Jack Herbert Dana (December 17, 1921 – January 1983) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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.

Basketball career

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 Piedmont High School in

Piedmont, California Piedmont is a small city located in Alameda County, California, United States, completely surrounded by the city of Oakland. Its residential population was 11,270 at the 2020 census. The name comes from the region of Piedmont in Italy, and it me ...

, Dana played collegiately for

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He was a reserve on Stanford's 1942 national championship team, but in the

championship game In sport, a championship is a Competition#Sports, competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match sy ...

, starting forward

Jim Pollard James Clifford Pollard (July 9, 1922 – January 22, 1993) was an American professional basketball player and coach. As a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Pollard was considered one of the best forwards in the 1950s and was k ...

had the flu and was unable to play. Dana started in Pollard's place, played all 40 minutes, and scored 14 points, one point behind high scorer

Howie Dallmar Howard Dallmar (May 24, 1922 – December 19, 1991) was an American professional basketball player and coach. A forward from San Francisco, California, Dallmar played collegiately at Stanford University. He led Stanford to the 1942 NCAA Champi ...

After college

Dana received an engineering degree from Stanford, then served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

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 was honorably discharged as a lieutenant. He earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Stanford and married Renée Cohu, daughter of airline executive La Motte Cohu, in 1948. Dana was a prominent insurance broker. He and his wife had two children and were married until his wife's suicide in 1970. Dana died in 1983. He was posthumously inducted into the Piedmont High School sports hall of fame.

References

1921 births 1983 deaths American men's basketball players United States Navy personnel of World War II Forwards (basketball) People from Piedmont, California Basketball players from Alameda County, California Stanford Cardinal men's basketball players United States Navy officers Military personnel from California {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub