Alex John Groza (October 7, 1926 – January 21, 1995) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player from

Martins Ferry, Ohio Martins Ferry is a city in Belmont County, Ohio, United States, on the Ohio River across from Wheeling, West Virginia. It is the largest city in Belmont County. The population was 6,915 as of the 2010 census. It is most known as the birth place o ...

. Resulting from the CCNY point shaving scandal, Groza was banned from the

National Basketball Association 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 ...

(NBA) for life in 1951. In college, he won two NCAA championships as captain of the

University of Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

, and was a two-time All-NBA player for the

Indianapolis Olympians The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University--now known as H ...

before his career abruptly ended.

Early life

Groza grew up in Martins Ferry, Ohio and attended

Martins Ferry High School Martins Ferry High School is a public high school in Martins Ferry, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Martins Ferry City School District. Athletic teams compete as the Martins Ferry Purple Riders in the Ohio High School Athl ...

. He was the brother of future Pro Football Hall-of-Famer

Lou Groza Louis Roy Groza (January 25, 1924 – November 29, 2000), nicknamed "the Toe", was an American professional football player who was a placekicker and offensive tackle while playing his entire career for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America F ...

. Alex Groza led the Purple Riders to two undefeated regular seasons and to the Ohio state tournament both years, as Martins Ferry finished 24–1 in 1943 and 26–1 in 1944. In 1944, he scored 628 points, including 41 in one game, and was named first-team All-Ohio.Alex Groza
Ohio Valley Athletic Conference

College career

Groza was the captain and center of the " Fabulous Five" that won the 1948 and 1949 NCAA Men's Basketball Championships, as well as the leading scorer on the gold medal-winning 1948 US Olympic basketball team. Groza was three-time All-American and All- SEC, and two-time

NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player At the conclusion of the NCAA men's and women's Division I basketball championships (the "Final Four" tournaments), a media panel selects a Most Outstanding Player (MOP). It is usually awarded to a member of the championship team. There have been ...

Professional career

Indianapolis Olympians (1949–1951)

Groza was drafted in the 1st round of the 1949 NBA draft by the Indianapolis Olympians. Groza averaged 23.4 points per game in his rookie season and was named

NBA Rookie of the Year 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 ...

. Because the award was selected by newspaper writers at the time, the NBA currently does not recognize Groza having won the award. He averaged 22.5 points per game over two seasons before being implicated along with college teammates

Ralph Beard Ralph Milton Beard Jr. (December 2, 1927 – November 29, 2007) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player. He won two NCAA national Basketball, basketball championships at the University of Kentucky and played two years in t ...

and

Dale Barnstable Dale Barnstable (March 4, 1925 – January 26, 2019) was an American basketball player from Antioch, Illinois who was banned for life from the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1951 for point shaving during his college career at the Unive ...

in a point shaving scandal during the 1948–49 season at Kentucky. NBA president

Maurice Podoloff Maurice Podoloff ( yi, מוריס פודולוף; August 18, 1890 – November 24, 1985) was an American lawyer and a basketball and ice hockey administrator. He served as the president of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) between 1946 ...

banned all of the implicated players from the league for life. As a result of this ban, Groza became the first player in NBA history to end his career with a season in which he averaged at least 20 points per game (Groza averaged 21.7 PPG during the 1950–51). In NBA history, only three players have had higher scoring averages in their final NBA seasons:

Bob Pettit Robert Lee Pettit Jr. (born December 12, 1932) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks (1954–1965). In 1956, he became the first recipient of the NBA's M ...

(22.5 PPG in '64–65), Paul Arizin (21.9 PPG in '61–62), and

Dražen Petrović Dražen Petrović (; 22 October 1964 – 7 June 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 Nati ...

(22.3 PPG in '92–93).

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

Coaching career

After his playing career ended, Groza became the coach of

Bellarmine College Bellarmine University (BU; ) is a private Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest ...

(now University) in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. In 1963, Groza led the Knights to a Kentucky Intercolliegiate Athletic Conference title and was named KIAC coach of the year. Groza left Bellarmine in 1966 for a brief coaching and managerial career in the American Basketball Association. Between 1971 and 1975, Groza coached 40 games with the Kentucky Colonels and

San Diego Conquistadors The San Diego Conquistadors (known as the San Diego Sails in their final, partial season), were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in San Diego. The "Q's", as they were popularly known, played from 1972 to 1975. As the Sails, the ...

and held a number of front office positions, including becoming the Kentucky Colonels' business manager in 1969 and general manager of the San Diego Conquistadors in 1972 (and, later, San Diego's head coach). Groza was 2–0 as coach of the Colonels but 15–23 as coach of the Conquistadors after replacing

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...

in 1974, putting his career coaching record at 17–23. He was named general manager of the expansion Conquistadors on August 8, 1972. In 1975 Groza became director of player development for the San Diego Sails of the ABA.Remember the ABA: San Diego Conquistadors/San Diego Sails Year-by-Year Notes

Personal life

After the team moved to Houston, Groza remained in San Diego, working as a sales manager for Reynolds International until his death.
New York Times. January 23, 1995. Alex Groza died of cancer in 1995 at age 68. He was survived by his wife of 42 years, Jean (Watson) Groza, two sons, two daughters, and two grandchildren.

Miscellaneous

*Groza led the league in field goal percentage in 1950 and 1951. *Alex Groza was the brother of football Hall of Famer

. *Groza's nickname was "The Beak".

References

External links

*
Alex Groza player statistics
at Basketball-Reference.com

at Basketball-Reference.com

– UK Career Statistics and Biography * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Groza, Alex 1926 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople All-American college men's basketball players Amateur Athletic Union men's basketball players American Basketball Association executives American men's basketball players Banned National Basketball Association players Basketball coaches from Ohio Basketball players at the 1948 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Ohio American people of Hungarian descent American people of Romanian descent Bellarmine Knights baseball coaches Bellarmine Knights men's basketball coaches Centers (basketball) Indianapolis Olympians draft picks Indianapolis Olympians players Kentucky Colonels coaches Kentucky Colonels executives Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics National Basketball Association All-Stars Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball People from Martins Ferry, Ohio San Diego Conquistadors coaches San Diego Conquistadors executives Sportspeople involved in betting scandals United States men's national basketball team players