming Lucas's backup there, the 6'11" Thurmond chose Bowling Green. He was named a first-team All-American by The Sporting News in 1963, and was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors later that year.
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Ned Irish
Edward S. "Ned" Irish (May 6, 1905 in Lake George, New York – January 21, 1982) was a basketball promoter and one of the key figures in popularizing professional basketball. He was the president of the New York Knicks from 1946 to 1974. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.
A pioneer in the late 1930s in the big-time promotion of college basketball, Ned Irish took the sport from small venues to Madison Square Garden. He also founded the New York Knicks and assisted in the organization of the National Basketball Association. For his part in popularizing basketball, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.
Irish grew up near Lake George, New York. He had already launched his business career at age 10. Following in his late father's footsteps, he earned money by selling sodas and newspapers and by renting boats. His mother, a practical nurse, then moved the family to Brooklyn. As a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, Irish covered prep and amateur sports for three New York dailies, managed the school's swimming and tennis teams, was class president, was a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity and worked in the school cafeteria.
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Neil Johnston
Donald Neil Johnston (February 4, 1929 – September 28, 1978) was an American Hall of Fame basketball player at the center position who played 8 years in the NBA from 1951 to 1959.
He led the NBA in scoring for three consecutive seasons: 1952-53, 1953–54, and 1954-55. During the 1954-55 season, he also won the league's rebounding title. Johnston played his entire career with the Philadelphia Warriors, playing on their championship team in 1956. He played in six NBA All-Star Games, was an All-NBA First Team selection four times, and was an All-NBA Second Team selection once.
During his career, the 6 foot 8 inch Johnston was well known for his right-handed hook shot, which contributed to his leading the league in field goal shooting three times. Johnston was forced to retire after a serious knee injury in the 1958-59 season.
After his playing career, he coached the Warriors to a 95-59 winning record for the first two seasons of Wilt Chamberlain's NBA career.
Johnston also coached the Pittsburgh Rens, with Connie Hawkins, of the American Basketball League.
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Nera White
Nera D. White (born November 15, 1935) is a retired American basketball player. She is considered one of the most outstanding female players in history.
White was born in Macon County, Tennessee and attended the George Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University), along with Sue Gunter and Doris Rogers, both of whom went on to play for the United States women's national basketball team. She completed all of the undergraduate requirements for a degree in education except for the student teaching requirement, which she was unable to complete due to shyness. George Peabody did not have a women's basketball team, so she played for the AAU team in Nashville sponsored by Nashville Business College.
She was named AAU All-American for 15 years in a row from 1955 to 1969, and she led the Nashville Business College team to ten AAU national championships during that period. White was named the MVP of the AAU National Tournament nine times. While she played for Nashville Business college, the team once had a stretch of 92 games where they won 91. White was "widely acknowledged as the greatest woman ever to play the game". In 1966, Harley Redin (head coach of the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens, the dominant team of the 1950s) called her the "greatest woman basketball player in history".
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Nick Horvath
Nick Horvath (born February 18, 1981 in Shoreview, Minnesota) is a naturalised New Zealand professional basketball player, originally from the United States, currently playing for the NZL NBL team Manawatu Jets.
Horvath attended Mounds View High School (Arden Hills, Minnesota) where he led the Mustangs to state tournament appearances in 1998 and 1999 where they captured the 1999 AA State Championship. Horvath was also named the 1999 Minnesota Mr. Basketball.
Horvath played college basketball at Duke University from 2000 to 2004, where he was a part of the 2000-2001 NCAA championship team. He was team captain in 2003 and 2004. Horvath double majored in Physics and English.
Following college, Horvath began playing professionally in Australia. He averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds a game for the West Sydney Razorbacks in 2005 and 19 points and 8 rebounds a game for the Adelaide 36ers in 2006. Horvath signed with the South Dragons for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons where he won an ANBL Championship in 2009.
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Nolan Richardson
Nolan Richardson (born December 27, 1941) is an American basketball head coach, who was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. He has coached teams to winning a Division I Basketball National Championship, an NIT championship, and a Junior College National Championship. Richardson is the only coach to win all three championships. He previously coached college basketball at the University of Tulsa and the University of Arkansas where he led the Razorbacks to the NCAA title in 1994. Richardson coached the Arkansas team to a second-place finish in the NCAA Tournament in 1995. Nolan Richardson's teams during his 22 seasons of coaching in NCAA Division I, made a post season tournament appearance 20 times (16 NCAA, 4 NIT).
On October 20, 2009, Richardson was named head coach of Women's National Basketball Association's Tulsa Shock, formerly known as the Detroit Shock, a position he held until July 8, 2011. Most recently he coached the Mexican National Team.
Richardson was born in El Segundo Barrio in El Paso, Texas, United States to Nolan Richardson Sr. and Clareast Richardson. Clareast died from a mysterious disease in 1944, leaving behind three children: Shirley, age 5, Nolan Jr., three, and Helen, six months. Eventually they moved in with the children's grandmother, Rose Richardson or Ol' Mama. Ol' Mama had a profound impact on Nolan by helping instill the drive and determination to succeed. Nolan's father, would visit, but often did not live with the family, battling alcoholism for much of his adult life.
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Nolan Ryan
Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. (born on January 31, 1947), nicknamed "The Ryan Express", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He is currently principal owner, president and CEO of the Texas Rangers.
During a major league record 27-year baseball career, he pitched in 1966 and from 1968 to 1993 for four different teams: the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Ryan, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, threw pitches that were regularly recorded above 100 miles per hour (160.93 km/h). The high velocity remained throughout his career, even into his 40s. Ryan was also known to throw a devastating 12–6 curveball at exceptional velocity for a breaking ball.
While his lifetime winning percentage was a relatively pedestrian .526, Ryan was an eight-time MLB All-Star, and his 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin. He leads the runner-up, Randy Johnson, by 839 strikeouts. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962—walking over 50% more hitters than any other pitcher in Major League history. Other than Jackie Robinson (whose number was retired by the entire MLB), Ryan is currently the only major league baseball player to have his number retired by at least 3 different teams: the Angels, Astros, and Rangers.
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Nolan Smith
Nolan Derek Smith (born July 25, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, having been selected with the 21st pick in the 2011 NBA Draft after four years at Duke University. As a senior, he was named a first team AP All-American and the ACC Player of the Year. As a junior, he started at shooting guard for Duke's national champion 2010 team.
Smith is the son of the late Derek Smith, a former swingman of nine-year NBA and University of Louisville fame. The elder Smith was a starting forward on Louisville's 1980 NCAA championship team. He also played for the Cardinals in the 1982 Final Four. He was a second-round draft choice of the Golden State Warriors in 1982 and went on to play for the San Diego and Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics before retiring in 1991. His career ended prematurely due to knee problems.
Derek battled Michael Jordan in a famous 1984 game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, outscoring Jordan 66-20, and throwing down a huge dunk over him that is still famous on YouTube. Derek suffered a serious knee injury in the 11th game of the 1985-86 season. At the time he was the third-leading scorer in the NBA at 27.3 points per game.
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Norm Sloan
Norman Sloan (June 25, 1926 – December 9, 2003), nicknamed "Stormin' Norman," was an American college basketball player and coach. Sloan played college basketball for North Carolina State University, and thereafter, he was the men's basketball head coach for Presbyterian College, The Citadel, the University of Florida and North Carolina State University in a career that spanned thirty-eight seasons.
Sloan was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1926. He attended Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis, where he played high school basketball for the Lawrence Central Bears.
Sloan received an athletic scholarship to attend North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he played guard for coach Everett Case's NC State Wolfpack from 1947 to 1949. He was one of Case's original six "Hoosier Hotshots," a group of high school stars Case recruited from Indiana. As a member of the Wolfpack, Sloan was a classmate and teammate of Vic Bubas, who later coached the Duke Blue Devils from 1959 to 1969. Sloan was a member of three Wolfpack teams that won Southern Conference championships in 1947, 1948 and 1949. In a dispute with Case over playing time, Sloan did not play his senior basketball season in 1950–1951, but chose instead to concentrate on playing quarterback for coach Beattie Feathers' NC State Wolfpack football team instead In addition to football and basketball, he was also a member of the Wolfpack track and field team.
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Norm Stewart
Norman E. "Norm" Stewart (born January 20, 1935) is a retired American college basketball coach. He coached at the University of Northern Iowa (then known as State College of Iowa) from 1961 to 1967, but is best known for his career with the University of Missouri from 1967 until 1999. He retired with an overall coaching record of 731-375 in 38 seasons. The court at Mizzou Arena (and previously at the Hearnes Center) is named in his honor.
Stewart was born in Shelby County, Missouri. He grew up the son of a gas station owner around the small farming community of Shelbyville, and graduated from high school there in 1952. After high school Stewart enrolled at the University of Missouri, becoming a standout in both basketball and baseball for the Tigers. Stewart was a two-time team captain, and all-Big Seven selection in basketball. His 24.1 scoring average per-game in 1956 ranks 4th in school history and earned him a spot on the 1956 Helms Foundation All-American team. Stewart also had a solid career on the mound, helping pitch Mizzou to the 1954 NCAA Championship. It was while at MU he met the love of his life, Virginia (Zimmerley) Stewart. Following graduation from Mizzou, Stewart was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks of the NBA in 1956, playing one season at forward. He also signed a contract with Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles, but never played at the big-league level.
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Orel Hershiser
Orel Leonard Hershiser IV (born September 16, 1958) is an American former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He is currently an analyst for Baseball Tonight and Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN and a professional poker player for PokerStars. In 1988, he won the Gold Glove, Cy Young Award, the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP with the Dodgers.
Known for his slight frame and fierce competitive spirit, Hershiser was nicknamed "Bulldog" by team manager Tommy Lasorda.
Hershiser was born in Buffalo, New York to Mildred I. Gillman and Orel Leonard Hershiser III. From 1973 to 1975, he participated in ice hockey with the Don Mills Flyers of the Greater Toronto Hockey League. He attended Cherry Hill High School East in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he was the star pitcher on the school's baseball team. He first caught the attention of pro scouts as a pitcher at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Hershiser was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 17th round of the 1979 amateur draft and was assigned to their Class A farm team, Clinton Dodgers. He spent four more seasons in the minor leagues with AA San Antonio Dodgers and AAA Albuquerque Dukes before being called up to the major leagues.
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Oscar Robertson
Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938 in Charlotte, Tennessee), nicknamed "The Big O", is a former American National Basketball Association player with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Robertson played the shooting guard/point guard position, and was a twelve-time All-Star, eleven-time member of the All-NBA Team, and one-time winner of the MVP award in fourteen professional seasons. He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season. He was a key player on the team which brought the Bucks their only NBA title in the 1970-71 NBA season. His playing career, especially during high school and college, was plagued by racism.
For his outstanding achievements, Robertson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980, and was voted one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. The United States Basketball Writers Association renamed their college Player of the Year Award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in his honor in 1998, and he was one of five people chosen to represent the inaugural National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class in 2006.
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Oswald Tower
Oswald Tower (November 23, 1883 in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA – May 28, 1968) was an American basketball administrator and instructor at Phillips Academy Andover [1910-49]. He served on the National Basketball Rules Committee from 1910 to 1960, was an editor of the Official Basketball Guide and an official rules interpreter from 1915 to 1960. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1959.
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Pat Gillick
Lawrence Patrick David Gillick (born (1937-08-22)August 22, 1937) is a retired American professional baseball executive. He was the general manager of four Major League Baseball teams, and guided two teams to three World Series championships in his career: 1992 and 1993 titles with the Toronto Blue Jays, and a 2008 title with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Gillick was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011.
Gillick was born to former minor league baseball player Larry Gillick in Chico, California. In 1951, he earned his Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America. He continued to stay involved in Scouting and received the Order of the Arrow's Vigil Honor mere months after winning the College World Series at USC. After graduating from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, Pat attended USC and joined the Delta Chi Fraternity. He graduated in 1958 with a degree in business. He was also a gifted pitcher, playing on the 1958 National Title baseball team at USC and spending five years in the minor league systems of the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates, venturing as high as Triple-A. A left-hander, Gillick posted a won/lost record of 45–32 with an earned run average of 3.42 in 164 minor league games.
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Pat Kennedy
Pat Kennedy is an American college basketball coach who most recently was men's basketball coach at Towson University before announcing his resignation on March 7, 2011. Previously, Kennedy coached at Iona College, Florida State University, DePaul University, and the University of Montana.
Kennedy is a native of Keyport, New Jersey, and attended Red Bank Catholic High School. He is a 1975 graduate of King's College. After college, he became an assistant coach to Jim Valvano at Iona. In 1979 when Valvano left for North Carolina State University, Kennedy took the head job at Iona. In six years, he led the Gaels to two NCAA tournament appearances. He compiled a 124–60 record while at Iona.
After Iona, Kennedy went to Florida State. He would spend 11 years in Tallahassee, leading the Seminoles to 5 NCAA tournament appearances. During his tenure at FSU, he won 202 games and lost 131.
In 1997, he took over as head coach at DePaul. In 2000, Kennedy led the Blue Demons to their first NCAA appearance in eight years. While in Chicago, he had a record of 67 wins and 85 losses.
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Pat Riley
Patrick James "Pat" Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, and a former coach and player in the NBA. Currently, he is team president of the Miami Heat. Widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams and an assistant coach to another. He most recently won the 2006 NBA Championship with the Miami Heat. Prior to his tenure in Miami, he served as head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks. He was named NBA Coach of the Year three times (1989–90, 1992–93 and 1996–97, as head coach of the Lakers, Knicks and Heat, respectively). He was head coach of the NBA All-Star Game teams nine times: eight of the Western team (1982, 1983, 1985–1990, all as head coach of the Lakers) and once of the Eastern team (1993, as head coach of the Knicks). In 1996 he was named one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in the NBA history. As a player, he played for the Los Angeles Lakers' championship team in 1972, bringing his personal total to seven NBA titles.
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Pat Summitt
Patricia "Pat" Head Summitt (born on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is a former women's college basketball head coach. She now serves as the head coach emeritus of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history of either a men's or women's team in any division. She coached from 1974 to 2012, all with the Lady Vols, winning eight NCAA national championships, second only to the record 10 titles won by UCLA men's coach John Wooden. Summitt is the only coach in NCAA history, and one of three college coaches overall, with 1,000 victories. She was named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in April 2000. In 2009, the Sporting News placed her number 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time in all sports; she was the only woman on the list. In 38 years as a coach, she never had a losing season. On April 20, 2012, the White House announced that Pat Summitt would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
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Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing, Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle SuperSonics and Orlando Magic. Ewing was named as the 16th greatest college player of all time by ESPN. He won Olympic Gold Medals as a member of the 1984 and 1992 US Men's National Basketball teams. In a 1996 poll celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NBA, Ewing was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time. On April 7, 2008 he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on September 5, 2008 along with former NBA coach Pat Riley and former Houston Rockets center, Hakeem Olajuwon. His number 33 was retired by the Knicks in 2003.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Ewing excelled at cricket and soccer. He was 11 years old when he arrived in the United States with his family, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He learned to play basketball at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. In order to prepare for college, Ewing joined the MIT-Wellesley Upward Bound Program. Upward Bound is a federally-funded TRIO college-prep program for disadvantaged high school students. He went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C..
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Patty Sheehan
Patty Sheehan (born October 27, 1956) is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1980 and won six major championships and 35 LPGA Tour events in all. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Sheehan also hosts the Patty Sheehan & Friends, which is a tournament on the Legends Tour. Patty Sheehan & Friends helps aid women and children's charities all across Northern Nevada.
Sheehan was born in Middlebury, Vermont. She attended Earl Wooster High School in Reno, Nevada. She won three straight Nevada high school championships (1972–74), three straight Nevada State Amateurs (1975–78) and two straight California Women's Amateurs (1977–78). She was the runner-up at the 1979 U.S. Women's Amateur, then was the 1980 AIAW (predecessor of the NCAA) national collegiate champion. She went 4-0 as a member of the 1980 U.S. Curtis Cup team. She attended University of Nevada and San Jose State University.
Sheehan turned professional and joined the LPGA Tour in 1980. She won LPGA Rookie of the Year honors in 1981 with her first professional victory coming at the Mazda Japan Classic. She was strong throughout the 1980s, winning four times in both 1983 and 1984, and winning the LPGA Championship in both seasons. She won LPGA Tour Player of the Year in 1983 and was one of several athletes named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1987.
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Paul Arizin
Paul Joseph Arizin (April 9, 1928 – December 12, 2006), nicknamed "Pitchin' Paul," was an American basketball player who spent his entire National Basketball Association career with the Philadelphia Warriors from 1950 to 1962. He retired with the third highest career point total (16,266) in NBA history, and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History upon its 50th anniversary in 1996. He was a high-scoring forward at Villanova University before being drafted by the Warriors of the fledgling NBA.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Arizin did not play basketball at La Salle College High School, failing to make the team in his only tryout as a senior. Arizin graduated just a year before another NBA hall of famer, Tom Gola, entered La Salle College High School as a freshman.
During his freshmen year at Villanova, Arizin played CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) basketball in Philadelphia. Late in that season, Al Severance, the then Villanova varsity basketball coach, attended one of Arizin's CYO games. Afterwards, Severance approached Arizin and asked, "How would you like to go to Villanova?" His answer: "I go to Villanova."
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Paul Endacott
Paul Endacott (July 3, 1902 – January 8, 1997) was a well-known collegiate basketball player in the 1920s. The Lawrence, Kansas native attended University of Kansas from 1919 to 1923. Playing under Hall of Fame coach Phog Allen, Endacott led Kansas to consecutive Helms Foundation national championships in 1922 and 1923. In 1923 he was named Helms Foundation Player of the Year. Following his collegiate career, he spent four years with the AAU Phillips Petroleum Company Team, from 1924 to 1928. He went on to serve as President of Phillips Petroleum in his later years.
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Paul Hewitt
Paul Harrington Hewitt (born May 4, 1963) is an American college basketball coach at George Mason University and most notably the former head coach at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He grew up in Westbury, New York.
After playing at St. John Fisher College, Hewitt coached the Siena College men's college basketball team for three years, from 1998 to 2000. He led Siena to their first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title game appearance, and coached Siena into the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament.
Hewitt was head coach of the Georgia Tech men's college basketball team from 2000 to 2011. During the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, he led them to the championship game against Connecticut. In 2005 he signed a contract extension that automatically rolls over every April, giving him a new six-year contract. On March 12, 2011, he was fired from his head coaching position at Georgia Tech with a $7.2 million buyout.
Hewitt served as the coach of the U.S. Under-19 squad at the 2011 FIBA Under-19 World Championship. The team came in 5th place.
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Pedro Ferrándiz
Pedro Ferrándiz González (born November 20, 1928 in Alicante, Spain) is a Spanish basketball coach. He is most famous for coaching Real Madrid basketball club in the 1960s and 1970s. The International Olympic Committee awarded him the Olympic Order in 1977, and he is the only basketball coach in history to receive the award.
He was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame in April of 2007. He is also a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors.
Ferrándiz won a record 12 titles in the Spanish League, as well as 4 titles in the European Champions Cup (Euroleague) and 10 titles in the Spanish King's Cup. His combined record, while coaching Real, was 437-90. He recorded three undefeated Spanish League seasons.
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Pepu Hernández
José Vicente Hernández Fernández (born February 11, 1958, in Madrid, Spain), usually known as Pepu Hernández, is a basketball coach. Between 2006 and June 2008, he was the head coach of the Spain national basketball team, winning the gold medal in 2006 FIBA World Championship and the silver medal in EuroBasket 2007.
CB Estudiantes: 1994-2005, 2011–present
Spanish National Team: 2006–2008
Joventut Badalona: 2009–2011
2006 FIBA World Championship, Gold Medal
Eurobasket 2007, Silver Medal
2000 Copa del Rey
2004 Best Liga ACB head coach
2004 Liga ACB runner up
1999 Korać Cup runner up
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Perry Clark
Perry Clark (born December 4, 1951) is an American college basketball coach and the former head men's basketball coach at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He previously served as head coach of Tulane and Miami. On March 7, 2011, Clark was fired as head coach of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
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Pete Carril
Peter J. "Pete" Carril (born July 10, 1930) is an American former basketball coach. He is best known for his time as head coach of Princeton University and his use of the 'Princeton offense'. He also coached at Lehigh University and in the NBA as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings.
Carril was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the son of Spanish immigrants to the United States. He is a graduate of Liberty High School in Bethlehem, where he was an all-state selection for Pennsylvania in the 1947-48 season. He played collegiate basketball at Lafayette College under Butch Van Breda Kolff. While at Lafayette he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity. Following graduation from college he was a teacher and coached high school basketball for 12 seasons at Easton (PA) High School and Reading (PA) High School, where Gary Walters, the current Princeton Athletic Director, and former Princeton point guard, played basketball under him in high school.
After a year at Lehigh University, Carril moved to Princeton University. In 29 years, he compiled a 514-261 (.658 winning percentage) record, the best of any coach in Ivy League basketball history. He is also the only coach to win 500 games without the benefit of athletic scholarships for his players.[2] He won 13 Ivy League championships and received 11 NCAA berths and 2 NIT bids. The Tigers won the NIT championship in 1975. Carril was noted for a tenacious defense, as his teams were first in the nation in scoring defense for fourteen of his final 21 seasons, including eight in a row, from 1988-1996. In part due to this, his Tigers were known as a very dangerous early-round NCAA opponent.
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Pete Gaudet
Pete Gaudet is an American college basketball coach, presently serving as the Head Coach for the India women's national basketball team .
He began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski at the United States Military Academy ("Army"). When Krzyzewski left for Duke in 1980, Gaudet was named his successor as head coach.
At Duke
After leaving the Army program in 1982, Gaudet rejoined Krzyzewski as an assistant coach at Duke from 1983-1995. During this time, Gaudet worked along side of current Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey, Harvard Head Coach Tommy Amaker, and ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. As Coach Mike Krzyzewski's top assistant, Pete Gaudet helped lead Duke to two NCAA men's championships and seven Final Four appearances. An effective in player-development, Gaudet coached eight All-Americans, three National Players of the Year and 12 NBA draft picks.
When Krzyzewski took a leave of absence in early 1995 due to a serious back injury, Gaudet was promoted to interim head coach. After a 9-3 start, the team struggled to an eventual record of 13-18 overall and 2-14 in the ACC. That Duke credits the games coached by Gaudet to him, rather than to Krzyzewski, has become a source of controversy for Duke Basketball detractors, despite the fact that this practice is well within NCAA guidelines and Pete Gaudet expresses no regrets or bitterness concerning this.
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Pete Maravich
Peter "Pistol Pete" Press Maravich (June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988) was an American professional basketball player. Born and raised in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University (LSU) and played for three NBA teams until injuries induced him to retire in 1980. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. (All of his accomplishments were achieved before the three-point line was introduced to NCAA basketball, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules.) Maravich died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game as a consequence of a previously undetected congenital heart defect. One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was cited by the Hall as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history". In an April 2010 interview, Hall of Fame player John Havlicek said "the best ball-handler of all time was (Pete) Maravich."
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Pete Newell
Peter Francis Newell (August 31, 1915 – November 17, 2008) was an American college men's basketball coach and basketball instructional coach. He coached for 15 years at the University of San Francisco, Michigan State University and the University of California, Berkeley, compiling an overall record of 234 wins and 123 losses. He led the University of California to the 1959 NCAA men's basketball championship, and a year later coached the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 1960 Summer Olympics, a team that would be inducted as a unit to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. After his coaching career ended he ran a world-famous instructional basketball camp and served as a consultant and scout for several National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. He is often considered to be one of the most influential figures in the history of basketball.
He was born in Vancouver and grew up in Los Angeles. Encouraged by his mother, he had small roles in several movies before he turned ten. Newell attended both high school and college in Los Angeles, California, and was a classmate of Phil Woolpert at Loyola Marymount University (then called Loyola University). He played on the basketball team.
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Pete Rose
Peter Edward Rose (born April 14, 1941), nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989.
Rose, a switch hitter, is the all-time Major League leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and outs (10,328). He won three World Series rings, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Gloves, the Rookie of the Year Award, and made 17 All-Star appearances at an unequaled five different positions (2B, LF, RF, 3B & 1B).
In August 1989, three years after he retired as an active player, Rose agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball amidst accusations that he gambled on baseball games while playing for and managing the Reds, including claims that he bet on his own team. In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame formally voted to ban those on the "permanently ineligible" list from induction, after previously excluding such players by informal agreement among voters. In 2004, after years of public denial, Rose admitted to betting on baseball and on, but not against, the Reds. The issue of Rose's possible re-instatement, and election, to the Hall of Fame remains a contentious one throughout baseball.
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Pete Rozelle
Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (/rɵˈzɛl/; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office. Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world.
Rozelle was born in South Gate, California and grew up in neighboring Lynwood, California during the Great Depression. He graduated from Compton High School in 1944, lettering in baseball and basketball. He was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and served 18 months in the Pacific on an oil tanker. Rozelle began his career at the University of San Francisco, working as a student publicist for the school's football team. He had already worked in public relations for the Los Angeles Rams front office and while in the athletic office at USF he marketed the Don's National Invitation Tournament championship basketball season of 1949 into a national media event. He graduated from USF in 1950.
He held a series of public relations jobs in Southern California, marketing the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia for a Los Angeles based company. He joined the Los Angeles Rams as its public relations specialist. By 1957, Rozelle was offered the GM job with the Rams. He turned a disorganized, unprofitable team, lost in the growing LA market, into a business success.
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Peter Ueberroth
Peter Victor Ueberroth (/ˈjuːbərɒθ/; born September 2, 1937) is an American executive. He served as the sixth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989. He was recently the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee; he was replaced by Larry Probst in October 2008.
Although Ueberroth was born in Evanston, Illinois, he grew up in northern California. While attending Fremont High School, Ueberroth excelled in football, baseball, and swimming. After graduating from high school, Ueberroth attended San Jose State University on an athletic scholarship. While attending San Jose State he joined Delta Upsilon. He competed in the 1956 United States Olympic water polo trials but failed to make the team. Ueberroth ultimately graduated from San Jose State in 1959 with a degree in business.
After college, Ueberroth became a vice president and shareholder in Trans International Airlines (he was 22 years old at the time). Ueberroth worked at Trans International until 1963, when he founded his own travel company, which would become First Travel Corporation. By the time he sold First Travel in 1980, it was the second largest travel business in North America.
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Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945) is a retired American professional basketball coach and former player. Jackson is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 through 1998; during his tenure, Chicago won six NBA titles. His next team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won five NBA titles from 2000 to 2010. In total, Jackson has won 11 NBA titles as a coach, surpassing the previous record of nine set by Red Auerbach. He holds the record for the most championships in NBA history as a player and a head coach, after breaking the tie with Bill Russell when the Los Angeles Lakers won the 2009 NBA Finals. He also has the highest winning percentage of any NBA coach (.704). Jackson was a player on the 1970 and 1973 NBA champion New York Knicks.
Jackson is known for his use of Tex Winter's triangle offense as well as a holistic approach to coaching that is influenced by Eastern philosophy, earning him the nickname "Zen Master". Jackson cites Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as one of the major guiding forces in his life. He also applies Native American spiritual practices as documented in his book Sacred Hoops. He is the author of several candid books about his teams and his basketball strategies. Jackson is also a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award. In 2007 Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Phil Martelli
Phil Martelli (born August 31, 1954) is an American college basketball coach and current coach of the Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball team. He has led Saint Joseph's to five NCAA Tournaments and five NITs in 16 seasons.
