The Road Not Taken: Sandy Koufax, Basketball Player

Sandy Koufax (top row, second from right) finished fourth in scoring on the University of Cincinnati’s freshman basketball team in 1953-54. (Courtesy of University of Cincinnati Athletic Department)

 

In his early teen years Sandy Koufax, like most like-minded kids of his era, played the sport of the season, stopping only for dinner and maybe homework. After the family moved from Brooklyn to Rockville Centre, New York, he took full advantage of the comparatively wide-open spaces of the still-developing Long Island to play whatever sports were available. It was, he later recalled, “baseball in the summer and football in the fall. No leagues. No supervision. Just fun and bruises.”1

But all that changed after ninth grade, when, tired of commuting into the City on the Long Island Rail Road, Koufax’s parents returned to Brooklyn, settling in the Bensonhurt section. Suddenly, the city game, basketball, became the center of the sports-obsessed Koufax’s world.

In looking back on how the game dominated the athletic landscape when it barely existed in his Rockville Centre world, the aspiring architect, showing his appreciation of space, observed that “in Brooklyn every square foot of recreational space has to be used–and that’s about all the space you need to set up a basket.”2

Koufax’s formal high-school basketball career was, in fact, delayed when his arrival at Lafayette High School coincided with the refusal of New York City schoolteachers to supervise any extracurricular activities–including interscholastic sports–unless they received pay instead of leave time. The stalemate meant no organized sports during Koufax’s sophomore year. However, there was still gym class, which at Lafayette meant basketball, and when his classmates recognized his athleticism and saw his clear promise, they urged him to join the Jewish Community House on Bay Parkway and play on their team in the JCH league. Years later Koufax recalled that while “the J” offered a range of activities, its basketball court was the heart of the operation. For Koufax, it “became my second home.”3

Indeed, Koufax recalled playing virtually every day after school during the basketball season and when spring came around and he was also playing baseball, he would go from school to a baseball game “and then stop off for a three-man game of basketball in some playground.”4 Once that was done, it was time for a league game at the J. During the season, he played a Saturday night league game, only to be back at the J on Sunday morning, waiting for someone to arrive and open the doors so he could continue to work on his game.5 One teammate said Koufax “could jump like a kangaroo,” and he devoted most of his time to working on his rebounding.6 He worked continuously on his timing off the backboard, further honing his jumping ability and seeking to gain ever more control of his body.7

While his basketball career proved short-lived, Koufax’s love for the game, the way it appealed to his thoughtful side, as well as the memories he took away from his many days and nights on the Brooklyn playgrounds are lovingly recounted in his 1966 memoir, Koufax. He offers a take on the game that reflects both the memories of a teenager in love with the sport, as well as the analytical eye of a professional athlete who knows–and deeply appreciates–the elements of the game that go well beyond the physical side, but which are central to success. Too, however unconsciously, the way Koufax describes getting the right angles for snaring a rebound or the ins and outs of both the give-and-go and the way that you had to operate around the iron pole that supported the basket, reflects the same analytical approach of a man who made, spectacularly, the transformation from a thrower to a pitcher.

It may have been a short-lived career, but basketball was a central part of his late teen years. Indeed, so intensely competitive was the basketball-playing Koufax that he earned the nickname the “Animal of Bensonhurst.”8 Consequently, the fact that his formal introduction to the game came in a program and on a team that would, at year’s end, win the inaugural National Jewish Welfare Board-sponsored national tournament made the experience all the more rewarding.9

While the early stages of the Koufax basketball odyssey were something short of normal, the latter parts were equally distinctive. He did not play for Lafayette High in his sophomore year but made a smooth transition to high-school ball as a junior. He made a team that was composed for the most part of his JHC teammates. Playing for a new coach, Frank Rabinowitz, hopes were high. However, with the New York schools operating on semester rather than yearlong schedules, it was not uncommon for large numbers of students to graduate in December, something that could ravage a basketball team. And that is exactly what happened with two of his former JHC teammates. While Koufax gained more playing time, the team’s championship prospects were dashed.

As a senior, Koufax was both a starter and captain, but that team’s prospects were also hurt by midseason graduations. While disappointed, Koufax finished the season as the second highest scorer in the division, averaging 16.5 points per game.10 He was also named one of the forwards on the sportswriter-selected All-City team.11 For a guy who had only discovered basketball as a sophomore, he had come a long way and his promise was evident. Koufax’s limited performances during his high-school years offered clear evidence of his potential while leaving those who saw him with indelible memories that grew ever more vivid as his baseball career took off.

