Inaugural Class
Nate Archibald
Nate Archibald, also known as "Tiny," indeed had an inspiring journey in basketball. He gained recognition as a standout player in the South Bronx before facing challenges in his early high school career. His perseverance paid off, as he led his team to a PSAL championship and earned All-City honors in his senior year.
After playing for Texas El Paso, Archibald was drafted by the Cincinnati Royals. He had an outstanding 1972-73 NBA season, leading the league in both scoring and assists, which is a remarkable achievement that highlights his dual threat as a scorer and playmaker.
Howie Evans
Howie Evans was a sports writer for the Amsterdam News, a long time basketball coach. During his early childhood, Evans moved back and forth between Harlem and the Bronx until finally settling in the Hunts Point where he attended PS 75. Despite an overwhelmingly white dominated school, Evan’s friends were very integrated and he did not encounter much racial tension.
Evans began playing basketball around age 14 and later attended Morris High School. City newspapers wrote about Evans’ skills on the court and he received a scholarship to play at NYU, one of the country’s elite basketball programs at the time.
Dolph Schayes
Adolph Schayes was born on May 19, 1928, in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Tina (née Michel), a homemaker, and Carl Schayes, a truck driver for Consolidated Laundries. His parents were Romanian-Jewish immigrants. He grew up on Davidson Avenue and 183rd Street, near Jerome Avenue in University Heights, Bronx.
Schayes attended Creston Junior High School 79 and DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he excelled in basketball, playing for the basketball team and led it to a borough championship.At 6-foot-8, Dolph Schayes was agile and possessed great finesse around the basket.
Myles Dorch
Myles, known as Mousy, has had a remarkable journey in basketball and community engagement. Starting at Cardinal Hayes High School, he earned top All-City honors and was recognized as one of the top two players in the CHSAA, highlighting his skill and determination on the court.
After high school, he took his talent to St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, where he achieved significant milestones, including scoring 1,158 points and averaging 11 rebounds per game, making his mark in their basketball history.
Floyd
Layne
Floyd Layne's (affectionately known as Chief) legacy in the basketball community is unmatched. As director of PS 18 community center he inspired so many!
His dedication to mentorship and leadership has undoubtedly made a lasting impact on many lives. As one of the driving force behind the founding of the Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame, he helped to honor and elevate the significance of local basketball culture. The appreciation expressed for his contributions highlights how community leaders can shape the future of young athletes.
Ricky Sobers
Ricky Brad Sobers (born January 15, 1953) is a former professional basketball player who spent eleven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
A 6'3" guard born in the Bronx, New York, Sobers attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City, the College of Southern Idaho, and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas before being selecting by the Phoenix Suns with the 16th pick of the 1975 NBA draft. Sobers played two seasons for the Suns. In the 1976 Finals, Sobers was a key player in "the greatest game ever played" in NBA history. In 1977, he joined the Indiana Pacers, with whom he averaged a career best 18.2 points per game during the 1977–78 NBA season.
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Tom Henderson
Tom Henderson raised in the Bronx, he attended DeWitt Clinton HS, where he excelled in the game of basketball making first team All-City honors. The tough-minded 6'4" guard decided to attend the University of Hawaii, Henderson was first selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 1973 American Basketball Association undergraduate draft before being selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the 1974 NBA draft.
[He went on to have a productive nine-year (1974–1983) professional career in the NBA, playing for the Hawks, the Washington Bullets, and the Houston Rockets. Henderson accumulated 6,088 career points and 3,136 career assists, and he reached the NBA Finals three times, winning with the Bullets in 1978.
Rod Strickland
Rod Strickland was born (July 11, 1966) and raised in the Bronx. While playing for the Gauchos he attended Truman High School in Co-op City, as a Junior he led them to a State championship.
His senior year he transferred to Oak Hill academy in Virginia, where he was rated as a top ten HS player. He took his talents to DePaul University where he became an All-American He was drafted by the Knicks in the first round (1988) He had a long career in the NBA playing from 1988-2005. He is currently the head coach at Long Island University.
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Dick McGuire
Dick McGuire was born and raised in the Bronx. He was an early American professional basketball player and coach. McGuire was one of the premier guards of the 1950s, playing 11 seasons in the NBA (1949–60), eight with the New York Knicks and three with the Detroit Pistons. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993. His number 15 jersey was retired by the Knicks in 1992.
