Patrick Edward Frink (February 18, 1945 – May 6, 2012) was an American

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. He played one season 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).

Early life

Pat Frink grew up in

Wheat Ridge, Colorado The City of Wheat Ridge is a home rule municipality located in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Wheat Ridge is located immediately west of Denver and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The ...

, in a single-parent family with his older brother, Mike, and their mother, Madge, who worked several jobs at a time. The brothers never knew their father. Frink attended

Wheat Ridge High School Wheat Ridge High School is a public secondary school operated by the Jefferson County School District R-1 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, United States. Extracurricular activities Athletics State championship titles: *Baseball: 1992 (5A) *Boys' ice ho ...

, where he starred as a 6'4" shooting guard. He earned all-state honor and all American honors.

College career

He played collegiately at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

from 1965 to 1968. There he played alongside his older brother, Mike Frink. For his career, he scored 1,288 points (17.4 per game) and grabbed 251

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

(3.4 per game). He led the team in scoring all three seasons he played for the Buffs. He was named second team All-

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

his junior and senior years and was a second team

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

n in 1968.

NBA career

Following his graduation from Colorado, Frink was drafted by the

Cincinnati Royals The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

in the third round (27th pick) of the 1968 NBA draft. He played one season for the Royals, appearing in 48 games and averaging 2.1 points per game in 1968–69. He scored a career single-game best 17 points on January 9, 1969, against the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

. An ankle injury kept him out of the next season, and his NBA career was over. One of his teammates was legendary hall-of-famer

Oscar Robertson Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938), nicknamed "the Big O", is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Robertson played ...

who, despite playing with Frink for only one season, became lifelong friends with Frink and appeared at basketball camps run by Pat and Mike Frink.

Personal life

After his basketball career ended, he focused on caring for his daughter, Kody, who was born with Rett syndrome and had a life expectancy of about seven years. She was 21 when she died in 2000. He lived on a ranch in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, and taught classes at an Indian reservation school. He ran a homeless shelter in Denver for 15 years, and pastored the homebound and hospitalized elderly Catholic community in Boulder as a layman at Sacred Heart Church for 12 years. Frink died on May 6, 2012, in a single-vehicle accident outside

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. He was 67. He was buried near his mother and daughter at the family cemetery on his ranch. Pat Frink was survived by four sons, Shane, Gant, Garrett and Dylan, one daughter, Shalom, and eight grandchildren; Maxwell, Madalyn, Caleb, Mackenzie and four others.

References

External links

Career Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frink, Pat 1945 births 2012 deaths Basketball players from Colorado American men's basketball players Cincinnati Royals draft picks Cincinnati Royals players Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball players People from Wheat Ridge, Colorado Sportspeople from Jefferson County, Colorado Road incident deaths in Arizona Shooting guards