The 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team competed in the Games of the XVII Olympiad, representing the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. The USA team, coached by

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

head coach

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 Univer ...

, dominated the competition, winning its games by an average of 42.4 points per game. The team is considered by many to be the best

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

level

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team of all time, and was elected to the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

as a unit, in 2010.

Roster

Olympic trials

Trials for the team were held in March and April 1960, in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, at the

Denver Coliseum Denver Coliseum is an indoor arena, owned by thCity and County of Denver operated by itsDenver Arts & Venuesand located in Denver, Colorado. The arena holds 10,200 people and was built from 1949 to 1951. The coliseum is located in Denver's Elyria ...

. The trials were conducted in the form of an eight team tournament, including teams from the reigning NCAA National Champions, the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

, a team of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

All-Stars featuring stars such as

Jerry West Jerome Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is an American basketball executive and former player. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames included "Mr. Clutch", for his ability ...

and

Oscar Robertson Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938), nicknamed "the Big O", is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Robertson played ...

, an NAIA All-Star team, and the AAU Champions, the Peoria Caterpillar Cats. The NCAA All-Stars won the competition convincingly, and so

was named the team's head coach, with

Warren Womble John Warren Womble, Jr. (March 15, 1920 – March 21, 2015) was an American basketball coach. He was the head coach of the Peoria Cats, a National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) team, located in Peoria, Illinois, and the head coach of the 195 ...

as his assistant. The trials came at a time when the AAU and NCAA were wrestling for control of

USA Basketball USA Basketball (USAB) is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in the United States. The organization represents the United States in FIBA and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the United States Olympi ...

, and the make-up of the team represented that uneasy truce, as the team was made up of seven collegiate stars, four AAU players, and one representative of the

US Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

(guard

Adrian Smith Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio. Smith grew up in London ...

). This compromise meant that many top college players were left off the team, including Ohio State's

John Havlicek John Joseph Havlicek ( ; April 8, 1940 – April 25, 2019) was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Boston Celtics, winning List of NBA players with most championships, eight NBA championships, four of ...

and

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

guard

Lenny Wilkens Leonard Randolph Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) is an American former basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as ...

Olympic tournament

The team went 8–0 in the Olympic basketball tournament, held in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, averaging 101.9 points per game and holding their opponents to 59.5. Five Americans averaged double-figures in scoring - Oscar Robertson (17.3),

Jerry Lucas Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State, and 1960 gold medal Olympian and international player before later starring as a p ...

(16.8), Jerry West (14.1),

Terry Dischinger Terry Gilbert Dischinger (born November 21, 1940) is an American former basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Dischinger was a three-time NBA All-Star and the 1963 NBA Rookie of the Year, after averaging 28 points per gam ...

(11.3) and Adrian Smith (10.9). Lucas was the star of the medal round, as he scored 21 points in the gold medal game against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, after having scored 26 points in the previous game against host

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Results

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

88,

54 *USA 125,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

66 *USA 107,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

63 *USA 104,

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

42 *USA 108,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

50 *USA 81,

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

57 *USA 112,

81 *USA 90,

Legacy

The 1960 team is thought to be one of the best

amateur sports Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration Remuneration is the pay or other financial compensation provided in exchange for an employee's ''services performed'' (not to be confused with givi ...

teams in basketball history. Nine members of the squad went on to play in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

and four players from the team - Robertson, Lucas, West and

Walt Bellamy Walter Jones Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. A four-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. College career Bellamy chose to play basket ...

, have individually been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as have head coach Pete Newell and

Dutch Lonborg Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg (March 16, 1898 – January 31, 1985) was a basketball, American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. Basketball The Gardner, Illinois native coached for 23 years at McPherson Colleg ...

, who was on Newell's staff as team manager. Other career distinctions by team members include Robertson's League MVP Award in 1963-64. Dischinger's 1963

NBA Rookie of the Year Award The National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the top rookie(s) of the regular season. Initiated following the 1952–53 NBA season, it confers the Eddie Gottl ...

(an award also received by Robertson (1961), Bellamy (1962), and Lucas(1964), Adrian Smith's

NBA All-Star Game MVP The NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the player(s) voted best of the annual All-Star Game. The award was established in 1953 when NBA officials decided to de ...

in 1966, and West's NBA Finals MVP in 1969.

Bob Boozer Robert Louis Boozer (April 26, 1937 – May 19, 2012) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Boozer won a gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics and won an NBA Championship as a member of the ...

and

Darrall Imhoff Darrall Tucker Imhoff (October 11, 1938 – June 30, 2017) was an American professional basketball player. He spent 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), playing for six teams from 1960 to 1972. He made an NBA All-Star team, an ...

were also NBA All-Star Game participants during their careers. The team was elected to the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984. In 2010, along with the "Dream Team," the 1960 US Olympic men's basketball team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a unit. The election marks only the seventh and eighth teams so honored.Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2010
Retrieved on April 11, 2010.

References

External links

Team profile at USA Basketball official siteUS Olympic Hall of Fame Class of 1984 page
{{Basketball Hall of Fame

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

United States at the Olympic men's basketball tournament Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees

olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...