Ralph E. "Buckshot" O'Brien (April 8, 1928 – August 22, 2018) 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 5'9"

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

from

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...

, O'Brien played two seasons (1951–1953) 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 ...

as a member of the

Indianapolis Olympians The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University--now known as H ...

and Baltimore Bullets. He averaged 7.1

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

in his NBA career. O'Brien was the last Butler product to appear in an NBA game for more than a half-century, before the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

arrival of

Gordon Hayward Gordon Daniel Hayward (born March 23, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Hayward has previously played for the Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics. In college ...

References

1928 births 2018 deaths American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) players Basketball players from Indianapolis Basketball players from Kentucky Butler Bulldogs men's basketball players Indianapolis Olympians draft picks Indianapolis Olympians players People from Union County, Kentucky Point guards {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub

See also

References