McGuire led the league in assists during his rookie season with a then-record 386 assists, and was among the league's top ten playmakers for ten of his 11 seasons. He was an NBA All-Star seven times (1951,'52, '54-'56, '58, '59), and was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1951. Dave Cobert portrayed him in the 2023 movie Sweetwater.
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Richie Guerin
Richard Vincent Guerin (1932) was born and raised in the Bronx, he attended High school at Mount St Michael Academy. He played with the National Basketball Association's (NBA) New York Knicks from 1956 to 1963 and was a player-coach of the St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks franchise where he spent nine years. On February 15, 2013, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Guerin had been elected as one of its 2013 inductees
Guerin served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1947 to 1954. While a reservist, Guerin attended Iona College from 1950 to 1954 where he scored 1,375 points in 67 games playing for coach Jim McDermott. After graduation, Guerin served on active duty at Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, Virginia for two years.
Willie Worsley
Willie James Worsley (born November 13, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player who was one of the guards for the Texas Western Miners basketball team during their now-legendary 1966 NCAA championship game against Kentucky. Although only 5 foot 6 inches tall, he later played 24 games for the ABA's New York Nets during the 1968–69 season after being drafted by the Dallas Chaparrals in the 1968 ABA draft.
Willie played basketball for DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, leading the team to a New York City Championship in 1963. Playing before a crowded Madison Square Garden, he was named the championships MVP that year. The team also enjoyed a 38-game winning streak during his playing days. NBA great, Nate "Tiny" Archibald, two years his junior, always looked up to Willie at DeWitt Clinton and eventually joined him in the backcourt at Texas El Paso (Texas Western) for the 1967–1968 season.
Willie Cager
William Cager Jr. born andraisedintheBronx(August 24, 1942 – March 19, 2023) played college basketball for the Texas Western Miners (now UTEP Miners). He was a member of their 1966 team that won the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship. He was coached by the Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins.Texas Western started an all-black starting lineup, against the all-white University of Kentucky In Texas Western's championship game victory, Cager had eight points and six reboundsThe school's website describes him as "A skilled low post player" during his career.[4] Raised in New York City,
Cager was nicknamed "Scoops. He suffered from a heart murmur during the 1965–66 season; when he recovered enough to play, Texas Western was forced to use him sparingly, in four-minute shifts. After playing at Texas Western, Cager was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the 12th round of the 1968 NBA draft. However, partly due to his health, he never played as a professional.
Nevil
Shed
Nevil Shed (born April 26, 1943) is an American former basketball player. He attended Morris High school in 1962. He was a member of the Texas Western Miners (now named University of Texas at El Paso) team that won the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament national championship. The team was coached by Don Haskins. The Miners made history for being the first team to start an all-African American lineup in the championship game. His basketball nickname was "The Shadow". Glory Road, a 2006 Disney film, chronicles the team's journey; Shed is played by Al Shearer. After playing at Texas Western, Shed was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the fourth round of the 1967 NBA draft alongside the Denver Rockets in the second round of the 1967 American Basketball Association draft (his name was listed as Neville Shed in both drafts).
Sandhi Ortiz
Ortiz Del-Valle, who now lives in Hillside, N.J., was born in Harlem, graduated from Bronx High School of Science and City College of New York, where she played forward and center on the women's team.
She said that she had all the qualifications to be an N.B.A. referee, including officiating in top men's amateur and professional basketball leagues for 17 years. In fact, in 1991 she worked a United States Basketball League game and became the first woman in history to officiate a men's professional basketball game. The uniform and whistle she used in the game are on exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
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Hilton White
Hilton White (1932–1990) was an American basketball coach who was a recreation and playground director for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and head coach of the American International Yellow Jackets men's basketball team and Westfield State University's men's and women's basketball teams.
Early life
White graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School in The Bronx and Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. At Benedict, he earned letters in basketball, football, baseball, and track. After college, he joined the United States Army and was stationed in Europe and at Fort Bliss, Texas. He remained involved in sports, playing and coaching basketball and managing athletics and recreation for his battalion.[ He became a private first class in the Army.