Albert V. "Albie" Grant Jr. (October 7, 1943 – April 14, 2004) was an American college basketball standout at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

(LIU), professional player for the ABA's

New Jersey Americans New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, school teacher, and medical doctor.

Basketball career

Grant was a native of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City. He attended Long Island and played basketball for head coach Roy Rubin. Standing , Grant played the

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

position. His career at LIU lasted between 1963–64 and 1965–66, and upon his graduation he was the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,403 points as well as its all-time leading rebounder with 975 (both marks have since been surpassed). During his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season, Grant averaged 20.1 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, both of which led the team, and at the end of the season he was honored with the

Haggerty Award __NOTOC__ The Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award is given to the All-New York Metropolitan NCAA Division I men's college basketball player of the year, presented by the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) ...

. The award has been given annually since 1935–36 to the top male collegiate basketball player in the greater New York City area. The Blackbirds won their second consecutive Tri-State League championship, and Grant finished his college career with averages of 20+ points and 10+ rebounds. To this day he is still the only player in program history with those combined career averages. After college, Grant had a

cup of coffee A "cup of coffee" is a North American sports idiom for a short time spent by a minor league player at the major league level. The idea behind the term is that the player was only in the big leagues long enough to have a cup of coffee before bei ...

in the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

while playing for the

. His professional career was short-lived, however, and he moved on to other things after his time with the Americans. In 2001, he was part of the inaugural class inducted into the LIU Athletics Hall of Fame.

Later life

Grant got into teaching at various schools in New York City. The last school he taught at before his death was Manhattan High School. In the 1990s, Grant earned a medical degree from the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

in Spain. On April 14, 2004, Grant died at age 60 following complications from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Albie 1943 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American educators American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York City Complutense University of Madrid alumni Deaths from diabetes Educators from New York City Forwards (basketball) LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds men's basketball players Schoolteachers from New York (state) Sportspeople from Manhattan St. Louis Hawks draft picks