Hall of Fame forward Cliff Hagan, a five-time All-Star who spent his entire NBA career with the St. Louis Hawks, has died at age 94.
The University of Kentucky, where Hagan starred in his collegiate career and later served as athletics director, announced Hagan's death Friday.
Though best known to many NBA fans as one of the players on the wrong side of the most lopsided trade in league history, Hagan was also a star, using his impressive hook shot to average 18.0 points and 6.9 rebounds in a 10-year NBA career.
Born in Owensboro, Kentucky, Hagan didn't go far for college, playing for legendary coach Adolph Rupp at Kentucky. Hagan helped lead the Wildcats to the 1951 NCAA title and an 86-5 record in his time at the school. His single-game scoring record of 51 points stood at Kentucky until 1970.
Cliff Hagan, shown here defending Wilt Chamberlain in a 1959 game between the Hawks and 76ers, was involved in a famous trade that gave the Celtics the right to draft Bill Russell. File Photo Hagan was drafted in the third round of the 1953 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics but never played for the team. After serving two years in the military, Hagan -- along with Ed Macauley -- was traded by Boston in April 1956 to the Hawks for the right to draft future Hall of Fame center Bill Russell.
Russell took the Celtics on a historic NBA championship run, winning nine of the next 10 titles. The interruption of that run came when Hagan and fellow Hall of Famer Bob Pettit led the Hawks to the 1958 NBA championship by beating Russell and the Celtics in the Finals. Hagan, who averaged a league-best 27.7 postseason points in that championship run, led the Hawks to the Finals in four of his first five seasons in St. Louis.
Hagan finished his pro career as player-coach for the ABA's Dallas Chaparrals, becoming the first player in history to be an All-Star in both leagues. In 1978, he became the first Kentucky player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.