Frank Vernon Ramsey Jr. (July 13, 1931 – July 8, 2018) was an American professional basketball player and coach. A 6-3 forward/guard, he played his entire nine-year (

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

– 1964) NBA career with the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

and played a major role in the early part of their

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

, winning seven championships as part of the team. Ramsey was also a head coach for the

Kentucky Colonels The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of ...

of the ABA during the 1970–

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

season. Ramsey was inducted into the

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and prese ...

in 1982.

University of Kentucky

Raised in

Madisonville, Kentucky Madisonville is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Hopkins County, Kentucky, United States, located along Interstate 69 in the state's Western Coal Fields region. The population was 19,591 at the 2010 census. Madisonville is a co ...

, Ramsey was a multi-sport athlete at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, playing baseball as well as basketball. Playing under legendary coach

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 Un ...

, Ramsey, as a sophomore in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

, helped the Wildcats win the NCAA Championship with a 68–58 victory over Kansas State. Frank-Ramsey-jersey

In the fall of 1952, a point shaving scandal involving three Kentucky players (a fourth player,

Bill Spivey William Edwin Spivey (March 19, 1929 – May 8, 1995) was an American basketball player. A center, he played college basketball for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Kentucky Wildcats from 1949 to 1951. After his high school ...

, a teammate of Ramsey's on the 1951 championship team, was accused of being involved in the scandal but denied the charge) over a four-year period forced Kentucky to forfeit its upcoming season, Ramsey's senior year, as well as that of

Cliff Hagan Clifford Oldham Hagan (born December 9, 1931) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-4 forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed "Li'l Abner", played his entire 10-year NBA career (1956–1966) with the St. ...

and Lou Tsioropoulos. The suspension of the season made Kentucky's basketball team, in effect, the first college sports team to get the "

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

," although it was nothing more than the NCAA asking members schools not to schedule Kentucky, and not mandating it. Ramsey, Hagan and Tsioropoulos all graduated from Kentucky in 1953 and, as a result, became eligible for the NBA draft. All three players were selected by the

—Ramsey in the first round, Hagan in the third, and Tsioropoulos in the seventh. All three also returned to Kentucky for one more season despite graduating. After finishing the regular season (one in which Ramsey averaged 19.6 points per game) with a perfect 25–0 record and a #1 ranking in the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

, Kentucky had been offered a bid into the NCAA Tournament. However, then-existing NCAA rules prohibited graduate students from participating in post-season play; the Wildcats declined the bid because their participation would have forced them to play without Ramsey, Hagan and Tsioropoulos, thus jeopardizing their perfect season. Ramsey also played on Kentucky Wildcats baseball team, earning All-SEC honors as an outfielder in 1951, 1952 and 1954. Upon completion of his college basketball career, Ramsey scored 1344 points (14.8 ppg), which at the time ranked him fourth in the school's history, and grabbed 1038 rebounds (11.4 rpg), a school record later surpassed by one of his future Kentucky Colonels players, Dan Issel.

Boston Celtics

After playing his rookie season with the Celtics ( 1954–1955), Ramsey spent one year in the military before rejoining the team. In the eight seasons he played after military service, he was a member of seven championship teams (

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

– 1964). He was a major contributor of the Celtics dynasty, playing behind the duo of Bob Cousy and

Bill Sharman William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926 – October 25, 2013) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what was then considered ...

and playing with

Bill Russell William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Va ...

, Sam Jones,

K. C. Jones K. C. Jones (May 25, 1932 – December 25, 2020) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he won 11 of his 12 ...

Tom Heinsohn Thomas William Heinsohn (August 26, 1934 – November 9, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcast ...

John Havlicek John Joseph Havlicek ( ; April 8, 1940 – April 25, 2019) was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Boston Celtics, winning eight NBA championships, four of them coming in his first four seasons with ...

and

Satch Sanders Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders (born November 8, 1938) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played his entire professional career as a power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) ...

