Ernest A. Calverley (January 30, 1924 – October 20, 2003) 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He was an All-American while playing for the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

. He played professionally with the

Providence Steamrollers The Providence Steamrollers were a Basketball Association of America team based in Providence, Rhode Island. As of 2022, the Steamrollers were the last professional sports franchise from one of the Big Four leagues to be based in Rhode Island. ...

of the Basketball Association of America for three seasons from 1946 to 1949. Calverley led the league in assists and was an All-BAA Second Team selection in his first season in the league.

College career

Calverley was retroactively declared the men's basketball season scoring leader for 1944. But Calverley was most notable for one particular shot. Dubbed the "shot heard round the world", it was a midcourt shot from 62 feet away, as time expired at Madison Square Garden in the

1946 National Invitation Tournament The 1946 National Invitation Tournament was the 1946 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. Selected teams Below is a list of the eight teams selected for the tournament.

against

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

to tie the game and send it to overtime. Even after 50 years, he stated that he didn't think it was going to go in, as he had to make sure it did not hit the scoreboard while shooting with both hands. Rhode Island State (now known as the

) would win 82–79 in overtime to send them to the semifinal round. The Rams would eventually lose in the NIT final against

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Univ ...

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

by one point. Not soon after, Calverley would join the BAA.

Professional career

Calverley led in

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: *Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a ba ...

s per game in the league's first and second years, while playing for his home state team, the

. In his rookie season, Calverley was selected to the All-BAA Second Team. In his career, he missed only three games (one for each season). He had a 70.7% free throw percentage, which contrasted with his 29.1% lifetime field goal percentage. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics from the Providence Steamrollers in the dispersal draft in 1949 after the team disbanded. A month later, he was put on waivers, and he never played again.

Later life

He later returned to URI to coach the Rams and led them to two NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament appearances in 1961 and 1966, losing both times in the first round. Calverely died of complications of an infection after insertion of a pacemaker on October 20, 2003.

BAA career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

*
Ernie Calverley obituary
''New York Times'', 29 October 2003 (retrieved 3 April 2015). 1924 births 2003 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Rhode Island Basketball players from Rhode Island College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Point guards Providence Friars men's basketball coaches Providence Steamrollers players Rhode Island Rams men's basketball coaches Rhode Island Rams men's basketball players Sportspeople from Pawtucket, Rhode Island {{US-basketball-coach-stub