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Elvin Ernest Hayes (born November 17, 1945 in Rayville, Louisiana) is considered as one of the all-time great collegiate and professional basketball players. He is a member of the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. more...

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College life In Houston

On January 20, 1968, the Big E and the Houston Cougars faced Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and the UCLA Bruins in the first-ever nationally televised college basketball game. In front of a record 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome, Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds limiting Alcindor to just 15 points as Houston beat UCLA 71-69 to snap the Bruins 47-game winning streak in what has been called "The Game Of The Century". That game helped earned Hayes The Sporting News College Basketball Player Of The Year.

One month later, he grabbed a career-high 37 rebounds in a game against Centehory on February 10.

He led Houston in scoring (1966 27.2 points per game, 1967 28.4, and 1968 36.8).

Hayes and Don Chaney were University of Houston's first African American Basketball players in 1966.

Elvin's glory years

He joined the NBA with the San Diego Rockets in 1968 and in his rookie year, he scored a career-high 54 points against the Detroit Pistons on November 11 of that year. He led the NBA in scoring with 28.4 points per game and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.

In 1972, Hayes was traded to the Baltimore Bullets, where he remained for nine seasons. Following the Bullets' move to Washington D.C., he teamed with Hall-Of-Famer Wes Unseld to form a fierce and dominating frontcourt combination that led the Bullets to 3 NBA Finals (1975, 1978, and 1979, and an NBA title over The Seattle Supersonics in 1978. He shined brighly, especially in the NBA Playoffs, in that Championship season (1978), he averaged 21.8 points per game in 21 playoff games. One year later, he set an NBA Finals record for most offensive rebounds in a game (11), in a May 27, 1979 game over the Seattle Supersonics.

Stats and honors

In his career with the NBA's San Diego/Houston Rockets and the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, Hayes had 27,313 points (eighth all-time) and 16,279 rebounds (sixth all-time), while playing in twelve straight NBA All-Star Games from 1969 to 1980. In addition to his 1968 scoring title, Hayes led the NBA in rebounding in 1970 and 1974.

Hayes was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team during the 1996-1997 NBA season and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990.

Read more at Wikipedia.org