Martelli was a point guard for Widener University. As point guard, he was part of the Division III NCAA Tournament teams in 1974-75 and 1975–76, and set the school's single season and career assist marks.
Martelli began his career on Hawk Hill with SJU's 1985-86 NCAA Tournament team. In his decade as an assistant, he was part of the Hawks' NIT teams in 1992-93 and 1994-95. After 10 years as an assistant under Jim Boyle and John Griffin, Martelli was named the 14th coach in school history on July 20, 1995, and just the third non-alumnus to coach the school.
In his first season as head coach (1995–96) his team reached the final game of the NIT Tournament. In his second year, under the floor generalship of Junior point guard Rashid Bey, and help from Arthur "Yah" Davis and Dmitri Domani, Martelli's Hawks captured the Atlantic 10 crown and made it into the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament. They would not duplicate that success until landing future Naismith College Player of the Year Jameer Nelson and current NBA players Delonte West and Dwayne Jones. With Nelson as point guard, Martelli led the 2003-04 Hawks to a 27-0 regular season. The Hawks lost to Xavier in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and reached the Elite Eight, ultimately losing to Oklahoma State to finish with a record of 30-2. That year, Martelli was named Naismith College Coach of the Year. In 2004-05, Martelli led the Hawks back to the final game of the NIT, where they lost to South Carolina. In 2005-06, the Hawks returned to the NIT, eventually losing to Hofstra University. In 2008, Martelli led Saint Joseph's to its first NCAA Tournament since 2004 with a team led by Pat Calathes and Ahmad Nivins.
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Phil Woolpert
Phil Woolpert (December 15, 1915 – May 7, 1987) was an American college basketball coach. He is best known for coaching the University of San Francisco Dons to two straight national championships in 1955 and 1956.
Born in Danville, Kentucky, Woolpert attended high school in Los Angeles. He subsequently attended Los Angeles Junior College and Loyola University, Los Angeles, where he played basketball for three years and was initiated into the Alpha Delta Gamma National Fraternity.
In 1946, Woolpert was hired as basketball coach for St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco, California where he posted a 63-29 record in his four years as coach. Upon Pete Newell's departure for Michigan State University, the University of San Francisco hired Woolpert to succeed Newell. He assumed both the posts of men's basketball coach and athletic director.
During his tenure at USF, Woolpert posted a 153-78 record, including a 60-game win streak that at the time was the longest in college basketball (surpassed later by John Wooden's 88 straight wins at UCLA.). His teams, anchored by Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Eugene Brown and Mike Farmer, were known for their defense and held opponents below 60 points on 47 different occasions. USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956, and finished third in 1957. At the time the youngest college basketball coach to win a national championship, Woolpert also won Coach of the Year honors in 1955 and 1956.
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Phog Allen
Forrest Clare "Phog" Allen (November 18, 1885 – September 16, 1974) was an American basketball and baseball player, coach of American football, basketball, and baseball, college athletics administrator, and osteopathic physician. Known as the "Father of Basketball Coaching," he served as the head basketball coach at Baker University (1905–1908), the University of Kansas (1907–1909, 1919–1956), Haskell Institute—now Haskell Indian Nations University (1908–1909), and Warrensburg Teachers College—now the University of Central Missouri (1912–1919), compiling a career college basketball record of 746–264. In his 39 seasons at the helm of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball program, his teams won 24 conference championships and three national titles. The Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively recognized Allen's 1921–22 and 1922–23 Kansas teams as national champions. Allen's 1951–52 squad won the 1952 NCAA Tournament and his Jayhawks were runners-up in the NCAA Tournament in 1940 and 1953. His 590 wins are the most of any coach in the storied history of the Kansas basketball program.
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Pokey Chatman
Dana "Pokey" Chatman (born June 18, 1969 in Ama, Louisiana) is the current general manager and head coach of the Chicago Sky of the WNBA. She is the former head coach of the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team and the Spartak Moscow's women's basketball team. After taking over from coach Sue Gunter in 2004, Chatman led the Lady Tigers to three consecutive NCAA Final Fours in 2004 (as acting head coach for the ailing Gunter), 2005, and 2006.
Notably, Chatman resigned from her post at LSU on March 7, 2007 amid allegations of inappropriate relationships with former players that were alleged to have begun when Chatman was coaching the players. The resignation and ensuing controversy appeared to have little effect on her team's preparation for the NCAA Tournament; as the Tigers made it to the 2007 Final Four.
She played point guard in high school and was a 5-time AAU All-American.
The 1991 Kodak All-American point guard played for Gunter from 1987 to 1991, starting all but one game and setting the all-time steals (346) and assists (570) records at LSU. Her assist record was broken in the 2003–2004 season by Temeka Johnson. Chatman played in the NCAA Tournament four times and posted a record of 82-38 as a player. She was a three-time All-SEC selection and led the Lady Tigers to their first ever SEC Tournament title in 1991, where she was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).
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Polish American
A Polish American (Polish: Amerykanin polskiego pochodzenia), is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States. No distinction is made in the American census between ethnically Polish Americans and descendants of non-ethnic Poles, such as Jews or Ukrainians, who were born in the territory of Poland and considered themselves Polish nationals. Therefore, some say, of the 10 million Polish Americans, only a certain portion are of Polish ethnic descent. On the other hand, many ethnic Poles when entering the US from 1795–1917, when Poland did not exist, did not identify themselves as ethnic Poles and instead identified themselves as either German, Austrian or Russian (this pertained to the nations occupying Poland from 1795–1917). Therefore, the actual amount of Americans of at least partial Polish ancestry, could be well over 10 million. Polish Americans are the largest European ethnic group in the United States of Slavic origin.
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Pop Gates
William "Pop" Gates (August 30, 1917 – December 1, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. He was born in Decatur, Alabama and attended high school in New York, New York. After playing college basketball at Clark Atlanta University, he continued his basketball career in New York City with the Harlem Renaissance, for several years beginning in 1938–39. He became one of the early black players in the NBL in 1946. Later he played for and coached the Harlem Globetrotters. Gates is one the few athletes who went directly from a high school championship team (Benjamin Franklin, New York, 1938) to a World Professional Champion (Rens, 1939).
Gates was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989.
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Press Maravich
Petar "Press" Maravich (August 29, 1915 – April 15, 1987) was an American college and professional basketball coach. He received the nickname "Press" for always having gossip-styled updates in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb where he was raised. Maravich Sr. also served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II.
Despite a long career as a coach, Maravich may best be remembered as "Pistol" Pete Maravich's father. Maravich graduated from Davis & Elkins College in 1941 and was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.
After college he played professional basketball with the Youngstown Bears (1945–1946) of the National Basketball League and the Pittsburgh Ironmen (1946–1947) of the Basketball Association of America.
Press Maravich's first head coaching job at the college level was West Virginia Wesleyan College, 1949–1950. From there he went on to become head coach of his alma mater, Davis & Elkins, 1950–1952. He had previously served as an assistant under Red Brown from 1947 to 1949.
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Quin Snyder
Quin Snyder (born October 30, 1966) is currently an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. Snyder, was formerly in charge of player development for the 76ers and accepted the role in June 2010 after coaching the NBDL's Austin Toros for three seasons. Snyder was the head coach of the Toros from 2007–2010; the head coach at the University of Missouri from 1999–2006; an assistant coach at his alma mater, Duke under Mike Krzyzewski from 1993–1999; and an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers under Larry Brown from 1992-1993.
Snyder attended Mercer Island High School in the state of Washington. His high school basketball team was coached by the winningest coach in Washington state history, Ed Pepple. A two-time state player of the year, Snyder led the team to the 1985 state championship. During this time Mercer Island achieved a No. 1 ranking in USA Today's high school polls. Snyder was named a McDonald's All American player, being the first chosen from the state of Washington.
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Rafer Johnson
Rafer Lewis Johnson (born August 18, 1935) is an American former decathlete and film actor.
Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas, but the family moved to Kingsburg, California, when he was nine. For a while, they were the only black family in the town. A versatile athlete, he played on Kingsburg High School's football, baseball and basketball teams. He was also elected class president in both junior high and high school. At 16, he became attracted to the decathlon after seeing double Olympic champion Bob Mathias compete and told his coach, "I could have beaten most of those guys."
He competed in his first meet in 1954 as a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His progress in the event was impressive; he broke the world record in his fourth competition. He pledged Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, America's first nondiscriminatory fraternity, and was class president at UCLA. In 1955, in Mexico City, he won the title at the Pan American Games.
Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and the long jump events for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. However, he was hampered by an injury and forfeited his place in the long jump. Despite this handicap, he managed to take second place in the decathlon behind compatriot Milt Campbell. It would turn out to be his last defeat in the event.
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Ralph Miller
Ralph H. Miller (March 9, 1919 – May 15, 2001) was an American basketball coach. A native of Chanute, Kansas, Miller coached at the University of Wichita (1951–1964), the University of Iowa (1964–1970) and Oregon State University (1970–1989), compiling a 657-382 (.632) overall record in 38 seasons combined. He was enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on May 3, 1988. His teams had losing records only three times.
Miller was a standout athlete in high school and college. At Chanute High School in Kansas, he won letters in football, track, basketball, golf and tennis. He was an all-state basketball player for three years.
In college at the University of Kansas, he won three letters as a football quarterback and three in basketball. He set the state record in the low hurdles in 1937. He was all-state three consecutive years in football and basketball. By 1940, he was beating the 1932 gold medalist in the decathlon Jim Baush in seven of 10 events.
As an undergraduate, he was coached by the legendary Phog Allen. In one of Miller's classes, a guest lecturer was Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.
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Randy Ayers
Randall (Randy) Duane Ayers (born April 16, 1956) is an assistant basketball coach for the New Orleans Hornets. His youngest brother, Tim Ayers, served as Mayor and City Commissioner of Springfield, Ohio from 1984–1990.
Ayers was born in Springfield, Ohio, the fourth child of Frank Ayers and Betty Basey. After graduating from North High School, he attended Miami University, where he played basketball. After graduation from Miami, he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, but was cut from the team without ever playing professionally.
After leaving the Bulls, Ayers began his coaching career at Miami University (in Ohio), before moving on to West Point and Ohio State. His first head coaching position came at Ohio State, taking them to the number one regional seed in the NCAA men's tournament in both 1991 and 1992, but never reaching the Final Four. He was named National Coach of the Year in 1991, and Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1992.
He was named head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers on June 20, 2003, after serving as an assistant coach with the team since 1997. He compiled a 21–31 record, but was fired in the middle of the season. He then served as an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic. On July 24, 2007, Randy Ayers was hired as an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards. On August 5, 2009, Ayers returned to the Philadelphia 76ers to serve as an assistant coach under Eddie Jordan.
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Randy Johnson
Randall David "Randy" Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is a former American Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. During a 22-year career, he pitched for six different teams.
The 6-foot-10-inch (2.08 m) Johnson was celebrated for having one of the most dominant fastballs in the game. He regularly approached, and occasionally exceeded, 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) during his prime. He also threw a hard, biting slider. Johnson won the Cy Young Award five times, second only to Roger Clemens' seven.
Johnson finished his career first in strikeouts per nine innings pitched among starting pitchers (10.67), second all-time in total strikeouts (4,875; first among left-handed pitchers), third in hit batsmen (188), tenth in fewest hits allowed per nine innings pitched (7.24), 22nd in wins (303), and 57th in shutouts (37). He pitched two no-hitters, the second of which was the 17th perfect game in baseball history.
Johnson was born in Walnut Creek, California, to Carol Hannah and Rollen Charles “Bud” Johnson. By the time he entered Livermore High School, he was a star in baseball and basketball. In 1982, as a senior, he struck out 121 batters in 66 innings, and threw a perfect game in his last high school start. He also played on a Bercovich team that assembled top players from throughout California. After high school he was drafted in 1982 by the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd round and offered $50,000 to sign. Instead, Johnson accepted a full athletic scholarship to USC, also playing 2 years of basketball. He continued to start at the University of Southern California under coach Rod Dedeaux, but often exhibited control problems.
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Ray Meyer
Raymond Joseph Meyer (December 18, 1913 – March 17, 2006) was an American men's collegiate basketball coach from Chicago, Illinois. He was well known for coaching at DePaul University from 1942 to 1984, compiling a 724–354 record. Meyer coached DePaul to 21 post-season appearances (13 NCAA, eight NIT).
In total, Meyer recorded 37 winning seasons and twelve 20-win seasons, including seven straight from 1978 to 1984. Two Meyer-coached teams reached the Final Four (1943 and 1979), and in 1945, Meyer led DePaul past Bowling Green to capture the National Invitation Tournament, the school's only post-season title. Meyer coached a College All-Star team that played a coast-to-coast series against the Harlem Globetrotters for 11 years. One of his best players was George Mikan, who was a game-changing player and basketball's first great "big man". Meyer recruited Mikan from Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, a school Meyer had himself earlier attended.
Other top players coached by Meyer include former NBA players Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings. During Meyer's tenure the basketball rivalry between DePaul and Loyola reached an extremely high level. Meyer's Great Great Nephew, Mike Starkman, played basketball for Loyola as a walk on. Meyer was a much-beloved figure in Chicago, and is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was succeeded as DePaul coach by his son, Joey, who led the team for several more seasons, but less successfully than had his father.
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Red Auerbach
Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American basketball coach of the Washington Capitols, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and the Boston Celtics. After he retired from coaching, he served as president and front office executive of the Celtics until his death. As a coach, he won 938 games (a record at his retirement) and nine National Basketball Association (NBA) championships (surpassed only by Phil Jackson). As general manager and team president of the Celtics, he won an additional seven NBA titles, for a grand total of 16 in a span of 29 years, making him one of the most successful team officials in the history of North American professional sports.
Auerbach is remembered as a pioneer of modern basketball, redefining basketball as a game dominated by team play and tough defense rather than individual feats and high scoring and introducing the fast break as a potent offensive weapon. He groomed many players who went on to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Additionally, Auerbach was vital in breaking down color barriers in the NBA. He made history by drafting the first African-American NBA player, Chuck Cooper in 1950, and introduced the first African-American starting five in 1964. Famous for his polarizing nature, he was well known for smoking a cigar when he thought a victory was assured, a habit that became, for many, "the ultimate symbol of victory" during his Boston tenure.
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Red Holzman
William "Red" Holzman (August 10, 1920 – November 13, 1998) was an NBA basketball player and coach probably best known as the head coach of the New York Knicks from 1967 to 1982. Holzman helped lead the Knicks to two NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973, and was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985. In 1996, Holzman was named one of Top 10 Coaches in NBA History.
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1920, to Jewish immigrant parents, as the son of a Romanian mother and Russian father. Holzman grew up in that borough's Ocean Hill-Brownsville neighborhood and played basketball for Franklin K. Lane High School in the mid-1930s. He attended the University of Baltimore and later the City College of New York, where he played for two years until graduation in 1942. Holzman joined the United States Navy in the same year, and played on the Norfolk, Virginia Naval Base team for two years.
Holzman was discharged from the Navy in 1945 and subsequently joined the NBL Rochester Royals, which won the NBL championship in Holzman's first season. Holzman was Rookie of the Year in 1944–45. In 1945–46 and 1947–48 he was on the NBL's first All League team; in the interim year he was on its second team.[1] Holzman stayed with the team through their move to the NBA and subsequent NBA championship in 1951. In 1953, Holzman left the Royals and joined the Milwaukee Hawks as a player-coach, eventually retiring as a player in 1954 but continuing as the team's head coach. During the 1956–1957 season, Holzman led the Hawks (then in St. Louis, Missouri) to 19 losses during their first 33 games, and was subsequently fired.
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Red Mihalik
Zigmund "Red" Mihalik (September 22, 1916–September 25, 1996) was an American basketball player and referee.
He was born 30 miles north of Pittsburgh in Ford City, Pennsylvania, and took up refereeing when officials for a high school game failed to show up. During the 1940s, the 6'1" Mihalik played professionally for the Pittsburgh Ironmen of the Basketball Association of American and the Youngstown Bears of the National Basketball League. He then embarked upon a long officiating career, working games for the NBA, NCAA, Summer Olympics and still finding time to ref WPIAL High School games in and around Pittsburgh [1]. He was deemed the best official of the game on all levels in the 1950s by Dell Publications. He was widely considered just that until an oncourt knee injury forced him into retirement in 1972. Widely considered one of the best basketball referees in history, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1986. He was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
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Reggie Love
Reginald L. Love (born April 29, 1982) served as the special assistant and personal aide, commonly referred to as body man for "taking care of the president's needs", to United States President Barack Obama. Love left this position at the end of 2011, to complete his Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
He attended high school at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated with a degree in political science and public policy from Duke University. He was a forward for the Duke Blue Devils basketball team, played on the 2001 team that won the NCAA national championship, and was a captain of the 2005 team. He also played wide receiver for the Duke football team on a football scholarship,. While his high school team won two state titles, his college team lost the first 22 games of his career. He tried out unsuccessfully with several National Football League teams during the two years after he graduated from college.
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Renato William Jones
Renato William Jones (October 5, 1906 in Rome, Italy – April 22, 1981 in Munich, Germany), also known as R. William, or simply William Jones, was a popularizer of basketball in Europe and in Asia. He holds an honorary doctorate from Springfield College.
He was one of the founding fathers of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur (FIBA) in 1932 and served as the first Secretary-General from 1932 until 1976. From 1932 he was eager to convince the IOC that an Olympic tournament should be organized in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. After the International Handball Federation (IAHF) renounced on its responsibility for basketball in 1934, FIBA was accepted as autonomous body by IOC and the Berlin tourney could be held under Jones' supervision. Later, he was made secretary general of the International Council of Sport and Physical Education in 1958.
He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964,FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007[citation needed] and also as patron of the Amateur Basketball Association of England in 1973.
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Rick Barnes
Richard Dale Barnes (born July 17, 1954) is the current head coach of the University of Texas Longhorns men's basketball team. He has coached Texas for the last fourteen seasons, taking the team to the NCAA Tournament each year, including a Final Four appearance led by T. J. Ford in 2003. Barnes previously coached at George Mason University, Providence College, and Clemson University. He is a 1977 graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College where he was a member of the men's basketball team.
Barnes' success at Texas, a traditional football powerhouse, has sparked interest in college basketball at the university and throughout the state of Texas. Hired in April 1998, the basketball program immediately displayed Barnes' impact. Despite playing with just seven scholarship players for the majority of the 1998–99 season — and opening the season with a 3-8 record — the Longhorns won 16 of their final 21 games, winning the regular season Big 12 conference championship by a two-game margin, and finishing the year at 19-13 and in the NCAA Tournament. Barnes received his third Big 12 Coach of the Year award on March 10, 2008.
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Rick Barry
Richard Francis Dennis Barry III (born March 28, 1944), better known as Rick Barry, is a retired American professional basketball player. He is considered by many veteran basketball observers[who?] to be one of the greatest pure small forwards of all time as a result of his very precise outside shot, uncanny court vision, knowledge and execution of team defense principles, tenacious and ofttimes demanding will to win, and unorthodox but accurate underhanded free throw shooting. Barry is one of the few elite players who altered their games without losing effectiveness; he broke into the professional ranks as a rebounder and all-purpose scorer before he became a primary ball distributor and lethal perimeter threat.
Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in history by the NBA in 1996, Barry is the only player to lead the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), ABA and NBA in scoring for an individual season. In 1987, Barry was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Rick Majerus
Rick Majerus (born February 17, 1948) is an American college basketball coach, and the men's basketball head coach at St Louis University. He coached previously at Marquette University (1983–1986), Ball State University (1987–1989), the University of Utah (1989–2004), Majerus' most successful season came at Utah in the 1997-98 season, when the Utes finished as NCAA national runners-up.
Majerus graduated from Marquette University High School in 1966 and then attended Marquette University, where he tried out as a walk-on in the 1967 season. He did not play for Marquette, but stayed on as a student assistant. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in history. He began coaching eighth-graders at St. Sebastian Grade School in Milwaukee, then coached freshmen boys at Marquette University High School. He was an assistant coach with the Marquette Warriors for 12 years under mentor Al McGuire, until 1977, and under Hank Raymonds until taking over as head coach in 1983. After three years as head coach at Marquette, and a 56-35 record, he became an assistant coach with the National Basketball Association's Milwaukee Bucks for the 1986–87 season. He coached at Ball State during the 1987–88 and 1988–89 seasons, finishing with a record of 43–17.
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Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach. Since 2001, he has been the head coach at the University of Louisville. He has also served as head coach at Boston University, Providence College and the University of Kentucky, leading that program to the NCAA championship in 1996. He has coached on the professional level for the NBA's New York Knicks and Boston Celtics with mixed results.
Pitino holds the distinction of being the only men's coach in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville) to a Final Four. (John Calipari did the same, but two of his Final Four appearances were later vacated by the NCAA.) Pitino is also only one of three coaches ever to take his school to the Final Four in four separate decades. In addition, Pitino has achieved a measure of success as an author and a motivational speaker.
Pitino, a Sicilian American and native of New York City, grew up in the Village of Bayville and was captain of the St. Dominic High School basketball team in nearby Oyster Bay, Long Island. He enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1970. He was a standout guard for the Minutemen basketball team. His 329 career assists rank tenth all-time at UMass, as of the 2009–10 season. He led the team in assists as a junior and senior. The 168 assists as a senior is the eighth-best single season total ever there. Pitino was a freshman at the same time future NBA legend Julius Erving spent his junior (and final) year at UMass, although the two never played on the same team because freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball at the time. Other teammates of Pitino's include Al Skinner, who also went on to become a successful college coach, and baseballer Mike Flanagan, who went on to pitch in the major leagues and win the AL Cy Young Award in 1979. Pitino earned his degree from UMass in 1974.
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Robert Gruenig
Robert F. "Ace" Gruenig (March 12, 1913 – August 11, 1958) was a United States amateur basketball player during the 1930s and 1940s.
The 6 ft. 8 in. (203 cm) Gruenig is considered as one of the game's first great big men. The Chicago, Illinois native led his high school, Crane Tech, to the Chicago Public High School League championship in 1931. He attended Northwestern University, but withdrew after his freshman year without having played for the varsity. While playing for several AAU teams in the following decade, Gruenig was named AAU All-America 10 times (1937–40, 1942–46, 1948). Furthermore, he led the Denver Safeway (1937), Denver Nuggets (1939) and Denver American Legion (1942) teams to AAU championships. On August 11, 1963, Gruenig was enshrined to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Robert Parish
Robert Lee Parish (born August 30, 1953) is a retired American basketball center. He was known for his strong defense and jump shooting, and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. In 1996, Parish was also named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. His nickname was The Chief, after the fictitious Chief Bromden, a silent, giant Native American character in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. According to Parish, former Celtics forward Cedric Maxwell gave him this nickname because of his stoic nature.
Although Parish had a successful college career at Centenary College of Louisiana from 1972–1976, he received virtually no notice because of one of the most severe penalties ever levied by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
In 1965, the NCAA adopted the so-called "1.6 rule" to determine academic eligibility of incoming freshmen. Under its provisions, freshmen would academically qualify if their high school grades and standardized test scores predicted a minimum college grade point average of 1.6 on a 4-point scale.
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Rod Barnes
Rod Barnes (born January 8, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and current head coach of the Cal State Bakersfield Men's Basketball program. He previously served as head coach for the Georgia State University men's basketball team of the NCAA Division I's Colonial Athletic Association. Barnes was also head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Mississippi.
Barnes played college basketball at the University of Mississippi of the NCAA Division I's Southeastern Conference from 1985 to 1988. He earned All-SEC and All-America honorable mention honors in 1988. Barnes earned his Business Administration degree in 1989 and left Ole Miss to become an assistant coach at Livingston University in 1990. In 1993, Barnes returned to Ole Miss to serve as an assistant coach to Rob Evans. Barnes helped coach Ole Miss to consecutive 20-win seasons and NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship berths in 1997 and 1998.
When Rob Evans departed for Arizona State University in 1998, Barnes was promoted to head coach of Ole Miss. Barnes coached them for eight seasons, building a 141–109 record. He was named the 2001 Naismith College Coach of the Year and the 2001 SEC Coach of the Year after leading Ole Miss to a school-record 27-win season in 2000–01 which included a trip to the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Barnes was fired at Ole Miss after the 2005–06 season in which Ole Miss started 13–3 but lost 13 of their last 14 games. Barnes served as an assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma during the 2006–07 season.
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Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE (born 23 March 1929) is an English former athlete best known for running the first mile in less than 4 minutes. Bannister became a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 2001.
Sir Roger was the inaugural recipient of the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award in January 1955 (1954 Sportsman of the Year).
Roger Bannister was born in Harrow, England. He went to Vaughan Primary school in Harrow before going on to be educated at Beechen Cliff School Bath, University College School, London, Exeter College and Merton College, Oxford, and at St Mary's Hospital Medical School (now part of Imperial College London).
Bannister was inspired by miler Sydney Wooderson's remarkable comeback in 1945. Eight years after setting the mile record and seeing it surpassed during the war years by the great Swedish runners Arne Andersson and Gunder Hägg, Wooderson regained his old form and challenged Andersson over the distance in several races. Wooderson lost to Andersson but set a British record of 4:04.2 in Göteborg on 9 September.
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Ron Guidry
Ronald Ames Guidry ( /ˈɡɪdri/; born August 28, 1950), nicknamed "Louisiana Lightning" and "Gator", is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher. He played his entire 14-year baseball career for the New York Yankees (1975–1988). Guidry was also the pitching coach of the New York Yankees from 2006 to 2007.
Guidry was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and began his career pitching briefly in the 1975 and 1976 seasons. In 1977, he began as a relief pitcher but was moved into the starting rotation. He helped lead the New York Yankees to a World Series championship in 1977 and 1978. In those two years combined, Guidry went 4-0 in the postseason with 3 complete games in 5 starts, allowing only nine earned runs in 371⁄3 innings pitched.
In 1978, Guidry posted a career year, one of the best in the modern era. Against the California Angels on June 17, he struck out a Yankee-record 18 batters. Guidry's 18-strikeout performance is usually cited as the launching pad of the Yankee Stadium tradition of fans standing and clapping for a strikeout with two strikes on the opposing batter.
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Rory Sparrow
Rory Darnell Sparrow (born June 12, 1958, in Suffolk, Virginia) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA.
Sparrow played at Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, and was an inaugual inductee into the school's Hall of Fame.
He played collegiately at Villanova University, where he scored 1183 career points, and made 495 assists. In college, Sparrow made game-winning shots in the last ten seconds of the game on five occasions.
Sparrow, a 6'2" guard, was selected 75th overall (round 4, pick 6) of the 1980 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. Including the Nets, he played with the Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers over a 12-year career, retiring after the 1991-92 season. He scored the first field goal in Miami Heat history, when the franchise was created in 1988.
Throughout his 12-year career Rory Sparrow was known as one of the steadiest guards in the NBA. He had his best years with the Atlanta Hawks and the New York Knicks in the early 1980s, then went on to become a charter member of the expansion Miami Heat. In addition to his on-court success, Sparrow earned equal recognition for his tireless efforts in the community. In 1987 he was one of eight charitable athletes honored by Sports Illustrated as co-Sportsman of the Year.
