Alex Hannum
Alexander Murray Hannum was an American professional basketball player and coach. Known as Sarge because of his military background, Hannum played center for six different teams, most notably the Milwaukee Hawks in the National Basketball Association, where he spent three seasons.
Hannum went on to coach for 12 seasons in the NBA, where his Hawks captured the 1958 league championship and his Philadelphia 76ers did likewise nine years later. In that span, Hannum became known as something of a Boston Celtics killer, as his were the only teams to interrupt their 13-year dynasty.
After Hannum moved on to the rival American Basketball Association, he guided the Oakland Oaks to the 1968-69 championship to become the first coach to win NBA and ABA titles. Bill Sharman was the only other coach to achieve the feat.
Hannum was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.
Early life
Alexander Murray Hannum was born on July 19, 1923, in Los Angeles, California. He attended Hamilton High School, where he excelled in basketball.College career
Hannum attended the University of Southern California. He played basketball at USC in 1942 and 1943, but his time at USC was interrupted when he was called into military service during World War II in 1943. After three years in the military, he returned to USC for the 1946–47 and 1947–48 school years. During his senior year, he was captain of the 1948 team, and was an All-Conference selection.He played basketball at USC under Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Sam Barry. In addition to Hannum, Barry coached two other future Hall of Fame coaches in college, Tex Winter and Bill Sharman. Sharman was Hannum's teammate from 1946 to 1948 at USC. Both played with Winter at USC during the 1946-47 season.
Professional career
On May 10, 1948, Hannum was drafted by the Indianapolis Jets in the 4th round of the 1948 BAA Draft.Oshkosh All-Stars (1948–1949)
Hannum played three seasons of Amateur Athletic Union basketball for the Los Angeles Shamrocks, before signing with the National Basketball League's Oshkosh All-Stars. He played for Oshkosh during the 1948–49 season, averaging 5.7 points per game during the regular season and playoffs. Oshkosh lost in the NBL finals.Syracuse Nationals (1949–1951)
Hannum played sparingly for the Syracuse Nationals from 1949 to 1951. Hannum is one of only three NBA players to receive more than six personal fouls in a single game. On December 26, 1950, Hannum received seven personal fouls in a game against the Boston Celtics.Baltimore Bullets (1951–1952)
On July 14, 1951, Hannum was traded by the Syracuse Nationals with Fred Scolari to the Baltimore Bullets for Red Rocha. Hannum played in 35 games for the Bullets during the 1951–1952 season. His 27.4 minutes per game and 7.7 points per game were career highs.Rochester Royals (1952–1954)
On January 18, 1952, Hannum's player rights were sold by the Bullets to the Rochester Royals. Hannum finished the 1951–52 season with the Royals, and played for them through the 1953–54 season.Milwaukee / St. Louis Hawks (1954–1956)
On December 10, 1954, Hannum's player rights were sold by the Rochester Royals to the Milwaukee Hawks. Hannum played for the Milwaukee / St. Louis Hawks from 1954 to 1956. The Hawks had moved from Milwaukee to St. Louis after the 1954–55 season.Fort Wayne Pistons (1956)
Hannum signed and played for the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1956, but was released by the team on December 12, 1956.Return to St. Louis Hawks (1956–1957)
On December 17, 1956, Hannum signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Hawks. Hannum played for the St. Louis Hawks from 1956 to 1957, his last season as a player.Coaching career
St. Louis Hawks (1956–1958)
Midway through the 1956–57 season, Hannum was named player-coach of the St. Louis Hawks. He was actually the Hawks' third head coach that year. Red Holzman had been fired on January 7, 1957, in favor of Hannum's teammate, Slater Martin. However, Martin did not want to be a coach and a player, and delegated coaching authority to Hannum after one game, and gave up the reins after only eight games. Hannum was hired as head coach on January 21, 1957.Hannum led the team to a 15–16 record for the rest of the season. Despite a losing overall record, the West was so weak that year that the Hawks actually won the division title. They advanced all the way to the NBA Finals and lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games, losing by only two points in Game 7, in double overtime.
Hannum retired as a player after that season. A year later, led by Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan, and Martin, the Hawks went 41–31 and won another division title before advancing to the 1958 NBA Finals to play the Boston Celtics. They upset the Celtics by two points in Boston for Game 1. Boston evened the series in Game 2, before going back to St. Louis.
