John Arlington "Shotgun" Hargis (August 20, 1920 – January 2, 1986) was an American professional basketball player, first in the National Basketball League (NBL) and then in 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 ...

(NBA). He was born in

Nacogdoches, Texas Nacogdoches ( ) is a small city in East Texas and the county seat of Nacogdoches County, Texas, United States. The 2020 U.S. census recorded the city's population at 32,147. Nacogdoches is a sister city of the smaller, similarly named Natchito ...

and attended

Nacogdoches High School Nacogdoches High School is located in north east Nacogdoches, Texas. Nacogdoches High School is the high school of the Nacogdoches Independent School District. It serves all of the city of Nacogdoches and most of Nacogdoches County. History Pr ...

. Hargis enrolled in the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in the early 1940s and played college basketball there. In both 1942–43 and 1946–47, he led the Longhorns to the NCAA Final Four, where they would lose to eventual national champion

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

and win the third-place game over

CCNY The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City ...

, respectively. In each of those two seasons he was named 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 ...

and, in 1947, a consensus Second Team All-American. After the 1943 season, Hargis enlisted in the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

and fought in

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 ...

for three years, then returned to Austin to finish college in 1947. After school, Hargis played for the

Anderson Packers The Anderson Packers, also known as the Anderson Duffey Packers and the Chief Anderson Meat Packers, were a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana, in the 1940s and 1950s. The team was founded and owned by brothers Ike W. and Jo ...

for three seasons, then split time between the

Fort Wayne Pistons A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

and

Tri-Cities Blackhawks Tri-Cities most often refers to: *Tri-Cities, Tennessee, United States *Tri-Cities, Washington, United States Tri-City, Tricity or Tri-Cities may also refer to: Populated places Americas Canada *Tri-Cities (British Columbia), consisting of Co ...

during his fourth and final year as a professional. For the first two years, the Packers were a member of the NBL. In 1949–50, however, they merged into the NBA. As a rookie in 1947–48, Hargis was second on the team in scoring (642 points; 10.9 ppg). In his second season, he scored 444 points (7.8 ppg), and then in his final season with the Packers, Hargis averaged 10.7 ppg while scoring 643 points. In addition to moderate personal success, the Packers also won the NBL championship in Hargis' second year on the team. In April 1948, Hargis played in final edition of the

World Professional Basketball Tournament The World Professional Basketball Tournament was an annual invitational tournament held in Chicago from 1939 to 1948 and sponsored by the ''Chicago Herald American''. Many teams came from the National Basketball League, but it also included the be ...

with the Packers (team finished in third place) and earned "second all-tournament team" honour after scoring 34 points in 3 games. In April 1950, Hargis was drafted by the Fort Wayne Pistons from the Anderson Packers in a dispersal draft because their franchise had folded. After only playing in a handful of games for the Pistons, he was sold in December 1950 to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Hargis finished out the rest of the season with them but was not re-signed to any team and never played professionally again.

Career statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

Playoffs

Notes

* Hargis' statistical totals only account for his two seasons in the NBA. They do not include his two years in the NBL.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hargis, John 1920 births 1986 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players American military personnel of World War II Anderson Packers players Basketball players from Texas Fort Wayne Pistons players Forwards (basketball) Guards (basketball) People from Nacogdoches, Texas Texas Longhorns men's basketball players Tri-Cities Blackhawks players Undrafted National Basketball Association players