Walter Raymond Osterkorn (July 6, 1928 – January 11, 2012) was an American professional basketball player. A 6'5" forward from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, Osterkorn began his pro career with the St. Paul Lights of the National Professional Basketball League during the 1950–51 season. When St. Paul folded 20 games into the season, he was obtained by the Sheboygan Red Skins, who at that time were in their 13th season of operation, the longest-running professional basketball franchise in the nation. Osterkorn played the final 19 games for Sheboygan and helped the Red Skins to a league-best 29–16 record. He was named to the NPBL's second team as a forward after averaging 13 points per game, sixth-best in the league. Osterkorn then played four seasons (1951–1955) 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 ...

as a member of the

Syracuse Nationals The Philadelphia 76ers are an American basketball team currently playing in the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 76ers are third in NBA ...

. He averaged 7.0

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player or team per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of poi ...

and won a league championship in 1955. He died in 2012.

Career statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

* 1928 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American sportsmen American men's basketball players Amundsen High School alumni Basketball players from Chicago Centers (basketball) Chicago Stags draft picks Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players Power forwards Sheboygan Red Skins players Syracuse Nationals players Washington Generals players {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub