Michael Todd Tripucka (born September 16, 1954) is an American former basketball player best known for his college career at

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...

during the 1970s. A native of

Bloomfield, New Jersey Bloomfield is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and an inner-ring suburb of Newark. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 53,105, an increase of 5,790 (+12.2%) from the 2010 census cou ...

, Tripucka played three varsity seasons at Lafayette and led the

Leopards The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

to a 58–22 overall record and one appearance in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

(NIT). He was twice selected as a first-team all-

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located primarily in the state of New York, with a single ...

(ECC) player, and at the end of his senior year of 1975–76 he was named the ECC Player of the Year. That season, Tripucka averaged a school-record 26.1 points per game, which was seventh best in all of

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

men's basketball. In one game against Saint Joseph's he scored 42 points, still the fourth-best single game effort in school history. Other still-standing single season school records include points in one season (679) and field goals attempted (520). Tripucka finished his career with 1,445 points, which through the 2015–16 season is the ninth-most at Lafayette. He went undrafted in the

1976 NBA draft The 1976 NBA draft was the 30th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on June 8, 1976, before the 1976–77 season. In this draft, 18 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players ...

, but was later inducted into Lafayette's Hall of Fame in 1989.

Family

Todd is the son of

Frank Tripucka Francis Joseph TripuckaProfile
, polishsportshof.com; accessed December 28, 2015.

, an American collegiate and professional football quarterback, at Notre Dame, in the National Football League, in the Canadian Football League, and in the early American Football League. He is the brother of former Notre Dame and

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) star

Kelly Tripucka Peter Kelly Tripucka (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 1991. He was a two-time NBA All Star and averaged over twenty points a game i ...

. He is also the uncle of football players Shane Tripucka and

Travis Tripucka Travis Tripucka (born May 3, 1989) is a former American football long snapper. He was signed by the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2012. He played college football at Massachusetts. His cousin Shane Tripucka was a punter for th ...

as well as professional lacrosse player Jake Tripucka.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tripucka, Todd 1954 births Living people American men's basketball players Bloomfield High School (New Jersey) alumni Lafayette Leopards men's basketball players Sportspeople from Bloomfield, New Jersey Basketball players from Essex County, New Jersey Shooting guards 20th-century American sportsmen