July 08, 2018

I'm saddened today to hear of the death of Frank Ramsey, NBA Hall of Famer and the original 6th man during his Boston Celtics career. He was a member of the University of Kentucky team, along with Cliff Hagen and Lou Tsioropolous, that was forced to forfeit all of its wins because of a point shaving scandal in which none of the three were implicated. After graduation, all three were drafted by the Celtics in the 1953 draft. They chose to return as graduate students to UK, turning the team into a powerhouse, but since the NCAA rules at the time did not allow graduate students to participate in the post season, UK chose not to play in the tournament.

All three spent some time in the Air Force before continuing in the NBA. This brings me to the first time I saw Ramsey play. In those days of yore NBA teams often scheduled double headers where 2 other NBA teams would play each other before the home team would play its scheduled opponent. Sometimes the first game was between two good college teams, and once in a while it was an exhibition game between two military teams. My dad and I had gone to the Celtics game, and the first game was between two Air Force teams. Ramsey and Tsioropolous were on one side, and Hagen was on the other. At the time I was thinking, "who are these guys", and it was not until a couple of years later that I realized what I had watched.

posted by Howard_T at 09:25 PM on July 08, 2018