Cliff Hagan

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Clifford Oldham Hagan (born December 9, 1931, in Owensboro, Kentucky) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-4 forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan played his entire 10-year NBA career (1956-1966) with the St. Louis Hawks. He was also a player-coach for the Dallas Chaparrals in the first two-plus years of the American Basketball Association's existence (1967-1970).

[edit] University of Kentucky

Hagan played college basketball at the University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp. As a sophomore in 1951 he helped Kentucky win the NCAA Championship with a 68-58 victory over Kansas State.

In the fall of 1952, a point shaving scandal involving three Kentucky players (one of whom was a teammate of Hagan on Kentucky’s 1951 NCAA champions) over a four-year period forced Kentucky to forfeit its upcoming season. The suspension of the season made Kentucky's basketball team, in effect, the first college sports team to get the "death penalty." Had the NCAA allowed Kentucky to play, the Wildcats, led by Hagan, Frank Ramsey and Lou Tsioropoulos, would likely have won their fourth NCAA title in six seasons.

Hagan, Ramsey 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 Boston Celtics—Ramsey in the first round, Hagan in the third, and Tsioropoulos in the seventh. All three also returned to play at Kentucky despite graduating. In Kentucky’s opening game that season, an 86-59 victory over Temple on December 5, 1953, Hagan scored a school single-game record 51 points; Dan Issel would break this record by scoring 53 points in one game during the 1969-70 season. After finishing the regular season (one in which Hagan averaged 24.0 points per game) with a perfect 25-0 record and a #1 ranking in the Associated Press, 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 Hagan, Ramsey and Tsioropoulos, thus jeopardizing their perfect season.

Upon graduation from Kentucky, Hagan had scored 1475 points, which ranked him third in school history, and grabbed 1035 rebounds, which placed him second, three fewer than Ramsey. In 1952 and 1954 he was named both All-American and First Team All-Southeastern Conference. His uniform number 6 is retired by the University of Kentucky.

[edit] Pro basketball

Upon graduation, Hagan, like Ramsey before him, was drafted by the Celtics. Unlike Ramsey, however, Hagan served in the military for two years after being drafted (Ramsey had served in the military for one year after his rookie season). In both of his years in the military (1954 and 1955), Hagan, stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, won Worldwide Air Force basketball championships. After his military service, Hagan and Ed Macauley were traded to the St. Louis Hawks for the draft rights to Bill Russell. In 1958, his second season in the NBA, the Hawks, led by Hagan and Bob Pettit, won the NBA championship (one of the five Western Conference titles the Hawks won during his tenure with them), defeating the Boston Celtics 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals. Hagan was named to play in five consecutive NBA All-Star Games from 1958 to 1962 (an injury forced him to miss the 1958 classic). In his 10 NBA seasons, Hagan played 745 games and scored 13,447 points for an 18.0 average.

In 1967, the Dallas Chaparrals of the newly-formed ABA hired Hagan as a player-coach. He scored 40 points in his team’s very first game. He also played in the very first ABA All-Star Game that season, becoming the first player to play in All-Star Games in both the NBA and ABA. He retired as a player after playing three games during the 1969-1970 season and remained as Chaparral coach until midway into the season. Hagan played in 94 ABA games and scored 1423 points for a 15.1 average. Hagan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, the first ex-University of Kentucky player to be so honored.

Hagan was mentioned in the ESPN documentary, Black Magic, which told the story of African-Americans and basketball. In a segment about Cleo Hill, it was revealed that Hagan and St. Louis Hawks teammate Bob Pettit approached management and complained that Hill was taking too many shots. However, this was allegedly just a cover-up for their desire to not play with an African-American teammate. Management granted their wish, telling the Hawks' coach to severely diminish Hill's offensive role. The coach, Paul Seymour, refused and he was fired. Hill was later blackballed by the other NBA owners as a result.

[edit] Return to Kentucky

In 1972, Hagan returned to the University of Kentucky as the school’s assistant athletic director and took over the top job in 1975. He resigned in November 1988 in the midst of a recruiting scandal that would also claim the job of head basketball coach Eddie Sutton. Hagan would be replaced by one-time Kentucky teammate C. M. Newton, the head basketball coach at Vanderbilt University the year before.

In 1993, the University of Kentucky renamed its baseball field in honor of Hagan (see Cliff Hagan Stadium). It had previously been known as the Bernie A. Shively Sports Center.