Richard James Boushka (July 29, 1934 – February 19, 2019) was an American

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 who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Boushka played collegiately at Saint Louis University. In addition to his play on the gold-medal winning 1956 American Olympic team, he was a member of the American team in the

1959 Pan American Games The 1959 Pan American Games were held in Chicago, Illinois, United States between August 28 and September 7, 1959. Host city selection One city initially submitted a bid to host the 1959 Pan American Games that was recognized by the Pan Am ...

and was a standout player for the Wichita Kansas) Vickers of the AAU. Boushka eventually became the president of team sponsor

Vickers Petroleum Vickers Petroleum Company was an oil company founded by John A. (Jack) Vickers, Sr. In 1918, Vickers established a refinery in Potwin, Kansas to process the output of recently discovered oil fields in Butler County. Wichita Vickers basketball ...

. Boushka was named to the Saint Louis Billikens All Century Team. He was on the team with other Saint Louis players such as Jordair Jett, Anthony Bonner, and

Larry Hughes Larry Darnell Hughes Sr. (born January 23, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. Hughes played for eight different teams during his 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Hughes attended Saint Louis Un ...

Investments

After

parimutuel gambling Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winni ...

was legalized in Kansas in 1986, Boushka approached

RD Hubbard Rd is an abbreviation for road. RD or Rd may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' Real Drive'', an anime by Production I.G * RD (group), a British girl group also known as Ruff Diamondz * ''Rilindja Demokratike'', an Albanian newspaper ...

with the idea of a greyhound track. The ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that they planned on building a "combined horse-dog complex, and now Kansas has a $70-million facility amed The Woodlands the two tracks sharing a joint parking lot." According to Hubbard, "if we didn't do what we did, the greyhounds and the horses would have wound up competing against one another in the same market. It was a better idea getting the two industries to work together." In Kansas City, they funded the construction and opening of The Woodlands racing park in 1989. Built to serve as both a greyhound track and later as a horse racing track, the venue was the first legal gambling outlet in the area since the 1930s, and in its second year attendance peaked at 1.7 million attendees.

Death

Boushka died on February 19, 2019.Dick Boushka's obituary
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References

External links

* 1934 births 2019 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Amateur Athletic Union men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players at the 1956 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1959 Pan American Games Basketball players from Illinois Forwards (basketball) Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games Minneapolis Lakers draft picks Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in basketball Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball players Sportspeople from Springfield, Illinois United States men's national basketball team players {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub