lit a candle 3h agoMy dad had this old black and white photo of the 1958 team tucked in a book on his shelf, I never understood why until he explained who Cliff Hagan was, the hook shot, the Hawks winning it all before I was even born. He used to tell it like a bedtime story almost, Game 6, 1957, that buzzer beater, like it was folklore passed down instead of basketball. I think about that living room in St. Louis, my dad as a kid listening on the radio probably, and now he's gone too so it's strange hearing this news alone, just me and the quiet. 94 years, that's a whole life, Owensboro to Lexington to St. Louis and all that history in between. Anyway. Rest easy, Cliff.
Their story
Clifford Oldham Hagan was an American basketball star whose hook shot carried him from Owensboro, Kentucky, to an NCAA title, an NBA championship and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He died on 15 October 2026 at the age of 94. Born on 9 December 1931 in Owensboro, Hagan…
Clifford Oldham Hagan was an American basketball star whose hook shot carried him from Owensboro, Kentucky, to an NCAA title, an NBA championship and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He died on 15 October 2026 at the age of 94.
Born on 9 December 1931 in Owensboro, Hagan starred at Owensboro High School before joining Adolph Rupp's University of Kentucky Wildcats. As a sophomore in 1951 he helped Kentucky win the NCAA championship. A 1952 point-shaving scandal forced the school to forfeit his senior season, yet after graduating in 1953 he returned for 1953-54, set a school single-game record of 51 points, and finished an undefeated 25-0 regular season that Kentucky declined to take into the NCAA tournament because graduate players were then barred from postseason play. He was a two-time consensus first-team All-American; Kentucky later retired his number 6.
Drafted by the Boston Celtics, Hagan first served two years in the U.S. Air Force, winning Worldwide Air Force basketball titles at Andrews Air Force Base. He and Ed Macauley were then traded to the St. Louis Hawks for the draft rights to Bill Russell. Over ten NBA seasons (1956-1966) with the Hawks he averaged 18.0 points a game, made five consecutive All-Star teams (1958-1962), earned All-NBA Second Team twice, and in 1958 helped St. Louis beat Boston for the NBA title. In Game 6 of the 1957 Finals he hit a buzzer-beater widely treated as the first playoff buzzer-beater in NBA history.
In 1967 he became player-coach of the ABA's Dallas Chaparrals, scored 40 points in the franchise's first game, and became the first man to play in All-Star games in both the NBA and ABA. He retired as a player early in 1969-70 and left coaching mid-season. Career totals across both leagues reached 14,780 points. He returned to Kentucky as assistant athletic director in 1972 and as athletics director from 1975 until resigning in November 1988 amid recruiting and eligibility violations. Enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1978 as Kentucky's first former player so honoured, he married Martha on 4 September 1954; in 1993 UK renamed its baseball field for him.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (Cliff Hagan, CC BY-SA 4.0), WKYT (15 Oct 2026), WYMT (16 Oct 2026), Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1by People Forever
this is lovely, sorry about your dad