. In his 623 NBA games Ramsey scored 8378 points for an average of 13.4 points per game. He was inducted into the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

in 1981. His #23 is retired by the Celtics. Ramsey's best statistical season was 1957–1958; he averaged 16.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. It was also his only post-military season in which the Celtics did not win the NBA championship; the

Bob Pettit Robert Lee Pettit Jr. (born December 12, 1932) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks (1954–1965). In 1956, he became the first recipient of the NBA's M ...

-led St. Louis Hawks (who also featured Cliff Hagan, Ramsey's ex-college teammate) defeated them in the

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is a ...

Brief coaching career

Ramsey was also a head coach for one season (1970–71) in the ABA with the Kentucky Colonels, who were led by two former Kentucky Wildcats – Issel, a rookie, and

Louie Dampier Louis Dampier (born November 20, 1944) is an American retired professional basketball player. A 6-foot-tall guard, Dampier is one of only a handful of men to play all nine seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) (1967–1976), all ...

. Ramsey was named coach 17 games into an 84-game season (which began with

Gene Rhodes Eugene Stephen Rhodes (September 2, 1927 – March 10, 2018) was an American basketball player and coach. Career Rhodes played college basketball at Western Kentucky University. While Rhodes was a player, WKU won the Ohio Valley Conference champ ...

coaching the first 15 games and fellow Kentucky alum

Alex Groza Alex John Groza (October 7, 1926 – January 21, 1995) was an American professional basketball player from Martins Ferry, Ohio. Resulting from the CCNY point shaving scandal, Groza was banned from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for l ...

coaching the next two) and, though he had a 32–35 record, coached the Colonels into the playoffs. The Colonels lost to the

Utah Stars The Utah Stars were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under head coach Bill Sharman the Stars were the first major professional basketball team to use a pre-game shootaround. History prior to moving t ...

(who were coached by Sharman, Ramsey's ex-Celtic teammate) in the 1971 ABA Finals, 4 games to 3. Joe Mullaney replaced Ramsey as coach the following season. Prior to coaching in the ABA, Ramsey had been

Red Auerbach Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American professional basketball coach and executive. He served as a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Boston Celtics. ...

's first choice to replace his mentor as Celtics coach after Auerbach retired at the end of the 1965–66 season. However, Ramsey decided to move back to Madisonville; his father, Frank Sr., wasn't in good health and Frank Jr. had three children to raise.

The NBA's first sixth man

Auerbach is often credited throughout basketball with creating the sixth man. Though Ramsey was one of the Celtics' best players, he felt more comfortable coming off the bench and Auerbach wanted him fresh and in the lineup at the end of close games. Ramsey was the first in a series of sixth men who won championship rings with the Celtics. In the championships the Celtics won after Ramsey's retirement, they have had successful sixth men such as Havlicek, Paul Silas, Kevin McHale, Bill Walton, and James Posey. Ramsey was mentioned in the episode " If I Could See Me Now" of '' Married... with Children''. Bud asked Al the trivia question, "Who was known as the best sixth man in basketball? He played for the Celtics", to which Al nonchalantly replied, "Frank Ramsey".

Personal life

On November 15, 2005, Ramsey's house was destroyed in a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

that hit his residence in Madisonville. One of his plaques was found miles away from his home, and Ramsey himself was found unhurt. , Ramsey was a bank president in

Dixon, Kentucky Dixon is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Webster County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 933 at the 2020 census. Dixon is located at the junction of US 41A and KY 132. It was established with a courthouse and post ...

. Ramsey died of natural causes in his hometown of Madisonville, Kentucky on July 8, 2018, at the age of 86.

Honors

* Ramsey was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. * In 2005, Ramsey was inducted into the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame. * In 2006, Ramsey was a charter inductee to the College Basketball Hall of Fame. * Ramsey's #23 jersey is retired by the Boston Celtics. * Ramsey's #30 jersey is retired by the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

Frank Ramsey's bio on Hoophall.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsey, Frank 1931 births 2018 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Kentucky Basketball players from Kentucky Boston Celtics draft picks Boston Celtics players Kentucky Colonels coaches Kentucky Wildcats baseball players Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Basketball Association players with retired numbers National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees People from Henderson County, Kentucky People from Madisonville, Kentucky Shooting guards Small forwards