Harry Jerome Rogers (born December 31, 1950) is an American former
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. He played college basketball for
Saint Louis, before turning professional and starting his career in the Netherlands.
He attended
Sumner High School in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
. Rogers was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
Rogers was drafted by the
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...
in the fourth round of the
1973 NBA draft
The 1973 NBA draft was the 27th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 24 and May 5, 1973, before the 1973–74 season. In this draft, 17 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college baske ...
. He signed with
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
of the Dutch
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
in 1974 and stayed for three seasons. He averaged 23.6 points in his total of 57 games and helped Punch win the 1975 national championship.
He also won the Eredivisie's inaugural
Most Valuable Player award
In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
in 1974–75 after averaging 24.3 points over the season.
Rogers played for the
Spirits of St. Louis
The Spirits of St. Louis were a basketball franchise based in St. Louis that played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1974 to 1976. This was the third and last city of a franchise that had begun as a charter member in 1967 as the ...
of the
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...
(ABA) in 1975.
References
1950 births
Living people
American expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from St. Louis
Milwaukee Bucks draft picks
Power forwards (basketball)
Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball players
Spirits of St. Louis players
{{1950s-US-basketball-bio-stub
DSBV Punch players