Joe Quigg is a retired American basketball player. He was a key player on the 1957 National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels and a second round draft pick by the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

in 1958. Quigg stood 6 feet 9 inches tall and played the

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

position at St. Francis Prep in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He came to the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

through coach Frank McGuire's "underground railroad" of players from New York to

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

along with the likes of Pete Brennan,

Tommy Kearns Thomas Francis Kearns Jr. (born October 6, 1936) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in New York City, he played collegiately for the University of North Carolina, where he played an integral role on the 1957 National Cham ...

and

Lennie Rosenbluth Leonard Robert Rosenbluth (January 22, 1933 – June 18, 2022) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), but he is remembered, first and foremost, for his college basketball player days. He play ...

. Quigg was a two-year starter; for the 1955–56 and 1956–57 seasons. Quigg averaged 12.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game as a sophomore, then 10.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game as a junior. The Tar Heels went undefeated in his junior season and won the national championship. Quigg was instrumental 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 ...

win, one of the greatest games in history. Quigg made the game-winning free throws and knocked down a pass to 7 feet 1 inch tall

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

center

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a Center (basketball), center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 yea ...

in the closing seconds of the 54–53, triple-overtime win. Quigg was primed for a strong senior year in 1957–58, as the Tar Heels returned a strong nucleus from their championship team. However, he was injured in a preseason scrimmage and was out the entire season with a broken leg.https://archive.org/details/uncbasketballblu19571958/page/n1/mode/2up Even after missing his entire senior season, the New York Knicks spent a second round pick (#11 overall) on Quigg in the

1958 NBA Draft The 1958 NBA draft was the 12th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 22, 1958, before the 1958–59 season. In this draft, eight NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball play ...

. Not fully healed, Quigg did not make the team. Instead, Joe Quigg went to dental school and became a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the mouth, oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofaci ...

References

Date of birth unknown Living people Basketball players from New York City Centers (basketball) New York Knicks draft picks North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players Sportspeople from Brooklyn American men's basketball players Year of birth missing (living people) {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub