For the complete list and explanation of criteria and scoring, check out the Philly Fifty page
“When talking about the top basketball players ever to come out of Philadelphia, Lionel Simmons ranks No. 1″ - South Philly Review, Nov 2008
Longevity – 1
Simmons and Nelson are the only 4-year college players on this list who didn’t end up playing for a Philadelphia professional team later on.
Peak – 4
His junior year, Simmons was one of the top-5 players in the country. His senior year, he was the best. For those two seasons, he averaged 27.4 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 3.3 apg and shot 50% from the field and 43% from 3-pt range.
Popularity – 3
Simmons wasn’t terribly flashy and didn’t quite fit the scrappy, underdog role that Jameer Nelson did so well. He was plenty liked, but didn’t capture the heart of the city like other players have.
Team Success – 3
La Salle went 100-31 with Simmons on the team. They went to 3 NCAA tournament’s, but dissapointingly only won 1 game. In his senior year, the team went 30-2. La Salle was perfect in the MAAC twice with Simmons. 14-0 his sophomore year, 16-0 his senior year. La Salle has only had 5 winning seasons in the 19 since Simmons left.
Awards – 4
Simmons won the Naismith POY and Wooden Award in 1990. Jameer Nelson is the only other Big-5 player to win either. He was 2nd team All-American in 1989 and 1st team in 1990. He was first team all Big-5 all four of his years, and won the Big-5 POY award 3 times. He was also the MAAC player of the year 3 times.
Stats – 5
Here is a comprehensive list of players who scored more points than Lionel Simmons (3,217) in NCAA history: Pete Maravich and Freeman Williams. Simmons scored almost 600 points more than any other big-5 player in history (Michael Brooks) and only Tom Gola (La Salle), Ernie Beck (Penn) and Malik Rose (Drexel) have more rebounds in the city’s history.
Historical Standing – 1
As a commenter pointed out, he will likely have a change at the college basketball hall-of-fame, but his shortened NBA career means outside of Philly, his name will remain largely unrecognized.
Excitement – 3
Simmons was more finesse than flash. He was exciting to watch because he was a high-volume, efficient scorer and rebounder, but he wasn’t a highlight reel.
Total: 24
Simmons’ was a high school star in Philadelphia as well, leading South Philadelphia High School to the Public League championship in 1986. His pro career was unfortunately cut short by injuries and it’s hard to say what kind of player he would have become.
In his first 4 seasons in the NBA he had 5,121 points (17.0 per game), 2,388 rebounds (7.8 per game) and 1,269 assists (4.2 per game). The only other players in NBA history to put up those kind of numbers in their first 4 years were Oscar Robertson, Grant Hill, Larry Bird, Kareem, Sidney Wicks and Alvin Adams. It’s a shame Simmons played only 3 more seasons, retiring at 28 due to injury. I think he could have been a Grant Hill type player, but we’ll never know.
For the complete list and explanation of criteria and scoring, check out the Philly Fifty page
When talking about the top basketball players ever to come out of Philadelphia, Michael Brooks ranks No. 1
- West Philly Review
Big 5 MVP, ’78 & ’80; Kodak College Player of Year ’80; chosen captain of USA ’80 Olympic team (USA boycotted Moscow games)
“Awesome physical and mental energy.” - head coach Dave “Lefty” Ervin
2628 career pts, 1372 career rbs, 4000 total (12th all-time NCAA)
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When talking about the top basketball players ever to come out of Philadelphia, Tom Gola ranks No. 1
- North Philly Review
“Mr. All-Around”; 4-time All-American; an NIT (’52 Explorers), NCAA (’54 Explorers) & NBA Champion (’56 Warriors); CPOY & Tournament MVP ’54; 5-time NBA All-Star
[Gola's '55 Explorers were national runners-up to San Francisco College, which featured Bill Russell & K.C. Jones]
2462 career pts, 2201 career rbs, 4663 total (1st all-time NCAA)
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the deservedly mentioned Lionel Simmons, “L-Train”
4-time 1st team All-Big 5; 3-time Big 5 MVP; NCAA record 115 consecutive double-figure scoring games; Naismith CPOY ’90
3217 career pts, 1429 career rbs, 4646 total (2nd all-time NCAA)
* Some others on ’4,000 OR MORE’ list of only 12:
Elvin Hayes (3), Oscar Robertson (5), Pete Maravich (7), Danny Manning (9), Larry Bird (10), Elgin Baylor(11)
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If you didn’t play or watch your basketball at 20th & Olney, you wuz robbed!!!
guessing that if you read it, you think I sounded ridiculous on the Gola being surpassed by growth of the game statements? This post makes it look that way (not your view, the facts). If you did read it, and choose to comment, is there at least some truth to what I said? Just wondering, not that big a deal.
Yeah, Ken, I didn’t agree with your time eclipse evaluation of Gola but it’s just a matter of opinion. Didn’t see him in college unfortunately. I’ve been told by some who did (and whose opinion I respected) that he was special as a collegian. Lanky 6’6′, athletic, tough, poised – and a team guy. Players athletic abilities have evolved but the game still is about much more than running and jumping, though less so. Some people transcend eras. Knew where you were coming from. Yes, I recognized some truth in your offering. ;)
By the way, belated thanks for “the Kingfish” obit. Was sad to read of his passing.
Course I didn’t see him either, being decades younger than you
. Speaks to the difficulty of judging those before us, which we relate to with those we did see. At least within my own comfort level. I might have way been off base in not including Gola in the way i defined Wilt and Rose. That’s an impressive resume which I conveniently forgot. Maybe my statement applies more to average players, if it carries validity. Anyway, it was just a thought.
Thanks for the laugh! With world economy sinking, comes in handy.
Gola was high character, high results, highly recognized - my summation.
Don’t take my inclusion of that quote to mean I agree with it, by the way!
Now I won’t, Pete.
Simmons and Nelson are the only 4-year college players on this list who didn’t end up playing for a Philadelphia professional team later on.>>
Kinda rules out Howard Porter, I’d guess. Seems like he would fit in the category of discussable at least. I was never one of his great admirerers, but he coulde certainly play. Course that assumes Porter played all 4 years, which escapes my memory.
Porter was considered.
College players were tough, with the exception of a couple no-brainers (to be revealed later) – you could argue for the inclusion of about 10-12 players.
Like all of his time, the late Howard Porter was a 3-yr guy. Another great, full of both-end rampages, but couldn’t put the ball on the floor like Durrett. Sure could shoot it, rebound and intimidate! Originally from Florida.
I always liked Tom Inglesby from that era. I think my perception of him was a more complete player than Porter, so I tended to place Howard in the background. Tommy had a nice overall career to look back on, I can’t say it was shocking, but still a little disappointing he didn’t fare better in the NBA. I think the Hawks drafted him, and maybe played some ABA ball. He wasn’t top 50, but maybe Melchionni cracks the list. I’ll guess probably. And I don’t mean Gary, Tom, or Bobby, although to be honest, I don’t remember any of their careers, and actually, Gary might have played at Duke. Billy did great with the Nets.
Tom was a sound fundamental player with pretty good jumpin’ ability, nice stroke and a head on his shoulders. Marginal pro – briefly played with Hawks (while Pete was there), Spirits of St. Louis (while you were there?) and San Diego Sails.
Billy M. was a better shooter. And from deep.
Funny you asked that because I thought of Inglesby with the Spirits after I sent that, but for the life of me, I couldn’t be sure. Which considering I knew him a little bit (very casual) from his days playing for good old Gaddie Realtors in the Baker League, I’d think I’d have remembered vividly if he played there when I was there, at least. I believe Tom preceded the Moses/Marvin/Gus/Frddie Lewis/Mo roster by a year. Man, Mo and Kenny Durrett. Good work, Schenley High, although I guess they didn’t play together. I’m sure you know Rod Thorn coached that club.
I have a very distinct feeling you never read the book “Loose Balls” by Terry Pluto. Or not in a long time.
