Pittsburgh, Pa. – Former Duquesne University men's basketball guard Sihugo Green (1954-56), the only two-time consensus All-America First Team honoree in program history, was one of eight legends named to the
National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Tuesday as part of the Class of 2024.
The group includes seven players and one coach who collectively defined an era of excellence, setting records and achieving milestones that continue to resonate in the history of the sport.
Green, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a graduate of Boys High School, joins Wayne Estes (Utah State), Sam Lacey (New Mexico State), Dave Meyers (UCLA), John Rudometkin (USC), Lennie Rosenbluth (North Carolina) and Tom Stith (St. Bonaventure) as the players to be inducted as part of the Class of 2024. Jack Hartman, who served as head coach at Coffeyville Community College (1955-62), Southern Illinois (1962-70) and Kansas State (1970-86), rounds out the latest class for the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Each of the eight inductees will be inducted posthumously, and details for the induction event will be announced at a later date.
During his three-year career with the Dukes, Green averaged 19.8 points and 11.5 rebounds, concluding his career with totals of 1,605 points and 936 boards. During his three seasons on the Bluff, Duquesne amassed an overall record of 65-17 (.792) and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) each year.
Green ranks ninth in program history for career points, while his 662 as a senior during the 1955-56 campaign stood as the single-season school record until being eclipsed by Mark Stevenson in 1990. In his first collegiate game, Green scored 13 points in a 70-42 victory over Geneva Dec. 5, 1953, in a game that was played at Monessen High School. In 29 games during his first season with the Dukes, Green would average 13.5 points per contest en route to being named to the All-America Second Team.
During the next two seasons at Duquesne, Green provided averages of 22.0 and 24.5 points per game, respectively, and for those efforts was named to the All-America First Team as a consensus selection. Green helped the Dukes finish with an overall record of 22-4 (.846) during the 1954-55 season, with Duquesne claiming the 1955 NIT championship under head coach Dudey Moore. In the final, a 70-58 victory over Dayton at Madison Square Garden in front of 18,496 fans, Green supplied 33 points. The Dukes finished that season ranked No. 6 in the final rankings from the
Associated Press as well as No. 7 by United Press International (UPI).
"Si Green, at 6'2", must be the best college basketball player in the country today," wrote Milton Gross of the
New York Post after Duquesne won the 1955 NIT championship. "In a sense, he is to college basketball what Ray Robinson was to boxing – the best fighter pound for pound."
Following his career at Duquesne, Green was the first overall pick of the 1956 National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft by the Rochester Royals. The second pick of that draft went to the St. Louis Hawks, which selected Bill Russell from the University of San Francisco. Russell was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
In addition to playing for Rochester, Green had a nine-year NBA career that also included stints with the Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis, the Chicago Packers and Zephyrs, Baltimore Bullets and Boston Celtics. In his final season in the NBA, Green was part of the 1966 NBA World Champions with the Celtics.
The Sihugo Green Memorial Gymnasium, which serves as the practice facility for the Dukes and is part of the Joe & Kathy Guyaux Player Development Center, was dedicated at the A.J. Palumbo Center in December of 1990. Green officially had his No. 11 jersey retired Jan. 27, 2001, and is one of six players who have had their number retired by the program, joining Chuck Cooper (#15), Dick Ricketts (#12), Willie Somerset (#24), Norm Nixon (#10) and Mike James (#13).
Green is the first member of the men's basketball program for the Dukes to earn induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Former Duquesne greats Cumberland Posey (1916-18) and Chuck Cooper (1947-50) were enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, with Posey a member of the Class of 2016 and Cooper following as a member of the Class of 2019. The honor for Posey followed being one of 17 Negro League greats selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, a program of the NABC Foundation, has honored the game's contributors since 2006, including legends such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Charles Barkley, Tim Duncan and Larry Bird. The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is housed in The College Basketball Experience in Kansas City, Mo., the most interactive basketball museum/experience every created, with the stated mission to celebrate the rich history of the sport and the game itself on a year-round basis. For more information, visit the official website of
The College Basketball Experience.
FOLLOW THE DUKES
For the latest news and updates on Duquesne basketball, follow the Dukes on X and Instagram.
