Gene Eniar Englund (October 21, 1917 – November 5, 1995) 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. He played in the

National Basketball Association 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 ...

(NBA) for one season, , and split the season playing for the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

and

Tri-Cities Blackhawks Tri-Cities most often refers to: *Tri-Cities, Tennessee, United States *Tri-Cities, Washington, United States Tri-City, Tricity or Tri-Cities may also refer to: Populated places Americas Canada * Tri-Cities (British Columbia), consisting of C ...

. Although he played professionally, Englund is best remembered for being a star

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, where as a

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 ...

in 1940–41 he led the Badgers to win the NCAA national championship.

Early life

Englund was born in

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Wisconsin, fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. S ...

. He attended Kenosha High School in

Kenosha Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 census. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Ke ...

where he graduated in 1936. When deciding where to play college basketball, he decided to stick close to home and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin (now

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

College

As a , 205-lb (93 kg) forward and center, Englund was a large player for the late 1930s and early 1940s. He broke out during his senior season in 1940–41 when he was team captain. He scored 162 points in

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

games, which set a new conference scoring record at the time, and was also named the Big Ten

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

. Additionally, he (alongside star teammate John Kotz) led Wisconsin to the school's first and only men's basketball national championship when they defeated

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

, 39–34. At the end of the season Englund was named a consensus Second Team All-American.

Professional career

When Englund graduated from college in the spring of 1941, the major professional basketball league was the National Basketball League (NBL). From the 1941–42 season through the 1943–44 one, and again from 1946 to 1949, he played for the NBL's

Oshkosh All-Stars The Oshkosh All-Stars were an American professional basketball team based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Founded in 1929 by Lonnie Darling, the team was a member of the National Basketball League, a forerunner to the NBA, from 1937 until 1949. History ...

(in 1943–44 he also played for the American Basketball League's

Brooklyn Indians The Brooklyn Indians were an American basketball team based in Brooklyn, New York that was a member of the American Basketball League. The team was previously known as the Camden Indians. The team moved to Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs o ...

). Englund won the NBL Championship as a rookie in 1941–42, leading his team in scoring while making seven

field goals A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, a ...

and three

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

s en route to 17 points. The All-Stars also lost the NBL championships in 1942–43 and 1945–46 while Englund played for them. Although he was never a superstar in the league, he did manage to finish third all-time in NBL points scored when the league merged with 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 ...

(BAA) in 1949, resulting in the formation of the present-day NBA. Most of the way into the 1948–49 season with Oshkosh, then-coach

Lon Darling Alonzo Lewis "Lon" Darling (June 25, 1902 – April 19, 1951) was an early influencer in American professional basketball, having created the barnstorming team the Oshkosh All-Stars, is credited with being the organizer of the National Basketbal ...

resigned and Englund took over as a

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

for the remainder of the year. He compiled a 3–1 regular season record and a 3–4 playoffs record as coach. At age 32 in 1949–50, Englund was well past his basketball playing prime. He lasted only one season in the NBA, splitting the year with first the

and then the

. After playing in 24 games for the Celtics while averaging 8.2 points per game, he was traded on January 29, 1950 for John Mahnken. Englund finished the year out by appearing in 22 games for Tri-Cities and averaged 7.5 points per game.

Later life

After his playing career was over, Englund became an

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

for the Big Ten and NBA. He died on November 5, 1995, in

Winnebago, Wisconsin Winnebago is an unincorporated community in the Town of Oshkosh in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States, and is part of the Oshkosh metropolitan statistical area. It is located just outside the northeast edge of the city of Oshkosh. The ...

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

NBL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Englund, Gene 1917 births 1995 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American Basketball League (1925–1955) players American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Wisconsin Basketball players from Wisconsin Boston Celtics players Centers (basketball) Forwards (basketball) Mary D. Bradford High School alumni NBA referees Oshkosh All-Stars coaches Oshkosh All-Stars players Basketball player-coaches Sportspeople from Kenosha, Wisconsin Sportspeople from Oshkosh, Wisconsin Tri-Cities Blackhawks players Undrafted NBA players Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball players