Cliff Hagan

Cliff Hagan is a retired professional basketball player from the United States of America. He played in the National Basketball Association from 1956 to 1969. From 1976 to 1970, he also coached for the Dallas Chaparrals in the American Basketball Association.

Hagan is a one-time NBA Champion and he was also named an NBA All-Star five times.

Player Profile and Personal Life

Clifford Oldham Hagan was born on December 9, 1931, in Owensboro, Kentucky in the United States of America. He stands 193 cm tall and his weight was last listed at 95 kg. He is right-handed and he played small forward.

In 1954, he married his wife Martha. Prior to his NBA career, he served in the US Air Force.

College Career

Hagan studied at the University of Kentucky and played for the university under Coach Adolph Rupp.

Hagan helped Kentucky reach a 68-58 win at the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Championship against Kansas State.

However, in 1952 because of a match-fixing scandal, the NCAA penalized Kentucky’s basketball team with a “death penalty” resulting from a ban from playing for a few years. It is regarded as one of the most severe punishments in basketball.

Although drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 1953 draft, Hagan returned to play for Kentucky the same season. In the opening game, Kentucky emerged victorious against Temple with Hagan scoring 51 points, a record which stood unbroken until 1970.

Associated Press ranked him as number 1 for a perfect score of 25-0 and an average of 24.0. Hagan was so important for Kentucky that the team refused to participate in the NCAA Tournament which prohibited graduate students from playing. If the team had gone ahead to participate, it would have gone without Hagan, Frank Ramsey, and Lou Tsioropoulos, all-star players for the team.

At graduation, Hagan had tallied a total of 1475 points with 1035 rebounds. He was ranked third in the points list and second in the rebound list of the school's history.

The University of Kentucky retired his number 6 jersey.

Professional Career

After he was drafted by the Boston Celtics, Hagan served in the military at Andrews Air Force Base. While with the Air Force Base, Hagan won the Worldwide Air Force basketball championships.

In 1958, during his second season with the NBA, he was traded to the Celtics with St. Louis Hawks. The Hawks won the NBA Championship the same season by defeating the Celtics 4 games to 2 at the finals.

While with the NBA, Hagan played a total of 745 games and acquired 13,447 points with an average of 18.0.

The Dallas Chaparrals, from ABA (American Basketball Association), hired Hagan as a player-coach in 1967. He performed well in his very first game by scoring 40 points. He was the first ever player to have played All-Star Games at both NBA and ABA.

He retired as a player for the team in 1970 but retained his duties as a coach. At the end of his ABA career, he had played a total of 94 games and acquired 1423 points with an average of 15.1.

Post-retirement, Hagan returned to the University of Kentucky as an assistant athletic director in 1972. He served as an athletic director from 197 onwards until retiring in 1988.

Some of the highlights in his career include being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. He is also the first player to have played All-Star Games in the NBA and ABA.

The University of Kentucky renamed its baseball field to honor Hagan.

Career Highlights

• 1958 - NBA Champion
• 1958–1962 - NBA All-Star
• 1958, 1959 - All-NBA Second Team
• 1968 - ABA All-Star
• 1951 - NCAA champion
• 1952, 1954 - Consensus first-team All-American

Career NBA and ABA statistics

• Points - 14,780 (17.7 ppg)
• Rebounds - 5,555 (6.6 rpg)
• Assists - 2,646 (3.2 apg)

• Basketball Hall of Fame as a player, 1978
• College Basketball Hall of Fame, 2006

Team History:

As coach:

• 1967–1970 - Dallas Chaparrals