George William Kok Sr. (March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2013) 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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. At the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

in the 1940s, he was one of the first true big men to dominate the game. He was the second overall pick in the

1948 BAA draft The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later became the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the 1948–49 season. In this draft, eight BAA ...

, but never played in the league that was the predecessor of today's

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 ...

College career

Kok played high school athletics in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

before coming to Arkansas. Because of the shortage of athletes at the end of

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 ...

, Kok was able to play a full four seasons 1944-45 to 1947-48 (versus the usual 3 years of eligibility in most instances up until the 1970s). Standing 6 feet, 10 inches tall, Kok dominated the game from his freshman days, averaging 18.7 points in his first season. During that 1944-45 season, he led the team to the final four teams of the NCAA Tournament, losing to Oklahoma A&M (now

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

) and its dominant big man,

Bob Kurland Robert Albert Kurland (December 23, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was a American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies (now Oklahoma State Cowboys) basketball team. He led the U.S. basketball team to go ...

, 69-41 in the regional final. Kok went on to become the first Arkansas player to score over 1,000 points in his career, finishing with 1,644 in 94 games, an average of 17.5 per contest. He still ranks number 11 on the all-time Arkansas scoring list at the start of the 2008-2009 season and his career total was not surpassed for 30 years. He was named ''The

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' 2nd team All-America in 1945,

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

3rd team All-America in 1948 and All-

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

in 1945, 1946 and 1948. He twice led the Southwest Conference in scoring.

College statistics

Professional career

Bridgeport Aer-A-Sols (1949–1950)

Kok was selected as the number two pick overall by the

Indianapolis Jets The Indianapolis Jets were a Basketball Association of America (BAA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded as the Indianapolis Kautskys and used that name until the team joined the BAA. They played for one year in the BAA and then ceased o ...

in the 1948 BAA draft, but never signed with the team nor played in the league. He did play one season with the Bridgeport Aer-A-Sols in the American Basketball League in 1949-50, leading the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game and helping the team to the league finals, where they lost to Scranton.

Post-playing career

Following his playing days, Kok became the first athletic director at Pleasure Ridge Park High School in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

and spent 24 years teaching at the school. Kok has been honored by the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame (1988), the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor (1994) and the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame (2005). Kok died October 5, 2013, at the age of 91.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kok, George 1922 births 2013 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American Basketball League (1925–1955) players American men's basketball players Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball players Basketball players from Grand Rapids, Michigan Centers (basketball) Indianapolis Jets draft picks