Loved Pluto’s book. Still have it.
Maurice played at Schenley after Kenny.
You’ll probably enjoy this: http://www.pittsburghsportsreport.com/2008-Issues/psr0807/08070111.html
Ambridge starter Walt Ostrowski went on to have a fine coaching career at Hatboro-Horsham HS, where he helped mold the Carroll brothers’ games.
Much as I was into basketball back then, I guess the mid to early late 60s were a little provincial for me, other than the real top schools and names. Have to plead guilty to only recognizing Durett’s name out of all that. Kinda starnge considering the further level of accomplishments. I have a vivid memory of Jack mqarin at Duke, but not Devenzio.
It was fun reading about the PIAA championship. I don’t recall exactly how far he took them, but I remember seeing Henry Williams play against our Abington school. Henry was like a man against boys, physically and talent wise. I think they won the PIAA. He was of an image of a guy that could have gone to the pros in high school. I used that image as a barometer when LeBron was discussed as possibly skipping his senior year of HS, and going pro, and thinking back to how Henry’s career at Jacksonville didn’t carry out with the image I had of him in HS, that made me all that much more impressed with LeBron that he actually was considered the real deal to jump, whereas this incredible image of Henry fell so short. This is from distant memory, Henry might have had an injury, or some legit block get in the way, I don’t know. I just remember that Henry seemed to dwarf brother Jim in skill, and as I recall, Jim Williams was a pretty darned good player in the Litwak years.
A few years after I graduated from Abington, they had a small guard they transferred in from within Philly. Richard Wright. He was like 5’8. I guess you kind of get slanted by want of local prejudice, but I thought Ruchard might have a great college career ahead of him, but I think that fell by the weyside. Course I also thought one of the best players the 6ers ever had, Raymond Lewis would be what I expected, and that never got out of training camp.
I never read the Pluto book in entirety. And the many legendary names from that time, and I assume crazy stories are what would tend to stay with a reader. So it’s silly to expect a trivial portion of the book to leave a lasting impression. But there was 1 part I did read years ago. And my memory of it was that it wasn’t exactly true, but I was amazed at how true it actually was. It was about a guy who among other things filled in about 10 times as the public address announcer at the Spirits games. He was young at the time, early 20s, so immaturity couldn’t really be held against him, but he was from Philly, and when he did the games, it wasn’t good enough for him to be himself, he had to do a Dave Zinkoff immitation. You know, with the if you must smoke, don’t exhale, and as a matter of fact, Tailor made when Fatty came to town. But the particular story in that book about the guy would perhaps come across as humorous, and a little more personalized since you would now know he was from Philly.
’71 Norristown team, starring Henry ”Hank” Williams (Jacksonville; followed Artis Gilmore’s successful era), lost by a bunch in State Final to Schenley, starring Maurice Lucas (Marquette)
and “Jeep” Kelley (UNLV, Hawaii). All three have since passed on. Game film is available for viewing on youtube.com (including player/coach introductions).
Henry was a talented, dominating legend in HS but his decision-making was often wanting. Indiscriminate gunner. Co-rookie with Moses on ’74-’75 Utah Stars; ’454 ABA minutes’ pro career. Last saw him play on the EBA Lancaster Red Roses with Kenny Durrett (who was still draggin’ his leg around after NBA career closed with brief Sixers stop). Williams’ sturdier older brother Jim is in Big Five HOF – fine inside player for Temple when the Big 5 was comprised of great competition and “pandemonium” at the Palestra, ’63-’66.
I recall ‘here-and-gone’ Galloping Ghost guard Richard Wright, but not his college destiny. Once scored 50.
I have a question for you. It seems to me that over the years, I maybe remember 1 player from Cheney State, and then Philly Textile that were prolific scorers, but I can’t remember the names of either.
Assuming I’m right that they exsisted, who’s names am I unable to think of?
I seriously doubt either makes this list, although actual stats might bring a different feeling, 2 guys I’d at least check out if I were doing this project would be Neumann and Pawlak from the great Penn teams. I remember thinking they were both real good, but that Penn club was just a warm up act for the Bilsky, Wohl, Morse, Calhoun crew.
A gentlemen’s bet that you can’t spell Stan Wlydarcik’s name right without looking it up. Ands if by some absolute miracle I spelled it right here, that is pure coindidence. Marty Domres and Tom Ford, I can spell, but not Stan’s last name.
Stan W-l-o-d-a-r-c-y-k (didn’t have look it up). From PA’s coal cracker region.
Unsung important player. Could D it up, jump/rebound. Kinda the Bobby Jones of that fantastic team.
I liked Neumann & Pawlak as a tandem too. Tom “Stick” Mallison & big Frank Burgess – reportedly still a frontline work in progress.
Cheyney State had Hal Booker and Wilbur Kirkland in 60s – both played in ABA.
Cheney State’s head coach Hal Blitman took the Miami Floridian HC job. Textile had late 60s National Champion team; player names have vaporized in time.
http://www.delconewsnetwork.com/articles/2011/06/08/sports/doc4de7d764e5246206826242.txt
I remember Trooper Washington having played at Cheyney, too. Nice complimentary forward with Erving in Net days.
I remember Frank Burgess as a good rebounder, the sort of tough forward you needed.
Going further back in time, I’m sure some of these names will stir some memories…Vince Miller, Jay Norman,
Tee Parham (son Keith later played at Abington right around Richard Wright time). Do the names Ducky Birts or Tony Sammartino mean anything to you?
Care to share a take on Sonny Hill?
Vince, Dippy’s best friend & brother-in-law. Norman helped “The Chief” at Temple after playin’ days. Word was Tee could shoot it better than son. Birts & Sammartino are Baker/Hill coaches/associates.
Take on Sonny - highly proud, knowledgable, extroverted, go-getting missionary of basketball/sports and life who has done a lot of good in a city of need while spouting an array of homilies and sporting an array of fedoras. What’s your take on him?
I’d have to take advantage of the internet to see if I came up with something on his playing days since I never checked, and I don’t think I was cognizant of it when I followed the game, but I wanna say (that means I think) Jay Norman was a helluva player in his time.
Let me tell you first why I asked about your take on Sonny, who you no doubt know was said to have been an excellent basketball player at Central State (sure) by way of West Philly (pretty sure). I have zero idea how Sonny’s later and recent years have been. I worked for him for 2 years as Publicity Director of the Baker League in the early 70s, and broadcast their games on ‘RTI. Having had that experience, and clearly remembering that Sonny could be strong with people in personality, I wondered if you had an image of his greatness, or able to be tough (when needed) with people. You don’t accomplish what he has in life without that strong side a lot more often than not.
That said, and to answer your question directly, to me, from the time I knew him, with no exaggeration intended, he is one of the greatest human beings ever to walk the earth. The framework he built, and the one on one time he spent with many people, kids, and adults alike was, and I’d assume is powerful. He deserves any and every accolade the game, and more importantly, the city, can bestow on him. Back then, when I would have been more qualified to formulate opinions on his style (if I ever was), the young players were maybe too young to appreciate Sonny. Sort of like you know more than your parents. But his lessons of discipline hopefully leave valuble memories in the 1000s upon 1000s of lives he touched. So I was glad to see you state what I believe to have been a most accurate, and favorable perception of him.
Nice to read a glowing first-hand testimony on Sonny. He went to Northeast HS where Tony Danza recently taught English. Other famous alums – Eddie Stanky (996 BB, 374 SO), Herb Adderley (48 INT, 7 TD), Guy Rodgers (10,415 PTS, 6,917 AST).
What’s this Big 5 stuff? Show some love man, City 6!
Philadelphia University? The former Philadelphia Textile is not quite there, but it’s always looming.
Or maybe you’re referring to another proud tradition – the Mighty Macs of Immaculata.
There’s a school near Penn too that has a winter schedule… forget its name. Anderson-Rose Tech?