North Carolina
North Carolina men’s basketball legend Lennie Rosenbluth dies at 89
Former UNC males’s basketball participant Lennie Rosenbluth handed away on Saturday on the age of 89. The reason for loss of life is unknown presently.
Hailing from The Bronx, N.Y., Rosenbluth was a ahead who performed three seasons for UNC from 1955 to 1957. In 1957, he led the undefeated Tar Heels to a nationwide championship whereas averaging 28 factors per recreation. Within the NCAA title recreation in opposition to Wilt Chamberlain and the Kansas Jayhawks, Rosenbluth scored 20 factors in a 54-53 triple-overtime victory. That very same yr, Rosenbluth was named a Helms Basis Participant of the 12 months, consensus first-team All-American and ACC Participant of the 12 months.
Throughout his time at UNC, Rosenbluth held a profession scoring common document of 26.9 factors. This mark, achieved with out the 3-point line, has but to be damaged by a Tar Heel. His jersey, No. 10, is one among eight retired by the UNC males’s basketball program and hangs within the entrance row of the rafters within the Dean E. Smith Heart.
Rosenbluth was an instrumental early determine within the North Carolina males’s basketball program. He led UNC males’s basketball to its first NCAA title and was a key recruit for former head coach Frank McGuire, serving to to ascertain the New York to North Carolina recruiting pipeline that continued beneath Dean Smith. Rosenbluth, a 2003 inductee into the Worldwide Jewish Sports activities Corridor of Fame, was additionally a famend athletic determine within the Jewish neighborhood.
“Mr. Rosenbluth is a UNC legend,” UNC males’s basketball head coach Hubert Davis stated. “Not solely by his taking part in profession however by his character and love for this program, college and neighborhood. He was real, form and all the time supportive of my household and me. I’ll miss seeing him at our video games and round our city. Carolina Basketball will all the time love him.”
After graduating from UNC, Rosenbluth was drafted No. 6 by the Philadelphia Warriors within the 1957 NBA Draft. He performed two seasons professionally and later turned a highschool instructor and basketball coach in North Carolina and Florida.
In 2010, Rosenbluth and his spouse Dianne moved again to the Chapel Hill space, the place Rosenbluth was a outstanding member of the neighborhood and a well-recognized face at UNC’s house video games for the later years of his life.
“He had such a dignity about him,” former UNC males’s basketball head coach Roy Williams stated. “The fellows who got here after him, they talked about Lennie with reverence. There was all the time one thing particular about him.”
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