Hot Rod Hundley

Hot Rod Hundley. . , For all that he was as an All-American basketball player at West Virginia University, there are many who believed "Hot" Rod Hundley could have been so much more. He was a self-made basketball player who played the game the way he wanted - which was completely different than the way it was being played everywhere else in the 1950s. While many remember him for his showmanship, hidden beneath that was a remarkable skill probably more suited for today's game., A native of Charleston, W.Va., Hundley averaged 24.5 points per game from 1955-57 at WVU, and his 2,180 career points are second only to Mountaineer All-American Jerry West's 2,309. WVU was 72-16 (.818) during his three years as a regular, winning three Southern Conference titles and making three NCAA tournament appearances., Named to five All-America teams in 1957, he was the first player taken in the NBA Draft that year and played with the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers from 1958-63. He made one appearance in the NBA All-Star game in 1961 before two bad knees forced his early retirement., He later established himself as one of the game's top broadcasters working for the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and New Orleans/Utah Jazz franchises. In 1994, he won the NBA's Distinguished Broadcaster Award, an honor bestowed only twice previously, and in 2003, he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a broadcaster., West Virginia University retired his jersey number 33 on January 23, 2010 prior to a game with Ohio State. After the halftime ceremony, he grabbed a basketball and made a hook shot to a standing ovation. He died at age 80 in March 2015.