Edward Leroy Koffenberger (July 4, 1926 – September 21, 2014) was an American stand-out

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 ...

and

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

player for the

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

in 1945–46 and 1946–47. He is considered Duke's first "two-sport star" even though most of his accolades came from playing basketball. A native of

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

, Koffenberger was the only First Team

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 ...

basketball player from his home state when the

Helms Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his owner ...

awarded him the distinction. As a

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

, Koffenberger led the Blue Devils in scoring during both seasons he played for them, and during his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season of 1946–47, he led the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...

in both scoring and rebounding. He was a two-time All-American and two-time All-Conference selection in basketball, and in lacrosse he was a one-time All-American for his intimidating defensive presence. In 54 career basketball games he scored 733 points, including a then-Duke record 416 in 1946–47. Koffenberger was selected by the

Philadelphia Warriors The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden ...

in a late round of the

1947 BAA draft The 1947 BAA draft was the first ever draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to become the National Basketball Association (NBA). The fledgling BAA held this draft as a ...

, although he only briefly played professionally but never in the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (United States), National Basketball Lea ...

. After basketball he became an engineer, spending the majority of his career at DuPont. In 1977 he was inducted into the

Delaware Sports Hall of Fame The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame was founded in 1976. Al Cartwright, who helped found it, was its first president and was inducted to its hall of fame in 1980. The current museum building was constructed in 1993. The Delaware Sports M ...

. Koffenberger died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

on September 21, 2014, at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koffenberger, Ed 1926 births 2014 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from Wilmington, Delaware Centers (basketball) Deaths from leukemia in the United States Duke Blue Devils football players Duke Blue Devils men's basketball players Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse players North Carolina Tar Heels football players Philadelphia Warriors draft picks Players of American football from Wilmington, Delaware 20th-century American sportsmen