Rudy D'Emilio is a former basketball player known for his college career with the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

Biography

Rudy D'Emilio was born in 1931 or 1932, and grew up in Port Richmond, a neighborhood of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He attended Northeast High School. In 1950, he matriculated to

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. After a year on the freshman basketball team, he joined the Duke varsity team. His sophomore year, he averaged 11.2 points per game and played with two-time All-American

Dick Groat Richard Morrow Groat (November 4, 1930 – April 27, 2023) was an American professional baseball and basketball player who was an eight-time All-Star shortstop and two-time World Series champion in Major League Baseball. He rates as one of the ...

. On December 1, 1951, Duke played

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, whose roster included black Philadelphia native Sam Sylvester, in what is believed to be the first integrated game in the South. D'Emilio said in 2015 of the game, "When I played against Sam Sylvester in high school it was no big deal. But it was a big deal down there when we played Temple." He took Duke's captain title for his junior year and maintained it through his senior year. Across his college career, he scored 1,028 points. In November 1953, he was dismissed from the Duke basketball team for participating on the Duke soccer team after basketball practices had started, but was soon reinstated. Duke won the 1953 Dixie Classic under D'Emilio's captaincy. D'Emilio scored 66 points across the three games of the tournament, second only to Don Lange of

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, and was named as the tournament's

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

and to the all-Classic first team. That Duke squad also won the 1953–54 ACC regular season title and finished with a 21–6 record. D'Emilio was named to the 1953–54 all-ACC first team and the 1954 all- ACC tournament second team. After college, D'Emilio was drafted by the

Philadelphia Warriors The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden ...

as the 3rd pick in the 5th round (39th overall), but was not ultimately signed to the team. In 1954, he was signed to join the college All-Americans as part of the Boston Whirlwinds, a traveling team that played against the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

. He spent two years in the

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. In 1970, he became the coach of the St. Thomas Aquinas High School basketball team in

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a Township (New Jersey), township located in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central Jersey, Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan River, Raritan Valley r ...

. He coached there for seven seasons. In 2011, he was named as an honorable mention on a ''

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'' list of the top 50 players in Duke history. As of 2015, he was retired and living in Edison.

References

External links

Rudy D'Emilio
at

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Emilio, Rudy Living people 1930s births Basketball players from Philadelphia Duke Blue Devils men's basketball players Duke Blue Devils men's soccer players Philadelphia Warriors draft picks High school basketball coaches in New Jersey Sportspeople from Edison, New Jersey