Holy Cross legend who invented the modern point guard position before taking it to the NBA.
Robert Joseph Cousy was born in Manhattan, New York in 1928. He attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he helped the team win the 1947 NCAA championship as a freshman. His three-year career was a showcase of creativity that had never been seen in college basketball — behind-the-back passes, no-look feeds and improvisational ball-handling that left coaches and spectators simultaneously bewildered and amazed. He was a three-time All-American. He averaged 15.5 points and led Holy Cross to national prominence. The Boston Celtics effectively acquired him by lottery when the Chicago Stags folded and his name was drawn from a hat — hardly a dignified entry to the NBA, but one that launched the greatest point guard career of the early professional era. His Holy Cross career is where all of the innovations began. The behind-the-back dribble that Cousy popularised — considered flashy and unnecessary by traditionalists at the time — became fundamental to the game within a decade of his college graduation. His Holy Cross career is the birthplace of the modern point guard position.
NCAA Champion (1947)
Career Honours
- NCAA Champion (1947)
- All-American 3x
- NIT Champion (1954 HC coaching)
- College Basketball Innovator