Richard Hockenos is an American former

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 and coach. After being drafted 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 Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

in the

1974 NBA draft The 1974 NBA draft was the 28th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and was held on May 28, 1974, before the 1974–75 season. In this draft, 18 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and ot ...

he went on to play professionally in Europe.

Early life

Hockenos attended Bishop Duffy High School in

Niagara Falls, New York Niagara Falls is a City (New York), city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagar ...

. Between his sophomore and junior years he had a hip operation as he was growing to fast and the bones in his hip separated. After mediocre senior season, he was not recruited by any colleges and rejected by the schools he applied to due to academic reasons. He finally enrolled at Niagara Community College in 1969. After having a successful second season with NCCC basketball team, he decided to spend his last two seasons with Gannon College. His stay there turned out to be short and after a week, he left the school. A short time later, Hockenos visited St. Francis University at the behest of Pete Lonergan, a former assistant coach at NCCC. After sitting out his first semester, Hockenos played two seasons for St. Francis where he averaged 13.7 points in 41 games.

Professional career

Hockenos was drafted by the

in the 10th round of the

. He played through six weeks of training camp and seven exhibition games before he was released. In 1975, he played for the

Israel Sabras Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It occupies the Pale ...

of the short lived European Professional Basketball League. In September 1977, Hockenos signed with Valur of the Icelandic top-tier league as a player-coach. For the season he scored 407 points in 14 games, for an average of 29.1 points per game, good for second in the league in scoring, behind Dirk Dunbar, and was named the

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

. In April 1978, he re-signed with Valur for the 1978–79 season. 10 days after he arrived back in Iceland, Hockenos unexpectedly left the club in September 1978. In his place, Valur signed Tim Dwyer. After arriving back in the United States, Hockenos became an assistant coach at Buffalo State.

Later life

In 2018, Hockenos was inducted into the Niagara Falls Sports Hall of Fame.

References

External links

College statistics
at

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hockenos, Rick American expatriate basketball people in Iceland American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Saint Francis Red Flash men's basketball players Valur men's basketball coaches Valur men's basketball players Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) coaches Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) players Junior college men's basketball players in the United States 1950s births Living people 20th-century American sportsmen