Oscar Robertson, Pete Newell And Kay Yow Inducted Into FIBA Hall Of Fame

Pete Newell, Oscar Robertson and Kay Yow Inducted Into FIBA Hall of Fame

September 22, 2009 -Alcobendas, Spain

FIBA Secretary General  Patrick Baumann (left) and hoops legend Oscar Robertson (right) pose during FIBA Hall of Fame Induction ceremony(Photo courtesy of FIBA.com/Sonia Cañada).

Eleven basketball greats were inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain) on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

The men and women who form the 2009 class were enshrined after outstanding careers as referees, players, coaches or contributors.

The 2009 inductees included Bulgarian referee Artenik Arabadjian, Spanish coaching legend Pedro Ferrández and playing greats Oscar ‘Big O' Robertson of the United States, Argentina's Ricardo González and France's Jacky Chazalon.

All except Chazalon were in Katowice, Poland, on Sept. 20 to watch the last day of the EuroBasket and then flew to Spain to take part in the ceremonies.

Phostumous inductees this year include American coaches Pete Newell and Kay Yow, Brazil basketball great Ubiratan Pereira, Swiss referee Marcel Pfeuti and Argentina's Luis Martin, a contributor.

Yow led USA basketball teams to gold medal showings in the 1986 Goodwill Games, 1986 World Championship and the 1988 Olympics, while Newell coached Roberston and the 1960 U.S. Olympic Team to a flawless 8-0 record and the gold medal.

In addition to the inductees, 1956 Olympic gold medalist and NBA legend Bill Russell, who was inducted two years ago in the first class of the FIBA Hall of Fame, was also in Europe this week to take part in the ceremonies.

2009 INDUCTEES:
Mr. Artenik ARABADJIAN, Referee Bulgaria
Ms. Jacky CHAZALON, Player France
Mr. Pedro FERR�NDIZ, Coach Spain
Mr. Ricardo GONZ�LEZ, Player Argentina
Mr. Al RAMSAY, Contributor Australia
Mr. Oscar ROBERTSON, Player USA

2009 PHOSTUMOUS INDUCTEES:
Mr. Luis MART�N, Contributor Argentina
Mr. Pete NEWELL, Coach USA
Mr. Ubiratan PEREIRA, Player Brazil
Mr. Marcel PFEUTI, Referee Switzerland
Ms. Kay YOW, Coach USA

The official enshrinement ceremony of the 2009 Class of the FIBA Hall of Fame took place on Sept. 20 in Katowice, Poland, coinciding with the Finals of the 2009 EuroBasket, and on Sept. 22 in the FIBA Hall of Fame located in Alcobendas, Spain.

Pete Newell and Oscar Robertson, 1960 Olympic Gold Medallists

Pete Newell as head coach and star guard Oscar Robertson helped the USA to Olympic gold in 1960.

With Newell on the sideline as the 1960 U.S. Olympic head coach and Robertson on the floor as a USA guard, the 1960 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team dominated its opposition and still today is considered one of the best teams in Olympic history.

Five USA players finished the Olympic competition averaging in double figures, paced by Robertson and Jerry Lucas who both averaged 17.0 points per game. Proof of the wealth of talent available to 1960 USA Olympic coach Pete Newell is found in the fact that 10 members of the 1960 12-man roster went on to play professionally in the NBA.

Opening against host Italy, the Americans posted an 88-54 win as Adrian Smith and Robertson each tallied 16 points. Japan was thumped 125-66, and the U.S. qualified for the semifinals with a 107-63 victory over Hungary as Robertson scored 22. Against Yugoslavia in the semifinal, the USA recorded a 104-42 win with Robertson scoring 16. The USA next dashed past Uruguay 108-50. The USA closed out the semifinal action against the Soviet Union. Leading 35-28 at half, the U.S. went on to claim an 81-57 win. In the final round, six U.S. players reached double figures as the Americans routed Italy 112-81 Only a victory over Brazil stood in the way of the U.S. and another Olympic title. The Americans recorded a 90-63 win to earn the Olympic gold.

Posting an 8-0 record and extending the USA Olympic winning streak to 36 games, how dominating was this USA team? Averaging 101.9 points a game, the USA average margin of victory in the 1960 Olympics was a whopping 42.4 points a game while opponents managed to average just 59.5 points a game.

Newell graduated from what is now Loyola Marymount University, where he played basketball for three seasons. He coached at a military academy and played one season of minor-league baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization before serving in the U.S. Navy from 1942-46.

Pete Newell (right) and 2000 USA Olympic head coach Rudy Tomjanovich (left) posed for this photo during the 2006 USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team training camp (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBA Photos).

His college coaching career began in 1946 at the University of San Francisco after he had served in the U.S. Navy from 1942-46. He led USF to a 70-37 (.654 winning percentage) overall record through 1950 and won the then prestigious NIT in 1949.

After USF, Newell coached four up-and-down seasons at Michigan State University and then took over at the University of California in 1954.

Newell led Cal to four consecutive Pacific 8 titles from 1957-60, and in 1959 he coached the Bears to their only NCAA championship, beating Oscar Robertson and Cincinnati in the semifinals and Jerry West and West Virginia in the final.

The following season, Newell's Bears again beat Robertson and Cincinnati in the NCAA semifinals, but they lost to Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and Ohio State in the final.

The National Coach of the Year in 1960, Newell ended his college coaching that season, at the age of just 44, finishing with a cumulative record of 234-123.

Newell is one of three coaches to have compiled the coaching 'Triple Crown,' winning NIT, NCAA and Olympic titles.

Newell was elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and became a respected clinician and teach of the game, establishing his Big Man's camps that became respected and attracted many of the game's best big men.

