Top 50 Kentucky Wildcats Prior to John Calipari Era
Mar 13, 2015; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats mascot during the third round against Florida Gators of the SEC Conference Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports
3. Cliff Hagan
If you go to the University of Kentucky, you’ll see that the baseball stadium is named after Cliff Hagan, so you probably don’t think anything about him being a star basketball player, but boy was he.
Hagan played basketball under coach Adolph Rupp.
As a sophomore in 1951, he helped Kentucky win the NCAA Championship with a 68-58 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats.
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. 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 what was then, a school single-game record of 51 points; that is no small feat, it’s very rare that you see a player reach that or even close to that in todays game. This was the highest point total.
Hagan ended his career with 1475 points scored points, which ranked him third in school history.
He grabbed 035 rebounds, which placed him second in school history, three fewer than teammate, Ramsey.
In 1952 and 1954 he was named both All-American and First Team All-Southeastern Conference.
Like many others, his jersey hangs high in the rafters of Rupp Arena, too.
He played professional basketball for the St. Louis Hawks for 10 years and for the Dallas Chaparrals for three.
During that he accomplished the following:
- NBA champion (1958)
- 5× NBA All-Star (1958–1962)
- 2× All-NBA Second Team (1958, 1959)
- ABA All-Star (1968)
A complete and utter superstar, Hagan was.
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