Richard C. Ives (April 26, 1926 – May 5, 1997) was an American basketball player for the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

from 1943–44 to 1946–47. A native of

Diagonal, Iowa Diagonal is a city in northwest Ringgold County, Iowa, United States. The population was 344 at the time of the 2020 census. The community was named for the fact that two railroads intersected diagonally near the town site. Geography Diagonal i ...

, Ives passed up the opportunity to play college basketball at

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hi ...

on a full athletic scholarship so that he could play at

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

under coach "Pops" Harrison. Ives had been a stand-out basketball player at Diagonal High School and led the team to the state championship. Ives entered the University of Iowa in the fall of 1943 as a 17-year-old

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

. Due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the lack of able-bodied male student athletes across the nation, the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

allowed freshmen to play varsity sports in college, which until that time had been disallowed. With this rare opportunity, Ives went on to have a highly successful four-year letter-winning career as a Hawkeye. He led the team in scoring for his first three seasons, and as a freshman he scored a then-unheard of school- and

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

-record 43 points in a single game. It is still the third highest scoring game in Iowa history and it earned him the nickname "Diagonal Dagger." Ives was a three-time All-American, and in 1944–45 he was voted as a consensus Second Team All-American (coincidentally, fellow sophomore teammate

Herb Wilkinson Herbert Wells Wilkinson (born December 13, 1923) is an American former college basketball player who won the 1944 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as a freshman while playing for Utah, then transferred to Iowa as a sophomore and bec ...

was also a consensus All-American). That season, the Hawkeyes also won the Big Ten Conference championship. After 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 ...

year in 1946–47, Ives was drafted by the

Pittsburgh Ironmen The Pittsburgh Ironmen were a charter member of the Basketball Association of America (a forerunner of the National Basketball Association). The team was based in Pittsburgh and played at Duquesne Gardens. They ended their only season in the BAA i ...

of the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA absorbed most of National Basketball League (NBL) and rebranded as the National Ba ...

(which would become 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 S ...

) but never played a game for them. He instead coached basketball and baseball at

Parsons College Parsons College was a private liberal arts college located in Fairfield, Iowa. The school was named for its wealthy benefactor, Lewis B. Parsons Sr., and was founded in 1875 with one building and 34 students. Over the years new buildings were cons ...

, married Joan Newton and lived in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

where Ives had a hardware business. In 1954 they moved to

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, and resided there for the rest of their lives. Ives died on May 5, 1997, in Miami.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ives, Dick 1926 births 1997 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Basketball players from Iowa Forwards (basketball) Iowa Hawkeyes baseball players Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball players Sportspeople from Cedar Rapids, Iowa Basketball players from Miami Parsons Wildcats baseball coaches People from Ringgold County, Iowa Pittsburgh Ironmen draft picks American men's basketball players