Gary Joseph Winton (born ) is an American former basketball player best known for his collegiate career at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

("Army") between 1974 and 1978. A 6'5"

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

from

Somerville, Alabama Somerville is a town in Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area and the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 796. History Somerville w ...

, Winton scored a then-school record 2,296 points (later surpassed by Kevin Houston) and grabbed a still-standing school record 1,168 rebounds. On 14 occasions he scored 30 or more points and recorded 15+ rebounds 17 times. In his junior and

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 ...

seasons Winton was an Honorable Mention All-American while playing for

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

coach Mike Krzyzewski. 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 ...

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

selected him in the 1978 NBA draft, but due to a five-year commitment to serve in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

after graduation, he never played in the league. After graduation, he did play on the pre-Olympic traveling USA Basketball Team. In 1979, the men's basketball team participated in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Spartakiad The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...

, an international sports event that the Soviet Union attempted to use to both oppose and supplement the

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. Winton ultimately never made the official Olympic roster, however. In 1990, he served as Army's head softball coach for just that one season. Fifteen years later he was inducted in the Army Sports Hall of Fame as part of their 14-person induction class in 2005.

References

# # # # # # # # {{DEFAULTSORT:Winton, Gary 1950s births Living people American men's basketball players American softball coaches Army Black Knights men's basketball players Army Black Knights softball coaches Basketball players from Alabama Cleveland Cavaliers draft picks Forwards (basketball) People from Morgan County, Alabama United States Army soldiers Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

References