Ned Dixon "Dickie" Hemric (August 29, 1933 – August 3, 2017) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player for Wake Forest University (1952–1955) and the

NBA 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 ...

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

(

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

–

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

). Hemric played the first two college years at Wake Forest when the school was a member of the Southern Conference. The

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) Male Athlete of the Year was created at the start of the 1954 season, and he played his last two seasons in the ACC, setting conference records for scoring and rebounding that were untouched for the first 50 years of the conference's existence. He was honored as the second recipient of the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1955. In 2002 Hemric was selected to the

ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team During the 2002–03 school year, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) celebrated its 50th anniversary by selecting the top players in its respective sports. Fifty players were selected for the men's basketball team, which was voted on by a 120-memb ...

, honoring the 50 greatest players in ACC history. Hemric's ACC scoring record of 2,587 points was untouched from 1956 until it was finally broken in 2006 by

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

's JJ Redick and in 2009 by Tyler Hansbrough of the University of North Carolina. Hemric held the NCAA record for free throws made in a career with 905 for 54 years until it was passed by Hansbrough. Hemric still holds the Division I record for most free throw attempts (1,359) in a career. Hemric's ACC record of 1,802 career rebounds may never face a serious challenge - for four decades the nearest runner-up was his contemporary Ronnie Shavlik who is now third on the list with 1,567 rebounds from 1954 to 1956. Second is legendary

power forward Tim Duncan, who pulled down 1,570 rebounds at Wake Forest from 1994 to 1997. With most of today's elite ACC players leaving for the NBA before completing four seasons, it is difficult to project a scenario in which Hemric's record could ever be broken. Nationally Hemric is still fifth all-time in Division I career rebounds. Hemric died on August 3, 2017 at his home in North Canton, Ohio nearly four weeks shy of his 84th birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemric, Dickie 1933 births 2017 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from North Carolina Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics players People from Jonesville, North Carolina People from North Canton, Ohio Power forwards (basketball) Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball players

See also

References