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Roy Halladay
Harry Leroy "Roy" Halladay III (born May 14, 1977), nicknamed "Doc", is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. His nickname, coined by the late Toronto Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek, is a reference to Wild West gunslinger "Doc" Holliday.
He was the Blue Jays' first draft selection in the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft, the 17th pick overall, and played for the team from 1998 through 2009, after which he was traded to Philadelphia. Halladay is known for his ability to pitch deep into games effectively, and he is currently the active major league leader in complete games with 66, including 20 shutouts.
On May 29, 2010, Halladay pitched the 20th perfect game in MLB history, beating the Florida Marlins by a score of 1–0. On October 6, 2010, in his first post-season start, Halladay threw the second no-hitter in MLB postseason history (Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series being the first) against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS. It was his second no-hitter of the year (following the May 29 perfect game), making Halladay the fifth pitcher in major league history (and the first since Nolan Ryan in 1973) to throw multiple no-hitters in the same season. Halladay has won two Cy Young Awards, in 2003 and 2010.
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Rudy Gay
Rudy Carlton Gay, Jr. (born August 17, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played collegiately at the University of Connecticut before turning pro.
Gay was one of five siblings and began playing competitive recreational basketball at 12 years old in the Turner Station community of Baltimore County, Maryland in one of the toughest youth basketball leagues in the area. Early exposure to Baltimore AAU basketball and summer league games in the Tom Jones Youth Summer League in Washington, D.C., showcased his abilities against top competition.[citation needed]
At the age of 14, Gay began playing for the nationally-known Cecil-Kirk AAU program under Coach Anthony Lewis with other blue-chip players such as Josh Boone (UConn), Paris Carter (New Mexico State), and Chester Frazier (Illinois). During the spring of his 8th grade year, Gay and teammate Scott Dozier were highly sought after by several private schools. Gay attended Eastern Technical High School in Baltimore County, while Dozier enrolled at the St. Paul's School.[citation needed] Gay transferred to Archbishop Spalding High School of the Baltimore Catholic League after his sophomore year at Eastern Tech.[citation needed]
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Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook (born November 12, 1988) is an American professional basketball player currently playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA. Westbrook played high school basketball for Leuzinger High School, before heading to play for UCLA. Westbrook played two years at UCLA before declaring for the 2008 NBA Draft. He was drafted by the Thunder's former incarnation, the Seattle SuperSonics, which relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City six days after the draft. Westbrook was also a member of the 2010 United States national team. Over his career, Westbrook has been a two-time All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team, and a member of the NBA All-Rookie First Team. Westbrook represented the United States in the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey where he won a gold medal.
Westbrook was born in Long Beach, California to parents Russell and Shannon Horton. He has one younger brother, Raynard, and has said that he admires former Los Angeles Lakers great Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Westbrook was a childhood friend of Khelcey Barrs, a talented young small forward who had been attracting interest from major college basketball schools as a 6-foot-6, 200 pound high school sophomore. However, Barrs collapsed and died after playing a series of late night basketball games in 2004.
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Sam Barry
Justin McCarthy "Sam" Barry (December 17, 1892 – September 23, 1950) was an American collegiate athletic coach who achieved significant accomplishments in three major sports. He remains one of only three coaches to lead teams to both the Final Four and the College World Series.
Barry was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After starring in basketball, baseball and football while a high school student in Madison, Wisconsin, he continued his success at Lawrence College, later completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He returned to Madison High School to begin his coaching career, and then proceeded to become athletic director at Knox College in Illinois from 1918 to 1922, where he also served as coach of football, basketball, baseball and track.
In 1922, Barry was named basketball coach at the University of Iowa, and also became a football assistant under then Hawkeyes coach Howard Jones, an association which would continue for 15 years at two universities. Barry also coached the Iowa baseball team in 1923 and 1924. He led the Hawkeye basketball team to Big Ten Conference co-championships in 1923 and 1926—the first two conference titles in team history—and helped Jones guide the football squad to an undefeated 7–0 season in 1922, winning a share of the Big Ten title—the last for Hawkeyes football until 1956.
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Sammy Sosa
Samuel Peralta "Sammy" Sosa (born November 12, 1968) is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder. Sosa played with four Major League Baseball teams over his career which spanned from 1989-2007.
Sosa's Major League career began with the Texas Rangers in 1989. After three seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Sosa became a member of the Chicago Cubs in 1992 and subsequently became one of the league's best hitters. In 1998, Sosa and Mark McGwire achieved national fame for their home run-hitting prowess in pursuit of Roger Maris' home run record. Sosa finished his career with brief stints with the Baltimore Orioles and the Texas Rangers. With the Rangers, Sosa hit his 600th career home run to become the fifth player in MLB history to reach the milestone. He is also the all-time home run leader among foreign-born MLB players. Furthermore, Sosa is one of only two National League Players to ever reach 160 RBI in a season, a milestone he reached in 2001. The other was Cubs player and RBI Champion Hack Wilson during his record setting 1930 season in which he recorded 191 RBI. Sosa is the only player to have hit 60 or more home runs in a single season three times.
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Sandro Gamba
Alessandro Gamba (born June 3, 1932 in Milan), better known as, Sandro Gamba, is an Italian former professional basketball coach and player. Gamba was a finalist for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, and was elected as a member in 2006. He is also a member of the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame, inducted in 2006.
Gamba played for only one team, winning ten Italian Championships with Olimpia Milano (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963), and also captained the Italian national team (for which he had debuted in 1952) at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games.
Gamba retired from play in 1965, and became a coach in the top Italian professional league, Serie A, where he coached teams from Olimpia Milano (1965-1973), Varese (1973-1977), Auxilium Torino (1977-1980), and Virtus Bologna (1985-1987). He led Varese to two Italian Championships (1974, 1977) and two European Champions Cup (Euroleague) titles, in 1975 and 1976.
From 1979 to 1992, except for a break in 1985-1987, Gamba was the coach of the Italian national team, and led them at the Summer Olympic Games in 1980 (where they won a silver medal), in 1984, in 1988, and in 1992. He also coached Italy's national team at the FIBA European Basketball Championship seven times, winning a gold in 1983, a bronze in 1985, and a silver in 1991.
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Sandy Koufax
Sanford "Sandy" Koufax ( /ˈkoʊfæks/; born Sanford Braun, December 30, 1935) is an American former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1955–1966). Retiring at the peak of his career, in 1972 he became, at age 36 and 20 days, the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame .
Koufax's career peaked with a run of six outstanding seasons from 1961 to 1966, before arthritis in his left elbow ended his career prematurely at age 30. He was named the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1963. He also won the 1963, 1965, and 1966 Cy Young Awards by unanimous votes, making him the first 3-time Cy Young winner in baseball history and the only one to win 3 times when the award was for all of baseball, not just one league. In each of his Cy Young seasons, Koufax won the pitcher's triple crown by leading the NL in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average. Koufax's totals would also have led the American League in those seasons.
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Satch Sanders
Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders (born November 8, 1938, in New York City, New York) is a retired American college and professional basketball player and coach. He was a 6'6" and 210 lb forward. On April 4, 2011, it was announced that Sanders was elected to the 2011 class to enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor.
After playing at New York University as a stand out collegian he spent all of his 13 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Boston Celtics, being part of eight championship teams in 1961-66, 1968 and 1969. In NBA history, only teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones have won more championship rings during their playing careers. He ended his career in 1973. He coached the team for a brief period in 1978.
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Scottie Pippen
Scottie Pippen (born September 25, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association. He is most remembered for his time with the Chicago Bulls, with whom he was instrumental in 6 NBA titles and their record 1995–96 season of 72 wins. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls team into a vehicle for popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s.
Considered one of the best small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team 8 straight times and the All-NBA First Team three times. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the 1996–97 season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls (the others being Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, and Michael Jordan). During his seventeen-year career, he played twelve seasons with the Bulls, one with the Houston Rockets and four with the Portland Trail Blazers, making the postseason sixteen straight times. Pippen is also the only person to have won an NBA title and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice (1992, 1996). Pippen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.
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Sergei Belov
Sergei Alexandrovich Belov (Russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Бело́в; born January 23, 1944, in the village of Nashchyokovo, Shegarsky District, Tomsk Oblast, Soviet Union) is a former professional basketball player, most noted for playing for the Soviet Union national basketball team at the Olympic Games. He trained at Trud Voluntary Sports Society, and later at Armed Forces sports society.
In 1968, he became an Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. Later, he became an Honored Coach of Russia (1995), and the President of the Russian Basketball Federation (1993–98).
Belov is considered to be one of the best non-American basketball players of all time. He was given the honor of lighting the Olympic Cauldron with the Olympic flame, during the 1980 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, in Moscow. In 1991, FIBA named him the Best FIBA Player Ever.
He became the first international player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 11, 1992. He was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. He was named of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors in 2008.
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Seth Greenberg
Seth Greenberg (born April 18, 1956) is an American college basketball coach, and the former head coach for the Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball team. After his initial season coaching the team in the Big East Conference, he guided the Hokies through their first two full seasons in the Atlantic Coast Conference starting in 2004–05, earning the team a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament and their first post-season tournament appearance since 1996 with a trip to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
Greenberg's success in 2005 earned him the ACC Coach of the Year award, given by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. He repeated this achievement in 2008.
In 2005, he helped donate 2,400 student tickets to the NIT game against Temple. In 2008, he increased the donations to 3000 tickets for students in all three NIT games played in Cassell Coliseum.
During the 2006–07 season, Greenberg led the Hokies to signature victories against #1 North Carolina at home in an eight-day span. The victories landed the Hokies in the AP Top 25 for the first time in over a decade, and earned their first NCAA tournament appearance since the 1995-96 season. They received a #5 seed in the West bracket, but fell to Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the second round. Another highlight in Greenberg's career came on January 21, 2009 when the Hokies defeated #1 Wake Forest, 78–71. Wake Forest was the only remaining undefeated team in the nation at the time. On February 27, 2011 the Hokies defeated #1 Duke in Cassell Coliseum.
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Shane Battier
Shane Courtney Battier (born September 9, 1978) is an American professional basketball player. He currently plays with the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He has also been a member of the U.S. national team.
Battier was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, and attended Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, where he won many awards including 1997 "Mr. Basketball of Michigan." He went on to play four years of college basketball at Duke, where he captured the 2001 National Championship and swept the major National Player of the Year awards. Battier was selected with the sixth overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies and was traded five years later to the Houston Rockets. He was then traded back to the Memphis Grizzles during the 2010-2011 NBA season. His number has been retired by both Detroit Country Day School and Duke University. He is widely known for his aggressive defense and being able to guard the league's best players.
Battier was an outlier from his childhood; by the time he entered Country Day as a seventh-grader, he was already 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), and was 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) a year later. He was also the only child in the school with a black father and a white mother. As Michael Lewis put it in a 2009 article, the young Battier "was shuttling between a black world that treated him as white and a white world that treated him as black." More specifically in the context of basketball, Lewis noted that "the inner-city kids with whom he played on the A.A.U. circuit treated Battier like a suburban kid with a white game, and the suburban kids he played with during the regular season treated him like a visitor from the planet where they kept the black people." Battier also noted that his cerebral approach to the game was forged from that time:
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Skinny Johnson
William C. "Skinny" Johnson (August 16, 1911 – February 5, 1980) was a well-known American basketball player during the 1930s. As a 6-4 (192 cm) center Johnson was among the tallest players of his time. The Oklahoma City native attended the University of Kansas (1929–33), where he was a three-year letterwinner under coach Phog Allen. He was named First-Team Big Six Conference twice (1932, 1933) as well as Second-Team Big Six Conference (1931) once. During the 1930s he played amateur basketball with several AAU teams. He briefly coached collegiate basketball at Cleveland Chiropractor College (1937) in Kansas City, Missouri as well. On May 2, 1977, Johnson was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player.
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Skip Prosser
George Edward "Skip" Prosser (November 3, 1950 – July 26, 2007) was an American college basketball coach who was head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University at the time of his death. He was the only coach in NCAA history to take three separate schools to the NCAA Tournament in his first year coaching the teams. In 21 years as a collegiate coach, he made 18 postseason appearances.
Previously, he coached Xavier University for seven seasons, where he achieved great success. He spent his first year of coaching at the collegiate level at Loyola College in Maryland, where he took the Greyhounds to the team's first modern-day NCAA Tournament appearance.
Prosser was the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2003. His teams have at times been participants in the NCAA Tournament in March, although Wake Forest did not participate in the 2006 or 2007 seasons.
Prosser was born and raised in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of Carnegie and graduated from Carnegie High School, where he played football and basketball. He played basketball and rugby union at the United States Merchant Marine Academy where he earned a degree in nautical science in 1972.
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Slater Martin
Slater Nelson "Dugie" Martin Jr. (born October 22, 1925) is an American retired professional basketball player and coach who played the guard position for 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was born in El Mina, Texas and played in seven NBA All-Star Games.
Martin was one of the NBA's best defensive players in the 1950s while playing for the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers that won four NBA championships between 1950 and 1954. In 1956 he joined Bob Pettit's St. Louis Hawks and won another NBA title in 1958.
Martin is an alumnus of Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, where he led his school to two state basketball championships in 1942 and 1943.[1] He is also a graduate of University of Texas at Austin, where he set a record in 1949 for putting up 49 points playing for the Texas Longhorns against the opposing Texas Christian University team. Throughout his career with the Longhorns, Martin averaged 12.7 points per game.[2] His former high school now holds an annual funder raiser in his name, the "Slater Martin Golf Tournament", which successfully raises tens of thousands of dollars each year as an aid to high school student clubs and sports teams.
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Slats Gill
Amory Tingle "Slats" Gill (May 1, 1901 – April 5, 1966) was a men's basketball and baseball coach at Oregon State University.
Gill was born in Salem, Oregon, the youngest of eight children. His father died when he was a child. His nickname "Slats" was given to him at age 12. Gill was swimming in a local pond one summer afternoon. Upon exiting the pond, a buddy joked with Gill about his scrawny frame with his ribs protruding, which he said looked like slats in a picket fence. Gill was from then on known as Slats.
Gill attended Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in Corvallis, Oregon. While at OAC, he played baseball from 1919 to 1921 and basketball from 1922 to 1924. Gill was an All-American forward in 1924.
Gill's first head coaching position was at a high school in Oakland, California. After one season there, he returned to Corvallis to be the head coach of the Rooks (the OSU freshman team). He spent two seasons in that capacity.
In the summer of 1928, OAC's current head coach Bob Hager was fired by then school president Jasper Kerr. Kerr did not look far for his new head coach. Even though Gill was only 27 years old and had just three years of coaching under his belt, Kerr hired him as the head basketball coach.
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Stan Musial
Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial ( /ˈmjuːziəl/ or /ˈmjuːʒəl/; born November 21, 1920) is a retired professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1941–1963). Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection (tied with Willie Mays), and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. He compiled 3,630 hits (ranking fourth all-time and most in a career spent with only one team). With 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 on the road, he is also considered to be the most consistent hitter of his era. He also compiled 475 home runs during his career, was named the National League's (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times, and won three World Series championship titles. Musial was a first-ballot inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 and is currently the longest tenured living Hall of Famer.
Musial was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, where he frequently played baseball in both informal and organized settings, eventually playing on the baseball team at Donora High School. Signed to a professional contract by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher in 1938, Musial was converted into an outfielder prior to his major league debut in 1941. Noted for his unique batting stance, he quickly established himself as a consistent and productive hitter. In his first full season, 1942, the Cardinals won the World Series. The following year, he led the National League in six different offensive categories and earned his first MVP award. He was also named an All-Star for the first time; he would be selected to every All-Star Game in every subsequent season he played. Musial won his second World Series ring in 1944, then missed the entire 1945 season while serving with the United States Navy.
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Stan Watts
Stanley H. Watts (August 30, 1911 – April 6, 2000) was a college men's basketball coach, well-known for coaching Brigham Young University to a 372-254 record between 1949 and 1972. The Murray, Utah native was enshrined to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on May 6, 1986.
Stan Watts became the sixth coach in history to win 100 games in his first five years, and on and off the court was a man of integrity and sportsmanship. Watts' BYU teams were disciplined and well-drilled units that favored an up-tempo style and relentless defensive pressure. In 23 seasons, Watts compiled a 371-254 (.594) record and established a strong basketball tradition and a national athletic identity for the Mormon school. His Cougars teams won eight conference titles, appeared in 11 postseason tournaments and captured the 1951 and 1966 National Invitation Tournament championships. Highly respected by his peers for his dedication to coaching and his community, Watts began his coaching career in 1938 at Millard High, then coached Dixie Junior College from 1941 to 1945 and Jordan High from 1945 to 1947. Watts was chosen as BYU's freshman coach in 1947 and inherited the varsity team in 1949. A master teacher, Watts' highly acclaimed book, Developing an Offensive Attack in Basketball (1958), became a standard manual on the fast break offense. From 1965 to 1966, Watts' "Runnin' Cougars" scored more than 100 points 21 times and at least 95 points 32 times. Watts' teaching skills were in constant demand at coaching clinics across the nation and in Europe, the Far East and South Africa. Watts served his coaching organization, the NABC, on numerous committees. He served on the Board of Directors from 1958 to 1968 and as president in 1970.
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Steve Cauthen
Steve Cauthen (born May 1, 1960) is a retired American jockey.
Cauthen, the son of a trainer and a farrier, grew up in Walton, Kentucky around horses, which (along with his small size) made race-riding a logical career choice. He rode his first race on May 12, 1976 at Churchill Downs; he finished last, riding King of Swat. He rode his first winner (Red Pipe) less than a week later, at River Downs. His rise to prominence was meteoric; he was the nation's leader in race wins in 1977 with 487. In only his second year of riding, he became the first jockey to win $6 million in a single season, passing that mark in December 1977 on a three-year-old filly called Little Happiness in the sixth race at Aqueduct Racetrack. After that, he was called "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "Stevie Wonder."
In 1977, he won numerous awards, including Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, Sporting News Sportsman of the Year, Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year and ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. In the same year, he won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey and the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in the United States.
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Steve Donahue
Steve Donahue (born May 21, 1962) is an American college basketball coach and the current men's basketball coach at Boston College.
A native of Springfield Township, Pennsylvania and a former player at Ursinus College, Donahue previously served as head coach at Cornell University, an assistant coach at Penn, Philadelphia University, Monsignor Bonner High School and Springfield High School. He had been the head coach at Cornell from September 2000 until April 6, 2010.
Recent highlights of the Cornell basketball program under Donahue include a March 1, 2008 defeat of the Harvard Crimson to win the Ivy League championship for the first time since 1988 and just the second title in program history. On March 6, 2009, with Princeton's loss to Columbia, Cornell clinched the Ivy League Championship for a second consecutive year. It was the first time in 50 years that any team other than Penn or Princeton had won consecutive Ivy League titles in basketball.
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Steve Fisher
Steve Fisher (born March 24, 1945) is an American college basketball coach currently at San Diego State University.
Fisher attended Illinois State University, where he helped lead the Redbirds to the 1967 Division II Final Four. After college, he became a high school coach in Park Forest, Illinois. In 1979, he accepted an assistant coaching position at Western Michigan University. In 1982, he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and took another assistant job at the University of Michigan.
In 1989, during the final week of the regular season, Michigan head coach Bill Frieder agreed to take the coaching job at Arizona State University. Though Frieder intended to coach Michigan through the end of the 1989 NCAA tournament, athletic director Bo Schembechler ordered Frieder to leave immediately and hired Fisher as interim coach, declaring that "a Michigan man will coach Michigan, not an Arizona State man." Once Frieder had announced his employment at another school, Schembechler no longer considered him a "Michigan man."
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Steve Wojciechowski
Steve "Wojo" Wojciechowski (born August 11, 1976) is an American basketball coach and former player of Polish origin. He played at Duke University from 1994 until 1998 where he was the team's point guard. He currently is an associate head coach at Duke under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Wojciechowski is a 1994 graduate of the Cardinal Gibbons School in Baltimore, MD, where he played under legendary Baltimore Catholic League Head Coach Ray Mullis and was named to the East squad of the 1994 McDonald's All-American Team, playing alongside 1994 High School Player of the Year Felipe López, and against future Duke teammates Trajan Langdon and Ricky Price.
During Wojciechowski's career, the Duke Blue Devils achieved an 87-44 record, won the ACC regular season championship in the 1996-97 season, and played in the NCAA South Regional final in the 1997-98 season. During his senior year, Wojciechowski earned NABC Defensive Player of the Year honors, and was an honorable mention All-American.
He is ranked eighth at Duke for career steals (203) and eighth for career assists (505). He also achieved the second highest number of steals in a single season with 82 in 1997.
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Stretch Murphy
Charles C. "Stretch" Murphy (April 10, 1907 – August 19, 1992) is a former American basketball player.
Charles Murphy played competitive basketball at Marion High School (1922–26), located in Marion, Indiana. The All-State player led his school to the Indiana state championship in 1926 during his senior year. He was recruited by men's head coach, Ward Lambert, at Purdue University, where he played for four seasons (1926–1930). Teaming with fellow Hall of Famer John Wooden, Murphy led the Boilers to the Big 10 championship in 1930 after an undefeated season in conference play (10-0). He set a new Big 10 scoring record for a season in 1929 with 143 points and led Purdue to a 53-13 overall record during his tenure. Murphy was named a Consensus All-American in both his junior and senior years and to the All-time All-American team. After graduating from Purdue, Murphy played for the American Basketball League's Chicago Bruins and the independent Indianapolis Kautskys.
Murphy was one of the game's first true big men. At 6'6" (1.98 m), he was an insurmountable force on both ends of the court. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960 and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1963.
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Stu Holcomb
Stuart K. Holcomb (September 11, 1910 – January 11, 1977) was an American football and basketball coach best known for serving as head football coach for Miami University (1942–1943) and Purdue University (1947–1955). Before coaching, Holcomb was a starting halfback at Ohio State University and the captain of the 1931 Buckeyes football team. Prior to arriving at Miami, Holcomb was the head football coach at three smaller schools: the University of Findlay (1932–1935), Muskingum College (1936–1940), and Washington & Jefferson College (1941). He also served as the head basketball coach at the United States Military Academy from 1945 to 1947. After retiring from coaching, Holcomb was the athletic director at Northwestern University (1956–1966) and later the general manager of Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox (1971–1973).
Holcomb was named Miami University's head football coach for the 1942 season succeeding Frank Wilton. His first team went 3–6 which equaled the number of wins of the three previous years for the Redskins. The next year Holcomb and the Redskins posted a winning record of 7–2–1. This team was dominated by defense, only allowing their opponents to score in double digits twice; A 34–12 win over Bradley University and a 35–0 blow out loss to Arkansas A&M. In his two years as Miami’s head coach he compiled an overall record of 10–9–1. He left Miami to become an assistant coach for Earl Blaik at the United States Military Academy. He was replaced as Redskins coach by future Pro and College Football Hall of Fame coach Sid Gillman who was one of Holcomb's top assistant coaches.
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Sue Gunter
Sue Gunter (May 22, 1939, Walnut Grove, Mississippi, USA - August 4, 2005, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA) was a women's college basketball coach. She is best known as the head coach of the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team.
A fine player in her own right, Gunter played AAU basketball for Nashville Business College from 1958-1962 earning AAU All-America honors in 1960. She attended George Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University), along with Nera White. Gunter obtained both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Peabody in 1962. George Peabody did not have a women's basketball team, so she played for the AAU team in Nashille sponsored by Nashville Business College. She was also a member of the U.S. National Team, which competed against the Soviet Union, from 1960-1962.
Gunter began her coaching career at Middle Tennessee State University where she led the Blue Raiders to undefeated seasons in both of her years there (1962–1964). Gunter then had a very successful coaching stint at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) in Nacogdoches, Texas. While at SFA, Gunter led the LadyJacks to a 266-87 mark in 16 years as head coach (1964–1980). In addition, she led SFA to four top 10 national rankings, including top 5 final rankings in 1979 and 1980. While at SFA, Gunter coached four sports—women's basketball, softball, tennis and track. Her basketball teams went to five Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) playoffs, won four state titles, and earned a regional crown. In 1980, she stepped down as coach at SFA and moved into the position of Director of Women's Athletics where she served two years before returning to the coaching ranks at LSU.
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Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956) is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles. Leonard was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions and defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Wilfred Benítez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was named "Boxer of the Decade" for the 1980s.
Leonard, the fifth of seven children, was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to Cicero and Getha Leonard. He grew up in Wilmington, N.C. When he was three, the family moved to Washington, D.C. When he was ten, they settled permanently in Palmer Park, Maryland. His father worked as a supermarket night manager, his mother was a nurse.
Leonard was a shy child, and aside from the time he nearly drowned in a creek during a Seat Pleasant flood, his childhood was uneventful. He stayed home a lot, reading comic books and playing with his dog. "He never did talk too much," his mother said. "We never could tell what he was thinking. But I never had any problems with him. I never had to go to school once because of him."
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Sylvia Hatchell
Sylvia Rhyne Hatchell is head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She competed with USA Basketball as the Head Coach of the 1994 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei.
Hatchell graduated from Carson–Newman College with a BS degree in physical education in 1974. She completed her masters degree the following year at the University of Tennessee.
Hatchell realized that coaching was her calling when she was asked to coach a junior high girl's basketball team in 1974. She followed that with a brief stint as the junior varsity basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, then moved on to become the coach at Francis Marion College, where she would remain for the next eleven years, compiling a 272–80 record.
In 1986, Hatchell would take the head coaching position at the University of North Carolina. Under Hatchell's leadership the Tar Heels would become one of the nation's top basketball teams and becoming a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament. They have been to every tournament since 2001, and all but two since 1992.
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Tara VanDerveer
Tara VanDerveer (born June 26, 1953) has been the Stanford University women's basketball coach since 1985. She led the Stanford Cardinal to two NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championships: in 1990 and 1992. She stepped away from the Stanford program for a year to serve as the U.S. national team head coach at the 1996 Olympic Games. VanDerveer is the 1990 Naismith National Coach of the Year and a ten-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year. She is also one of only six NCAA Women's Basketball coaches to win at least 800 games.
VanDerveer was a standout player at Indiana University, and later coached at the Ohio State University. VanDerveer is also an avid piano player. Her sister Heidi VanDerveer, who coached for several years with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm, now coaches at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Vanderveer's Olympic team was considered one of the best ever assembled, and complied an 80–0 record over the course of the year, culminating in a gold medal at the Olympics in Atlanta.
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Tarzan Cooper
Charles "Tarzan" Cooper (August 30, 1907 – December 19, 1980) was an American professional basketball player. He is mostly known for his time with the New York Renaissance (1929–41).
Cooper was born in Newark, Delaware. After playing at Philadelphia Central High School, Cooper turned pro in 1925. He played for the Philadelphia Panthers and Philadelphia Giants until 1929 when he joined the fabulous New York Renaissance or Rens for eleven seasons. All were independent teams because the early professional leagues were all-white.
At 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), Cooper has been called the greatest center that ever played by Hall of Famer Joe Lapchick, center for the rival Original Celtics.
Cooper died at age 73 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Tates Locke
Taylor "Tates" Locke (born February 25, 1937) is an American professional basketball coach.
