College Basketball All-Decade Teams: The 1950s

Welcome to the era of superstar college basketball players elevating the game to unprecedented heights. With Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Tom Gola, Wilt Chamberlain and others, the sport evolved in the 1950s behind some of the best ever to do it still to this day.

Last week, we began our weekly All-Decade squads with the 1940s — a decade of remarkable change to the landscape of college basketball. Strategies deviated wildly from pre-World War II, with a much low-scoring game predicated on set shots and ball control, to a more free-flowing approach with the creation of the jump shot.

By the 1950s, offense exploded and the game’s premier players were averaging well over 20 points per game. The NCAA Tournament was beginning to gain traction nationally, and the point-shaving scandals of 1951 allowed what has come to be known as March Madness to start overtaking the NIT as the sport’s marquee postseason event.

1950s college hoops brought more integration, with Russell and K.C. Jones leading San Francisco to repeat national championships in 1955 and 1956, just a few years after racist pressure from the Orange Bowl to leave its Black athletes at home led to the closure of USF football.

However, Southern basketball was still a generation-plus from integrating, leaving Black players in that part of the country mostly in NAIA programs. Two such noteworthy stars are included below.

FIRST TEAM

C - Bill Russell, San Francisco

Arguably the greatest player in college basketball history, Bill Russell ended his career at San Francisco with the most dominant NCAA Championship Game performance ever.

Russell averaged more than 20 points and 20 rebounds per game in each of the Dons’ two title seasons (‘55 and ‘56), and had blocked shots been counted as official statistics in this era, he likely would have posted a triple-double average.

F - Elgin Baylor, Seattle

By the end of his second consensus All-American season at Seattle University, Elgin Baylor averaged 32.5 points and 19.3 points per game. He carried the small school all the way to the 1958 National Championship Game and, despite losing to Kentucky, sealed Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament.

F - Tom Gola, La Salle

In much the same vein as Bill Russell, Tom Gola has a strong case as the greatest college basketball player ever. Gola earned consensus 1st Team All-America recognition three times, from his sophomore season through his senior campaign. As a freshman, Gola won Most Valuable Player of the NIT when it was still arguably the game’s premier postseason tournament. Two years later, averaging 23 points and almost 22 rebounds per game while leading the Explorers to the NCAA championship, he won Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

G - Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati

Mr. Triple-Double, the man who ushered in an evolutionary phase of the game that set the foundation for Larry Bird and Magic Johnson a few generations later and Russell Westbrook today, Oscar Robertson ranks among the all-time greats at every level of basketball.

Big O averaged north of 32 points per game in each of his three 1st Team All-American seasons at Cincinnati.

G - Jerry West, West Virginia

Before he was The Logo, Jerry West was the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player; a two-time 1st Team All-American, two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year and one of the most outstanding, all-around players in college basketball.

SECOND TEAM

C - Wilt Chamberlain, Kansas

All-American teams of college basketball’s early days didn’t adhere to the same positional guidelines that have been standard for decades leading into today. For that reason, I nearly adjusted the format for this series to include Wilt Chamberlain on the 1st Team.

Chamberlain was one of the five best players of the 1950s, and arguably the best by various metrics. He scored around 30 points per game in both his seasons at Kansas and won Most Outstanding Player of the 1957 NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks lost the title game in a historic triple-overtime matchup with North Carolina, but Wilt went for 23 points and 14 rebounds despite the Tar Heels employing a four-corners keepaway strategy.

F - Bob Pettit, LSU

F - Bob Boozer, Kansas State

For some insight into just how good two-time 1st Team All-American and two-time All-NCAA Tournament selection Bob Boozer was, consider that he won one of his two Big Eight Conference Player of the Year awards in a season which Wilt Chamberlain was also in the league.

G - Frank Selvy, Furman

I plan to go deeper into the Furman teams of the 1950s, but to tease what’s to come I’ll offer up this stats: Frank Selvy averaged around 42 points per game in his second All-American season.

G - Cliff Hagan, Kentucky

In his first season, Cliff Hagan was a role contributor in the ongoing Kentucky dynasty established under 1940s stars Ralph Beard and Alex Groza. By the time he was the Wildcats’ leader and two-time 1st Team All-American, his individual star surpassed that of his predecessors.

THIRD TEAM

C - Clyde Lovellette, Kansas

The Jayhawks’ forerunner to Wilt Chamberlain accomplished certain important benchmarks The Stilt later reached: Two-time consensus All-American, NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. And, Lovellette achieved a milestone that evaded Wilt: He was the star of a national championship-winning team in 1952.

F - Rod Hundley, West Virginia

Before Jerry West, West Virginia’s scoring-machine wing was Rod Hundley. Hundley put up more than 23 points per game all three seasons he was with the Mountaineers, peaking as a junior over 26 points per game.

F - Bob Houbregs, Washington

G - Guy Rodgers, Temple

G - Si Green, Duquesne

One of two Duquesne Dukes to earn consensus All-American recognition from the same team along with Dick Ricketts, Si Green was a two-time 1st Teamer on the strength of 22 and 24.5-point and 13.2/13.6-rebound per game averages.

Green was also one of the All-Americans recognized on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1954, a clip of which I came across while researching for this entry.

FOURTH TEAM

C - Don Schlundt, Indiana

F - Bill Mlkvy, Temple

F - Bailey Howell, Mississippi State

G - Dick Barnett, Tennessee A&I (Tennessee State)

Dr. Dick Barnett is one of the greatest HBCU players of all-time, leading the former Tennessee A&I to a run not even Bill Russell achieved at San Francisco with three consecutive national championships.

Barnett powered the Tigers to an NAIA three-peat before moving onto the NBA, where he was integral in the glory days of the Knicks. The Knicks boast professional basketball’s richest connection to HBCU ball with Hall of Famers Willis Reed and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, and Barnett was the man who set the tone.

G - Robin Freeman, Ohio State

Decades before anyone uttered the phrase “a walking bucket,” Robin Freeman was exactly that. Freeman is something of a spiritual forerunner to modern players like Allen Iverson, Nate Archibald and Kay Felder: Guards under six-foot who scored in bunches in college.

Freeman averaged north of 30 points per game in each of his two All-America seasons at Ohio State.

FIFTH TEAM

C - Walter Dukes, Seton Hall

Before Russell and Wilt, college basketball’s standout center of the ‘50s was Walter Dukes. Dukes won NIT MVP in 1953, capping a stellar season in which he averaged 26.1 points and 22.2 rebounds per game.

F - Ronnie Shavlik, NC State

F - Tom Heinsohn, Holy Cross

Before gaining acclaim as a standout with the Boston Celtics, Tom Heinsohn averaged 20/20 for a season at Holy Cross.

G - Chet Forte, Columbia

G - Al Attles, North Carolina A&T

Hall of Famer Al Attles is in the conversation of players worthy a spot on a theoretical HBCU basketball Mount Rushmore. An important figure with the Philadelphia and later San Francisco Warriors, Attles led A&T to back-to-back CIAA championships.