Lester Revell Selvage (March 7, 1943 – June 15, 1991) was an American professional

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. A 6'1" guard from Beaumont 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, ...

, Selvage played college basketball at Kirksville State Teachers College (now

Truman State University Truman State University (TSU or Truman) is a public university in Kirksville, Missouri. It had 4,225 enrolled students in the fall of 2021 pursuing degrees in 52 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs. The university is named for U.S. Presiden ...

). He was named to the All- MIAA First Team in 1963. After college, he moved to California to work with

Douglas Aircraft The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...

, but continued to play

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basketball on the side. He was discovered and signed by the ABA's

Anaheim Amigos Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

in 1967,Terry Pluto. ''

Loose Balls ''Loose Balls: The Short Wild Life of the American Basketball Association'' is a sports book originally published in 1990 by Simon & Schuster. The book, a history of the original American Basketball Association, was written by sportswriter Terr ...

''. New York: Fireside, 1990. 73. and appeared in 78 games for the team during the 1967-68 season, averaging 14 points per game. Selvage also was briefly a member of the 1969-1970

Los Angeles Stars LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

team. Selvage was known for his eagerness to shoot

three-pointer A three-point field goal (also 3-pointer, three, or trey) is a field goal in a basketball game made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc surrounding the basket. A successful attempt is worth three points, in contrast to the two po ...

s, and led the ABA in three-point field goals made (147) and attempted (461) during the 1967-68 season. Selvage himself attempted more threes that season than any other ABA team except the

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, and once shot 26 three-point attempts in a single game, making 10. Former

Denver Rockets Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

coach

Bob Bass Robert Eugene Bass (January 28, 1929 – August 17, 2018) was an American basketball coach and executive who worked in college basketball, the American Basketball Association (ABA), and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Coaching career ...

recalled, "He acted like if he stepped over he three-point line he was going to get killed or something. He didn't just shoot 25-footers — he took 30-footers. ..All he could do was shoot, and he shot too much. But when he was hot, he was unlike anything I had ever seen." Selvage died in 1991 after a brief illness.Lester Selvage dies, was ABA, Beaumont star
. ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

''. June 11, 1991. Retrieved on September 24, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Selvage, Les 1943 births 1991 deaths American men's basketball players Anaheim Amigos players Basketball players from St. Louis Guards (basketball) Los Angeles Stars players Truman Bulldogs men's basketball players