Locke coached the Buffalo Braves for half a season in 1976-77, before being replaced by Bob MacKinnon. Prior to his Buffalo experience, Locke coached for West Point, where he hired a young assistant coach named Bobby Knight. Knight would later replace Locke when Locke left West Point. After West Point, Locke moved onto Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Locke would subsequently coach at Clemson University, but would be forced to resign as the result of an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations. The violation resulted in the Tigers being put on NCAA probation. He later coached at Jacksonville University and took them to an NCAA berth and NIT berth.
Locke would later become the head coach at Indiana State University and serve as a scout and assistant General Manager for the Portland Trail Blazers.
The movie Blue Chips, starring Nick Nolte, is said to be based on Locke's career.
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Tayshaun Prince
Tayshaun Durell Prince (born February 28, 1980) is an American basketball player who plays for the Detroit Pistons in the National Basketball Association. Prince is a small forward, listed at 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) and 215 lb (98 kg; 15.4 st). A graduate of Dominguez High School and the University of Kentucky, Prince was drafted in the first round (23rd overall) by the Pistons in the 2002 NBA Draft. Prince wears the jersey #22 as a result of his draft position, signifying the 22 teams that passed on drafting him. His college #21 was previously retired by the Pistons in honor of guard Dave Bing.
Prince played four seasons (1998 to 2002) for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, averaging 13.2 points and 5.7 rebounds as the Wildcats posted a 97–39 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament each year. The furthest the Wildcats made in the tournament was the regional finals, losing to the Michigan State Spartans. Prince won SEC Player of the Year in his junior season (2000–2001) – also leading the SEC in free throw percentage (84.3%) – and was named to the Associated Press All-SEC Teams in both his junior and senior years. Kentucky won the SEC Tournament in 1999 and 2001, and Prince was awarded the 2001 tournament's Most Valuable Player award.
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Teresa Edwards
Teresa Edwards (born July 19, 1964 in Cairo, Georgia) is an American former women's basketball player and coach. In 2000, Sports Illustrated magazine placed her as 22nd of the "100 Greatest Female Athletes of the 20th Century".
The US Olympic Committee appointed Edwards as chef de mission for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Edwards attended Cairo High School in Georgia, where she was a four year starter. In her junior and senior years, the Syrupmaids were 58–3. She scored 1,982 points in her high school career, and was honored as the Georgia High School Player of the Year in 1982.
Edwards began her college career at the University of Georgia where she was a two time All-American. She was the starting point guard for the Georgia Bulldogs, helping lead them to the Final Four in 1983 and 1985. Edwards played in her first Olympic Games as a collegian, and was the youngest member of the team,in 1984. Her college jersey number (#5) was retired, making her one of only three Lady Bulldog players given that honor.
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Terry Baker
For the Canadian football player of the same name see Terry Baker (Canadian football).
Terry Wayne Baker (born May 5, 1941) is a former quarterback for the Oregon State University football team. He played for them through the 1960-1962 seasons. He is most notable for winning the 1962 Heisman Trophy and playing the Final Four in the NCAA Basketball Tournament in the same school year. To date, he is the only person to have both won a Heisman Trophy and played in the Final Four.
Baker was born May 5, 1941 in Pine River, Minnesota. He attended Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon and was a standout three-sport athlete for the Democrats.
Baker was a three-year letterwinner in basketball, and led the Democrats to the Portland Interscholastic League city championship his senior year.
Baker was also a great baseball player. He earned a letter all four years of high school in baseball and led his team to the 1959 Oregon School Activities Association state championship.
Football, however, was Baker's most dominant sport. Baker played quarterback and tailback for the Democrats. In his junior and senior seasons, the Democrats were 23-0 and won two Oregon State Athletic Association state championships. As a senior, he threw for 1,261 yards and ran for 438 yards.
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Terry Bradshaw
Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). He is currently a TV analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday. He played 14 seasons with Pittsburgh, won four Super Bowl titles in a six-year period (1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979), becoming the first quarterback to win three and four Super Bowls, and led the Steelers to eight AFC Central championships. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989, his first year of eligibility.
A tough competitor, Bradshaw had a powerful – albeit at times erratic – arm and called his own plays throughout his football career. His physical skills and on-the-field leadership played a major role in Pittsburgh Steelers history. During his career, he passed for more than 300 yards in a game only seven times, but three of those performances came in the post-season, and two of those in Super Bowls. In four career Super Bowl appearances he passed for 932 yards and 9 touchdowns, both Super Bowl records at the time of his retirement. In 19 postseason games he completed 261 passes for 3,833 yards.
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Terry Holland
Michael Terrence "Terry" Holland (born April 2, 1942 in Clinton, North Carolina) is the Athletics Director and Executive Assistant to Chancellor Steve Ballard at East Carolina University. He is perhaps best known for his years as Coach of Virginia's men's basketball team.
Holland went to Davidson College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1964. While at Davidson, Holland lettered in basketball for three years. His coach at Davidson was the legendary coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell. During his senior season in 1963-64, Holland served as captain of the first nationally-ranked basketball team (10th AP poll) in Wildcat history and topped the nation in field goal percentage (63.1). After graduating in 1964 he stayed at Davidson to become an assistant basketball coach. Holland's 1966-1967 freshmen team went 16-0. Five years later, in 1969, he was promoted to head coach for the Wildcats. Showing his distinction as a coach, Holland was selected as the Southern Conference Coach-of-the-Year three times.
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Tex Winter
Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter (born February 25, 1922) is an American basketball coach and innovator of the triangle offense.
Born near Wellington, Texas (a fact which later provided him with his nickname), Winter attended Huntington Park High School in Huntington Park, California and went on to graduate from the University of Southern California in 1947, where he learned the triangle offense from Sam Barry. At USC, Winter was a teammate of Gene Rock, a future professional basketball player. Also a track athlete at the college level as a pole vaulter, Winter was considered a strong candidate for the US Olympic team in 1944. However, the Olympics were cancelled by World War II. He left USC in early 1943 and entered the United States Navy for flight training. His pilot's wings were conferred late the same year. He remained in Illinois for the duration of his service.
After graduating college, Winter immediately entered the coaching profession as an assistant to Hall-of-Famer Jack Gardner at Kansas State University. He would stay in coaching for the next 57 consecutive years.
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Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated US$90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010.
Woods turned professional in 1996, and by April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as world number one. From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of #58 in November 2011. He snapped a career-long winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. As of April 8, 2012, he is ranked #8.
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Tim Duncan
Timothy Theodore "Tim" Duncan (born April 25, 1976) is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6-foot 11-inch (2.11 m), 255-pound (116 kg)power forward/center is a four-time NBA champion, two-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and NBA Rookie of the Year. The Spurs' team captain, he is a 13 time NBA All-Star and the only player in NBA history to be selected to both All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams during each of his first 13 seasons.
Duncan started out as a swimmer and only began playing basketball in ninth grade after Hurricane Hugo destroyed the only Olympic-sized pool on his home of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He soon became a standout for St. Dunstan's Episcopal High School, and had an illustrious college career with the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons, winning the Naismith College Player of the Year, USBWA College Player of the Year and John Wooden awards in his final year. Duncan graduated from college before entering the 1997 NBA Draft as the number one pick. His list of accomplishments, remarkable consistency, and leadership in the Spurs' NBA championship runs in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 have led basketball experts to consider him to be one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history.
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Todd Day
Todd Fitzgerald Day (born January 7, 1970 in Decatur, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player. Day is the all-time leading scorer at the University of Arkansas, and played eight seasons in the NBA. During the 2006 season, he played for the Blue Stars of Lebanon's WASL Club League.
Day played for his stepfather, Ted Anderson at Memphis's Hamilton High School, where he was a McDonald's All-American, and a 3rd Team Parade All-American. He also earned All-State and All-District honors during his prep career.
Day played college basketball at the University of Arkansas for coach Nolan Richardson, and was a four-year letterman ('89,'90,'91 and '92). At Arkansas, Day broke Sidney Moncrief's career mark for scoring with 2,395 points during his four-year career. Day was a member of the All-Southwest Conference Newcomer Team as a freshman, a member of the Arkansas unit that reached the NCAA Final Four as a sophomore, and a John Wooden First-Team All-America selection as both a junior and senior. In his final college season, he powered the Razorbacks to the Southeastern Conference title in the school's first season in the league. His scoring average (22.7 ppg) was the third highest in school history.
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Todd Lickliter
Todd Lickliter (born April 17, 1955) is a basketball coach. He was the head coach of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and Butler University Bulldogs men's basketball team. In 2011 he became an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio).
Lickliter was a starting point guard at North Central High School in Indianapolis, where he played for his father, Arlan. He helped North Central to a sectional title in Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1973, and he played his final high school game in the Fieldhouse in the 1974 sectional semifinals. Following his high school graduation, he enrolled at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, but wound up transferring to Central Florida Community College. He played one season at Central Florida, earning an associate degree in 1977, and then transferred to Butler, where he played his final two collegiate seasons, 1977-79. He earned a B.S degree in secondary education from Butler in 1979.
Lickliter began his collegiate coaching career at Butler University in 1988-89 under his former college coach, Joe Sexson. He left the Bulldogs after one year to accept a head coaching job at Danville High School in Danville, Indiana, where he remained for three seasons. He returned to the collegiate ranks in 1996 as an administrative assistant on Barry Collier's staff. Lickliter accepted an assistant coaching position at Eastern Michigan in 1997 and remained on the Eagles' staff for two seasons, before returning to Butler in 1999. In six NCAA Division I seasons, he contributed to teams that won three conference regular season championships, four conference tournament titles, made four NCAA Tournament appearances, and compiled a 106-73 record.
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Tom Brady
Thomas Edward Patrick "Tom" Brady, Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.
In Brady's ten seasons as a starter, the Patriots have earned trips to the Super Bowl in half of them (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII, and XLVI), winning three of them (XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX). He has also won two Super Bowl MVP awards (XXXVI and XXXVIII), has been selected to seven Pro Bowls (and invited to eight, although he declined the 2006 invitation), and holds the NFL record for most touchdown passes in a single regular season. His career postseason record is 16–5. He also helped set the record for the longest consecutive win streak in NFL history with 21 straight wins over two seasons (2003–04), and in 2007 he led the Patriots to the first undefeated regular season since the institution of the 16-game schedule. Brady has the fourth-highest career passer rating of all time (96.4) among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 career passing attempts.
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Tom Gola
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Gola (born January 13, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a retired American basketball player.
Gola was praised as a great all-around player as a high school student at La Salle College High School, where he led the Explorers to a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship. He entered La Salle a year after another Philadelphia basketball Hall of Famer, Paul Arizin, graduated from Villanova.
Gola was one of the most talented collegiate athletes in Philadelphia sports history. He came to national attention while playing for the hometown La Salle University Explorers men's basketball team in 1954 as an All-American forward. Gola paced the Explorers to the NCAA basketball championship in 1954 and was named Tournament MVP. That same season he was selected as National Player of the Year. As a senior, Gola helped La Salle finish as the runner-up in the 1955 NCAA Tournament. He averaged 20.9 points and 19.0 rebounds during 115 games and holds the NCAA record with 2,201 career rebounds. At 6'6" (198 cm), Gola was clearly a forward who could shoot/score, rebound and defend, but he also had the ballhandling (dribbling, passing) skills of a guard, and with his shooting range and All-Pro defensive skills, could play just as well in the backcourt. He was inducted into the La Salle Hall of Athletes in 1961 and the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1986. Gola was listed on "ESPN's Countdown to the Greatest" College basketball players as #17.
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Tom Heinsohn
Thomas William "Tom" Heinsohn (born August 26, 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player. He has been associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcaster. He played for the Celtics from 1956 to 1965, and also coached the team from 1969 to 1978. He has been granted Hall of Fame Status for his success as both a player and a coach. He helped form the NBA players union. He is the only person to have the distinction of being involved in an official team capacity in each of the Celtics' 17 championships, as well as each of their 21 NBA Finals appearances. He is currently the color commentator on the Celtics' television broadcasts on CSN New England.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Heinsohn was a standout at St. Michael's High School in nearby Union City. He accepted a scholarship to Holy Cross and became the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,789 points, an average of 22.1 points per game. During his senior year, Heinsohn scored a school record 51 points in a game against Boston College.
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Tom Izzo
Tom Izzo (pronounced /ˈɪzoʊ/; born January 30, 1955) is an American college basketball coach. Since 1995, he has been the head coach for the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team, presiding over a prolonged period of success.
Under Izzo, the Michigan State program has been one of the most successful in the country. Izzo has led the Spartans to the 2000 NCAA Division I National Championship, the 2009 NCAA Division I National Championship Game, six Final Fours, and seven Big Ten Championships in his first 17 years at Michigan State. The coach with the most wins in school history, Izzo's teams have been invited to the past 15 consecutive NCAA tournaments, in addition to setting the Big Ten record for the longest home winning streak. These accomplishments led analyst Andy Katz at ESPN to deem Michigan State the top college basketball program for the decade from 1998 to 2007.
Currently the longest tenured coach in the Big Ten Conference, Izzo, whose teams are often recognized for their rebounding prowess and defensive tenacity, has won four national coach of the year awards and maintains a considerable coaching tree—several of his former assistants are currently head coaches at other Division I schools. Izzo is just the 5th coach in Big Ten history to win 7 conference titles.
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Tom Seaver
George Thomas "Tom" Seaver (born November 17, 1944), nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched from 1967-1986 for four different teams in his career, but is noted primarily for his time with the New York Mets. During a 20-year career, Seaver compiled 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts, 61 shutouts and a 2.86 earned run average. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the highest percentage ever recorded (98.84%), and has the only plaque at Cooperstown wearing a New York Mets hat. As of 2010, Tom Seaver and Gil Hodges (played for the Mets in 1962-63) are the only Met players to have their jersey numbers retired by the team (Gil Hodges' number was retired as a manager even though he also played for the Mets).
He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1967, and three NL Cy Young Awards as the league's best pitcher. Seaver is the Mets' all-time leader in wins, and is considered by many baseball experts as one of the best starting pitchers in the history of baseball.
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Tommy Amaker
Harold Tommy Amaker (born June 6, 1965) is the current head coach of the Harvard University men's basketball team. He has also served as head basketball coach for the University of Michigan men's basketball team and at Seton Hall University. He played point guard and later served as an assistant coach at Duke University under Mike Krzyzewski. As an All-American player, he set numerous records and earned many recognitions. As an NCAA Division I college basketball coach, he took Seton Hall to the post season in each of his four seasons as their coach, helped Michigan win the National Invitation Tournament the year after a probationary ban from postseason play, and had the winningest seasons in school history in the third, fourth, and fifth season with Harvard.
As a player, he set most of the assists records and many steals records for Duke Blue Devils men's basketball. He also set the Atlantic Coast Conference single-season games played and games started records. His 40 games played and started for the 1985–86 team remained as tied but not broken conference records through the 2010–11 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season. His assists records were broken by subsequent Duke point guards Bobby Hurley and Steve Wojciechowski. He also held the Duke career steals record for fourteen years. In addition to single-season games records, he holds the record for career consecutive starts. Among his numerous accolades, he was the first winner of the NABC Defensive Player of the Year for his defense, and he was a third team All-American.
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Tony Hinkle
Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle (December 19, 1899 – September 22, 1992) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player, coach, and college athletic administrator in the United States. He attended the University of Chicago, where he won varsity letters in three sports. Hinkle captained the Chicago Maroons basketball team for two seasons was twice selected as an All-American, in 1919 and 1920. After graduating from the University of Chicago, Hinkle moved on to Butler University as a coach. There, over the course of nearly 50 years, he served as the head football coach (1926, 1935–1941, 1946–1969), head basketball coach (1926–1942, 1945–1970), and head baseball coach (1921–1928, 1933–1941, 1946–1970). Hinkle was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1965. Butler's home basketball arena was renamed as Hinkle Fieldhouse in the coach's honor in 1966.
Hinkle was born in Logansport, Indiana, to Edgar Clayton and Winnie (Ray) Hinkle. He graduated in 1917 from Calumet High School in Gary, Indiana and attended the University of Chicago from 1917 to 1921. As a player at Chicago, he lettered three times in basketball, was twice All-Big Ten, twice team captain, named to the Helms All-America team in 1920, was a member of the Big Ten Conference championship team in 1919–20, losing the national championship to Penn.
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Tubby Smith
Orlando "Tubby" Smith (born (1951-06-30)June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach. He is currently the men's basketball head coach at the University of Minnesota. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the University of Georgia, and most recently, University of Kentucky, where he coached the Wildcats to the 1998 NCAA championship.
Over his 21 seasons as a head coach, Smith has had 18 seasons of twenty victories or more. In 2005, he joined Roy Williams, Nolan Richardson, Denny Crum and Jim Boeheim as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or fewer. Currently, Smith's career record is 486-209, for a winning percentage of .699. With Minnesota's invitation to the 2009 NCAA tournament, Smith became the fifth coach to lead four different teams to the NCAA tournament.
Smith's three sons are following in their father's coaching footsteps. "G. G." Smith, who played for his father at the University of Georgia, is currently an assistant coach at Loyola University Maryland. Middle son Saul Smith, who played for his father at the University of Kentucky, has joined his father as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. Brian, his youngest son, was a point guard at Ole Miss and is an assistant coach at Windermere Preparatory School.
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Tyrone Willingham
Lionel Tyrone "Ty" Willingham (born December 30, 1953) is a former American football player and coach. He was the head coach at Stanford University (1995–2001), the University of Notre Dame (2002–2004), and the University of Washington (2005–2008), compiling a career college football record of 76–88–1.
Willingham attended Jacksonville Senior High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina and lettered in football, basketball, and baseball.[citation needed] He went on to Michigan State University where he played football and baseball and graduated in 1977 with a degree in physical education. Willingham held assistant coaching positions at his alma mater (1977, 1980–82), Central Michigan University (1978–79), North Carolina State University (1983–85), Rice University (1986–88), and Stanford University (1989–91). When Stanford head coach, Dennis Green, was hired as the Minnesota Vikings head coach in 1992, Willingham followed him as running backs coach (1992–94).
Following the 1994 season, despite lacking experience as a head coach or coordinator, Willingham was appointed head coach of the football program at Stanford, succeeding Bill Walsh. In his seven seasons (1995–2001) as coach, he led the Cardinal to a 44–36–1 record and four bowl game appearances. In 2000, he was presented with the Eddie Robinson Coach of Distinction Award that is given annually to honor "an outstanding college football coach and role model for career achievement".
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Tyson Chandler
Tyson Cleotis Chandler (born October 2, 1982) is an American professional basketball center who currently plays for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association. Chandler was the second overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, then was immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls. He has also played for the New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats, and Dallas Mavericks. As starting center for Dallas, he helped win the franchise's first NBA championship in 2011. He was also a member of the United States men's national basketball team's gold medal run in the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Chandler was born to a single mother. He and his two brothers, Terrell and Tervon, grew up in their family's farm in Hanford, California, just south of Fresno, California. Chandler began playing basketball at three years old on a basket Chandler's grandfather, Cleotis, fixed on a tree. Chandler grew up doing farm work such as milking cows, slopping pigs, and cultivating crops. At nine years old Chandler and his mother moved to San Bernadino, California; he was already nearly six feet tall. As a child Chandler was teased because of his height; children on his school basketball team joked that he was older than he really was, and that he had been left back several times in school.
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Uljana Semjonova
Uļjana Semjonova (Russian: Ульяна Ларионовна Семенова), (born March 9, 1952 in village Medumi, Daugavpils District, Latvia) is a retired Soviet Latvian basketball player.
Standing at 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Semjonova was the leading women's basketball player in the world in the 1970s and 1980s. Wearing a men's size 21 (US) / 58 (EU) shoe, she was known for having the largest feet ever in women's basketball. For almost all of her playing career, she played for TTT Riga, which was part of Daugava Voluntary Sports Society. With TTT, she won 15 championships in the Soviet Union and the European Champion's Cup 15 times. Semjonova was also very dominant in international play, winning two Olympic Gold medals while playing for the USSR in 1976 and 1980 and never lost a game in official international competition.
She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1976, and in 1993 became the first non-US woman enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame. She was an inaugural member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 1999. In 2007, she was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. During the 2007 Latvian Sportspersonality of the year award ceremony, Semjonova received the Lifetime Contribution to Sport award.
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Van Chancellor
Van Chancellor (born September 27, 1943 in Louisville, Mississippi, United States) is the former Louisiana State University women's basketball coach. He was named head coach on April 11, 2007, replacing Pokey Chatman. In 2001, Van Chancellor was elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was enshrined as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2007. Van Chancellor currently serves as an analyst for the Southland Conference Television Network for all women's games and some men's games.
Van Chancellor played two years of basketball at East Central Junior College in Decatur, Mississippi, before transferring to Mississippi State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics & physical education in 1965.
During his senior year at Mississippi State, he served as head coach of the boy’s basketball team at Noxapater High School. Chancellor went on to coach boy’s and girl’s basketball at Horn Lake High School and Harrison Central High School in Mississippi. Chancellor received his master’s degree in physical education from the University of Mississippi in 1973.
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Vern Mikkelsen
Arild Verner Agerskov "Vern" Mikkelsen (born October 21, 1928) is an American former professional basketball player. He was one of the NBA's first power forwards in the 1950s and was known for his tenacious defense.
Mikkelsen was born in Fresno, California and was raised in Askov, Minnesota in a town of primarily Danish-Americans. He entered Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota on a basketball scholarship at the age of 16. In his senior year at Hamline, Mikkelsen was voted an All-American. He would later receive a masters degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota.
Mikkelsen played with George Mikan and Jim Pollard in the frontcourt of the Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers won four NBA titles during Mikkelsen's career. Mikkelsen played in six NBA All-Star Games and was named to the All-NBA Second Team four times in his career.
Mikkelsen ended his career after ten seasons in the NBA in 1959, having played in 798 of a possible 800 games. He finished his career with 10,063 points scored and led the NBA in both personal fouls and disqualifications for three straight seasons. Mikkelsen still holds the league record for career disqualifications with 127.
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Vic Bubas
Vic Bubas (born January 28, 1927) is a former basketball coach of Duke University.
Bubas graduated from Gary Lew Wallace High School in 1944. He then went on to North Carolina State University where he played for Everett Case. Bubas was an All-Southern Conference selection twice. After he graduated in 1951 he stayed on as a freshman coach till 1955 and as a varsity assistant coach until he was hired by Duke University in 1959.
During the 1960s Bubas expanded Duke University's basketball program. He took it from a successful regional program that won a lot of games to a national program.
Bubas is widely credited with pioneering the art of recruiting by targeting players very early and gathering information on them before other coaches had learned of them and would send newspaper clippings of Duke games to prospects. As North Carolina legendary coach Dean Smith once stated,
"Vic taught us all how to recruit, we had been starting on prospects in the fall of their senior years while Vic was working on them their junior year. For a while, all of us were trying to catch up with him."
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Vic Hanson
This article refers to the college athlete. For the historian, please see Victor Davis Hanson
Victor A. Hanson (July 30, 1903 – April 10, 1982) was a well-known multi-sport college athlete in the 1920s. At Syracuse University (1923-27) he played basketball, football and baseball, and captained all three sports.
The Watertown, New York native is one of Syracuse's greatest all-around athletes (see Jim Brown for another all-around great). He was named an All-American in both basketball and football three consecutive times (1925-27). Following his college career, he shortly played with the Cleveland Rosenblums in the American Basketball League (1925-1955), but then formed a basketball team by himself, the Syracuse All-Americans. He was also signed by the New York Yankees and played two years in their farm system.[citation needed].
While at Syracuse, Hanson was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity.
Hanson is the only player in history to be enshrined in both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1960) and the College Football Hall of Fame (1973). Syracuse University retired his Number 8 basketball jersey in a ceremony at the Carrier Dome.
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Walt Bellamy
Walter Jones Bellamy (born July 24, 1939, in New Bern, North Carolina) is a retired American professional basketball player.
Bellamy chose to play basketball at Indiana University, despite the fact that African-American players were still rare in college basketball at the time. "In the summer after my junior year of high school I played with some guys from Indiana," he said. "Indiana at the time was the closest school to the South that would accept African-Americans. It was an easy transition for me to make. Not that I was naive to what was going on in Bloomington in terms of the times, but it didn't translate to the athletic department or the classroom. Every relationship was good."
Bellamy graduated from Indiana University with the most rebounds in a career with 1,088 in only 70 games, while averaging 15.5 a game. Averaging 20.5 points a game and shooting 51.7 percent from the floor, Bellamy also averaged 17.8 rebounds a game (still Indiana's record). He also holds the school records for most rebounds in a season (649), most rebounds in a single game (33), most double-doubles in a career (59), most rebounds in a three-year career (1,008). In 2000 he was selected to Indiana University's All-Century Team.
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Walt Frazier
Walter "Clyde" Frazier (born March 29, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia) is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was blessed with a unique combination of court vision, quickness, and size (he stands 6'4") for a guard. As their floor general, he led the New York Knicks to the franchise's only two NBA Championships (1970 & 1973), and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. Upon his retirement from basketball, Frazier went into broadcasting; he is currently a color commentator for telecasts of Knicks games on the MSG Network.
The eldest of nine children, Frazier attended Atlanta's David Tobias Howard High School. He quarterbacked the football team and played catcher on the baseball team. He learned basketball on a rutted and dirt playground, the only facility available at his all-black school in the racially segregated South of the 1950s. After having a great career at Howard, Frazier attended Southern Illinois University. Although he was offered other scholarships for his football skills, Frazier accepted a basketball offer from Southern Illinois University.
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Walter Meanwell
Walter E. Meanwell (January 26, 1884 – December 2, 1953) was an English college men's basketball coach in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. The Leeds, England native coached in the U.S. for the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1911–17, 1920–34) and the University of Missouri (1918–20) to an overall record of 290–101.
Meanwell became the fourth basketball coach in University of Wisconsin–Madison history in 1911. After earning a doctorate degree in 1915, he was nicknamed "Doc" or "Little Doc" (due to his 5'6" frame). During World War I he served in the US Army. After a two-year stint at University of Missouri, Meanwell was back at Wisconsin. The Badgers won or shared four Big Ten titles under his guidance (1921, 1923–24, 1929). Meanwell taught a style of game that featured short passing, crisscross dribbles and a tight zone defense. In 1934 he retired from coaching and practiced medicine in Madison, Wisconsin, until his death. He was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 1959.
wn.com/Walter_Meanwell -
Ward Lambert
Ward Louis "Piggy" Lambert (May 28, 1888 – January 20, 1958) was an American college men's basketball coach. He was born in Deadwood, South Dakota. In 1890, Lambert and his family moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana. He played basketball (in addition to baseball) at Crawfordsville High School and Wabash College, both under coach Ralph Jones, who himself would go on to coach Purdue. Despite his height (5'6"), he led Wabash in scoring his sophomore year - leading to his nickname "Piggy" for hogging the ball. (Another telling states that, while playing baseball at Wabash, Lambert used his position as shortstop to hog the ball). He graduated from Wabash College in 1911.
