Robert Louis Boozer (April 26, 1937 – May 19, 2012) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA). Boozer won a gold medal in the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

and won an

NBA Championship The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is aw ...

as a member of the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

in 1971. Boozer was a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, which was inducted into the

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

as a unit in 2010.

Early years

Boozer was born and raised in

North Omaha, Nebraska North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the e ...

, and graduated from Tech High in Omaha. One of his teammates was future Baseball Hall-of-Famer

Bob Gibson Robert Gibson (born Pack Robert Gibson; November 9, 1935October 2, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959–1975). Nicknamed "Gibby" and "Hoot" ...

. He attended

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public insti ...

, where he helped lead the Wildcats to the 1958 Final Four and where he received All-America honors in 1958 and 1959. A versatile 6’ 8" forward, he was selected by the

Cincinnati Royals The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

with the first non-territorial pick of the 1959 NBA Draft, but he postponed his

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United ...

career for one year so that he could remain eligible to play in the

. During that year he played with the

Peoria Caterpillars The Caterpillar Diesels (also later known as the Peoria Cats or Caterpillars) was an amateur basketball team located in Peoria, Illinois and sponsored and run by the Caterpillar Inc. company. The Caterpillars were one of the most successful tea ...

, where he won the National AAU Tournament title and earned MVP honors for the tournament. He won a gold medal with the Olympic team after they won eight games by an average of 42.4 points. The team was inducted into the

Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

in 2010.

NBA career

Cincinnati Royals

In the fall of 1960, Boozer joined the Royals with Olympic teammate

Oscar Robertson Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938), nicknamed "the Big O", is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Robertson played ...

. As a rookie, Boozer contributed 6.4 points and 6.2 rebounds in a reserve role. The following season, he earned a spot in the Royals’ starting lineup and averaged 13.7 points and 10.2 rebounds. Boozer continued to improve, averaging 14.3 points and 11.1 rebounds during the 1962–1963 season, but the emergence of forward

Jerry Lucas Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State, and 1960 gold medal Olympian and international player before later starring as a p ...

, a future Hall-of-Famer, soon pushed Boozer out of the Royals' long-term plans.

Time with the Knicks and Lakers

Boozer's contract was sold to the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associa ...

in the middle of the 1963–64 season, and he spent the next 1½ seasons in New York. Though Boozer was a productive player with the Knicks, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1965. After one season in Los Angeles, where he played a supporting role amid players like

Jerry West Jerome Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is an American basketball executive and former player. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames included "Mr. Clutch", for his ability ...

and

Elgin Baylor Elgin Gay Baylor ( ; September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 14 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lak ...

, Boozer was selected by the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on Januar ...

in the 1966 NBA

Expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...

Chicago Bulls

Boozer was selected by the

in the 1966 NBA

. Boozer flourished in his first year with Chicago, averaging 18.0 points and 8.5 rebounds and leading the young franchise into the playoffs. The following year, he averaged 21.5 points and 9.8 rebounds and became the third Bull to appear in the

NBA All-Star Game The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, ...

(after Guy Rodgers and

Jerry Sloan Gerald Eugene Sloan (March 28, 1942 – May 22, 2020) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before beginning a 30-year coaching career, 23 of which were spent ...

). During the 1968–1969 season, Boozer averaged a career-high 21.7 points per game, but the Bulls failed to make the playoffs, and Boozer was soon traded to the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conf ...

Milwaukee Bucks

After a season with the SuperSonics, Boozer was traded to the Bucks with

Lucius Allen Lucius Oliver Allen, Jr. (born September 26, 1947) is an American former professional basketball player. He is one of only a select few players to have won at least one state championship, collegiate national championship, and NBA championship. ...

for

Zaid Abdul-Aziz Zaid Abdul-Aziz (born Donald A. Smith; April 7, 1946) is an American former professional basketball player. He was known as Don Smith until he changed his name to Zaid Abdul-Aziz in 1976 after he converted to Islam. Abdul-Aziz starred for the Iow ...

.Bob Boozer Transactions
/ref> That season, Boozer played a key role as a reserve as the Bucks won their first NBA championship.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

He ended his career with 12,964 total points and 7,119 total rebounds.

Later years

Boozer returned to Omaha after his career ended, and worked as an executive for the Bell Systems. He was later appointed to the Nebraska Parole Board and volunteered at Boys Town, the home for troubled youth. Bob Boozer Drive is a street named in his honor in his native Omaha. Boozer died due to a

brain aneurysm An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a brain aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel. Aneurysms in the posterior circu ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...

on May 19, 2012. He was 75.

References

*Sachare, Alex. ''The Chicago Bulls Encyclopedia''. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1999.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boozer, Bob 1937 births 2012 deaths African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players at the 1959 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 1960 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Nebraska Chicago Bulls expansion draft picks Chicago Bulls players Cincinnati Royals draft picks Cincinnati Royals players Deaths from intracranial aneurysm Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball players Los Angeles Lakers players Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Milwaukee Bucks players National Basketball Association All-Stars New York Knicks players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in basketball Peoria Caterpillars players Power forwards (basketball) Seattle SuperSonics players Sportspeople from Omaha, Nebraska United States men's national basketball team players 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people