1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team

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1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team
Head coach Hank Iba
1968 Summer Olympics Gold medal.svg
Scoring leader Flag of the United States.svg Spencer Haywood
16.3
  1964
1972  

The 1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team represented the United States at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico from October 13 to 25, 1968. Team USA won its seventh consecutive gold medal.

Contents

1968 USA men's Olympic games roster

Name [1] PositionHeightWeightAgeTeam/SchoolHome Town
Mike Barrett G6'2"15525U.S. Armed Forces (West Virginia Tech) Richwood, West Virginia
John Clawson G6'4"20024U.S. Armed Forces (Michigan) Naperville, Illinois
Don Dee F6'7"20525 St. Mary of the Plains Col. (KS) Kansas City, Missouri
Calvin Fowler G6'1"17027 Goodyear Wingfoots (St. Francis) Akron, Ohio
Spencer Haywood C6'8"22519 Trinidad State Junior College Detroit, Michigan
Bill Hosket F6'8"22021 Ohio State University Dayton, Ohio
Jim King F6'7"20025 Goodyear Wingfoots (Okla. St.) Akron, Ohio
Glynn Saulters G6'2"17523 Northeast Louisiana University Lisbon, Louisiana
Charlie Scott F6'5"18019 University of North Carolina New York, New York
Mike Silliman F6'6"22523U.S. Armed Forces (Military Acd.) Louisville, Kentucky
Ken Spain C6'9"24022 University of Houston Houston, Texas
Jo Jo White G6'3"19521 University of Kansas St. Louis, Missouri

The roster was led by future NBA All-Stars Haywood (19 years old) and White (21 years old), who led the team in scoring, with an average of 16.3 points and 11.7 points respectively. [2] Haywood was the youngest player to make the USA basketball team at the time.

USA Basketball also selected 6 alternates to the U.S. squad; Tom Black of the Goodyear Wingfoots, George Carter of the US Army, Joe Hamilton of Christian College of the Southwest (TX) Junior College, Dan Issel of the University of Kentucky, Rick Mount of Purdue University and Charlie Paulk of Northeastern Oklahoma College. [3]

Notably absent from the squad or the list of alternates were Pete Maravich, who led the NCAA in scoring during his sophomore season at LSU and would go on to set the NCAA career scoring record of 3,667 points, and reigning NCAA Champion and Player of the Year Lew Alcindor, who chose not to try out for the Olympic team in protest at the treatment of African Americans in the United States, stating that he was "trying to point out to the world the futility of winning the gold medal for this country and then coming back to live under oppression." [4] Some of another NCAA stars such as Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Bob Lanier and Calvin Murphy also absented.

Staff

Results

By obtaining an 8–0 record, Team USA would earn its right to play in the gold medal game. The team who won the game would receive the gold medal, and the team who lost the game would receive the silver medal.

Final standings

See also

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References

  1. "1968 USA Men's Olympic Games Roster Archived January 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine ." usabasketball.com. Retrieved on May 6, 2014.
  2. Team Leaders.
  3. "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search".
  4. https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/05/22/kareem-abdul-jabbar-olympics-boycott/
  5. "Kenneth Spencer Research Library Blog » Coaching Basketball Gold: The John B. McLendon Collection".