Lambert began his coaching career at Lebanon High School from 1912-1916. Lambert coached Purdue University (1916–17, 1918–46) to a 371–152 record in 29 seasons, including eleven Big Ten titles. His teams were noted for their speed and effective use of fast breaks, which he developed. Among his players were Charles "Stretch" Murphy and John Wooden. Lambert missed the 1917-18 season to serve in the Army during World War I. Meanwhile J. J. Maloney, an attorney from Crawfordsville, Indiana, filled in and guided the Boilermakers to an 11–5 record. Lambert's 1932 team were national champions, as determined by a panel vote rather than an NCAA Tournament which began in 1939. He coached 16 All-Americans and 31 first team All-Big Ten selections. Lambert Fieldhouse (originally known as Purdue Fieldhouse), the facility used for home basketball games prior to the construction of Mackey Arena, was renamed in his honor. Lambert Field, the baseball venue at Purdue, is also named for Lambert.
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Wayne Embry
Wayne Richard Embry (born March 26, 1937 in Springfield, Ohio) is a retired American basketball player; a center/forward whose 11-year career spanned from 1959 to 1969. He played for the Cincinnati Royals, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks all of the NBA.
He attended Miami University and Tecumseh High School (both in Ohio) before that.
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Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC (/ˈɡrɛtski/; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading point-scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player has points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. In addition to being its greatest scorer, Gretzky was the most gentlemanly superstar in the modern history of the NHL. He won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, and he often spoke out against fighting in hockey.
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Wes Unseld
Westley Sissel "Wes" Unseld (born March 14, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American former basketball player. He spent his entire NBA career with the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.
Unseld starred on a Seneca High School team that won two state championships. In 1965, Unseld began playing center for the University of Louisville, where he averaged 35.8 points per game and 23.6 rebounds per game in 14 games with a freshman team. He was a 3-year letter winner, scored 1,686 points in 82 games (20.6 points per game), grabbed 1,551 rebounds (18.9 rebounds per game), led the conference in rebounding in 1966, 1967 and 1968, and led Louisville to a 60-22 record with two trips to the NCAA tournament and one trip to the NIT tournament. Unseld is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Unseld was drafted by the Kentucky Colonels in the 1968 American Basketball Association draft and was drafted second overall in the first round by the Baltimore Bullets in 1968, and helped lead the Bullets (who had finished in last place in the Eastern division the previous year) to a 57-25 record and a division title. Unseld averaged 18.2 rebounds per game that year, and became only the second player ever to win both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season (Wilt Chamberlain being the first). Unseld was also named the Sporting News MVP that year. He was one of the best defensive players of his era, and in 1975, he led the NBA in rebounding. The following season, he led the NBA in field goal percentage with a .561 percentage.
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Whitey Herzog
Dorrel Norman Elvert "Whitey" Herzog (pronounced /ˈhɜrzɒɡ/; born November 9, 1931 in New Athens, Illinois) is a former Major League Baseball manager. Born in New Athens, Illinois, he made his debut as a player in 1956 with the Washington Senators. After his playing career ended in 1963, Herzog went on to perform a variety of roles in Major League Baseball, including scout, manager, general manager and farm system director. Most noted for his success as a manager, he led the Kansas City Royals to three consecutive playoff appearances from 1976 to 1978. Hired by Gussie Busch in 1980 to helm the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series and made two other World Series appearances in 1985 and 1987 under Herzog's direction. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 2010.
A left-handed batter and thrower, Herzog originally signed with the New York Yankees. While he never appeared in a major league game for them, Herzog was profoundly influenced by their manager, Casey Stengel, during several spring training sessions with the Yanks. After being traded by New York as a prospect, he played for the Washington Senators (1956–1958), Kansas City Athletics (1958–1960), Baltimore Orioles (1961–1962) and Detroit Tigers (1963). In eight seasons, Herzog batted .254 with 25 home runs, 172 runs batted in, 213 runs scored, 60 doubles, 20 triples, and 13 stolen bases in 634 games. In reference to his success as a player versus his success as a manager, Herzog once said, "Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it." (Herzog has made this statement several times, most recently in an interview with Fox Sports Midwest which has aired several times in August and September 2007 during St. Louis Cardinals rain delays).
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Wikipedia Persondata
wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata -
Wilbur Wade Card
Wilbur Wade "Cap" Card (October 29, 1873 – September 3, 1948) was an American baseball player, coach and athletic director at Duke University. He initially introduced college basketball to the state of North Carolina and became the university's first men's coach of that program from 1906 to 1912 as well as being Duke's first athletic director from 1902 to 1948.
Card was born in Franklinton, North Carolina on October 29, 1873 to Sabert Henry Card and Cecilia Bennett Fuller. He attended Trinity College in Durham in 1895, becoming one of the school's best athletes as an outfielder and batter, breaking a number of baseball records and eventually earning his nickname "Cap." Card was team captain in 1899. He graduated from college the following year.
In 1900, Card entered the School of Physical Education at Harvard University and later trained and worked at the Sargent Normal School every summer through 1913. After graduating from Harvard in 1901, Card worked as director at the YMCA in Mobile, Alabama. In 1902, he was invited by President John Carlisle Kilgo to return to Trinity College and become director of the new physical education program there.
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William Davidson
William Morse "Bill" Davidson, J. D. (December 5, 1922 – March 13, 2009) was an American businessman who was President, Chairman and CEO of Guardian Industries, one of the world's largest manufacturers of architectural and automotive glass. He was also owner of several North American professional sports teams and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He was also the chairman of Palace Sports and Entertainment, and principal owner of the Detroit Pistons of the NBA, the Detroit Shock of the WNBA, the co-owner of the Detroit Fury of the Arena Football League, and the former owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL and Detroit Vipers of the IHL. His Pistons won the 1989, 1990, and 2004 NBA Finals; his Shock won the 2003, 2006 and 2008 WNBA Finals; his Vipers won the 1997 Turner Cup; Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2004 Stanley Cup, making him the only owner in professional sports history whose teams have won an NBA Championship and a Stanley Cup in the same year.
A Detroit native, Davidson was born to a Jewish family on December 5, 1922; he was a 1940 graduate of Central High School. Davidson entered the University of Michigan in 1940, where he was a member of the track and field team; he majored in business at what is now the Ross School of Business. Davidson later joined the U.S. Navy and played Armed Forces Football during World War II.
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Willie Stargell
Wilver Dornell "Willie" Stargell (March 6, 1940 – April 9, 2001), nicknamed "Pops" in the later years of his career, was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder and first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1962-1982). Over his 21-year career with the Pirates, he batted .282, with 2,232 hits, 423 doubles, 475 home runs and 1540 runs batted in, helping his team capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series (1971, 1979). Stargell was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.
Stargell was born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, but later moved to Alameda, California where he attended Encinal High School. He was signed by the Pirates at age 22, and made his Major League debut at the end of the 1962 season. He soon became a standout player, making his first of 7 trips to the All-Star Game in 1964.
Beloved in Pittsburgh for his style of play and affable manner, Stargell was known for hitting monstrous home runs, including 7 of the 16 balls ever hit completely out of Forbes Field and several of the upper-tier home runs at its successor, Three Rivers Stadium. At one time, Stargell held the record for the longest homer in nearly half of the National League parks. Standing 6 feet 2 inches, Stargell seemed larger, with his long arms and unique bat-handling practice of holding only the knob of the bat with his lower hand combining to provide extra bat extension, Stargell's swings seemed designed to hit home runs of the Ruthian variety. When most batters would use a simple lead-weighted bat in the on-deck circle, Stargell took to warming up with a sledgehammer, adding another layer of intimidation. While standing in the batter's box, he would windmill his bat until the pitcher started his windup.
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Willis Reed
Willis Reed, Jr. (born June 25, 1942) is a retired American basketball player, coach and general manager. He spent his entire professional playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks. In 1982, his outstanding record and achievements were recognized by his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1997, he was voted one of the "50 Greatest Players in NBA History".
After retiring as a player, Reed served as assistant and head coach with several teams for nearly a decade, then was promoted to General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations (1989 to 1996) for the New Jersey Nets. As Senior Vice President of Basketball, he led them to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.
Reed was born in 1942 in Hico, Louisiana and named after his father, Willis Reed. He grew up on a farm in nearby Bernice, a lumber town in an area of pine woods. His parents worked to ensure Reed got an education in the segregated South. Reed showed athletic ability at an early age and played basketball at West Side High School in nearby Lillie.
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Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American basketball player. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA; he played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds with the Lakers. He played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history.
Chamberlain holds numerous NBA all-time records in scoring, rebounding and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and once even led the league in assists. Although he suffered a long string of professional losses, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams. Chamberlain was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History of 1996.
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Zach Spiker
Zack Spiker ((1976-09-30)September 30, 1976) is an American college basketball coach and the current head basketball coach for the Army Black Knights.
wn.com/Zach_Spiker
Krzyzewski, Mike Filmography
- Duke 91 & 92: Back to Back (2012)
- The Dream Team (2012)
- Runnin' Rebels of UNLV (2011)
- The Street Stops Here (2010)
- Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story (2010)
- March Madness: The Greatest Moments of the NCAA Tournament (2009)
- Band of Pirates: The Story of Seton Hall's Magical Run to the 1989 NCAA Championship Game (2009)
- Camping at Cameron: The K'Ville Chronicles (2006)
- A Cut Above: 100 Seasons of Duke Basketball (2005)
- Rebels on the Run: The Rise and Fall of UNLV Basketball (2005)
- Tragedy to Triumph: The Maryland Terrapin Odyssey (2003)
- Hoop Dreams (1994)
Famous quotes by Mike Krzyzewski:
"The signing of the floor was not about Maryland or any particular opponent. It's about us. It's about us reminding each other that this is our floor, and we don't take it for granted. That's the only thing."
"It's always an honor to be ranked high, but whatever is said about you, you take it and then take a realistic look at yourself and who you are. I would look at us and say we've got a chance (to win it all)."
"When we don't match another team's intensity — that doesn't happen very often — then all of a sudden we do 'J.J.-watching,' where we're watching J.J. play. We might as well get tickets and sit behind the bench. No one is doing anything out there."
"J.J. played spectacular tonight. He was there when we needed him to be there. We needed him to be there in order to get the win and he was there. They played very well and we beat a good team. It is quite an accomplishment."
"Things happen in a game, and he took responsibility for it. I hope ... he's not punished. ... That kid's a hell of a player."
"It's not like we have not had close games. We've just been able to win them, and as a result, the reality sometimes doesn't set in that you're weak in certain areas or you're not doing certain things well. ... When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance."
"We were not worthy of our jerseys, our Duke jerseys, in the first half."
"J.J. was sensational once we found him. We did not do a good job of finding him at first, but once we did, he had one of his best games."
"We lost, and that's the main thing that went wrong,"
"The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions."
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Coach K: A Winner's Mind
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:38
- Updated: 05 Jan 2013
Duke's Coach Mike Krzyzewski talks about winning and his coaching future.
http://wn.com/Coach_K_A_Winner's_Mind
Duke's Coach Mike Krzyzewski talks about winning and his coaching future.
Michael "Mike" Krzyzewski's Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 30:32
- Updated: 01 Jan 2013
Bob Knight introduces Mike Krzyzewski as he delivers his speech upon being enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2001. To learn more about Mike Krzyzewski take a look at his official Hall of Fame bio at www.hoophall.com
http://wn.com/Michael_Mike_Krzyzewski's_Basketball_Hall_of_Fame_Enshrinement_Speech
Bob Knight introduces Mike Krzyzewski as he delivers his speech upon being enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2001. To learn more about Mike Krzyzewski take a look at his official Hall of Fame bio at www.hoophall.com
- published: 04 Jun 2012
- views: 4767
- author: OfficialHoophall
In Focus: Mike Krzyzewski Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:04
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
Mike Krzyzewski sits down with one of his former players, Christian Laettner to talk USA Hoops and more.
http://wn.com/In_Focus_Mike_Krzyzewski_Part_1
Mike Krzyzewski sits down with one of his former players, Christian Laettner to talk USA Hoops and more.
- published: 14 Jul 2012
- views: 935
- author: FoxSports
In Focus: Mike Krzyzewski Part 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:57
- Updated: 14 Jul 2012
Coach K discusses Kobe, LeBron and his last Olympics.
http://wn.com/In_Focus_Mike_Krzyzewski_Part_2
Coach K discusses Kobe, LeBron and his last Olympics.
- published: 14 Jul 2012
- views: 600
- author: FoxSports
Beyond The Bubble: Mike Krzyzewski aka Coach K Interview
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:17
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Tim goes one on one with for Duke icon Mike Krzyzewski . Original broadcast date: March 16, 2011.
http://wn.com/Beyond_The_Bubble_Mike_Krzyzewski_aka_Coach_K_Interview
Tim goes one on one with for Duke icon Mike Krzyzewski . Original broadcast date: March 16, 2011.
- published: 17 Mar 2011
- views: 5671
- author: WJLA7
Mike Krzyzewski ~ All Access Duke Basketball Practice (2010-11) ~ III
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:59
- Updated: 08 Nov 2012
All Access Duke Basketball Practice (2010-11) with Mike Krzyzewski From the eBA-Stats.com Best Basketball DVDs Reviews. Practice Coach K begins practice working on fundamentals requiring constant communication. See how they build from 3-on-0 and 5-on-0 weaves into both 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations. Watch the Blue Devils transition from 5-on-0 down the court and come back into their half-court offense against a set man-to-man defense. Moving on to the defensive side of the ball, they begin working on 5-on-4 close outs and also 5-on-5 "change." Coach K builds his defensive pressure by demonstrating his full-court and three-quarter court presses and traps ("41", "42", "32" and "31 White") to pick-up the tempo. Coach K then demonstrates the different offensive sets they use to overload the court against the 2-3, 3-2, and 1-2-2 zones. These sets provide reads for the players to have multiple options for lay-ups and wide-open three point shots. Read the Full Review here: eba-stats.com & Order at www.eba-stats.com ~ Basketball DVDs Reviews
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski_~_All_Access_Duke_Basketball_Practice_2010-11_~_III
All Access Duke Basketball Practice (2010-11) with Mike Krzyzewski From the eBA-Stats.com Best Basketball DVDs Reviews. Practice Coach K begins practice working on fundamentals requiring constant communication. See how they build from 3-on-0 and 5-on-0 weaves into both 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations. Watch the Blue Devils transition from 5-on-0 down the court and come back into their half-court offense against a set man-to-man defense. Moving on to the defensive side of the ball, they begin working on 5-on-4 close outs and also 5-on-5 "change." Coach K builds his defensive pressure by demonstrating his full-court and three-quarter court presses and traps ("41", "42", "32" and "31 White") to pick-up the tempo. Coach K then demonstrates the different offensive sets they use to overload the court against the 2-3, 3-2, and 1-2-2 zones. These sets provide reads for the players to have multiple options for lay-ups and wide-open three point shots. Read the Full Review here: eba-stats.com & Order at www.eba-stats.com ~ Basketball DVDs Reviews
- published: 22 Oct 2011
- views: 16657
- author: eBAStats
Mike Krzyzewski: Duke Basketball - Agility & Conditioning Drills for Defense
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:02
- Updated: 07 Jan 2013
Mike Krzyzewski: Duke Basketball - Agility & Conditioning Drills for Defense
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski_Duke_Basketball_Agility_Conditioning_Drills_for_Defense
Mike Krzyzewski: Duke Basketball - Agility & Conditioning Drills for Defense
- published: 07 Aug 2012
- views: 5400
- author: sportsnationvideo
Primetime with Coach K
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 62:16
- Updated: 06 Dec 2012
Mike Krzyzewski, US Olympic and Duke basketball coach, talks teamwork with Duke employees. Learn more at www.hr.duke.edu
http://wn.com/Primetime_with_Coach_K
Mike Krzyzewski, US Olympic and Duke basketball coach, talks teamwork with Duke employees. Learn more at www.hr.duke.edu
- published: 26 Jan 2009
- views: 22286
- author: WorkingAtDuke
Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski Shares Insight into His Battle with Osteoarthritis
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:34
- Updated: 21 Dec 2012
Legendary coach of the men's basketball team at Duke University, Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K)*, began suffering from osteoarthritis in his early 50's. He was the recipient of DePuy Orthopaedics hip replacements, allowing him to continue his coaching career. *Coach K is a paid spokesman for DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.
http://wn.com/Mike_Coach_K_Krzyzewski_Shares_Insight_into_His_Battle_with_Osteoarthritis
Legendary coach of the men's basketball team at Duke University, Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K)*, began suffering from osteoarthritis in his early 50's. He was the recipient of DePuy Orthopaedics hip replacements, allowing him to continue his coaching career. *Coach K is a paid spokesman for DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc.
- published: 07 Dec 2012
- views: 728
- author: JNJhealth
Mike Krzyzewski on The Dan Patrick Show 12/6/12
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:16
- Updated: 08 Dec 2012
Mike Krzyzewski on The Dan Patrick Show 12/6/12
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski_on_The_Dan_Patrick_Show_12_6_12
Mike Krzyzewski on The Dan Patrick Show 12/6/12
- published: 07 Dec 2012
- views: 468
- author: TheDanPatrickShow
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski Previews the 2012-13 Season
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:05
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
The ACC Digital Network's Jeff Fischel chats with Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski about their recent trip to Fort Bragg and what he expects from Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee this season. Follow the ACCDN on Twitter: twitter.com Like us on Facebook: apps.facebook.com
http://wn.com/Duke_Head_Coach_Mike_Krzyzewski_Previews_the_2012-13_Season
The ACC Digital Network's Jeff Fischel chats with Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski about their recent trip to Fort Bragg and what he expects from Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee this season. Follow the ACCDN on Twitter: twitter.com Like us on Facebook: apps.facebook.com
- published: 17 Oct 2012
- views: 1685
- author: ACCDigitalNetwork
Coach K gets a Technical Foul
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:08
- Updated: 26 Dec 2012
Coach K gets a Technical Foul
http://wn.com/Coach_K_gets_a_Technical_Foul
Christian Laettner on USA Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski Greatness
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:38
- Updated: 09 Jan 2013
esnews
http://wn.com/Christian_Laettner_on_USA_Basketball_Coach_Mike_Krzyzewski_Greatness
All Access Duke Basketball Practice (2010-11) Pt. 3
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:34
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
Coach K begins practice working on fundamentals requiring constant communication. See how they build from 3-on-0 and 5-on-0 weaves into both 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations. Watch the Blue Devils transition from 5-on-0 down the court and come back into their half-court offense against a set man-to-man defense. For information on purchasing this DVD, go to: www.championshipproductions.com For more information on additional Basketball DVDs, go to: www.championshipproductions.com
http://wn.com/All_Access_Duke_Basketball_Practice_2010-11_Pt_3
Coach K begins practice working on fundamentals requiring constant communication. See how they build from 3-on-0 and 5-on-0 weaves into both 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations. Watch the Blue Devils transition from 5-on-0 down the court and come back into their half-court offense against a set man-to-man defense. For information on purchasing this DVD, go to: www.championshipproductions.com For more information on additional Basketball DVDs, go to: www.championshipproductions.com
- published: 05 Jan 2012
- views: 4673
- author: SportsDVDs
Mike Krzyzewski on LeBron: "The Most Unique Player to Ever Play Basketball"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:07
- Updated: 24 Dec 2012
On Mike and Mike in the morning radio show, Mike Krzyzewski describes the type of basketball player LeBron James is PERFECTLY! i love when older people, coaches, retired legends talk about LeBron, because they understand and appreciate the type of player he is. They understand how truly great he is, because LeBron has that old school type of game. Unlike these young NBA fans today who only measure how good a player is by if they can hit the last second shot or how "clutch" they are or if they can make a tough turn-around jumper. Unlike them narrow-minded ESPN highlight brainwashed fans, the old school people "get it"!!
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski_on_LeBron_The_Most_Unique_Player_to_Ever_Play_Basketball
On Mike and Mike in the morning radio show, Mike Krzyzewski describes the type of basketball player LeBron James is PERFECTLY! i love when older people, coaches, retired legends talk about LeBron, because they understand and appreciate the type of player he is. They understand how truly great he is, because LeBron has that old school type of game. Unlike these young NBA fans today who only measure how good a player is by if they can hit the last second shot or how "clutch" they are or if they can make a tough turn-around jumper. Unlike them narrow-minded ESPN highlight brainwashed fans, the old school people "get it"!!
- published: 15 Aug 2012
- views: 3501
- author: KingJamesNation6
Pat Summitt, Mike Krzyzewski honored
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:02
- Updated: 04 May 2012
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski were honored by Sports Illustrated and Time Inc. during a banquet on Tuesday. Dec. 6, 2011 in New York. The two college basketball coaches were honored as the Sports Illustrated 2011 Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year.
http://wn.com/Pat_Summitt,_Mike_Krzyzewski_honored
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski were honored by Sports Illustrated and Time Inc. during a banquet on Tuesday. Dec. 6, 2011 in New York. The two college basketball coaches were honored as the Sports Illustrated 2011 Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year.
- published: 07 Dec 2011
- views: 2476
- author: knoxnews
Coach Mike Krzyzewski heads to the Olympic games
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:00
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
CNN's Piers Morgan talks to Duke Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski about his bid for a second gold medal in London.
http://wn.com/Coach_Mike_Krzyzewski_heads_to_the_Olympic_games
CNN's Piers Morgan talks to Duke Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski about his bid for a second gold medal in London.
- published: 16 Jun 2012
- views: 820
- author: CNN
Krzyzewski: Gold-medal Game His Last As US Coach
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:46
- Updated: 13 Aug 2012
Mike Krzyzewski says the gold-medal game against Spain will be his last as coach of the US men's Olympic basketball team. (Aug. 11)
http://wn.com/Krzyzewski_Gold-medal_Game_His_Last_As_US_Coach
Mike Krzyzewski says the gold-medal game against Spain will be his last as coach of the US men's Olympic basketball team. (Aug. 11)
- published: 11 Aug 2012
- views: 2164
- author: AssociatedPress
Coach K - Mike Krzyzewski ~ All Access Duke Basketball Practice
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:26
- Updated: 14 May 2012
All Access Duke Basketball Practice With Coach K - Mike Krzyzewski Duke's emphasis on beating their opponent in switching from defense to offense and from offense to defense has now become a hallmark of their success. Very rarely do they give up an easy fastbreak basket, while they score many breakaway buckets themselves. Transition Game shows that this advantage is developed on the practice court by design, drilling, and desire, and it describes how you can achieve this advantage for yourself or your team. From the eBA-Stats.com Best Basketball DVDs Reviews Read the Full Review here: eba-stats.com & Order at www.eba-stats.com ~ Basketball DVDs Reviews
http://wn.com/Coach_K_Mike_Krzyzewski_~_All_Access_Duke_Basketball_Practice
All Access Duke Basketball Practice With Coach K - Mike Krzyzewski Duke's emphasis on beating their opponent in switching from defense to offense and from offense to defense has now become a hallmark of their success. Very rarely do they give up an easy fastbreak basket, while they score many breakaway buckets themselves. Transition Game shows that this advantage is developed on the practice court by design, drilling, and desire, and it describes how you can achieve this advantage for yourself or your team. From the eBA-Stats.com Best Basketball DVDs Reviews Read the Full Review here: eba-stats.com & Order at www.eba-stats.com ~ Basketball DVDs Reviews
- published: 07 Sep 2011
- views: 1907
- author: eBAStats
Mike Krzyzewski breaks record all time wins
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:26
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
Today 11-15-2011 Congratulations is in order for Mike Krzyewski of Duke who just defeated Michigan State and in doing so, surpassed Bobby Knight for the all time record for wins in College basketball.
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski_breaks_record_all_time_wins
Today 11-15-2011 Congratulations is in order for Mike Krzyewski of Duke who just defeated Michigan State and in doing so, surpassed Bobby Knight for the all time record for wins in College basketball.
- published: 16 Nov 2011
- views: 185
- author: DailyWorldwideNews
Mike Krzyzewski Team Defense 1 on 1 Drills
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:49
- Updated: 08 Jan 2013
Coach Mike Krzyzewski shows you some of the 1 on 1 defensive drills he uses at Duke. The DVD progresses up to 5 on 5 defense. Available now at www.hoopsking.com
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski_Team_Defense_1_on_1_Drills
Coach Mike Krzyzewski shows you some of the 1 on 1 defensive drills he uses at Duke. The DVD progresses up to 5 on 5 defense. Available now at www.hoopsking.com
- published: 24 Jan 2011
- views: 105052
- author: hoopsking
Duke's Coach K talks about leadership
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:41
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski talks about leadership in a video aired at Fort Bragg's 82nd Sustainment Brigade Provider Week ball. Members of the 82nd Sustainment Brigade also share their views on what leadership means. Video provided by 82nd SB public affairs.
http://wn.com/Duke's_Coach_K_talks_about_leadership
Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski talks about leadership in a video aired at Fort Bragg's 82nd Sustainment Brigade Provider Week ball. Members of the 82nd Sustainment Brigade also share their views on what leadership means. Video provided by 82nd SB public affairs.
- published: 12 Dec 2012
- views: 58
- author: fayobserver
Talking Leadership with Coach K
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:03
- Updated: 06 Jun 2012
This is a portion of a 60 minute interview I did on the floor with Coach K in Cameron Indoor Arena.
http://wn.com/Talking_Leadership_with_Coach_K
This is a portion of a 60 minute interview I did on the floor with Coach K in Cameron Indoor Arena.
