In February 2012, Centenary College in Shreveport LA completed its 50-year run in Division-1 with no NCAA tournament appearances. (The school joined the Division 3 Southern College Athletic Conference.)
- The most famous player in Centenary history is, without question, Robert Parish, who played there from 1972 to 1976 after an outstanding career at Woodlawn High in Shreveport.
- If you're wondering how Centenary never made the NCAA tournament despite having future Hall-of-Famer Parish in its lineup for four years, it's because the Gents were on probation all four seasons he played for the school.
- And Centenary was on probation thanks to the recruitment of … Robert Parish.
- Three other NBA or ABA players took the court for Centenary, none of whom played more than 89 games in either league:
- Robert Kerwin (1967-68 Pittsburgh Pipers)
- Connie Rea (1953-54 Baltimore Bullets)
- Larry Robinson (1990-94, 1997-98, 2000-02 for various teams)
1961: The NBA granted its Chicago expansion team the No. 1 overall pick.
- That allowed the Packers to leapfrog the lowly Knicks (with the worst record in the league in 1960-61 at 21-58) and pick prized C Walt Bellamy.
- New York settled for St. Bonaventure F Tom Stith, who came down with tuberculosis and played only one season - 25 games.
- By the next season, the Packers had become the Chicago Zephyrs. After an another unsuccessful year, the franchise moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets.
The American Basketball League played one full season, 1961-62, and part of 1962-63 before folding.
- Abe Saperstein, the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, formed the new league when he failed to get the Los Angeles franchise in the NBA that he felt he had been promised.
- The owner of the Cleveland Pipers was none other than 31-year-old George Steinbrenner, future owner of the New York Yankees.
- The ABL had "first-half playoffs" in which the best teams in each conference played three-game series at the halfway point of the season for a spot in the 1962 finals. The Kansas City Steers beat Cleveland, then disappeared for two weeks during the playoffs as Cleveland played two other series.
- Prominent ABL players included Dick Barnett, Gene Conley (who also pitched for the Milwaukee Braves), Connie Dierking, Bevo Francis, Connie Hawkins, Larry Siegfried, Bill Spivey, and George Yardley.
George Steinbrenner, Larry Siegfried, and John McLendon, the first
African-American coach of any major pro sport in the U.S.
