William G. Mokray (June 6, 1907 – March 21, 1974) was an American basketball statistician and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. Born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey, Mokray's love of basketball stats began while attending

Passaic High School Passaic High School is a four-year community public high school, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Passaic, in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Passaic City School District. The school has ...

.William G. "Bill" Mokray enshrined as a contributor in 1965
, Basketball Hall of Fame. Accessed July 13, 2007. "Mokray's romance started while a student at Passaic High School during the era of the 'Passaic High School Wonder Teams.'" After graduating from Rhode Island State College (now the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

), he worked as a public relations director first for his alma mater and, beginning from 1946, for the Boston Celtics basketball team. He founded and was the editor for The Official NBA Guide, authored the history of basketball article for the

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

and wrote a 900-page Ronald Basketball Encyclopedia. He was considered the number one authority on basketball's history and owned what was considered to be the world's largest basketball library, most of which was donated to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965 as a contributor.

References

External links

Basketball Hall of Fame page on Mokray
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mokray, Bill 1907 births 1974 deaths Boston Celtics personnel Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Passaic High School alumni Writers from Passaic, New Jersey University of Rhode Island alumni