- published: 01 Jun 2008
- views: 13797
- author: lifeissport
photo: AP / Menahem Kahana
08 Jan 2013
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - It's Bibi against the world on a campaign trail that took the combative Israeli prime minister to a Jewish settlement on Tuesday. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem December 9, 2012. REUTERS/Ammar Awad ... Tweaking his message to match the locality, Netanyahu said ... The danger comes from Iran, which is building nuclear weapons." ... CHEMICAL WEAPONS ... ....(size: 3.8Kb)
photo: AP / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
08 Jan 2013
MOSCOW, January 8 (RIA Novosti) – At least 17 billion Earth-size planets may inhabit the Milky Way galaxy, SPACE.com reported citing a new study by US astronomers ... That translates to a minimum of 17 billion planets as there are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way ... Over a hundred of candidates have been confirmed as planets so far, NASA said....(size: 1.7Kb)
photo: AP / Channi Anand
09 Jan 2013
JAMMU, India (Reuters) - India slammed arch-rival Pakistan on Wednesday over a fire fight in the disputed territory of Kashmir in which two of its soldiers were killed, and said the mutilation of one of the bodies was "inhuman". India's Defence Minister A.K. Antony waits to speak at a plenary session of the 11th International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) Asia Security Summit ... REUTERS/Tim Chong ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: AP / Richard Drew
09 Jan 2013
A commuter ferry has crashed into the dockside in Lower Manhattan in New York during the morning rush hour, injuring between 30 and 50 people.. The Seastreak Ferry, which provides daily services from Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey, struck Pier 11 in the East River not far from Wall Street at about 8.45am ET (1.45pm GMT).. Officials say at least two of the passengers were in a critical condition, one with confirmed head injuries. ... ....(size: 4.5Kb)
photo: US Army / Sgt. Christopher Bonebrake
07 Jan 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. When Congress granted President Lyndon B. Johnson absolute powers to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression," Congress could have also included "all necessary vanities." The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which greatly escalated a foreign imperial war in Vietnam, added fuel to the bonfires of vanity....(size: 5.2Kb)
The Charlotte Observer
10 Jan 2013
“We feel very badly for Ryan,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said in the statement ... Krzyzewski announced after the Wake Forest game that Kelly had tweaked his right foot during the holidays, and at that point he was thought to be back to full strength ... With three seniors in Mason Plumlee, Seth Curry and Kelly, Krzyzewski preferred to play them, his best players, as much as possible....(size: 2.8Kb)
MSNBC
10 Jan 2013
Raleigh — Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced Wednesday that Ryan Kelly injured his right foot in ......(size: 0.7Kb)
Sporting News
10 Jan 2013
The No. 1-ranked Duke Blue Devils will visit ACC challenger N.C. State this weekend without versatile veteran Ryan Kelly, who is out indefinitely with an unspecified injury to his right foot ... (AP Photo). Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made the announcement Wednesday but did not specify a timetable for Kelly's return ... He also blocks nearly two shots per game ... “We feel very badly for Ryan,” said Krzyzewski ... « OLDER ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)
my SA
10 Jan 2013
The Charlotte Observer
10 Jan 2013
Top-ranked Duke suffered a big blow Wednesday, as word came out that senior forward Ryan Kelly is sidelined indefinitely with a right foot injury ... "We feel very badly for Ryan," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said ... ....(size: 1.0Kb)
Boston Herald
10 Jan 2013
The Charlotte Observer
09 Jan 2013
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Kelly hurt the same foot he tweaked during the holidays and sprained last March, an injury that kept him out of both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Krzyzewski says the extent of Kelly's injury isn't yet known, but a CAT scan and X-rays are planned. "We're hopeful that it's not real serious, but for precautionary reasons, we felt that it wasn't good to play him in the second half," Krzyzewski said....(size: 3.9Kb)
Sacramento Bee
09 Jan 2013
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Kelly hurt the same foot he tweaked during the holidays and sprained last March, an injury that kept him out of both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Krzyzewski says the extent of Kelly's injury isn't yet known, but a CAT scan and X-rays are planned. "We're hopeful that it's not real serious, but for precautionary reasons, we felt that it wasn't good to play him in the second half," Krzyzewski said....(size: 3.8Kb)
TSN Canada
09 Jan 2013
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Kelly hurt the same foot he tweaked during the holidays and sprained last March, an injury that kept him out of both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Krzyzewski says the extent of Kelly's injury isn't yet known, but a CAT scan and X-rays are planned. "We're hopeful that it's not real serious, but for precautionary reasons, we felt that it wasn't good to play him in the second half," Krzyzewski said....(size: 3.8Kb)
Star Tribune
09 Jan 2013
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Kelly hurt the same foot he tweaked during the holidays and sprained last March, an injury that kept him out of both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Krzyzewski says the extent of Kelly's injury isn't yet known, but a CAT scan and X-rays are planned. "We're hopeful that it's not real serious, but for precautionary reasons, we felt that it wasn't good to play him in the second half," Krzyzewski said....(size: 4.1Kb)
The Charlotte Observer
09 Jan 2013
DURHAM Some time in the first half — Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski isn’t sure when — Ryan Kelly hurt his right foot ... He did not play in the second half ... Krzyzewski didn’t know the extent of the injury after Duke’s 64-40 win against Clemson and said Kelly would have a CAT scan and X-rays Wednesday. “We’re hopeful that it’s not real serious,” Krzyzewski said ... Starting strong....(size: 3.1Kb)
Rocky Mount Telegram
09 Jan 2013
“He showed the maturity of not trying to make up for 0-for-11,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said ... Krzyzewski said Duke is optimistic the injury is not serious, though the injury is to the same foot that Kelly sprained during the holiday break and kept him from playing in last season’s NCAA Tournament....(size: 4.4Kb)
The News & Observer
09 Jan 2013
Clemson (8-6, 0-2 in the ACC) made just three first-half field goals and scored 10 total points, tied for the second lowest output for an opponent during the Mike Krzyzewski era ... Krzyzewski didn’t know the extent of the injury after the game. The trio of Josh Hairston, Amile Jefferson and Ale Murphy filled in for Kelly, and Krzyzewski was pleased with the play of all three ... “Booker is their best player,” Krzyzewski said....(size: 17.0Kb)
| Mike Krzyzewski | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport(s) | Basketball |
| Current position | |
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Duke |
| Conference | ACC |
| Record | 854–230 (.788) |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | (1947-02-13) February 13, 1947 (age 65) Chicago, Illinois |
| Playing career | |
| 1966–1969 | Army |
| Position(s) | Point guard, shooting guard |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| College 1974–1975 1975–1980 1980–present International 1979 1984 1987 1990 1992 2006–present |
Indiana (assistant) Army Duke USA (assistant) USA (assistant) USA USA USA (assistant) USA |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 927–289 (.762) |
| Tournaments | 79–23 (NCAA) 2–2 (NIT) 54–18 (ACC) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships 4 NCAA Tournament Championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010) 11 Regional Championships – Final Four (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010) 13 ACC Tournament Championships (1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011) 12 ACC Regular Season Championships (1986, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2010) Accomplishments 8 NCAA Championship Games: (1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2010) 12 Elite Eights: (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010) |
|
| Awards 2x Basketball Times National Coach of the Year (1986, 1997) 3x Naismith College Coach of the Year (1989, 1992, 1999) NABC Coach of the Year (1991) 5x ACC Coach of the Year (1984, 1986, 1997, 1999, 2000) |
|
| Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2001 (profile) |
|
| College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006 |
|
|
Medal record
|
|
Michael William "Mike" Krzyzewski ( /ʃəˈʃɛvski/ shə-SHEV-ski; Polish: Krzyżewski [kʂɨˈʐɛ(f)ski]; nicknamed "Coach K"; born February 13, 1947) is an American basketball coach and former player. Since 1980, he has served as the head men's basketball coach at Duke University. At Duke, Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to four NCAA Championships, 11 Final Fours, 12 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season titles, and 13 ACC Tournament championships. Krzyzewski is also the coach of the United States men's national basketball team, whom he led to a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 FIBA World Championship. He was an assistant coach on the 1992 "Dream Team".
From 1975 to 1980, Krzyzewski was the head basketball coach at the United States Military Academy, where he played from 1966 to 1969 under Bob Knight. Krzyzewski has amassed a record 79 NCAA tournament victories, while averaging 25 wins per season.[1] He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame following the 2001 season. On November 15, 2011, Krzyzewski led Duke to a 74–69 victory over Michigan State at Madison Square Garden to become the winningest coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball history. Krzyzewski's 903rd victory surpassed the previous record of 902, held by his former coach, Bob Knight.
Contents |
Early years and playing career[link]
Krzyzewski was born in Chicago, the son of Polish American parents Emily M. (née Pituch) and William Krzyzewski.[2][3] He has roots in the Pittsburgh area, as his maternal grandparents emigrated from Poland to Keisterville, Pennsylvania. Up until he was 10 or 12, he visited there every summer; Krzyzewski had stated that he suspects the purpose of such trips was to "teach you to know where you came from and to be proud of it."[4]
Raised as a Catholic, Krzyzewski attended Archbishop Weber High School in Chicago, a Catholic prep school for boys.[5] He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1969, and played basketball under Bob Knight while training to become an officer in the Army. He was captain of the Army basketball team in his senior season, 1968–69, leading his team to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
From 1969 to 1974, Krzyzewski served in the Army and directed service teams for three years. In 2005 he was presented West Point's Distinguished Graduate Award.[6]
Coaching career[link]
Indiana and Army[link]
Krzyzewski retired from active duty in 1974 and started his coaching career as an assistant on Knight's staff with the Indiana Hoosiers during their historic 1974–75 season. After one year with Indiana, Krzyzewski returned to West Point as head coach of the Army Cadets. He led the Cadets to a 73–59 record and one NIT berth in five seasons, before leaving to coach at Duke.
Duke[link]
On March 18, 1980, Krzyzewski was named the head coach at Duke University after five seasons at Army.[7] After a few rebuilding seasons, he and the Blue Devils became a fixture on the national basketball scene with 27 NCAA Tournament berths in the past 28 years and 17 consecutive from 1996 to 2012, which is the second-longest current streak of tournament appearances behind Kansas, which has appeared in the tournament in 22 consecutive seasons. Overall, he has taken his program to postseason play in 28 of his 31 years at Duke and is the most winning active coach in men's NCAA Tournament play with a 79–23 record for a .775 winning percentage. His Duke teams have won 13 ACC Championships, been to 11 Final Fours, and won four NCAA tournament National Championships.
On February 13, 2010, Krzyzewski coached in his 1000th game as the Duke head coach. On March 20, 2011, Krzyzewski won his 900th game, becoming only the second head coach with at least 900 wins, the other being his head coach at Army, Bob Knight.[8] On November 15, 2011, Krzyzewski got his 903rd win passing Knight's record for most Division I wins. In an interview of both men on ESPN the previous night, Krzyzewski discussed the leadership skills he learned from Knight and the United States Military Academy. Knight credited Krzyzewski's understanding of himself and his players as keys to his success over the years.[9]
International[link]
Krzyzewski has been the head coach of several USA men's national teams, winning a silver medal at the 1987 World University Games, a bronze medal at the 1990 FIBA World Championship, a silver medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games, a bronze medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, and gold medals at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and 2008 Summer Olympics. He was also an assistant coach to the USA teams which won gold medals at the 1984 and 1992 Olympics as well as the 1979 Pan American Games Team and 1992 Tournament of the Americas.
In 2005, he was appointed coach of the national team through the Beijing Olympics. In the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the USA won the bronze medal after losing in the semifinals to Greece and then beating defending Olympic gold medalist Argentina for third place. On August 24, 2008, Krzyzewski's U.S. team won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. "The Redeem Team" finished the tournament with a perfect 8–0 record. He coached the U.S. team for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and led Team USA to a perfect 8-0 record, defeating host Turkey in the gold medal game, 81–64. Krzyzewski has amassed a total record of 35–1 (.972) as head coach of the USA National Team through the 2010 FIBA World Championship. The team has captured three golds (FIBA Americas Championship 2007, 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2010 FIBA World Championship) and one bronze (2006 FIBA World Championship). His teams have yet to lose in pool play.
Awards and recognition[link]
During his long tenure at Duke, Krzyzewski has been given the opportunity to coach in the NBA five times. The first time came after the 1990 season when he led the Blue Devils to their third straight Final Four appearance. The Boston Celtics offered a coaching position to Krzyzewski, but he soon declined their offer. The next season, Krzyzewski proceeded to lead the Blue Devils to the first of two straight national championships. In 1994, he was pursued by the Portland Trail Blazers, but again he chose to stay with Duke. In 2004, Krzyzewski was also interviewed by the Los Angeles Lakers following the departure of high-profile coach Phil Jackson. He was given a formal offer from Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, reportedly for five years, $40 million and part ownership, but again turned down the NBA. In 2010, the New Jersey Nets were reportedly willing to pay Krzyzewski between $12 million and $15 million per season to coach the Nets. Krzyzewski again declined the offer and stayed at Duke.[10] In 2011, Krzyzewski was offered the vacant coaching position for the Minnesota Timberwolves
Duke has named the floor at its basketball venue, Cameron Indoor Stadium, "Coach "K" Court" in his honor. Similarly, the grassy area outside of Cameron has been named Krzyzewskiville or "K-Ville." On February 28, 2007, Duke named its new basketball practice facility the "Michael W. Krzyzewski Center" — Dedicated to Academic & Athletic Excellence. The 56,000-square-foot (5,200 m2) building was dedicated on February 8, 2008, and also houses the Academic Support Center for all of Duke's 600 student-athletes and an expanded Sports Hall of Fame and event center.
His alma mater inducted him into its sports hall of fame on September 11, 2009, the night before the Army vs. Duke football game.[11] Additionally, West Point annually awards the "Coach K Teaching Character Through Sports" award each spring to cadets and coaches who display superior ethics and character through sport.[12]
Krzyzewski has won the following awards:
- 1986, Basketball Times, CBS/Chevrolet, UPI National COY awards
- 1989, Naismith National COY
- 1991, United States Sports Academy awarded Kryzewski the Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award.[13]
- 2001, Victor Award
- 1984, ACC COY
- 1986, ACC COY
- 1997, ACC COY
- 1999, ACC COY
- 2000, ACC COY
- 2010, Chris Phillips Award
- 2001, Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame.
- 2001, Time magazine and CNN named Krzyzewski "America's Best Coach"; the award was not limited to any particular sport.
- 2008, United States Sports Academy awarded Krzyzewski the Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award.[13]
- 2011, Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year"
Coaching tree[link]
Nine of Krzyzewski's players and assistant coaches have become head coaches at other schools:
- Tommy Amaker: Seton Hall (1997–2001), Michigan (2001–2007), Harvard (2007–present)
- Bob Bender: Washington (1993–2002)
- Mike Brey: Delaware (1995–2000), Notre Dame (2000–present)
- Jeff Capel: VCU (2002–2006), Oklahoma (2006–2011)
- Johnny Dawkins: Stanford (2008–present)
- Mike Dement: UNC Greensboro (1991–1995, 2005–2011), SMU (1995–2004)
- David Henderson: Delaware (2000–2006)
- Tim O'Toole: Fairfield (1998–2006)
- Quin Snyder: Missouri (1999–2006)
Three former players—Steve Wojciechowski, Chris Collins, and Jeff Capel—currently work under him as assistants at Duke. Another former player and assistant, Nate James, works under him as a special assistant. No team coached by one of Krzyzewski's former players has beaten the Blue Devils. However, during the 2007 NCAA tournament (1st round) the Blue Devils fell to Virginia Commonwealth University, whose core players had been recruited by former VCU coach Jeff Capel before he left for the head coaching position at Oklahoma. Krzyzewski has also coached NBA general managers: Danny Ferry, formerly of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Billy King, of the New Jersey Nets. Former player and captain Chip Engelland has served as assistant coach and shooting specialist to the San Antonio Spurs since 2005, Quin Snyder is an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, Bob Bender is an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks and Chris Carrawell, is an assistant coach for the Springfield Armor of the NBDL.[14]
Family and charity[link]
Krzyzewski married his wife, Carol "Mickie" Marsh, in the Catholic chapel at West Point on the day of his graduation in 1969. They have three daughters and eight grandchildren.[15] His charitable activities have included the Emily Krzyzewski Center, a community center in Durham named after his mother, as well as the Duke Children’s Hospital, the Children's Miracle Network, and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.[5]
Head coaching record[link]
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army Cadets (NCAA Division I Independent) (1975–1980) | |||||||||
| 1975–76 | Army | 11–14 | |||||||
| 1976–77 | Army | 20–8 | |||||||
| 1977–78 | Army | 19–9 | NIT 1st Round | ||||||
| 1978–79 | Army | 14–11 | |||||||
| 1979–80 | Army | 9–17 | |||||||
| Army: | 73–59 | ||||||||
| Duke Blue Devils (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1980–present) | |||||||||
| 1980–81 | Duke | 17–13 | 6–8 | T–5th | NIT Quarterfinals | ||||
| 1981–82 | Duke | 10–17 | 4–10 | T–6th | |||||
| 1982–83 | Duke | 11–17 | 3–11 | 7th | |||||
| 1983–84 | Duke | 24–10 | 7–7 | T–3rd | NCAA Round of 32 | ||||
| 1984–85 | Duke | 23–8 | 8–6 | T–4th | NCAA Round of 32 | ||||
| 1985–86 | Duke | 37–3 | 12–2 | 1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 1986–87 | Duke | 24–9 | 9–5 | 3rd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 1987–88 | Duke | 28–7 | 9–5 | 3rd | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 1988–89 | Duke | 28–8 | 9–5 | T–2nd | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 1989–90 | Duke | 29–9 | 9–5 | 2nd | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 1990–91 | Duke | 32–7 | 11–3 | 1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1991–92 | Duke | 34–2 | 14–2 | 1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1992–93 | Duke | 24–8 | 10–6 | T–3rd | NCAA Round of 32 | ||||
| 1993–94 | Duke | 28–6 | 12–4 | 1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 1994–95 | Duke | 9–3[n 1] | 1–1[n 1] | [n 1] | |||||
| 1995–96 | Duke | 18–13 | 8–8 | T–4th | NCAA Round of 64 | ||||
| 1996–97 | Duke | 24–9 | 12–4 | 1st | NCAA Round of 32 | ||||
| 1997–98 | Duke | 32–4 | 15–1 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 1998–99 | Duke | 37–2 | 16–0 | 1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 1999–00 | Duke | 29–5 | 15–1 | 1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2000–01 | Duke | 35–4 | 13–3 | T–1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 2001–02 | Duke | 31–4 | 13–3 | 2nd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2002–03 | Duke | 26–7 | 11–5 | T–2nd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2003–04 | Duke | 31–6 | 13–3 | 1st | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 2004–05 | Duke | 27–6 | 11–5 | 3rd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2005–06 | Duke | 32–4 | 14–2 | 1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2006–07 | Duke | 22–11 | 8–8 | 6th | NCAA Round of 64 | ||||
| 2007–08 | Duke | 28–6 | 13–3 | 2nd | NCAA Round of 32 | ||||
| 2008–09 | Duke | 30–7 | 11–5 | T–2nd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2009–10 | Duke | 35–5 | 13–3 | T–1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 2010–11 | Duke | 32–5 | 13–3 | 2nd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2011–12 | Duke | 27–7 | 13–3 | 2nd | NCAA Round of 64 | ||||
| Duke: | 854–230 | 336–149 | |||||||
| Total: | 927–289 | ||||||||
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National champion Conference regular season champion Conference tournament champion |
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See also[link]
- List of college men's basketball coaches with 600 wins
- List of NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coach
- List of NCAA Men's Division I Elite Eight appearances by coach
- NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament consecutive appearances
Notes[link]
- ^ a b c Krzyzewski coached only the first 12 games of season before leaving the team for back surgery and to recover from exhaustion. Pete Gaudet took over as interim head coach and compiled a record of 4–15 with a mark of 2–13 in conference play. Duke finished the season with a record of 13–18 overall and in ninth place in the ACC at 2–14.
References[link]
- ^ Coach K: Duke Basketball. Accessed on February 18, 2008.
- ^ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4343445.html
- ^ http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=867025
- ^ Coach K practices what he preaches
- ^ a b Susan Hines-Brigger, "Mike Krzyzewski: Life Beyond the Rim", St. Anthony Messenger, March 2006.
- ^ "2005 Distinguished Graduate Award". West Point Association of Graduates. http://www.westpointaog.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=586. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
- ^ Associated Press story from March 19, 1980. Star-News http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=m9ROAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PRMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6496,3897290&hl=en
- ^ Duke-Michigan Rivalry Renewed With Same Result, NY Times, March 20, 2011. New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/sports/ncaabasketball/21duke.html?_r=1&src=se
- ^ Spencer, Sheldon (November 15, 2011). "Coach K, Knight reflect as Duke coach nears career victory No. 903". Front Row. ESPN. http://frontrow.espn.go.com/2011/11/coach-k-knight-reflect-as-duke-coach-nears-career-victory-no-903/. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
- ^ http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/65777/20100405/even_at_$12m_per_season_coach_k_claims_no_interest_in_nets_job/
- ^ ""Coach K" Headlines Army Hall Of Fame Class Of 2009". GoArmySports.om. http://www.goarmysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11100&ATCLID=204791641. Retrieved 16 Sep 2009.
- ^ "Six receive Krzyzewski Character through sports award" (PDF). http://www.westpoint.edu/Dcomm/PV/yr2009/09APR23.pdf. Retrieved 16 Sep 2009.
- ^ a b http://blog.al.com/press-register-sports/2010/04/alabama_football_coach_nick_sa.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
- ^ http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/engelland_050718.html
- ^ Alexander Wolff, "Blue Angel: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's divine spirit and working-class ethics have forged an exemplary college basketball program", Sports Illustrated, March 16, 1992.
- ^ "2006-07 ACC Men's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF) (Press release). theACC.com. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/acc/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/07mbk077103.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mike Krzyzewski |
| Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Pepu Hernández |
FIBA World Championship Winning Coach 2010 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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| Persondata | |
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| Name | Krzyzewski, Mike |
| Alternative names | Krzyzewski, Michael William; Krzyzewski, Michael W.; Coach K |
| Short description | Basketball coach |
| Date of birth | February 13, 1947 |
| Place of birth | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Mike_Krzyzewski
Related pages:
http://ru.wn.com/Кржижевски, Майк
http://fr.wn.com/Mike Krzyzewski
http://pt.wn.com/Mike Krzyzewski
http://de.wn.com/Mike Krzyzewski
http://it.wn.com/Mike Krzyzewski
http://pl.wn.com/Mike Krzyzewski
http://es.wn.com/Mike Krzyzewski
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Krzyzewski
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is about the sportscaster. For other uses, see Dan Patrick (disambiguation).
| Dan Patrick | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel Patrick Pugh (1956-05-15) May 15, 1956 (age 56) Mason, Ohio, U.S. |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Website | |
| danpatrick.com SI.com/danpatrick |
|
Daniel Patrick Pugh (born May 15, 1956), professionally known as Dan Patrick, is an American Sports Emmy-winning sportscaster, radio personality, and actor from Mason, Ohio. He currently hosts The Dan Patrick Show which is broadcast on radio on Premiere Radio Networks, and on television on The Audience Network for DIRECTV subscribers, co-hosts NBC's Football Night in America, and serves as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He previously worked at ESPN for 18 years, where he often anchored the weeknight and Sunday 11 PM edition of SportsCenter.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Patrick attended the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. His brother, Bill Pugh, is a longtime sports radio executive, and is currently the head of programming at Clear Channel San Diego. Patrick was a basketball player in high school at William Mason High School, becoming an Ohio all-state selection his senior year.[1] He attended Eastern Kentucky University on a basketball scholarship for two years before transferring to the University of Dayton, where he majored in broadcast journalism. Patrick is also an alumnus of the Eta Hexaton Chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity at Dayton.[2]
Before ESPN[link]
Before working with ESPN, Patrick was known by his real name, Dan Pugh, as an on-air personality with the album rock-formatted WVUD and then, WTUE in Dayton, Ohio (1979–1983). Patrick was then a sports reporter for CNN (1983–89), where his assignments included the World Series, NBA Finals and Winter Olympics. From 1989–1995 Patrick did a daily sports segment for Bob and Brian, a syndicated Wisconsin-area morning show, and in the early 90s he did sports updates for the Columbus, Ohio, Rock Station WLVQ and appeared on the morning show "Wags and Elliot."[3]
Career at ESPN[link]
Patrick was an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter (1989–2006). He also hosted The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio from September 13, 1999, to August 17, 2007.
In the mid-1990s, Dan and Keith Olbermann were among ESPN's most recognizable faces. Olbermann used the catch phrase "Welcome to the Big Show" when Patrick worked with him on SportsCenter. After getting reprimanded by their superiors, they began saying "This is SportsCenter" sarcastically, accidentally spawning the show's new catch phrase as well as the name of their long-running promotional campaign. When Olbermann left, Patrick said, "This isn't the Big Show anymore."[4] Patrick stated on his radio program that the ABC sitcom Sports Night was a semi-fictional account of the Olbermann/Patrick anchored SportsCenter, with Casey McCall (Peter Krause) representing Patrick.
Starting on March 19, 2006, until the final game of the NBA Finals, he became the host of ABC's then-titled NBA Nation, a pregame show for the network's NBA telecasts.
En fuego[link]
In 1994, when calling the highlights for a game in which Marv Albert described Sam Cassell as being "on fire," Dan Patrick said he was "el fuego", which he thought was Spanish for "on fire." A few months later, he received a letter from a Spanish teacher in Pennsylvania suggesting that he say that athletes are "en fuego" (on fire) rather than "el fuego" (the fire). Since then, Patrick has used "en fuego" on certain occasions when a player is said to be "on fire." Patrick started using the "en fuego" phrase because he believed the standard "on fire" phrase had become clichéd.
Departure from ESPN/ABC[link]
On July 9, 2007, Patrick on his radio show announced his departure from ESPN/ABC effective August 16, 2007, stating, "I am leaving ESPN August 17 to go out on my own and be a free agent...I think I was starting to take it (ESPN) for granted," Patrick said. He said ESPN tried to talk him out of it. If there was any animosity, he says, "I wouldn't be sticking around until August."
Patrick remained off air from ESPN Radio until August 15 for his three farewell shows.[5] He was originally reported to be returning for a final week, but returned on Wednesday of that week.
ESPN's statement released to the media said that Patrick would be released from his contract August 31, 2007, exactly one year early from his deal that was to run until August 31, 2008. The statement also said this would be the final comment on Patrick's departure from ESPN. "ESPN contractually bans all employees from making specific announcements of their futures on their airwaves, but out of respect to Dan and all he's done for ESPN we allowed him an opportunity to end the speculation".
Reaction to Patrick's departure from ESPN/ABC[link]
Reaction from media sources hit the internet by storm. Many webpages, blogs, and news media outlets speculated on the reasons for Patrick's departure and his possible future. On July 10, 2007's The Dan Patrick Show, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick himself put some of the rumors and comments to rest.
Patrick confirmed that he was asked by the producers of The Price is Right to audition for the vacant host position, but he declined. The job eventually went to Drew Carey. Patrick admitted that he was hurt when good friend, Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly (who ironically would move to ESPN) wrote that, "Patrick was making one of the top 5 biggest career mistakes in entertainment history," ranking right under Shelley Long's leaving Cheers and Katie Couric's leaving NBC's Today show for the CBS Evening News.
Keith Olbermann stated that it was only a matter of time before a website erroneously reported that Patrick was fired from ESPN, which was what happened in some reports when Olbermann left ESPN. Patrick again stated he was leaving on good terms with ESPN and that he could return to ESPN if he would so choose. Patrick said that he wanted to be on both television and radio again, although some newspapers reported that he only wanted to do radio.
On his new show, Patrick often relates anecdotes of his ESPN career, in both positive and negative lights. He often refers to his former employer as "The Mother Ship" (and less frequently, "ESPeon"), and expresses disappointment with their practice of preventing their talent from appearing as guests on his show, and frustration when an ESPN employee has agreed to come on the show only to later cancel.
Patrick is also often critical of current ESPN shows (such as SportsNation, SportsCenter, and ESPN First Take) for stealing content from his show.
Last shows[link]
August 17, 2007, was Dan Patrick's last day on ESPN Radio. He named his final three shows the "Farewell for Now" tour. The last 20 minutes of his show were filled with thank-yous and looks back. Guests included Bob Costas, Bobby Knight, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ken Griffey, Jr. and other sports stars. Will Ferrell also made a heavily promoted appearance in character as Ron Burgundy.
[edit] New radio-TV show/Sports Illustrated
Main article: The Dan Patrick Show
Patrick signed a syndication deal with Chicago-based Content Factory, which soon launched his new version of The Dan Patrick Show on October 1, 2007. It was distributed nationally by Premiere Radio Networks. The show aired live on most stations from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern, although some opt to delay the show into the evening. The show ran delayed on Sirius XM Sports Nation on Sirius Radio channel 122 and XM Radio channel 143. It was also available as a live stream and in podcast form via Patrick's website.
In January 2009, Dan Patrick's show replaced Out of Bounds with Craig Shemon and James Washington on Premiere Radio's Fox Sports Radio network. This brought an additional 60 affiliates to Patrick's portfolio, and brought the total affiliate count to over 200. It also allows XM Radio listeners to hear the show live on the Fox Sports simulcast on channel 142, in addition to the delayed broadcast on channel 143. Sirius doesn't carry Fox Sports Radio.
