Wednesday, March 26, 2014

PVAMU's Zelmo Beaty to be Inducted into the NABC Hall of Fame

KANSAS CITY, Missouri  --  Former Prairie View A&M Center Zelmo Beaty is one of seven to be enshrined into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame induction class of 2014. He was the most valuable player of his 1962 Prairie View A&M team that won the NAIA national championship. He averaged 25 points and 20 rebounds during his career for the Panthers.
 
Beaty was named to the inaugural NBA All-Rookie Team in 1963. He averaged more than 20 points per game in three different seasons, and over ten rebounds per game in six of his seven seasons with the Hawks. Beaty made two NBA All-Star Game appearances in 1966 and 1968 before leaving the NBA to play in the rival American Basketball Association (ABA).



In his first season in the ABA, Beaty led the league in field goal percentage, was third in the league in rebounds per game, helped lead the Utah Stars to the 1971 ABA title, and was awarded the ABA Playoffs Most Valuable Player Award. He played a total of four seasons with the Stars, being named to the All-ABA Second Team twice and making the ABA All-Star Game three times, before returning to the NBA as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 6’9 center retired in 1975 with combined ABA/NBA totals of 15,207 points and 9,665 rebounds.[2] He briefly served as a coach for the ABA's Virginia Squires.

Following his pro career, Beaty worked in financial planning. He also worked as a substitute physical education teacher in Seattle elementary schools. Beaty died from cancer on August 27, 2013 at his home in Bellevue, Washington. He was 73 years old.

All-Americans and NCAA champions Grant Hill of Duke and Darrell Griffith of Louisville, along with two-time national player of the year and All-American Shaquille O’Neal of LSU, headline the class. Dale Brown of LSU and Gary Williams of Maryland and contributors Howard Garfinkel, the founder of Five-Star Basketball Camp, and Glenn Wilkes Sr., long-time coach at Stetson University and prolific author of basketball coaching books rounds out the list to be enshrined.

The Class of 2014 will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Sunday, November 23, 2014, at the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland in Kansas City as part of a three-day celebration of college basketball. Tickets will go on sale beginning in September. For more information, follow @CBHOF on Twitter or visit www.collegebasketballhalloffame.com.

COURTESY SWAC.ORG
 

No comments: