Frank Brian

Frank Brian
Player information
Full name	Frank Sands Brian
Nickname	Frankie, Flash
birthday	May 1, 1923
place of birth	Zachary , Louisiana , USA
date of death	May 14, 2017 (aged 94 years and 13 days)
Place of death	Zachary, Louisiana, USA
size	6'1 "(1.85 m)
Weight	81.6 kg
position	Guard
High school	Zachary High School
college	Louisiana State University
Clubs as active
1947-1949	Anderson Packers (NBL)
1949-1950	Anderson Packers (NBA)
1950-1951	Tri-Cities Blackhawks
1951 - 1956	Fort Wayne Pistons

Frank Sands Brian (born May 1, 1923 in Zachary , Louisiana , † May 14, 2017 there ) was a professional American basketball player .

Career

After opening a gym in his senior year, Brian led his high school to the Louisiana Class B State Championship in 1941. Before that, they had played on clay. He then played for Louisiana Tech University , but coach Harry Rabenhorst offered him a scholarship to Louisiana State University (LSU). In his freshman year he first played in the so-called Frosh team and switched to the university team as a sophomore in 1942/43 during the Second World War , when Rabenhorst was already serving in the United States Navy . The Tigers lost just three games in the regular season before they were eliminated in the semifinals of the championship tournament of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Brian was elected to the All-Tournament Team. He had been drafted into the United States Army on November 27, 1942 , but had permission to finish the school year.

In the Army, he served as a medical-technical assistant and fitness trainer at Glennan General Hospital, a POW camp in Okmulgee , Oklahoma , which is now part of Oklahoma State University , where he played service basketball with the Glennan Generals . He was twice named Most Outstanding Player of the annual Eighth Service Command Army Service Forces tournament. From August 1945 to April 1, 1946 he was transferred to the Tilton General Hospital of Fort Dix , New Jersey , for whose team he played and where he was promoted to master sergeant . The development of the game of basketball had advanced exponentially during the war, which could be seen in the substantial explosion of points before, during and after the war. This development must have been directly related to the exchange through playing together in national service basketball teams, and Brian, already a star player at university, continued to benefit from the experience of this condensed exchange.

After his return, he led Louisiana State University back into the SEC tournament in 1946/47 and was elected to the All-Tournament Second Team and from his university, for which he was on the SEC athletics championship team in the long jump, the hurdles and in the 1500 -Meter season, awarded with his second varsity letter . With an average of 16.2 points per game, he was the focus of interest and signed as a family man with the Anderson Packers in the National Basketball League (NBL). In 1947 he joined the team at the end of its first season at the World Professional Basketball Tournament (WPBT) - the most important basketball competition before the NBA in 1949 - in Chicago.

In his first season in 1947/48 he was elected to the All-NBL Second Team. In 1949, the year of the Anderson Packers NBL championship, he was even honored with an election to the All-NBL First Team. The NBL was athletically superior to the Basketball Association of America (BAA), but merged with the financially stronger league the following year to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). Brian was also elected to the All-NBA Second Team in the new league in 1949/50 . Of the 17 teams from the previous year, only eleven remained in the NBA in 1950/51 . Three teams ceased operations and three teams from small towns with rather modest gyms were disgusted from the mighty league. The Packers, the Waterloo Hawks and the Sheboygan Red Skins (the latter, after all, old WPBT and NBL nobility) founded the unsuccessful National Professional Basketball League , from which the semi-professional National Industrial Professional Basketball League would later emerge. In the resolution draft the Packers Brian was Chicago at the Tri-Cities Blackhawks traded, and though his year with the Blackhawks his only without Postseason was -Auftritt, he was both the All-NBA Second Team and unanimously NBA All-Star selected . Walter A. Brown , the owner of the Boston Celtics , had assumed all the costs of the All-Star-Game at the time and the players received government bonds worth 50 dollars as a bonus. Prior to the 1951-52 season , his second All-Star season, Brian was transferred to the Fort Wayne Pistons for Howie Schultz, Dick Mehen, and a sum of money .

Brian, one of two survivors of the first NBA All-Star Game when he died, obviously had leadership qualities because before and after him and during the war the LSU Tigers couldn't keep their win rate, he was fast (nicknamed Flash), according to Bob Cousy (the last survivor of the NBA All-Star Games) difficult to defend, could jump and scored over 1000 points each in his first three NBA years. He was elected twice in the league selection of the SEC, the NBL and the NBA, was NBL champion and two-time NBA All-Star and scored 5,379 points in the NBA at an average of 12.3 points per game. Brian was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 , the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1987, and the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013 .

family

Brian was a Presbyterian and worked in the cattle industry after his basketball career. He was one of nine children of Frank E. and Leona Young Brian. He left behind his wife, Elizabeth Thompson Brian, two sisters, a brother, two daughters and a son, twelve grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchildren.

literature

Douglas Stark: Wartime basketball. The Emergence of a National Sport during World War II. Lincoln / London 2016: University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 978-0-8032-4528-0 (in English).

Web links

• Frank Brian on: NBA website; New York, NY, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
• Frank Brian at: Basketball Reference website; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018 (in English).
• Frank Brian in the Pro Basketball Encyclopedia. On: Pro Basketball Encyclopedia website; 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jimmy Smith: Playing in the first NBA All-Star Game an unforgettable memory for 90-year-old Frank Brian of Zachary. On: The Times-Picayune / NOLA website; New Orleans, LA, February 11, 2014, added February 13, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2018 (in English).
2. ^ NN: Frank Brian. On: Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame website; Natchitoches, LA, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018 (in English).
3. ^ NN: Former LSU, Pro Hoops Star Frank Brian Dead At 94. On: Tiger Rag website; Baton Rouge, LA, May 15, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
4. ^ NN: Former LSU, NBA great Frank Brian dies at age 94. On: The Advocate website; Baton Rouge, LA, May 15, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
5. ^ NN: Frank Sands "Cuz" Brian. Obituary. On: Legacy website; Evanston, IL, May 15, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
6. ↑ (Associated Press): Frank Brian, 94, Standout In Early Days Of the NBA From: The New York Times (New York Edition, page B16); New York City, New York, May 18, 2017 with contributions from the New York Times. Quoted as Frank Brian, Standout in NBA's Early Years, Dies at 94. From : New York Times Web site; New York City, New York, May 17, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2018.