Hannum Inducted Into Basketball Hall of Fame
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
October 2, 1998
Los Angeles - Former USC men's basketball player Alex Hannum, who played for the Trojans in 1943 and 1946-47, was among seven people inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday (Oct. 2) in Springfield, Mass.
"I'm so thrilled, because it takes me back to that era, when I played and coached," Hannum said. "I'd thought they'd forgotten about us old-timers."
The first coach in professional basketball history to win an NBA and ABA championship (Bill Sharman is the only other--ABA-1971, NBA-1972), Hannum had the uncanny ability to take floundering teams and turn them into champions during 16 professional coaching seasons (12 NBA, four ABA). A solid player at USC and in the National Basketball League and NBA, Hannum began his coaching career as a player/coach for the St. Louis Hawks during the 1956-57 season. The Hawks reached the NBA finals that season, losing to the Celtics in game seven by just two points.
The next year, Hannum began his first season as a full-time head coach and guided St. Louis to the 1958 NBA Championship. After a brief hiatus to concentrate on his business career, the Los Angeles native returned to coaching for the next 14 years. It was at this time that Hannum began to turn franchises into winners. He spent three years with the Syracuse Nationals (1960-63), posting a 48-32 record in his final year. Hannum then became coach of a San Francisco Warrior team that had finished fourth in the Western Division the previous year and led them to a first place finish and an NBA Finals appearance.
Under Hannum's guidance in San Francisco, Wilt Chamberlain altered his game--from offense-oriented to defense-and-team-oriented--a trait that would later help him win an NBA title. Both Hannum and Chamberlain left San Francisco, but were reunited in Philadelphia in the 1966-67 season. That same season, Philadelphia won the NBA championship with a then-record .840 winning percentage (68-14). Following his stint in Philadelphia, Hannum joined the ABA's Oakland Oaks. The year before his arrival the Oaks finished in last place, and in Hannum's first season - with the addition of Rick Barry - Oakland won the 1969 ABA Championship. The Oaks folded the next year, and Hannum ended his career with brief stints in San Diego (NBA) and Denver (ABA).
Hannum was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1964 and ABA Coach of the Year in 1969. Hannum, who posted a 471-412 NBA record and a 178-152 ABA record, coached twelve Hall of Famers, including Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan, Ed Macauley, Slater Martin, Rick Barry, Nate Thurmond, Billy Cunningham, Hal Greer, Dolph Schayes, Elvin Hayes, Calvin Murphy and Wilt Chamberlain.