In Game 3, Celtics star Bill Russell severely sprained his ankle as the Hawks prevailed 111–108. Boston evened the series in Game 4, but the Hawks won a narrow Game 5 to force a clinching game back home. Pettit scored 50 points, with 19 of them being among the final 21 scored by the Hawks, who won 110–109. Between the 1956–57 season and the 1965–66 season, this was the only NBA championship the Celtics lost. Coincidentally, the only two seasons in Russell's 13-year career in which the Celtics' center did not win an NBA championship were the direct result of losing to a team coached by Hannum.
It currently is the only NBA Championship for the Hawks and it was also the last game coached by Hannum, who was not retained by owner Ben Kerner, whose interference irked Hannum. When he wanted a two-year deal, Kerner did not budge from wanting a one-year deal. Kerner replaced Hannun with Andy Phillip for the 1958–59 season.
National Industrial Basketball League
Hannum coached the Wichita Vickers of the AAU National Industrial Basketball League in the 1958–59 and 1959–60 season.Syracuse Nationals (1960–1963)
Hannum returned to the NBA in 1960 with the Syracuse Nationals, advancing to the Eastern Finals in his first season and losing in the first round two years in a row. He then left the team after the 1962–1963 season, the final one played in Syracuse prior to the relocation of the team to Philadelphia, which would be coached by Dolph Schayes, who was a future hall of fame player under Hannum for the Nationals.San Francisco Warriors (1963–1966)
Hannum had expressed interest in coaching the San Francisco Warriors when the team had moved to the region from Philadelphia in 1962. Eddie Gottlieb, the operator of the team before selling to Franklin Mieuli, had stated that Hannum was his third choice in mind next to Frank McGuire and Bob Feerick. McGuire elected to resign rather than move to the West Coast and Feerick went 31–49 in the 1962–63 season before being fired. As such, Hannum was hired to coach the team for the 1963–1964 season.That year, the Warriors, bolstered by rookie Nate Thurmond to go with Wilt Chamberlain, went 48–32 and advanced all the way to the NBA Finals, losing to the Boston Celtics. Hannum was named NBA Coach of the Year after the season ended. The following year was a disaster, as the Warriors won just 17 games while trading Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers at the All-Star break. Despite the arrival of draft pick Rick Barry in 1965, the Warriors went 35–45 and missed the playoffs by one game. Hannum was fired after the season ended.
Philadelphia 76ers (1966–1968)
In 1966, Hannum was named the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. That team had moved from Syracuse three years earlier. He succeeded Dolph Schayes, who had been named coach after the move from Central New York but was fired despite winning NBA Coach of the Year because of his strained relationship with Chamberlain. Hannum, now with a team that had players who had played under him in Syracuse such as Hal Greer and Chet Walker, and Chamberlain who he coached with the Warriors, were receptive to Hannum when he addressed the team's strengths and weaknesses. Hannum placed emphasis on changing the offense to rely on scoring in movement, while slowing the game down and playing half court. He wanted Chamberlain to facilitate the other players on offense instead of being the central scorer. This would see the reigning MVP Wilt Chamberlain score a career-low 24.1 points per game but also shoot 68.3% on his field goal attempts.Hannum had convinced Chamberlain that focusing more on defense and passing would bring the team greater success. Chamberlain was third in the league with 7.8 assists per game, and it was the first year he averaged less than 33 points per game. Under Hannum the following season, Chamberlain averaged 8.6 assists per game, with the most total assists.
During his first season as coach, the 76ers had a record setting season as they started 46–4, en route to a record of 68–13, the best record in league history at the time. After a 129–103 win over the Pistons on March 3, 1967, he joined Red Auerbach as the only coaches to have won 60 games in a season at that period. Hannum led the Sixers towards the 63rd victory, breaking the NBA-record for most wins in a single season, in an overtime win over the Boston Celtics. On March 14, 1967, he became the first coach to have won 65 games in a season. Chamberlain would be awarded the MVP for the second straight season. Hannum then coached the Wilt Chamberlain-led Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA championship, ending the eight-year title streak of the Boston Celtics.
The 1967 Championship made him the first of only three head coaches in NBA history to win championships with two different teams. The following year, the 76ers won 62 games for another division title and advanced all the way to the Eastern Division Finals, but the loss of Billy Cunningham, due to a broken wrist in the Eastern Division Semifinals victory, came to hinder the team. The 76ers lost to the Celtics in seven games after having won three of the first four games. It was the first time in NBA playoff history that a team had lost a playoff series after being up 3-1. Hannum left the team after the season to coach the Oakland Oaks in the newly created American Basketball Association.