Zigmund John "Red" Mihalik (September 22, 1916 – September 25, 1996) was an American
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 and
referee of Polish descent. Inducted into the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1986, he was then inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame at St. Mary's College in Orchard Lake, Michigan on June 13, 1996.
Biography
Born thirty miles north of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
in
Ford City, Pennsylvania
Ford City is a borough in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States, northeast of Pittsburgh along the east bank of the Allegheny River and south of Kittanning, the county seat. The population of Ford City at the 2010 census was 2,991. An ...
as Zigmund Mihalik on September 22, 1916, Mihalik played basketball as a youth and subsequently took up refereeing when officials for a high school game failed to show up.
During the 1940s, the 6'1" Mihalik played professionally for the
Pittsburgh Ironmen of the
Basketball Association of America and the
Youngstown Bears of the
National Basketball League.
He then embarked upon a long officiating career, working games for the
NBA,
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
, and
Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 and in Mexico City in 1968, and was deemed the best official of the game on all levels in the 1950s by Dell Publications until an on-court knee injury forced him into retirement in 1972.
Mihalik was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
Death
Mihalik died from cancer at the age of eighty on September 25, 1996 in Ford City.
["Red Mihalik" (obituary), ''Lancaster Eagle-Gazette'', September 28, 1996.]
BAA career statistics
Regular season
References
External links
Basketball Hall of Fame profileNational Polish-American Hall of Fame profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mihalik, Red
1916 births
1996 deaths
American men's basketball players
American people of Polish descent
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Guards (basketball)
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association referees
People from Ford City, Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh Ironmen players
Youngstown Bears players