lit a candle 1h agoMy dad had this old EPBL highlight reel on VHS he'd play sometimes, and Belliveau's name came up every time he talked about the 1954 Williamsport team. Never met the man, never saw him play live, just my dad's voice telling that story every few years. 96 is a long life to carry a championship that quiet.
Their story
Roy Nelson Belliveau was an American basketball player, high school coach and teacher whose life joined Seton Hall athletics, Eastern professional basketball and decades of public school service in New Jersey. Born in Irvington on 8 June 1930 and raised in Springfield Township in Union County, he was one of…
Roy Nelson Belliveau was an American basketball player, high school coach and teacher whose life joined Seton Hall athletics, Eastern professional basketball and decades of public school service in New Jersey. Born in Irvington on 8 June 1930 and raised in Springfield Township in Union County, he was one of five brothers who excelled in sport at Jonathan Dayton High School. He graduated in 1948 as an all-state basketball player and a record-setting javelin thrower, and that year he was named New Jersey Amateur Athlete of the Year.
Belliveau went to Seton Hall University on a track scholarship and also played basketball and football. On the basketball team he was a starter valued as a defender and rebounder, finishing with 652 career points. In 1952 he broke the university javelin record with a throw of 210 feet 9 and a half inches. The New York Knicks selected him in the fourth round of the 1952 NBA draft, but he declined their contract offer as insufficient. He instead began his professional career with the Scranton Miners of the American Basketball League in 1952-53. His NBA rights were later traded to the Baltimore Bullets; he again refused terms he judged too low.
In February 1954 he signed with the Williamsport Billies of the Eastern Professional Basketball League. With the Billies he won an EPBL championship in 1954 and earned All-EPBL Second Team honors in 1955. He missed the 1955-56 season while serving in the United States Army, then returned to Williamsport for 1956-57. In February 1958 he briefly joined the Easton Madisons. After leaving the professional game he built a second career in New Jersey schools. He introduced basketball at South Brunswick High School in its opening years, coaching junior varsity in 1960-61 and varsity from 1961 to 1963. From 1967 he taught in the Plainfield Public School District, including special education at Woodland School, and from 1971 to 1973 he coached Plainfield High School varsity basketball.
Seton Hall inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986. He had three children with his wife. Belliveau died on 24 September 2026 in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey, at the age of 96. He is remembered as a multi-sport Seton Hall Pirate, an EPBL champion and a teacher-coach who carried the game into new school programs across central New Jersey.
Biography adapted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Seton Hall University Athletics Hall of Fame profile, Layton's Home For Funerals obituary notice. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Roy N. Belliveau, Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Fame
by People Forever
That championship gets forgotten but it mattered to a lot of Pennsylvania towns.