GERALD TUCKER
1922-1979
Inducted – 2010
When it came to the sport of basketball, Gerald Tucker of Winfield was a winner - as a player and a coach. He was the head coach on the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Melbourne, Australia, and featured players such as Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, as well as fellow Kansas Sports Hall of Fame member and Beloit native Bill Hougland . But, before his coaching days, Tucker was one of the best college basketball players in the country. A member of Winfield High School’s state championship teams in basketball (1939 and ’40) and a state singles champion in tennis (1939), Tucker was a Helms Foundation basketball All-American in 1943 at the University of Oklahoma. He spent three years in the military during World War II and then was named All-American again in 1947. He was named the national player of the year in 1947 after leading the Sooners to the national title game where he scored 22 points against eventual champion Holy Cross. Tucker was also an AAU All-American for the Phillips 66 Oilers in 1949 and ’50 and later coached the Oilers to the most wins in the national Industrial Basketball League in 1954-58, which included the 1955 AAU national championship. In 1989, he was named to the `NCAA Final Four All-1940s team. Born: March 14, 1922 - Winfield, Kansas. Died: May 29, 1979 – Houston, Texas. Graduated: Winfield H.S., 1941; University of Oklahoma, 1947.