In August 2009, The Dan Patrick Show started being broadcast on The 101 Network, following a show of DIY Network in which a toy-filled "man cave" studio was built in Milford. The radio-only show had been produced in the attic of Patrick's home. The Dan Patrick Show features "The Dannettes", who assist Dan with the show. "The Dannettes" are reported to be soft, but Patrick did not confirm.
Sports Illustrated also announced in October 2007 that Patrick would become the magazine's senior writer. He would also contribute blogs to SI.com's "Fan Nation" and host the magazine's Sportsman of the Year show. SI collaborates with Content Factory to produce Patrick's web site, and helps stream his radio show. Patrick said he will produce non-television content exclusively for Sports Illustrated. The Dan Patrick Show began simulcasting on Fox Sports Net, Comcast SportsNet, Root Sports, and MSG Plus in October, 2010.
NBC Sports[link]
On July 7, 2008, it was announced that Patrick would join NBC Sports as a co-host of the third season of Football Night in America with former SportsCenter co-anchor Keith Olbermann every Sunday night beginning in September during the NFL season.[6] Patrick and Olbermann host a series of highlights on the show and a segment called "The Little Big Show" with the day's top NFL plays.
"The Little Big Show" refers back to Patrick and Olbermann's time at ESPN where they referred to the 11pm SportsCenter they hosted as "The Big Show." This name both annoyed the other hosts, who felt insulted, and management, who preferred them to call the show by the actual name. Frustrations mounted so high that management told them to just say, "This is SportsCenter." This phrase ironically became ESPN's major tagline for SportsCenter.[7]
Patrick served as the Super Bowl XLIII trophy presenter after the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals, and again at Super Bowl XLVI after the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots. Patrick also contributed to the network's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics as a reporter for women's downhill skiing and snowboarding. He also hosted NBC's 2010 & 2011 Stanley Cup Finals coverage. In 2012, NBC named Patrick daytime co-host with Al Michaels for the London Olympics.[8]
Other appearances[link]
Movies and television[link]
Patrick has made cameo appearances in many movies and TV shows, thanks in large part to his longtime friendship with actor Adam Sandler:[9] Patrick also appeared in a Huddle House commercial.
- The Definite Maybe (1997)
- Arli$$ (1998)
- BASEketball (1998)
- The Waterboy (1998)
- Clerks (Animated ABC program) (2000)
- Clone High (2002)
- The Longest Yard (2005)
- Benchwarmers (2006)
- I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)
- The House Bunny (2008)
- Grown Ups (2010)
- Blue Mountain State (2011)
- Just Go With It (2011)
- Jack & Jill (2011)
- That's My Boy (2012)
Music videos[link]
Dan Patrick has appeared twice in music videos:
- The 1995 Hootie & the Blowfish song "Only Wanna Be With You." In the video, the group use their money to purchase several sports teams. Patrick said of the group, "Dare I say they're anything but 'en fuego'." He also uses another one of his famous catchphrases, "You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him."
- In the 2002 Brad Paisley song "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)", with the quote "Brad Paisley, dare I say, 'en fuego'."
References[link]
 |
This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (May 2012) |
- ^ http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/dan-patrick/bio/213784
- ^ http://campus.udayton.edu/~psk/about.htm
- ^ http://www.brooksinternational.com/Dan_Patrick_748.htm
- ^ http://www.sportscasters.info/p/Dan_Patrick.htm
- ^ Dan Patrick Will Return for Farewell Week at ESPN Radio - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog
- ^ Paul J. Gough (2008-07-07). "Olbermann, Patrick reunite for "Football Night"". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSN0743897620080707.
- ^ Those Guys have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN. http://www.amazon.com/Those-Guys-Have-All-Fun/dp/0316043001
- ^ "NBC SPORTS GROUP ANNOUNCES HOSTS AND CORRESPONDENTS FOR LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES ON NBC". TV by the Numbers. April 26, 2012. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/04/26/nbc-sports-group-announces-hosts-and-correspondents-for-london-olympic-games-on-nbc/130933/.
- ^ Dan Patrick (I)
External links[link]
- Dan Patrick Online Official website on CNN.com
- Cousins Subs website (with video of Patrick's ads for the chain)
- Dan Patrick biography
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| Persondata | |
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| Name | Patrick, Dan |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | May 15, 1956 |
| Place of birth | Mason, Ohio, U.S. |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Dan_Patrick
Related pages:
http://es.wn.com/Dan Patrick
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Patrick
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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| Power forward / Center | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1969-08-17) August 17, 1969 (age 42) Angola, New York |
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| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| High school | Nichols School (Buffalo, New York) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 235 lb (107 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College | Duke (1988–1992) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NBA Draft | 1992 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd overall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1992–1996 | Minnesota Timberwolves | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996–1999 | Atlanta Hawks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1999–2000 | Detroit Pistons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2000–2001 | Dallas Mavericks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001–2004 | Washington Wizards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004–2005 | Miami Heat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | Jacksonville Giants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Christian Donald Laettner (born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player, entrepreneur, and basketball coach. He had a distinguished college and national career, and played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for thirteen seasons, from 1992–2005. He was also a minority holder in the Major League Soccer (MLS) club D.C. United from 2007 until 2009, when William Chang bought out the remaining investors to take full control of the club. He is a current assistant coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League.
Laettner played college basketball for the Duke University Blue Devils, starring on the 1991 and 1992 NCAA champion teams.[1] He was the only college player selected for the 1992 United States men's Olympic team, nicknamed the "Dream Team." Sometimes considered the greatest team ever assembled in any sport, the Dream Team went on to win the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics.[2] Laettner was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1992 NBA draft and went on to play 13 seasons in the NBA.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Laettner was born in Angola, New York to a blue-collar Catholic family.[3] Although the Laettner name was German, his father George was of Polish descent. George had attended a Polish-American school, and his grandparents spoke Polish as their first language. The young Christian and his brother frequently worked as farm laborers to supplement their allowance.[3]
Laettner attended Nichols School, where he played high school basketball. Although he received a financial aid package that paid a substantial part of his tuition at the exclusive prep school, his family had to sacrifice to send him there, and he also did janitorial work at the school to defray some of the cost. According to ESPN.com columnist Gene Wojciechowski,[3]
He was, in all probability, the poorest student at the school and almost certainly the only one whose parents ordered his clothes from the Sears catalog, which was the one place they could find pants that fit his growing frame.
In his freshman year, Laettner once scored 67 points in a game.[citation needed] He set the school record for most points at Nichols by scoring over 2000 points in his career. During his career at Nichols, the school won two state titles and reached the state semifinals another time.[3]
Laettner received his first recruiting letter, from nearby St. Bonaventure University, as a freshman. The following year, he became a national recruit, sought after by virtually every major Division I program. He first narrowed his list to 11 schools, and eventually decided he preferred the brand of basketball played in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). By his senior year, he decided he would make only three official visits—to Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia.[3]
Career[link]
College career[link]
Laettner attended Duke University, and played for the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team. He is one of only four players (including teammates Greg Koubek and Brian Davis) to play in four consecutive Final Fours, and the only one to ever start in all four Final Fours. He owns the record for most tournament games played (23) out of a maximum possible of 24 in four years at that time. Laettner's #32 jersey was retired in 1992, making him the sixth of thirteen players so honored by Duke.[4] He averaged 16.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game at Duke and is the all-time three-point shooting percentage leader at Duke with 48.5%.
NCAA Tournament Records Held:
- Most points scored: 407[5]
- Most free throws made: 142
- Most free throw attempts: 167
- Most games played: 23
Laettner is especially known for his last-second, back-to-the-basket, turn-around, game-winning jump shot on March 28 in Duke's dramatic 104–103 victory over Kentucky in the East regional final, played at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, of the 1992 NCAA Tournament, acclaimed by many[6] as the "greatest college basketball game ever played." Footage of Laettner's buzzer beater shot is frequently included in televised montages depicting college basketball and the NCAA tournament; in 2003 it was used in a nationally televised commercial by Allstate. In 2009 Laettner appeared in a commercial for Vitamin Water, again replaying the shot with a Vitamin Water bottle; the ad also features Rick Pitino, who was the coach at Kentucky in 1992. In the game as a whole, Laettner made ten of ten shots from the field and ten of ten from the free throw line. His performance in the game as a whole earned him a 1993 ESPY Award for "Outstanding Performance Under Pressure," and the shot in particular received the 1993 ESPY for "College Basketball Play of the Year." Laettner also received the 1993 ESPY for "Outstanding College Basketball Performer of the Year."[7] The shot was also named the most memorable basketball shot of all-time (including the NBA, college, and high school) by The Best Damn Sports Show Period in 2007[8] and the fifth most unforgettable sports moment of all-time across all sports in 2006.[9]
Laettner's shot was clouded somewhat by an incident earlier in the game, in which Laettner intentionally stepped on the chest of Kentucky Wildcat forward Aminu Timberlake, who was lying on the floor. Laettner later said, "It was just from the emotion of the game. There was maybe too much adrenaline flowing, but it was a big mistake. It's worthy of a technical. I don't think it's worthy of getting kicked out of the game even though all the Kentucky fans will disagree with me on that. But it looks horrible. It's one of the things that I'm embarrassed about in my Duke career. There aren't many things, but that's one of them. Coach K was not happy with me about doing that. And he made a point to let me know about it a few times the following week going into the Final Four."[10]
International career[link]
He played for the US national team in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.[11][dead link]
In 1992 he was selected for the men's Olympic basketball team, which became known as the "Dream Team". He was the only college player selected to the roster, beating out Shaquille O'Neal for the final spot. The team went on to win the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, and has been called the greatest sports team ever assembled.[2]
NBA[link]
Laettner was drafted third overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves after Shaquille O'Neal (1st overall) and Alonzo Mourning (2nd overall) in the 1992 NBA Draft. (All three would later play together on the 2004–05 Miami Heat.) During his 13-year NBA career, Laettner was a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Atlanta Hawks, the Detroit Pistons, the Dallas Mavericks, the Washington Wizards, the Golden State Warriors (though he never played a game for them), and the Miami Heat. Though Laettner never became the superstar some expected, he was voted onto the All-Rookie First Team in 1992–93 and was an All-Star reserve in 1996–97. After he missed most of the 1998–99 season due to a torn Achilles tendon, his playing time and numbers saw a decline.
Laettner was suspended five games without pay in 2003–04 after failing three drug tests.[12] The league would not identify what substance(s) Laettner tested positive for.[13]
He wrapped up his NBA career in 2004–05 as a reserve with the Miami Heat where he was teamed up with college rival Shaq and finished with career averages of 13.3 points per game, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists. He shot 47.8% from the floor and 82.1% from the free throw line.
Business ventures and philanthropy[link]
Laettner founded the community development company Blue Devil Ventures (BDV) with former Duke teammate Brian Davis and Duke alumnus Tom Niemann. In 1995, BDV began developing a community in downtown Durham, North Carolina named "West Village." BDV's website describes West Village as a "mixed-use, upscale community consisting of the adaptive-reuse of historic tobacco warehouses built between 1899 and 1926 and located in the Brightleaf District."[14]
In 2001, Laettner donated $1 million to his high school, Nichols School in Buffalo, New York to create a scholarship fund for students in financial need and to aid in the completion of a new gymnasium.[15] In 2005, Laettner and Davis donated $2 million to Duke's men's basketball program to endow an athletic scholarship and support the construction of a planned athletics center and basketball practice facility.[16] Their donation to the Duke Legacy Fund—which seeks to make the Duke basketball program financially self-sufficient—represents the largest donation by former Duke basketball players to the program since Grant Hill endowed a $1 million scholarship in 2000.
In October 2006, an investment group including Laettner and former teammate Brian Davis had agreed to purchase the 70% share of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies from majority owner Michael Heisley. Laettner considered coming out of retirement to play with the team,[17] but the purchase fell through when Davis and Laettner could not come up with the $252 million needed to purchase Heisley's controlling share.[18] Laettner and Davis (as minority owners) were successful in their bid to purchase operating rights for Major League Soccer's D.C. United.[19][20] Laettner had previously joined Jason Kidd and other investors in the purchase of a AAA baseball team in Phoenix.[15]
In July 2011, Laettner formed a training camp called the Christian Laettner Basketball Academy.[21]
Financial difficulties[link]
In 2012, it was reported that Laettner, Davis and another business partner owed close to $30 million to various creditors. Attorneys for one of these creditors, former Duke basketball player and current Stanford University head basketball coach Johnny Dawkins, have twice filed motions to find Laettner and Davis in contempt of court for failure to disclose financial records pertaining to debt collection activities. While US District Court judge Beryl A. Howell has declined to find Laettner and Davis in contempt (which would result in jail time), she has ordered the disclosures in two separate rulings.[22][23]
ABA[link]
In October 2011, Laettner joined the roster of the Jacksonville Giants of the ABA, agreeing to appear in six games over the season.[24] During the team's season opener, Laettner was involved in a 3-point buzzer beater with three seconds left that ended with the Giants winning over the Gulf Coast Flash. Laettner inbounded the ball, and Currye Todd hit the shot.[25]
NBA D-League[link]
On January 20, 2012, it was announced that Christian Laettner would join the NBA D-League Fort Wayne Mad Ants as an assistant coach. [26]
Personal life[link]
Laettner and his wife have two daughters and one son.[27]
See also[link]
- List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 145 games played
- List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 2000 points and 1000 rebounds
- List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
References[link]
- ^ "Christian Laettner". CNN. 2005-03-31. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/ncaa/specials/ncaa_tourney/2005/03/31/greatest.player.laettner/index.html. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
- ^ a b "The Original Dream Team". NBA.com. 1992-08-08. http://www.nba.com/history/dreamT_moments.html. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ a b c d e Wojciechowski, Gene (January 10, 2012). "How can you be that confident?". ESPN.com. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7433262/how-christian-laettner-got-duke. Retrieved January 11, 2012. Excerpted from The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds that Changed Basketball, Blue Rider Books (imprint of Penguin Group USA), 2012.
- ^ "Duke Legends". Dukeupdate.com. http://www.dukeupdate.com/Records/legends.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ "WashingtonWizards.com Mailbox: Christian Laettner". Nba.com. http://www.nba.com/wizards/mailbox/WashingtonWizardscom_Mailbox-64140-56.html. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ "SI on Campus: 16 Greatest Games". Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/sioncampus/03/10/greatest_games0311/. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ "The 2002 ESPY Awards – ESPY Awards past winners". Espn.go.com. http://espn.go.com/espy2002/s/pastwinners.html. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ The Best Damn Sports Show Period – aired March 14, 2007.
- ^ FOX Sports on MSN – Television – Best Damn's Top 50 Unforgettable Sports Moments
- ^ "Christian Laettner tries to make amends for infamous stomp". Rivals.yahoo.com. 2011-10-05. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/christian-laettner-tries-to-make-amends-for-infamous-stomp?urn=ncaab,wp5182. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
- ^ 1990 USA Basketball[dead link]
- ^ CBC Sports. "NBA suspends Wizards' Laettner" 15 January 2004. Accessed 06 February 2008.
- ^ OutSports. "Laettner suspended" 14 January 2004. Accessed 28 January 2010.
- ^ http://www.bluedevilventures.com/westvillage.html
- ^ a b "Christian Laettner Bio". NBA.com. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/christian_laettner/bio.html. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ "Laettner, Davis Give $2 Million to Legacy Fund, New Athletic Facility". Dukenews.duke.edu. 2005-07-28. http://dukenews.duke.edu/2005/07/laettnerdavis.html. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ "Memphis Grizzlies, Christian Laettner, National Basketball Association - CBSSports.com". Sportsline.com. 2006-10-03. http://sportsline.com/nba/story/9703248. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ "Owner sets May 1 deadline to take team off market". http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2839940. Retrieved 28 April 2007.
- ^ Davis remains a team player : Grizzlies : Commercial Appeal[dead link]
- ^ "MacFarlane leads group in purchase of Major League Soccer's D.C. United". Archived from the original on 18 March 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070318235538/http://web.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070108&content_id=81363&vkey=pr_dcu&fext=.jsp&team=t103. Retrieved 28 April 2007.
- ^ www.laettnerbball.com
- ^ "Judge again denies contempt motions". The Herald Sun HeraldSun.com. 2012-03-16. http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/17914358/article-Judge-again-denies-contempt-motions-?.html. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
- ^ "Ex-Timberwolves Laettner, Davis again avoid jail time over Dawkins debt". Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal. 2012-03-18. http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/blog/sports-business/2012/03/laettner-davis-avoid-jail-dawkins.html. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
- ^ Getting to Know... Christian Laettner
- ^ Christian Laettner Involved In December 3, 2011, buzzer beater.
- ^ Christian Laettner Joins NBA Mad Ants
- ^ 30 Seconds with Christian Laettner NY Times, March 29, 2009
External links[link]
- Christian Laettner NBA.com playerfile
- The Sporting News with a March, 1997 interview of a 27 year-old Atlanta Hawks Laettner
- Christian Laettner at Basketball-Reference.com
- 1992 Oscar Robertson Trophy
- VIDEO – Interview With Christian Laettner by Richard Miller- Miller on Sports Radio
- VIDEO -Christian Laettner discusses NBA Lockout by Richard Miller- Miller on Sports Radio
- VIDEO -Christian Laettner joins ABA Jacksonville Giants basketball team
- -ABA Jacksonville Giants Christian Laettner pulls off buzzer beater six years after retiring from the NBA
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Laettner, Christian |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | Basketball player |
| Date of birth | 1969-08-17 |
| Place of birth | Angola, New York |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Pat Head Summitt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport(s) | Women's college basketball |
| Current position | |
| Title | Head coach emeritus |
| Team | Tennessee |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | (1952-06-14) June 14, 1952 (age 60) Clarksville, Tennessee |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1974-2012 | Tennessee |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 1098–208 (.841) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships 8 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championships (1987,1989,1991,1996,1997,1998,2007,2008) 16-time SEC Champions (1980, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011) 16-time SEC Tournament Champions (1980, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012) |
|
| Awards 8 Time SEC Coach of the Year (1993,1995,1998,2001,2003,2004,2007,2011) 7 Time NCAA Coach of the Year (1983,1987,1989,1994,1995,1998,2004) Naismith Coach of the 20th Century 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom |
|
| Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2000 |
|
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pan American Games | ||
Competitor for  United States |
||
| Gold | 1975 Mexico | Player |
| Olympic Games | ||
| Silver | 1976 Montreal | Player |
| Gold | 1984 Los Angeles | Head Coach |
Patricia "Pat" Head Summitt (born on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is a former women's college basketball head coach. She now serves as the head coach emeritus of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history of either a men's or women's team in any division. She coached from 1974 to 2012, all with the Lady Vols, winning eight NCAA national championships, second only to the record 10 titles won by UCLA men's coach John Wooden. Summitt is the only coach in NCAA history, and one of three college coaches overall, with 1,000 victories. She was named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in April 2000. In 2009, the Sporting News placed her number 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time in all sports; she was the only woman on the list. In 38 years as a coach, she never had a losing season. On April 20, 2012, the White House announced that Pat Summitt would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Summitt has written two books: Reach for the Summitt, which is part a motivational book and part biography, and Raise the Roof about the Lady Vols' 1997–1998 undefeated and NCAA-championship winning season.
Contents |
Early life and family[link]
Summitt was born Patricia Sue Head in Clarksville, Tennessee. She has three siblings: older brothers Tommy, Charles and Kenneth. She married R. B. Summitt in 1980; the two filed for divorce in 2007.[1] They have one son, Ross Tyler Summitt (b. 1990), who played as a walk-on for the Tennessee men's basketball team,[2] is set to graduate from Tennessee in May 2012, and has been hired as an assistant coach for the Marquette University women's team effective with the 2012–13 season.[3] In what ESPN.com columnist Gene Wojciechowski called "a bittersweet irony", Tyler's hiring by Marquette was announced on the same day his mother announced her retirement.[4]
When Summitt was in high school, her family moved to nearby Henrietta, so she could play basketball in Cheatham County because Clarksville did not have a girls team. From there, Summitt went to University of Tennessee at Martin where she was a member of Chi Omega and won All-American honors, playing for UT–Martin's first women's basketball coach, Nadine Gearin. In 1970, with the passage of Title IX still two years away, there were no athletic scholarships for women. Each of Summitt's brothers had gotten an athletic scholarship, but her parents had to pay her way to college. She later co-captained the first United States women's national basketball team as a player at the inaugural women's tournament at the 1976 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal. Eight years later in 1984, she coached the U.S. women's team to an Olympic gold medal, becoming the first U.S. Olympian to win a basketball medal and coach a medal-winning team.
Coaching career[link]
1970s[link]
Just before the 1974–75 season, with women's college basketball still in its infancy and not yet an NCAA-sanctioned sport, 22-year-old Summitt became a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee, and was named head coach of the Lady Vols after the previous coach suddenly quit. Summitt earned $250 monthly and washed the players' uniforms - uniforms purchased the previous year with proceeds from a donut sale. Summitt recalled that era of women's basketball during a February 2009 interview with Time Magazine. "I had to drive the van when I first started coaching," Summitt said. "One time, for a road game, we actually slept in the other team's gym the night before. We had mats, we had our little sleeping bags. When I was a player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, we played at Tennessee Tech for three straight games, and we didn't wash our uniforms. We only had one set. We played because we loved the game. We didn't think anything about it."
During Summitt's first year as head coach, four of her players were only a year younger than she was and all were from Tennessee high schools, which until the early-1970s employed an antiquated six-person game where offensive and defensive players never crossed mid-court. She coached her first game for Tennessee on December 7, 1974 against Mercer University in Macon, Georgia; the Lady Vols lost 84-83.[5] Her first win came almost a month later when the Lady Vols defeated Middle Tennessee State, 69-32 on January 10, 1975.[5] The Lady Vols won the Tennessee College Women’s Sports Federation (TCWSF) Eastern District Championship for the third straight year. However, the team finished 4th overall in the TCWSF (they had been second the previous two years), and were not invited to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament.
In her second season, Summitt coached the Lady Vols to a 16-11 record while earning her 1976 masters degree in physical education and training as the co-captain of the 1976 U.S. Women's Olympic basketball team that won a silver medal in Montreal. Starting with the 1976-77 season, Summitt directed two 20-win teams, winning back-to-back AIAW Region II championships. The Lady Vols defeated 3-time AIAW champion Delta State by 20 points in 1978, and earned Tennessee its first number one ranking.[6] 1978 saw the Lady Vols participate in their first AIAW Final Four, where they finished third. Summitt also recorded her 100th win during this season, a 79–66 victory over NC State.[7] Tennessee finished up the 1970s by winning the first-ever SEC tournament, and returning to the AIAW Final Four, where they finished runner-up to Old Dominion, 68–53.[5]
1980s[link]
During the 1980-81 season, the Lady Vols went 25-6, and avenged their championship game loss to Old Dominion by defeating them three times. The team made it to the AIAW Final Four for the third straight year; finished runner-up for the second consecutive year, losing to Louisiana Tech, 79-59.
The 1981-82 season featured the first ever NCAA Women's basketball tournament. The Lady Vols were one of 32 teams invited and named a 2 seed in their region. In the region championship, the Lady Vols upset top-seeded USC 91-90 in overtime to advance to the Final Four. They lost their Final Four match-up with Louisiana Tech, which went on to win the tournament.
The next season, the Lady Vols won the regular season SEC title but fell in the SEC tournament to Georgia. Tennessee was invited to the now-36 team NCAA tournament and awarded its first-ever 1 seed. Tennessee made it to the regional championship, but fell to Georgia again, 67-63. Summitt won her 200th game on December 3, a 69-56 victory over St. John's during the Coca-Cola Classic in Detroit.[7]
The 1983-84 season saw Tennessee start out 6-4. However, Summitt rallied her team and finished 22-10, for her eighth straight 20-win season, a streak that still continues. Tennessee not only made it to the NCAA Final Four for the second time in the first three tournaments, but also made it to the title game. However, Tennessee lost by 11 to USC, which also had won the title the previous year. Pat Summitt earned Coach of the Year honors.[8] This season was followed up by another 20-win year in which Tennessee earned both the regular season SEC title (despite only going 4-4) and the tournament title. However, the Lady Vols fell in the NCAA Tournament to Ole Miss during the round of 16. The next season was a similar story - The Lady Vols had a good regular season, played a great tournament (reaching the Final Four for the second time in three years), but fell before winning the title.
In 1986-87, Tennessee broke through and defeated perennial power Louisiana Tech 67-44 to win the Lady Vols first national title. Tennessee's Tonya Edwards was named the Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four. During the regular season, Summitt also earned her 300th win, an 87-66 victory over North Carolina.[7] The next year in 1987-88, the Lady Vols were positioned to repeat as Tennessee made it to the Final Four yet again. However, Louisiana Tech avenged the previous year's championship game loss with a 9-point victory and went on to win the title.
In 1988-89, the Lady Vols made it to the Final Four for the fourth straight year. After dispatching Maryland by 12, Tennessee faced SEC rival Auburn for the national title. Auburn had lost by two to Louisiana Tech in the NCAA title game the previous year and had suffered its only loss in the SEC Championship game by 15 points to Tennessee. The championship game was similar as Tennessee took home its second title in three years with a 76–60 victory. Record-wise, it was Tennessee's best season yet, as the Lady Vols won 35 games while losing only a pair of regular season contests to Auburn and Texas. The Lady Vols won every NCAA tournament game by at least 12 points.[5]
In 1989-90, the Lady Vols started off the season well, winning the SEC title. However, the team fell by 1 point to Auburn in the SEC Championship Game and lost in overtime to Virginia in the regional finals, one game shy of making a trip to the Final Four, which that year was held in Knoxville. Summitt accomplished another milestone that season with her 400th win, a 70-69 victory over South Carolina on January 25.[7]
1990s[link]
Tennessee failed to win the SEC regular season or the tournament championship in 1990-91, but after a close win in the NCAA regional semifinals against Western Kentucky, the Lady Vols eliminated Auburn for the second time in three years. In the national semifinals, the Lady Vols beat Stanford, 68-60, to earn the chance to avenge the previous year's tournament loss against Virginia. Just as the previous year's game had gone into overtime, so did this one. Tennessee escaped with a 70-67 win and its third national title in five years. The next season in 1991-92, the Lady Vols did not make it to the regional championship, falling 75-70 to the same Western Kentucky team they had beaten in that round the previous year.In 1992-93, Tennessee defeated the defending champions Stanford twice and swept the SEC season for the first time. However, the Lady Vols were unable to win the SEC tournament title and fell 72-56 in the NCAA tournament to Iowa in the regional finals.
Early in the 1993-94 season, Summitt grabbed her 500th win, an 80-45 win over Ohio State on November 21. Tennessee went on to win the regular season and tournament SEC titles before falling 71-68 to Louisiana Tech in the regional semifinals. The next season marked Tennessee's return to the Final Four. Tennessee went undefeated in the SEC regular season for the third straight year, but failed to win the tournament title. The top-seeded Lady Vols breezed their way to their fifth national title game, with no other tournament game being closer than 21 points. However, in the national championship game, the Lady Vols fell 70-64 to the undefeated UConn Huskies, coached by her rival, Geno Auriemma, in the first of seven championships for UConn. During the off-season, Pat Summitt recruited high school stand-out Chamique Holdsclaw.
