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Trove tidbits

Halldan1

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Moderator
Jan 1, 2003
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By Halldan

The Very Best at Seton Hall - 9-16


16 Richie Regan 1167 points (3 years)

"I can think of no one person in Seton Hall's history who has been so completely associated with the university his whole life, from the time he was a freshman until the day he died," university president Monsignor Robert Sheeran said. "He was Mr. Seton Hall, as no one else has ever been."

Regan was a starter at Seton Hall from 1950-53, helping the team post an 80-12 record under coach John "Honey" Russell. The Pirates made three consecutive postseason appearances in the National Invitation Tournament.

Regan and the Pirates were the top-ranked team in the nation for most of his senior season. They finished 31-2 and won the 1953 National Invitation Tournament title, which was then the equivalent of today's NCAA Championship.

Regan ranks 22nd (at the time of his passing in 2002) in scoring at the university with 1,167 career points. He is fourth with 443 career assists.

After a two-year stint in the military, Regan played three seasons in the NBA with the Rochester and Cincinnati Royals. He was a first-round draft pick by Rochester in 1953. In his final NBA season, he averaged 7.5 points per game and played in the All-Star game.

Regan replaced Russell as Seton Hall's coach in 1960. He won 112 games in 10 seasons.

After serving for two years as assistant athletic director, Regan was appointed director of athletics in 1971. During his tenure, Regan coordinated Seton Hall's entrance into the Big East Conference as one of the original seven members in 1979.

Working with associate athletic director Sue Dilley, the duo launched the women's athletics program at Seton Hall in 1973. He served in that position until he was appointed executive director of the Pirate Blue Athletic Fund in 1985. He was named a special assistant to the vice president of university affairs in 1998.


10 Bobby Wanzer Averaged 12.2 PPG in the NBA

Wanzer was a standout for the Seton Hall men's basketball team for two seasons, 1942-43 and 1946-47. After 1942-43, the program did not compete for three years due to World War II. In those two seasons, Wanzer elegantly played the point guard position en route to a 40-5 record over two seasons, including what was then a program-best 24 win in 1946-47, the year Wanzer led the team in scoring at 11.6 points per game. That Pirates squad had opened the season with 18 consecutive victories.

Wanzer went on to have an illustrious career in the NBA with the Rochester Royals. After being selected by the Royals with the 10th overall pick of the draft in 1948, Wanzer, alongside fellow Pirates Hall of Famers Bob Davies and Frank "Pep" Saul, helped guide the Royals (the franchise that is now known as the Sacramento Kings) to the 1951 NBA Championship. In the finals, Wanzer averaged 12.4 points and 3.6 assists, and he scored 13 points in the decisive game seven to help beat the New York Knicks.

In nine career NBA seasons, all with the Royals, Wanzer averaged 12.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists. He was a five-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA second team selection. In 1952, he also set what was then the league record for highest free throw shooting percentage at 90.4 percent.

After his NBA playing career concluded, Wanzer went on to coach the Royals for three and a half seasons and was the first head basketball coach at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, where he coached for 24 years.

Wanzer was inducted into the Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Fame in 1974, and his uniform number, eight, was retired by the department in 1987, the same year that he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1991, he also was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.
 
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