Cliff Hagan
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 9, 1931 Owensboro, Kentucky |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Listed weight | 210 lb (95 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Owensboro (Owensboro, Kentucky) |
| College | Kentucky (1950–1954) |
| NBA draft | 1953 / Round: 3 / Pick: 21st overall |
| Selected by the Boston Celtics | |
| Playing career | 1956–1969 |
| Position | Small forward |
| Number | 6, 17, 16 |
| Career history | |
| As player: | |
| 1956–1966 | St. Louis Hawks |
| 1967–1969 | Dallas Chaparrals |
| As coach: | |
| 1967–1970 | Dallas Chaparrals |
| Career highlights and awards | |
|
|
| Career NBA and ABA statistics | |
| Points | 14,780 (17.7 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 5,555 (6.6 rpg) |
| Assists | 2,646 (3.2 apg) |
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
| Basketball Hall of Fame as player | |
|
College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006 |
|
Clifford Oldham "Cliff" Hagan (born December 9, 1931) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-4 forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed "Li'l Abner", 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).
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 (a fourth player, Bill Spivey, a teammate of Hagan's on the 1951 National Championship team, was alleged to have been involved in the scandal but denied the charge) over a four-year period forced Kentucky to forfeit its upcoming season, the senior year of Hagan, Frank Ramsey and Lou Tsioropoulos. The suspension of the season made Kentucky's basketball team, in effect, the first college sports team to get the "death penalty", which actually was nothing more than the NCAA asking members schools not to schedule Kentucky, and not mandating it.
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 what was a school single-game record of 51 points; this performance would not be surpassed until 1970. 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.
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