Don Goldstein

Donald Goldstein, known as "Red", was an American college NCAA [Men's Basketball All-Americans|All-American] and Pan American Games champion basketball player.

Early life

Goldstein was Jewish. His mother died when he was four. He grew up poor, in the Brooklyn ghetto of Brownsville, and attended Flatbush's Samuel J. Tilden High School, where he was an all-city basketball player and graduated in 1955.

College and Pan American Games

He attended the University of Louisville on a scholarship that paid for room, board, and books, and played forward for the school from 1956 to 1959. He was, and. He said: "these guys never saw a Jew. They once asked me once with no malice how old I was when they cut off my horns. I never had a bad day . I never heard one anti-Semitic remark in Louisville. If you could play, that was it."
In 1959, Goldstein was named All-American and led Louisville to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Men's [Division I Basketball Championship|NCAA Final Four]. Goldstein averaged 21.4 points and 10.0 rebounds in the NCAA tournament, and was named to the All-Mideast Regional Team and the All-Tournament Team.
That same year, he and his team won a gold medal in basketball at the 1959 [Pan American Games].
In his three years at Louisville, Goldstein scored 1,019 points and had 838 rebounds.

Draft and later life

Goldstein was the first pick in the second round of the Detroit Pistons in 1959, offered a $7,500 salary and a $500 signing bonus to buy a car, but he did not play in the NBA. Instead, he went to dental school, and was a dentist on Long Island. He lived in Boca Raton, Florida.

Honors

In 1980, he was inducted into the Louisville Hall of Fame. The Basketball Old-Timers of America inducted him into its hall of fame. His jersey was retired in January 2000. In 2012, he was inducted into the New [York City Basketball Hall of Fame]. He is also a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2014, he was inducted into the National Jewish [Sports Hall of Fame].