Gerald Tucker (March 14, 1922 – May 29, 1979) was the head coach on the 1956 USA Men's Basketball Gold Medal Olympic Team. He was the coach of Bartlesville Phillips 66ers for four seasons from 1954 to 1958 having the most wins in the

National Industrial Basketball League The National Industrial Basketball League was founded in 1947 to enable U.S. mill workers a chance to compete in basketball. The league was founded by the industrial teams (teams sponsored by the large companies and made up of their employees) be ...

in each of those 4 seasons. In 1955 Bartlesville Phillips 66ers won the AAU National Basketball Championship against the Luckett-Nix Clippers of Boulder, Colorado, winning 66-64 and in 1956 they were the runners-up to the

Buchan Bakers The Buchan Bakers was an amateur basketball team located in Seattle, Washington and competed in the National Industrial Basketball League. The Bakers were one of the most popular teams of the Amateur Athletic Union, rising to fame in 1957 when the ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, losing 59–57. Before that he was a star center at 6-foot, 6-inches for

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

and in the AAU. In 1943 and 1947 he was named a Helms Foundation All American. In 1947 he was the

Helms Foundation Player of the Year The Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual men's college basketball award given to the most outstanding men′s player in the United States. It was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation, an organization founded in ...

. He went on to play for Bartlesville Phillips 66ers of the National Industrial Basketball League where he was an AAU All American and made the AAU All-Star Basketball Team, which was based on how one played in the National AAU Basketball Tournament in 1949 and 1950. In 1989 he was named to the Final Four All 40's Team.

External links

Biography of Gerald Tucker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Gerald 1922 births 1979 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Olympic coaches for the United States Basketball coaches from Kansas Basketball players from Kansas Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball players Phillips 66ers players United States men's national basketball team coaches Centers (basketball)