K-State’s Bob Boozer to be posthumously inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

Bob Boozer, a two-time All-American at Kansas State, is part of the eight-member class of the 2016 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Boozer joins fellow players Mark Aguirre of DePaul, Doug Collins of Illinois State, Lionel Simmons of La Salle, Jamaal Wilkes of UCLA and Dominique Wilkins of Georgia.

Coaches Mike Montgomery of Stanford and California, and Hugh Durham of Florida State, Georgia and Jacksonville are also part of the class that will be enshrined on Nov. 18 at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland.

Boozer played during 1956-1959 and was an All-American in his final two years. He averaged a double-double in his 77-game career with 21.9 points and 10.7 rebounds.

He averaged 25.6 points as a senior, leading the Wildcats to a 14-0 Big Eight record and the final No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll.

Boozer, who died in 2012 at 75, was a member of the gold-medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic team.

He’s the third Kansas State player enshrined in the hall in Kansas City, following coach Tex Winter (2010) and Rolando Blackman (2015).

The class includes two who were national players of the year: Aguirre in 1979 and Simmons in 1990.

Wilkes was a member of some of the greatest teams in UCLA history, the 1972 and 1973 squads that won NCAA championships and the Bruins teams that won 88 straight games, a streak that ended in 1974.

Collins, a consensus All-American in 1973, is the career scoring leader at Illinois State. He was the overall No. 1 draft pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1973 and later served as a head coach to four NBA teams over 11 seasons.

Wilkins was known in the NBA as “The Human Highlight Film” for his dunks. Before then, he spent three years at Georgia and was named the SEC player of the year in 1981. He was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2006 and is a member of the college hall’s founding class.

Durham is the only coach in history to lead two programs — Florida State and Georgia — to their lone Final Four appearances. When he retired in 2005, Durham was the winningest coach at those schools, plus Jacksonville University.

Montgomery started his college career at Montana and finished at California after a stint as head coach of the NBA Golden State Warriors. He’s best known for his 18 years at Stanford, where he led the program to 12 NCAA appearances, including a spot in the 1998 Final Four.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 9:11 AM with the headline "K-State’s Bob Boozer to be posthumously inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame."