February 12
From Hoopedia
- 1911 - Hall of Fame player Ernest Schmidt, who led Kansas State Teachers College to 47 consecutive wins, is born in Nashville, Kansas.
- 1917 - Hall of Famer Al Cervi, who coached the Syracuse Nationals to the 1955 NBA Championship, is born in Buffalo, New York.
- 1934 - Hall of Famer Bill Russell, the center who led the Boston Celtics to eleven NBA championships, is born in Monroe, Louisiana.
- 1949 - The New York Rens replace the Detroit Vagabond Kings (who folded) in the National Basketball League. The renamed Dayton Rens, coached by Hall of Famer Pop Gates become the first all-Black team to play in the otherwise all-White league.
- 1949 - "Pitchin' Paul" Arizin (right) scores 85 points for Villanova against the Philadelphia Naval Air Command team.
- 1959 - 3 time All-Star Larry Nance winner of the 1984 NBA Slam Dunk Contest is born in Anderson, South Carolina.
- 1989 - A crowd of 44,735, the largest in NBA All-Star Game history, turns out at the Houston Astrodome to watch the West beat the East 143-134. Utah’s Karl Malone wins MVP honors by scoring a team-high 28 points.
- 1995 - Nat Holman passes away in the Bronx, New York at age 98. The Hall of Famer starred for the Original Celtics and will likely always be the only coach to win the NIT and NCAA championships in the same year.
