Ephraim J. "Red" Rocha (September 18, 1923 – February 13, 2010) was an American professional
basketball player and coach.
Basketball
A 6'9" center from
Oregon State University, he earned
All-Pacific Coast Conference honors in 1945, 1946, and 1947. He was also selected as a 1947
All-American.
Rocha played in the
BAA and
NBA
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 St ...
in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He represented the
Baltimore Bullets in the
1951 NBA All-Star Game
The 1951 NBA All-Star Game was an exhibition basketball game played on March 2, 1951, at Boston Garden in Boston, home of the Boston Celtics. The game was the first edition of the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game and was playe ...
, the first NBA All-Star Game.
[ Rocha had 6,362 career points in the NBA and won an NBA title with the Syracuse Nationals in 1955.][ Rocha also coached the ]Hawaii Chiefs
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only sta ...
of the American Basketball League.Association for Professional Basketball Research American Basketball League page
/ref> Rocha then became head coach for the University of Hawaii men's basketball team.[ At UH, he assembled what is known today as the " Fabulous Five" during the 1970 to 1972 seasons. In 1970, the team advanced to postseason play for the first time in school history. Red also co-founded the ]Rainbow Classic
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows ca ...
— an eight-team collegiate men's basketball tournament, with UH hosting the tournament.
Later years
He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, and into the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. Ephraim "Red" Rocha died from cancer on February 13, 2010, in Corvallis, Oregon
Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...
, at the age of 86.
BAA/NBA career statistics
Regular season
Playoffs
References
External links
Career stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocha, Red
1923 births
2010 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American Basketball League (1961–62) coaches
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) players
Basketball coaches from Hawaii
Basketball players from Hawaii
Centers (basketball)
Detroit Pistons head coaches
Fort Wayne Pistons players
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors basketball coaches
National Basketball Association All-Stars
Oregon State Beavers men's basketball players
People from Hilo, Hawaii
St. Louis Bombers (NBA) players
Syracuse Nationals players
Toronto Huskies draft picks