Andrew Edward Tonkovich (November 1, 1922 – September 2, 2006) 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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and coach. He was selected as the first overall pick in the 1948 BAA draft by the

Providence Steamrollers The Providence Steamrollers were a Basketball Association of America team based in Providence, Rhode Island. As of 2022, the Steamrollers were the last professional sports franchise from one of the Big Four leagues to be based in Rhode Island. ...

. He played

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for the

Marshall Thundering Herd The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are member ...

Basketball career

College career

Tonkovich led the Thundering Herd as team captain to the NAIB championship in 1947. He was named to the All-Tournament team and the NAIB All-American first-team. Tonkovich scored 1,578 points for the Thundering Herd, which was a record for the program at the time.

Professional career

After his college career, he was selected as the first overall pick in the 1948 BAA draft by the

. Tonkovich played 17 games for the Steamrollers during the 1948–49 BAA season. He left the team midseason and signed with the Wheeling Blues of the All-American Basketball League as a player-coach.

After Basketball

After his playing retirement, Tonkovich became a high school coach and physical education teacher in West Virginia and Florida. He served as the basketball coach at St. John Central High School in

Bellaire, Ohio Bellaire is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area, and Wheeling is across the Ohio to the east. The population was 4,278 at the 2010 census, having had its peak i ...

, from 1952 to 1954. Tonkovich was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.

Career statistics

BAA

Source

Regular season

References

External links

Career statistics
1922 births 2006 deaths American people of Croatian descent American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players All-American college men's basketball players Basketball coaches from West Virginia Basketball players from West Virginia Marshall Thundering Herd men's basketball players People from Benwood, West Virginia People from Inverness, Florida Point guards Providence Steamrollers draft picks Providence Steamrollers players Sportspeople from Wheeling, West Virginia {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub