Jerome Nemer (January 7, 1912 – December 7, 1980) was an American athlete and attorney. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC) where he became the first

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

a major athletic team at that school. After basketball, Nemer practiced law in the

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area and was a partner in the firm Buchalter, Nemer, Fields and Younger.

Early life and education

Nemer was born in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

in 1912 and moved to Southern California as a baby. He was an All-City basketball player for

Los Angeles High School Los Angeles High School is the oldest Public education#United States, public high school in the Southern California, Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are royal blue and white and the teams are ...

. He enrolled at USC in the fall of 1929 to play for the

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and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

teams.

Sam Barry Justin McCarthy "Sam" Barry (December 17, 1892 – September 23, 1950) was an American collegiate coach who achieved significant accomplishments in three major sports - football, baseball, and basketball. He remains one of only three coaches to ...

, who coached both sports, felt that the basketball team needed more help, so Nemer quit baseball to focus on basketball. Nemer also became the first

a major athletic team during his time at USC.

Basketball career

Nemer earned three varsity letters while playing with the basketball team from 1930–31 through 1932–33. In 1930–31, his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

year, he averaged 7.8 points per game in league play, which was the 10th highest average in the

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

(PCC). As a

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

the following year, Nemer averaged 12.0 points per game and was named to the PCC South Division First Team as well as USC's

most valuable player 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 ...

. Nemer had a breakout

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season in 1932–33. He guided the Trojans to an overall record of 18–5 (10–1 in conference) as they won the PCC South Division title. They lost to

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, the winners of the North Division, in a best-of-three championship series to decide the conference's outright winner. Although he averaged only 9.0 points per game, Nemer was voted as a consensus NCAA All-American. After college, Nemer played basketball in the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU) for the Firestone Non-Skids for several years. He became an AAU basketball referee in 1942. In 1994 he was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themselves ...

Legal career

In 1948 Nemer formed a law firm with Irwin Buchalter and Murray Fields called Buchalter, Nemer, Fields and Younger. During his time at the firm he became a well-known attorney. In one such case he handled, Nemer agreed to defend a man who had been arrested for plotting to kill him. The defendant received a $2,000 fine and probation. Nemer helped grow the law firm which by 2002 had 140 practicing attorneys in the Los Angeles area.

Personal life

Nemer died in December 1980 after battling leukemia. To commemorate his life, USC created the Jerome Nemer Lecture Series. The series was created to explore Jewish thinkers' contributions to Western life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemer, Jerry 1912 births 1980 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Amateur Athletic Union men's basketball players Basketball players from Los Angeles Basketball referees California lawyers Centers (basketball) Forwards (basketball) Jewish men's basketball players Jewish American sportspeople USC Trojans men's basketball players 20th-century American lawyers American men's basketball players Sportspeople from Evansville, Indiana 20th-century American Jews