Richard Samuel Nemelka (October 1, 1943 – September 19, 2020) 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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player in the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

(ABA). As a college player, he earned

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

recognition at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU).

Early life

Nemelka was born in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. He played basketball at

's West High School where he was an all-state selection. He also played shortstop on the varsity baseball team.

College career

Nemelka played in thirteen games for the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the Big 12 C ...

freshman team, averaging 16.2 points per game. Nemelka started every game for BYU his sophomore season, averaging 10.8 points per game. In his junior season at BYU, Nemelka averaged 15.4 points per game as BYU finished 21-7 and won the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

championship. He was also named to the All-WAC second team and was an Academic All-WAC selection. As a junior at BYU, Nemelka averaged 24.0 points per game as BYU won the 1966 NIT. Nemelka was named as a first team All-American by the

USBWA The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 with the urging of National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The U ...

and a third team All-American by the

NABC NABC is an initialism that may refer to any of the following: *North American Bridge Championships, North American contract bridge tournaments *National Association of Basketball Coaches, an American trade association of men's college basketball co ...

. He was also named to the All-WAC first-team and to the Academic All-Wac team.

Professional career

Nemelka was drafted with the fourth pick in the fifth round of the

1966 NBA draft The 1966 NBA draft was the 20th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 11 and 12, 1966, before the 1966–67 season. In this draft, ten NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball ...

by the St. Louis Hawks (now based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

). However, he never played in the

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

. Nemelka played one season in the ABA for the

Utah Stars The Utah Stars were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under head coach Bill Sharman the Stars were the first major professional basketball team to use a pre-game shootaround. History prior to moving to ...

, and averaged 5.5 points, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 rebounds per game. He played in nine playoff games for the Stars in the

1971 ABA playoffs The 1971 ABA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the American Basketball Association's 1970–71 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Division champion Utah Stars defeating the Eastern Division champion Kentucky Colonels, ...

, on the way to the Stars winning the 1971 ABA championship.

Post-Playing career

Following his professional basketball career, Nemelka worked as an attorney in

. On May 13, 2008, the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah Supreme Court entered a public reprimand against Nemelka for the violation of three rules. Nemelka died on September 19, 2020, at age 76 after a battle with cancer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nemelka, Dick 1943 births 2020 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Utah Basketball players from Salt Lake City BYU Cougars men's basketball players Lawyers from Salt Lake City Shooting guards St. Louis Hawks draft picks Undrafted ABA players Utah Stars players Western Basketball Association coaches West High School (Utah) alumni