Luisetti, "Hank" (Angelo J.)
Basketball
b. June 16, 1916, San Francisco, CA
d. Dec. 17, 2002
Luisetti grew up in the Telegraph Hill area of San Francisco, an Italian-American neighborhood where future New York Yankee stars Frank Crosetti, Joe DiMaggio, and Tony Lazzeri also lived as youngsters. Learning to play basketball against boys who were bigger than he, Luisetti developed an unusual one-handed shot, usually released while he was on the run.
He entered Stanford University in 1934. In December of his sophomore year, Stanford played Long Island University at Madison Square Garden and ended LIU's 43-game winning streak with a 45-31 game in which Luisetti scored 15 points.
The New York Times wrote of his performance, "Some of his shots would have been foolhardy if attempted by another player, but with Luisetti doing the heaving, these were accepted by the crowd as a matter of course." Within a couple of years, high school and college players throughout the country were abandoning the two-hand set shot for the one-handed shot.
A three-time All-American, the 6-foot-3, 184-pound Luisetti was an excellent dribbler and passer as well as a scorer. His career total of 1,596 points, an average of 16.5 a game, was a college record at the time. The Helms Athletic Foundation named him college player of the year in 1937 and 1938, and in a 1950 poll of Associated Press sportswriters he finished second to George Mikan as the best basketball player of the half century.
Luisetti starred in a 1938 movie, College Confessions, and his amateur status was suspended for a year as a result. He set an AAU tournament scoring record in 1940 but a knee injury limited his playing time the following season. While serving in the Navy during World War II, he averaged more than 30 points a game with the St. Mary's Pre-Flight School team.
In 1944, Luisetti nearly died of spinal meningitis and was told by doctors to give up basketball. However, he coached Stewart Chevrolet of San Francisco to the 1951 AAU championship.