Melvin M. Hirsch (July 31, 1921 – December 1968) 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."Mel Hirsch Stats".
Basketball Reference. Accessed on June 16, 2017. He played for the Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which would later become 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 St ...

(NBA), for 13 games in the 1946–47 season. At 5 feet 6 inches tall, he was the shortest player in NBA history until

Muggsy Bogues Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues (born January 9, 1965) is a former American basketball player. The shortest player ever to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Bogues played point guard for four teams during his 14-season caree ...

more than 40 years later. He is the third shortest NBA player of all time, after Bogues and Earl Boykins. A stand-out player at Brooklyn College, Hirsch graduated in 1943 and served in the

US Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

as a Navigator on C-47 aircraft in the

13th Troop Carrier Squadron 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

in the South Pacific. He played on the squadron's officer's basketball team."The Thirsty 13th," by Seth Washburne, published 2011. Hirsch died in December 1968, aged 47, from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

BAA career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Mel 1921 births 1968 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York (state) Boston Celtics players Brooklyn Bulldogs men's basketball players Deaths from leukemia Guards (basketball) United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Jewish American basketball players Jews from New York (state)