Newell died Nov. 11, 2008, at age 93.

Oscar Robertson led USA teams to gold at the 1960 Olympics and 1959 Pan American Games (FIBA Photo).

Robertson one year prior to earning Olympic gold in Rome, helped the USA to a 6-0 record and gold medal in the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago. Robertson averaged a team best 16.5 points a game, shooting 57.6 percent from the floor.

Robertson was named 'Player of the Century' by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2000. He was one of the first five inductees into the NABC's Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, and was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year eligible.

At the University of Cincinnati, where he became known as The Big O, he led the Bearcats to the NCAA Final Four in 1959 and 1960. He was a three-time first team All-American, the first player to lead the NCAA in scoring three straight years, and the first to win National College Player of the Year honors three times. (In 1998, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association renamed its men's college Player of the Year Award the Oscar Robertson Trophy). Following graduation in 1960 with a B.S. degree in Business, he co-captained the undefeated 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team.

During his 14-year NBA career -- 10 with the Cincinnati Royals and four with the Milwaukee Bucks -- The Big O led his teams to 10 playoff appearances including an NBA championship with the Bucks in 1971. He was the NBA's Rookie of the Year in 1961 and Most Valuable Player in 1964. He was a 12-time NBA All-Star and was voted Most Valuable Player in three All-Star games. In 1961-62, he became the only player in NBA history ever to average a 'triple double' for an entire season. He actually averaged a triple double over his first five seasons, barely missing extending that average to six years.

The Big O is the all-time leader in triple double games (season and career) and in rebounds by a guard. He was the first player to lead the NBA in scoring average and assists average in the same season, and the only guard ever to lead his team in rebounding. He led the league in free throw percentage twice and assists six times. His career record of 9,887 assists stood for 17 years and his 26,710 points and 25.7 points per game average rank him among the NBA's all-time leading scorers.

Kay Yow

Kay Yow as a member of nine USA Basketball coaching staffs including head coach of the 1986 World Championship and 1988 Olympic teams that won gold.

Yow was a member of nine USA Basketball staffs over a 10-year span, the pinnacle of her USA career came when she led the 1986 USA World Championship and 1988 U.S. Olympic teams to gold medals. In the two FIBA major competitions, Yow led USA teams two gold medals and a 9-0 overall record.

It took the USA team five successful trips to the floor of Chamsil Gymnasium to win the coveted gold medal in Seoul, South Korea in 1988 and those five contests were not all easy. The U.S. opened its Olympic competition with a hard fought 87-81 victory over a determined team from Czechoslovakia. Three days later, the Americans went over the century mark for the first time in USA women's Olympic basketball history, recording a convincing 101-74 victory over Yugoslavia. The USA claimed a 94-79 win over China to advance on to the semifinal round. Meeting the Soviet Union, a team the USA women had never defeated in Olympic competition, the USA's pressure defense and fast breaking offense powered the American women to a surprisingly easy 102-88 victory. Advancing to the gold medal finals, the USA faced a rematch against Yugoslavia and from there the Americans cruised to a 77-70 gold medal victory. The U.S. squad averaged a then record best 92.2 points a game and won by an average margin of 13.8 points a game.

In 1986, Yow helped the USA defeat the Soviet Union not once, but twice in the same summer. The first victory came in July at the 1986 Goodwill Games that were played in Moscow. The second victory was in August in the gold medal game of the prestigious 1986 FIBA World Championship that also took place in Moscow.

Although the women's World Championship was slated for later in the summer, the inaugural Goodwill Games competition was significant in international basketball for two reasons -- It was the first major event in 1986, and it offered the first match-up between the USA and the USSR since the two teams had met in the 1983 World Championship gold medal game.

Rolling to a 4-0 record at the '86 Goodwill Games, the U.S. women faced the also undefeated Soviet Union women in a historic contest. The Soviet women, who had dominated international basketball for nearly three decades having compiled an incredible 152-2 record in major international competitions (Olympics, World Championships and European Championships). Their two losses were to Bulgaria in the 1958 European Championship and to the U.S. in the 1957 World Championship, and they had never lost a game in the Soviet Union! Making matters worse, the Soviet's also had the decades' most dominant player, 7'2' Ivilana Semenova. A capacity crowd of 7,000 filled Druzhba Sports Center for the game and with 9:25 left in the opening half the Soviets led 21-19. But the U.S. defense came to life and the Americans went on a 20-4 scoring rampage to take command 39-25 at halftime. The Soviets never recovered as the USA sailed to the remarkable 83-60 victory.

A little over a month later, the American squad opened World Championship play by winning its first six games in easy fashion, with the closest score being a 15 point victory over Hungary. The World Championship gold medal contest was a rematch of the Goodwill Games title contest with the USA and USSR both owning perfect 6-0 records. Yow's USA squad opened with eight straight points and never looked back, recording a 108-88 victory.

The USA's double gold medal effort of 1986 marked the end of one basketball dynasty and the beginning of another.

Yow also led the USA to a 7-1 record and a silver medal at the 1981 World University Games and was head mentor of the 1981 USA Select Team. As an USA assistant coach, she was part of coaching staffs that won gold at the 1984 Olympics; the 1984 R. William Jones Cup (8-0); the 1983 Pan American Games (5-0) and the 1979 World University Games (7-0).

As a collegiate coach, Yow won 737 games, No. 6 on the women's career list. She coached North Carolina State to four Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships, 20 appearances in the NCAA tournament and one Final Four, in 1998.

She received the Wooden award as the Division I women's basketball coach of the year in 2000 and was inducted as the fifth women's coach in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. Her career record was a stellar 737-344 (.682 win percentage).

Yow died on Jan. 24, 2009, she was 66.