Former Duquesne great Sihugo Green named to National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

Former Duquesne basketball star Sihugo Green, the only two-time consensus first-team All-America in program history, was named Tuesday to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

During his three-year career (1954-56) with the Dukes, Green averaged a double-double (19.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per game) and finished with 1,605 points and 936 rebounds from his guard position. In that time, Duquesne compiled a 65-17 (.792) record and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament each year, winning the championship in 1955.

In the NIT championship game, a 70-58 victory against Dayton at Madison Square Garden in front of 18,496 fans, Green scored 33 points and the Dukes finished No. 6 in the final Associated Press rankings.

“Si Green, at 6’2”, must be the best college basketball player in the country today,” wrote Milton Gross of the New York Post after Duquesne won the 1955 title. “In a sense, he is to college basketball what Ray Robinson was to boxing — the best fighter pound for pound.”

Green still ranks ninth in Duquesne history for career points. His 662 as a senior in 1955-56 stood as the single-season school record until it was eclipsed by Mark Stevenson in 1990.

In his first collegiate game, Green scored 13 points in a 70-42 victory against Geneva on Dec. 5, 1953, at Monessen High School. He finished that season with a 13.5 points-per-game average and was second-team All-America.

Green averaged 22 and 24.5 points per game during the next two seasons while earning consensus first-team All-America honors. He was the first overall selection in the 1956 NBA Draft by the Rochester Royals, chosen one pick before Bill Russell, who was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Green played nine years in the NBA, including time with the Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis Hawks, Chicago Packers and Zephyrs, Baltimore Bullets and Boston Celtics. He won an NBA championship with the Celtics in 1966.

The Sihugo Green Memorial Gymnasium, which serves as the Dukes’ practice facility, is part of the Joe & Kathy Guyaux Player Development Center. It was dedicated at A.J. Palumbo Center in 1990. Green’s No. 11 jersey was retired Jan. 27, 2001, and he is one of six players who have had their number retired by Duquesne, joining Chuck Cooper (No. 15), Dick Ricketts (No. 12), Willie Somerset (No. 24), Norm Nixon (No. 10) and Mike James (No. 13).

Green, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., is the first member of the Duquesne men’s basketball program to earn induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Joining Green in the Class of 2024 are Wayne Estes (Utah State), Sam Lacey (New Mexico State), Dave Meyers (UCLA), John Rudometkin (USC), Lennie Rosenbluth (North Carolina) and Tom Stith (St. Bonaventure). Coach Jack Hartman, who served at Coffeyville Community College (1955-62), Southern Illinois (1962-70) and Kansas State (1970-86), also will be inducted. All will enter posthumously.