Christopher Michael Street (February 2, 1972 – January 19, 1993) was an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player. He played as a power forward for the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

from 1990 to 1993. A potential

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 St ...

player, he died in an automobile crash during his junior year at Iowa.

Biography

Along with basketball, Street also excelled in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

during high school. He moved with his family to Indianola,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

in the fall of 1987 and starred on the town's Class 4A team at Indianola High School. Street committed to play basketball at the University of Iowa as a junior in high school. Street played in 28 games as a freshman and averaged 5.0 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, he averaged 10.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. In the first 15 games of the 1992–93 season Street averaged 14.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. In his final game he scored 14 points and collected 8 rebounds and extended his record of made free throws to 34, in a 65-56 loss to

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

. In that game his 33rd and 34th consecutive free throws set an Iowa school record. On January 19, 1993, following a team dinner at the Highlander Inn outside of

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

, Street was killed when he drove his car onto the highway and collided with a snow plow. His girlfriend, Kim Vinton Klinedinst, was a passenger. She survived the accident. The basketball game scheduled against Northwestern the following night was postponed.

Legacy

After Chris Street died, Iowa Hawkeye Men's Basketball Coach Tom Davis said "Chris represented all that is good about the Midwest and the state of Iowa. He was open, caring, honest, loving and lived life to the fullest every day." Chris Street's number 40 was retired by the University of Iowa's Men's Basketball team at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on February 6, 1993. At the end of each season, the Chris Street Award is given to the Hawkeye player or players who best exemplify the spirit, enthusiasm, and intensity of Chris Street. When it was announced that the award was created shortly after Street's death in 1993, Iowa Coach Tom Davis said "We want to remember everything Chris represented. He was one of the greatest Hawkeyes of all time." On February 25, 2018, Iowa Hawkeye guard Jordan Bohannon purposely missed a free throw against the Northwestern Wildcats that would have broken Street's school record, instead tying it with 34 consecutive made free throws. After the game Bohannon spoke with reporters and said, "That's not my record to have. That record deserves to stay in his name." Street is buried in the IOOF Cemetery in Indianola, Iowa.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 1990–91 , style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , , , , , .500 , , .500 , , .647 , , 5.1 , , 1.1 , , 1.0 , , .2 , , 5.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1991–92 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 30 , , 27.0 , , .564 , , .357 , , .681 , , 8.2 , , 1.8 , , 1.1 , , .4 , , 10.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1992–93 , style="text-align:left;",

, 15 , , 15 , , 26.8 , , .574 , , .222 , , .892 , , 9.5 , , 1.3 , , .6 , , .9 , , 14.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 73 , , 45 , , 27.0 , , .553 , , .313 , , .732 , , 7.3 , , 1.4 , , 1.0 , , .4 , , 9.3

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Street, Chris 1972 births 1993 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from Iowa Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball players People from Indianola, Iowa Power forwards (basketball) Road incident deaths in Iowa

Biography

Legacy

Career statistics

College

See also

References