In 1995-96, with freshman Holdsclaw and senior Michelle Marciniak, the Lady Vols won the SEC tournament and made a second straight Final Four trip. In the semi-finals, the Lady Vols avenged the previous year's tournament loss to UConn by ousting Auriemma and the Huskies with a hard-fought 5-point win in overtime. The championship game was not that close as Tennessee easily won their fourth title with an 83-65 win over Georgia.[9]
The 1996-97 Lady Vols posted one of the worst records ever for a Summitt-coached team. In addition to losses to powerhouses such as Louisiana Tech (twice), Stanford, Old Dominion, and Connecticut, Tennessee fell to teams such as Florida, against whom they had been previously undefeated. After their tenth loss of the season, in the SEC semi-finals to Auburn, the team pulled together in time for the NCAA Tournament. After avenging a regular-season loss to undefeated Connecticut, Tennessee continued on their way to the championship game, where they avenged another loss, defeating Old Dominion by 9 for their second straight national title.[10] Summitt also earned her 600th win during the season, a 15- point victory over Marquette on November 23, 1996.[7]
Main article: 1997-98 Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team
In many aspects, the 1997–98 team was Summitt's best. With the top-ranked recruiting class as well as Chamique Holdsclaw, the Lady Vols ran the table to a 39-0 season while playing one of the top-ranked schedules in the country. Only three teams came within 10 points of beating the team, and the Lady Vols won a 93–75 victory over Louisiana Tech for their third straight national championship.
Holdsclaw (who by then had won national championships every season she was with the Vols) had predicted the 1998–99 team would be the greatest ever. However, Tennessee didn't claim another national title or make it to the Final Four. Injuries to several players decimated the team and the Lady Vols ultimately fell to Duke in the regional finals. A landmark was set during this season however, as Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings, and Semeka Randall became the first trio from one team to be named Kodak All-Americans.[5]
The Lady Vols ended the decade with their third straight 30-win season, third straight SEC title, and third straight SEC Tournament title. Additionally, the Lady Vols defeated UConn in the regular season, 72-71, in what would be the Huskies only loss of the year. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee breezed its way to the title game, winning all five games by at least 10 points. However, in the championship game the Lady Vols were beaten soundly by the Huskies, 71–52. This marked the fourth time in six years that Tennessee or UConn had eliminated the other from the tournament. UConn's two wins in that period came in championship games, adding more intensity to the Summit-Auriemma rivalry. During the season, Summitt earned her 700th win, 85-62 at Wisconsin.[5]
At the 2000 ESPY awards, the Lady Vols basketball team was named co-team of the decade, along with the Florida State Seminoles football team.[11] Additionally, Pat Summitt was named the Naismith Coach of the Century and Chamique Holdsclaw earned recognition as player of the century.[5]
2000s[link]
In the 2000–01 season, the Lady Vols claimed another SEC title, winning all 14 SEC games. Additionally, they split the season series with the UConn Huskies and headed into the SEC tournament with a 28–1 record. However, the Lady Vols were upset by Vanderbilt in the semifinals and then lost in the Sweet Sixteen to Xavier, their worst finish since 1993-94. During the regular season, Summitt earned her 750th win in the second game against UConn, a 92–88 victory.[7] The team also finished with its fourth straight 30-win season.
In the 2001-02 season, The Lady Vols won their fifth straight SEC championship, but fell again in the conference tournament, this time to LSU. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee reached the Final Four again, with a 5-point win over Vanderbilt. This trip to the Final Four marked Summitt's 13th appearance, which broke Coach John Wooden's record of 12, and earned her 788th win, which tied Summitt with Jody Conradt for the winningest coach in women's basketball history.[7] However, the Lady Vols fell in the national semifinals to Connecticut, which wound up winning the championship and capping an undefeated season. This loss ended the season at 29-5, one win shy of extending Summitt's streak of 30-win seasons. Summitt did achieve more milestones during the season; a 106-66 win over USC marked Summitt's 200th win at home, a victory against Louisiana Tech was her 300th win against a ranked opponent and her 93-65 win over Arkansas was her 1,000th game as a coach, including international contests.[7]
During the 2002-03 season, the Lady Vols compiled their 6th perfect SEC season and beat powerhouses Duke and Louisiana Tech, among others, during the regular season, but lost to Texas and UConn. In the NCAA tournament, the Lady Vols made it to the title game only to lose to the Huskies again 73-68.[12] During the season, Summitt earned her 800th win, 76-57 over DePaul and was the fastest coach to reach this milestone.[7]
The 2003-04 season was similar to the previous year. The Lady Vols defeated most of their regular season opponents, including Duke and Louisiana Tech, but dropped games to UConn and Texas. The Lady Vols again went 14-0 in the regular season against SEC competition, but again fell in the conference tournament. Tennessee won five games in the NCAA tournament only to lose 70-61 to Connecticut in the championship game for the second year in a row and third time in five years.[13]
In 2004-05, Tennessee broke its losing streak against Connecticut with a narrow 68-67 regular season victory. Candace Parker, a highly regarded and nationally known high school player joined the Lady Vols. However, because of injuries, she was redshirted and didn't play that sesson. Tennessee suffered losses during the regular season to Duke, Rutgers, and LSU, while beating Stanford and Louisiana Tech. LSU's win over Tennessee gave the Tigers the SEC title, breaking Tennessee's streak of seven straight regular season conference championships. However, Tennessee won its first tournament title in four years by avenging its earlier loss to LSU loss with a 67-65 win in the SEC Championship game. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee advanced to its fourth Final Four in a row by defeating a Rutgers team that had beaten them earlier in the year. In the Final Four, the Lady Vols blew a 16-point lead to fall 68-64 to underdog Michigan State.[14][15] In the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Vols defeated Purdue. This victory gave Pat Summitt her 880th win, breaking North Carolina coach Dean Smith's record of 879 wins, and making her the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history.
By 2005–06, Candace Parker had recovered from her injuries and became a starter. During the season, the Lady Vols dropped three games to SEC foes, LSU, Florida, and Kentucky, to record their worst SEC season since the 1996-97 season. However, they won their second straight game against Connecticut and rebounded from a sub-par SEC season to win the conference tournament for the second year in a row. In the NCAA tournament, Tennessee received a number two seed instead of the one seed Summitt believed her team deserved, and played North Carolina in the regional finals. Tennessee trailed from the beginning, fell behind by as many as 16, rallied to cut the lead to five, but ultimately fell 75-63.[16] This loss marked the first time in five years Summitt would not appear in the Final Four.
In the 2006-07 season, Tennessee defeated four ranked teams in a row: UCLA, Stanford, Arizona State, and Middle Tennessee, lost a regular season rematch with North Carolina and another game against top-ranked Duke, and defeated UConn for the third time in a row.[17] Later, in Baton Rouge, the Lady Vols clinched the SEC title against LSU in a game where Candace Parker scored 27.[18] However in the SEC tournament semifinals, Tennessee fell to the Tigers.[19] In the NCAA tournament, Summitt's team easily made it to the Final Four, dispatching teams that included SEC foe Mississippi and 13-seeded Cinderella, Marist, winning each game by at least 14. In the Final Four, Tennessee again faced North Carolina. Despite shooting poorly,[20] the Lady Vols came back from a 12-point deficit with 8:18 remaining to win 56-50.[21] In the championship game against Rutgers, Tennessee won its seventh title.[22] During the season, Summitt appeared at a men's basketball game dressed in a cheerleader outfit and led the crowd in a rendition of "Rocky Top" to show her support for the team. A month earlier, her men's counterpart, Bruce Pearl, showed up at a Lady Vols game in orange body paint.
The 2007-08 season started off with the top-ranked Lady Vols going 3-0, including wins over 9th-ranked Oklahoma[23] and 22nd-ranked Texas. The win over Texas was Summitt's 950th.[24] After two more wins, top=ranked Tennessee knocked off fourth-ranked North Carolina, 83-79, in a rematch of the previous year's Final Four match-up.[25] Tennessee won their next four games, then headed to California for a match-up with 5th-ranked Stanford. Down by 4 with less than 30 seconds remaining, the Lady Vols managed to tie the game up and send it to overtime, but lost, 73-69.[26] The Lady Vols responded by winning their next seven games, giving them a 17-1 record going into a match-up with Duke. Candace Parker's 17 points and 12 rebounds, including a bucket with 22 seconds remaining, helped the Lady Vols defeat the Blue Devils for the first time in four years, 67-64.[27] Tennessee would win the rest of their regular season games and defeat LSU for the SEC Tournament Championship. The Lady Vols won four straight games in the NCAA Tournament heading toward their third matchup of the year against the LSU Lady Tigers in the Final Four. Alexis Hornbuckle tipped in a Nicky Anosike missed layup with 0.7 seconds left to win the game, 47-46. On April 8, 2008, Tennessee won its second consecutive national championship (and eighth overall) by beating Stanford 64-48.
Summitt's first milestone of the 2008-09 season was a 73-43 win over the Georgia Lady Bulldogs on February 5, 2009 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. The win was number 1000 for Coach Summitt. The Thompson Boling Arena's court was named "The Summitt" in her honor. The 2008-09 season ended with a dubious first, as the Lady Vols lost 71-55 in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Ball State in Bowling Green, Kentucky, marking the first time Tennessee would not appear in the Sweet 16 since the NCAA first sanctioned championships in women's basketball for the 1981-82 season.
Health and end of coaching career[link]
In August 2011, Summitt announced that she had been diagnosed three months earlier with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.[28] Despite the diagnosis, she did complete the 2011-2012 season, but with a reduced role, while longtime assistant Holly Warlick, an assistant under Summitt since 1985, assuming most of the responsibilities.[29][30] In an interview with GoVolsXtra.com, she stated, "There's not going to be any pity party and I'll make sure of that."[31]
After the season, which ended with the Lady Vols losing to the eventual unbeaten national champion Baylor Lady Bears in the Elite Eight in Des Moines, on April 18, 2012, Pat Summitt officially stepped down as head coach, ending her 38-year coaching career. Warlick was named Summitt's successor. In a statement accompanying her resignation, Summitt said, ""I feel like Holly’s been doing the bulk of it, She deserves to be the head coach..." Summitt was given the title Head Coach Emeritus upon her resignation.[32] According to NCAA regulations, as head coach emeritus, she will not be allowed to sit on the team bench.[33]
Summitt finished her coaching career with 1,098 wins in 1,306 games coached in AIAW and NCAA Division I play. No other Division I basketball head coach, men's or women's, has more than 927 career wins as of the end of the 2011-12 season.
Coaching style[link]
Summitt is best known for giving her players an icy stare in response to poor play. However, by her own admission, she has mellowed considerably over the years. In 2007 she told U.S. News and World Report that she does not yell at her players nearly as much as she did earlier in her career.[34] Tennessee at least twice asked Summitt to consider coaching the men's team, once before 1997[35] and again in 2001.[36]
Tournament record[link]
Summitt has 15 Southeastern Conference regular season titles with the Lady Vols, as well as 14 tournament titles. Summitt's Lady Vols have made an appearance in every NCAA Tournament, as well as every Sweet 16, except for 2009, and have appeared 18 times in the Final Four.[8] When she made her 13th trip to the Final Four as a coach in 2002, she surpassed John Wooden as the NCAA coach with the most trips to the Final Four. Summitt is a seven-time SEC Coach of the year and a 7-time NCAA Coach of the year and has won eight national titles, including three consecutive titles from 1996 to 1998.[8] Summitt is known for scheduling tough opponents for her team to play in the regular season, in order to prepare them for the post-season. In her years of coaching, her teams have played top ten ranked teams over 250 times.[8]
In the 1997–98 season, her team went unbeaten, winning all 30 regular and 9 tournament games, earning Summitt's sixth championship. Some sportswriters[who?] considered that year's team the greatest team ever in college women's basketball. This was the third consecutive championship for the Lady Vols, and the third for heralded players Chamique Holdsclaw and Kellie Jolly. Holdsclaw was named a consensus All-American, as was freshman Tamika Catchings.
Summitt and the 1996-1997 championship team were the subject of an HBO documentary titled A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back. That year, the Lady Vols posted just a 23–10 record heading into the NCAA tournament, with two losses to Louisiana Tech, setbacks against national powers Georgia, Stanford and UConn, but also shocking losses to SEC lesser lights Arkansas, Auburn, and LSU (which was 7–20 just two seasons prior and had not yet established itself as a perennial national power). However, Tennessee righted itself during the tournament, shocking previously undefeated UConn in the regional final, 91–81, before defeating Notre Dame and Old Dominion in the Final Four in Cincinnati.
Awards and titles[link]
- 16-time SEC Champions (1980, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,[8] 2007,[37] 2010, 2011)
- 16-time SEC Tournament Champions (1980, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012)[8]
- 8-time SEC Coach of the Year (1983, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2011)[38]
- 7-time NCAA Coach of the Year (1983, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2004)[8]
- 8-time NCAA Champions (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008)[8]
Honors[link]
- 1990: Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame as a coach, the first year coaches were honored.[39]
- 1999: Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural class.[40]
- 2000: Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.[41]
- April 2000.: Named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century.
- 2008: Named Best Coach/Manager ESPY Award. Award encompasses all sports college and professional
- 2009: Named to Sporting News' list of the 50 greatest coaches of all time (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, college basketball, and college football). She is listed in position 11.[42]
- 2011: Named Sports Illustrated's Sportswoman of the Year, Dec. 6th, 2011 in NYC. (She shared the Sportsman/Sportswoman honor with Duke University men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski.)
- Summitt is the only person to have two courts used by NCAA Division I basketball teams named in her honor: "Pat Head Summitt Court" at the University of Tennessee at Martin, and "The Summitt" at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
- She also has two streets named after her: "Pat Head Summitt Street" on the University of Tennessee campus and "Pat Head Summitt Avenue" on the University of Tennessee at Martin campus.
- 2012: Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Records[link]
Note: The first season for NCAA Division I women's basketball was the 1981-82 season. Prior to that, Tennessee played women's basketball in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in Division I.
- Most NCAA women's basketball championships (8)
- Most seasons coached in NCAA/AIAW play without a losing record (38, lost more than 9 games in a season only 6 times and more than 10 games in a season only twice)
- Most consecutive NCAA/AIAW postseason appearances (38, never missed a tournament)
- Most number 1 seeds in NCAA Division I postseason play (20)
- Most wins as an NCAA/AIAW Division I basketball head coach (1,098; in second place is Mike Krzyzewski with 927 wins)
- Most wins in NCAA postseason play (109)
- Most NCAA Final Four appearances (18, six more than John Wooden, who holds the men's records)
- Most NCAA/AIAW Championship game appearances (15)
- Most 20-win seasons in NCAA/AIAW play (36, all consecutive seasons)
- Most 30-win seasons in NCAA/AIAW play (20)
- Third all-time in winning percentage (minimum 10 seasons) (.841, bested only by Geno Auriemma (.862) and Leon Barmore (.869)
- 45 former players have become coaches.[43]
- Every Lady Vol player who completed her eligibility at Tennessee under Summitt graduated with a degree or is in the process of doing so.[44][45]
- Every Lady Vol player who completed her eligibility at Tennessee under Summitt played in at least one Elite Eight.
Head coaching record[link]
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee Lady Volunteers (AIAW) (1974–1979) | |||||||||
| 1974–75 | Tennessee | 16–8 | TCWSF Eastern District Champions 4th Place TCWSF |
||||||
| 1975–76 | Tennessee | 16–11 | 4th Place TCWSF 6th Place AIAW Region II |
||||||
| 1976–77 | Tennessee | 28–5 | 2nd Place TCWSF AIAW Region II Champions 3rd Place AIAW |
||||||
| 1977–78 | Tennessee | 27–4 | 2nd Place TCWSF AIAW Region II Champions 4th Place AIAW South Satellite |
||||||
| 1978–79 | Tennessee | 30–9 | TCWSF Champions 2nd Place AIAW Region II AIAW East Satellite Champions 3rd Place AIAW |
||||||
| Tennessee Lady Volunteers (SEC) (1979–2012) | |||||||||
| 1979–80 | Tennessee | 33–5 | TCWSF Champions 2nd Place AIAW Region II AIAW South Satellite Champions 2nd Place AIAW |
||||||
| 1980–81 | Tennessee | 25–6 | TCWSF Champions AIAW Region II Champions 2nd Place AIAW |
||||||
| 1981–82 | Tennessee | 22–10 | NCAA Final Four | ||||||
| 1982–83 | Tennessee | 25–8 | 7-1 | 1st (East) | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 1983–84 | Tennessee | 23–10 | 7-1 | T–1st (East) | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 1984–85 | Tennessee | 22–10 | 4-4 | T–2nd (East) | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 1985–86 | Tennessee | 24–10 | 5-4 | 5th | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 1986–87 | Tennessee | 28–6 | 6-3 | T–4th | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1987–88 | Tennessee | 31–3 | 8-1 | 2nd | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 1988–89† | Tennessee | 35–2 | 8-1 | 2nd | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1989–90 | Tennessee | 27–6 | 8-1 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 1990–91 | Tennessee | 30–5 | 6-3 | 3rd | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1991–92 | Tennessee | 28–3 | 10-1 | 2nd | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 1992–93 | Tennessee | 29–3 | 11-0 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 1993–94 | Tennessee | 31–2 | 11-0 | 1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 1994–95 | Tennessee | 34–3 | 11-0 | 1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 1995–96† | Tennessee | 32–4 | 9-2 | 2nd | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1996–97 | Tennessee | 29–10 | 8-4 | 5th | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1997–98‡ | Tennessee | 39–0 | 14-0 | 1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 1998–99 | Tennessee | 31–3 | 13-1 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 1999–00 | Tennessee | 33–4 | 13-1 | T–1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 2000–01 | Tennessee | 31–3 | 14-0 | 1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2001–02 | Tennessee | 29–5 | 13-1 | 1st | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 2002–03 | Tennessee | 33–5 | 14-0 | 1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 2003–04 | Tennessee | 31–4 | 14-0 | 1st | NCAA Runner-up | ||||
| 2004–05 | Tennessee | 30–5 | 13-1 | 2nd | NCAA Final Four | ||||
| 2005–06 | Tennessee | 31–5 | 11-3 | 2nd | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 2006–07# | Tennessee | 34–3 | 14-0 | 1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 2007–08† | Tennessee | 36–2 | 13-1 | 2nd | NCAA Champions | ||||
| 2008–09 | Tennessee | 22–11 | 9-5 | 5th | NCAA First Round | ||||
| 2009–10 | Tennessee | 32–3 | 15–1 | 1st | NCAA Sweet Sixteen | ||||
| 2010–11 | Tennessee | 34–3 | 16–0 | 1st | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 2011–12 | Tennessee | 27–9 | 12–4 | 2nd | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| Tennessee: | 1098–208 | 306–44 |
† Also won SEC Tournament Championship. |
||||||
| Total: | 1098–208 | ||||||||
|
National champion Conference regular season champion Conference tournament champion |
|||||||||
Sources: SEC records;[46] Conference champions[47]
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ "Summitt files for divorce". http://www.thedailytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/NEWS/70816005.
- ^ Griffith, Mike. "Tyler Summitt's road to being a coach" The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 13 July 2010.
- ^ "Marquette tabs Summitt's son". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. April 18, 2012. http://www.jsonline.com/sports/goldeneagles/marquette-tabs-summitts-son-4l52eld-148024355.html. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
- ^ Wojciechowski, Gene (April 18, 2012). "Tennessee's Summit changed game". ESPN.com. http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7830262/tennessee-coach-pat-summitt-changed-game. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Summing It Up... The Road To 1,000 Wins". http://www.utladyvols.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/020109aaa.html. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
- ^ "LADY VOL ALL-TIME GAMES VERSUS RANKED TEAMS". UTLADYVOLS.com. http://www.utladyvols.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/games-vs-ranked.html. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Standing Pat: Summitt's Milestone Wins". http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?page=summitt_timeline. Retrieved 2007-03-28.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Player Bio - Pat Summitt". Archived from the original on 2007-05-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20070526060257/http://utladyvols.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/summitt_pat00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
- ^ "1995-96 Lady Vols". http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/9596lv.html. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
- ^ "1996-97 Lady Vols". http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/9697lv.html. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
- ^ "The 2005 ESPY Awards - Past ESPY Award Winners". http://espn.go.com/espy2005/s/pastwinners.html. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ ".". 2002-03 Lady Vols. http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/tenn.html#2003. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ "2003-04 Lady Vols". http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/tenn.html#2004. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ "2004-05 Lady Vols". http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/tenn.html#2005. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "Michigan State 68, Tennessee 64". http://www.ncaasports.com/basketball/womens/story/8353949. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "NCAA Women's Basketball - Tennessee Lady Volunteers / North Carolina Tar Heels Recap". http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/recap?gid=200603280413. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "Strong Start Powers No. 1 Duke Past No. 4 Tennessee, 74-70". http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=751514. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "Box Score: Tennessee at LSU". http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/06box3.html#GAME%2027. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "Box Score: SEC Tournament Semifinals: LSU at Tennessee". http://christle.freeshell.org/wbb/06bxtour.html#GAME%2031. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "NCAA Women's Basketball - North Carolina Tar Heels / Tennessee Lady Volunteers Box Score". http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/boxscore?gid=200704010580. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "NCAA Women's Basketball - North Carolina Tar Heels / Tennessee Lady Volunteers Recap". http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/recap?gid=200704010580. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "NCAA Women's Basketball - Rutgers Scarlet Knights / Tennessee Lady Volunteers Recap". http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/recap?gid=200704030580. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "Parker, Bobbitt lead UT over OU 70-67". http://utladyvols.com/basketball/article.aspx?id=41182. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
- ^ "UT Tops Texas on Banner Raising Day 92-67". http://utladyvols.com/basketball/article.aspx?id=41260. Retrieved 2007-11-19.
- ^ "No. 1 UT Out Battles No. 4 UNC 83-79". http://utladyvols.com/basketball/article.aspx?id=42124. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
- ^ "No. 1 UT Falls in OT to No. 5 Stanford 73-69". http://utladyvols.com/basketball/article.aspx?id=43360. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
- ^ "Parker's Late Shot Lifts UT over Duke, 67-64". http://www.utladyvols.com/basketball/article.aspx?id=44854. Retrieved 2008-02-03. [dead link]
- ^ Jenkins, Sally (2011-08-23). "Pat Summitt, Tennessee women’s basketball coach, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/pat-summitt-tennessee-womens-basketball-coach-diagnosed-with-alzheimers-disease/2011/08/23/gIQADEuDZJ_story.html. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ "Vols' Summitt diagnosed with dementia, will try to coach". http://www.cbssports.com/#!/general/story/15473196/vols-summitt-diagnosed-with-dementia-will-try-to-coach. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Famous+faces+of+Alzheimer's/G3808?csp=ftsmpg
- ^ "Pat Summitt diagnosed with early onset dementia - Lady Vols basketball coach has no plans to step down". http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2011/aug/23/pat-summitt-diagnosed-early-onset-dementia/. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ "Pat Summitt steps down". http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2012/apr/18/pat-summitt-steps-down/. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ Clarke, Liz (2012-04-18). "Pat Summitt to step down: legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach won 1,098 games, 8 NCAA titles". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/pat-summitt-to-step-down-legendary-tennessee-womens-basketball-coach-won-1098-games-8-ncaa-titles/2012/04/18/gIQA2CK2QT_story.html?wpisrc=al_national. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ Garber, Kent. Showing How the Game is Played. U.S. News and World Report, 2007-11-12.
- ^ Bondy, Filip (1997-03-28). "Women Stake Claim In Their Game". New York Daily News. http://articles.nydailynews.com/1997-03-28/sports/18033213_1_pat-summitt-wendy-larry-tara-vanderveer. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- ^ Szulszteyn, Andrea (2001-10-21). "Coaching Quandry". Palm Beach Sun-Sentinel. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2001-10-21/sports/0110210185_1_female-coaches-title-ix-women-s-sports. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
- ^ "No. 2 Tennessee Pulls Away from No. 7 Lady Tigers, 56-51". https://www.nmnathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=801444. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- ^ "2007 SEC Women's Basketball Awards Announced". http://secsports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=4&url_article_id=8449&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2. Retrieved 2007-02-28. [dead link]
- ^ "International Women's Sports Hall of Fame". Women's Sports Foundation. http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/home/programs/awards/international-womens-sports-hall-of-fame. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- ^ "WBHOF Inductees". WBHOF. http://www.wbhof.com/inductees.html. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ "Hall of Famers". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/tag/pat-head-summitt. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ D'Alessio, Jeff (July 29, 2009). "Sporting News' 50 greatest coaches of all time". SportingNews.com. http://www.sportingnews.com/college-basketball/article/2009-07-29/sporting-news-50-greatest-coaches-all-time. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ Karen Crouse (2009-01-24). "Pat Summitt Makes Tennessee a Cradle of Coaches". New York Times.
- ^ http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120301/SPORTS06/303010062/Pat-Summitt-builds-legacy-may-never-matched
- ^ ABC News, Pat Summitt: 20 Career Highlights and Surprises November 2, 2011. Accessed April 19, 2012.
- ^ "Women's Basketball Record Book - Through the Years". SEC Sports. http://cache.secsports.com/doc_lib/bkw_recordbook_years.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
- ^ "SEC CHAMPIONS/SEC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS". University of Tennessee Women's Athletic Department. 2008-06-09. http://www.utladyvols.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/sec-champs.html. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pat Summitt |
- coachsummitt.com
- Summitt biography
- "Eyes of the Storm" - a 1998 Sports Illustrated feature article about Summitt by Gary Smith
| Preceded by Gary Hall, Sr. Lawrie Mifflin Drew Pearson Cynthia Potter Sally Ride Harry Smith |
Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) Class of 1999 Dave Casper Anita DeFrantz Pat Summitt Lynn Swann Robert R. Thomas Bill Walton |
Succeeded by Dianne Baker Junior Bridgeman Pat Haden Lisa Rosenblum John Dickson Stufflebeem John Trembley |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Summitt, Pat |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | Basketball player and coach |
| Date of birth | June 14, 1952 |
| Place of birth | Clarksville, Tennessee |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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Michael William "Mike" Krzyzewski ( /ʃəˈʃɛvski/ shə-SHEV-ski; Polish: Krzyżewski [kʂɨˈʐɛ(f)ski]; nicknamed "Coach K"; born February 13, 1947) is an American basketball coach and former player. Since 1980, he has served as the head men's basketball coach at Duke University. At Duke, Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to four NCAA Championships, 11 Final Fours, 12 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season titles, and 13 ACC Tournament championships. Krzyzewski is also the coach of the United States men's national basketball team, whom he led to a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 FIBA World Championship. He was an assistant coach on the 1992 "Dream Team".
From 1975 to 1980, Krzyzewski was the head basketball coach at the United States Military Academy, where he played from 1966 to 1969 under Bob Knight. Krzyzewski has amassed a record 79 NCAA tournament victories, while averaging 25 wins per season. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame following the 2001 season. On November 15, 2011, Krzyzewski led Duke to a 74–69 victory over Michigan State at Madison Square Garden to become the winningest coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball history. Krzyzewski's 903rd victory surpassed the previous record of 902, held by his former coach, Bob Knight.