Nothing illustrated that better than a Police Athletic League benefit that the New York Knicks played against Lafayette in February 1953. As the star-struck high schoolers went through their layup line, the pros put on a bit of a show before the boisterous crowd. However, after Knicks star Harry Gallatin unsuccessfully tried a couple of dunks, a part of the game seldom seen at that time, Knicks guard Al McGuire, apparently prompted by Coach Rabinowitz, brought the 6-2 Koufax over and told Gallatin that he had someone who could show him how it was done–and the prep star did–twice.

That proved to be only a preview of the game, for while the pros saw the contest as a way to mix with the community and help popularize the still-developing NBA, Koufax and his teammates went all out. When it was over, the young basketball star had earned a memorable headline, with the New York Post declaring, “Lafayette Cager Wowed Gallatin.”12 Gallatin reportedly told Coach Rabinowitz, “We’ll be coming back for this kid someday,” while Koufax recalled that when it was all over Gallatin wrote down his name, telling him, “I am going to be looking for you in future years.”13

Indeed, despite the unevenness of his high-school career, Koufax hoped to play in college, an ambition fueled by at least casual feelers from the local schools, as well as one from the legendary Frank McGuire, who, having left St. John’s for the University of North Carolina, sought to draw upon the city’s talent and lift the program into the upper echelons of college basketball.14

In the end, Koufax went to the University of Cincinnati, although why remains a mystery. Indeed, years later even he termed the process and his interest in the school a “puzzlement.”15 That certainly was the case when Koufax arrived for the first day of freshman team tryouts. Assistant varsity/freshmen head coach Ed Jucker (also the head coach of the baseball team) admitted years later that he had no idea who the kid was or what kind of player he was getting.16 But Koufax’s early days on the hardwood impressed Jucker enough that he arranged for a partial scholarship.17 And providentially, it was the basketball connection that led to Koufax joining Jucker’s baseball team on a spring travel trip, a venture that arguably served as the launching pad for the left-hander’s Hall of Fame baseball career.

Before that happened, there was the matter of Koufax’s final year of organized basketball as a member of Cincinnati’s freshman team, the affectionately named Bearkittens. Like his previous stops, Koufax’s time with the freshman squad showed his potential. On a team that finished 12-2, he was a starter and one of only three players who saw action in all 14 games. Of note, he scored 23 points against Miami of Ohio, with future Dodgers manager Walter Alston in attendance.18 Koufax finished fourth on the team in scoring, but his work under the boards led to his going to the free-throw line more than all but one teammate.19 Even so, this was the last organized basketball he would play.

The might-have-beens related to Koufax’s basketball career are many. From the flashes of talent he showed playing for the JHC squad, for Lafayette, and against the Knicks, not to mention his efforts for the Bearkittens, it was clear he could play. And given the program he was a part of, that potential might have been developed further. Years later, Koufax mused that the roots of Cincinnati’s historic run were being planted while he was there. Indeed, as Koufax struggled to harness his baseball talents, in 1959, with George Smith at the helm, the Bearcats made the first of five consecutive Final Fours, finishing third both that year and in 1960. Jucker was promoted prior to the 1960-1961 season and led the team to national championships in 1961 and 1962, with the team’s bid for a historic third straight title coming up short when they lost in the championship game to Loyola in 1963.20

But Koufax had no regrets. After all, he fulfilled Harry Gallatin’s prophecy. Harry just had to look in a different place.

BILL PRUDEN has been a teacher of American history and government for over 40 years. A SABR member for over two decades, he has contributed to SABR’s BioProject and Games Project as well as a number of book projects. He has also written on a range of American history subjects, an interest undoubtedly fueled by the fact that as a seven-year-old he was at Yankee Stadium to witness Roger Maris’s historic 61st home run.

 

NOTES

1 Sandy Koufax with Ed Linn, Koufax (New York: The Viking Press, 1966), 19.

2 Koufax, 22.

3 Koufax, 23.

4 Koufax, 23.

5 Koufax, 23.

6 Richard Sandomir, “Koufax’s Roundball Once Trumped His Fastball,” New York Times, August 14, 2012 (online). https://www.proquest.com/usnews/docview/2215731904/C66102B78EFE4C08PQ/1?accountid=69. Accessed February 27, 2023.

7 Koufax, 23-24.

8 Steven L. Pease, The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement (Sonoma, California: Deucalion, 2009), 81; Talk Today, USA Today Book Club: ‘Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,’ https://archive.ph/MXmv5.

9 Koufax, 27.

10 Koufax, 27.

11 Jerry Mitchell, Sandy Koufax (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1971), 24.

12 Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002), 40.

13 Leavy, 40; Koufax, 28.

14 Koufax, 30; Koufax identified McGuire as being from the University of South Carolina, a post he did not, in fact, assume until 1964, after almost a decade at North Carolina and then a brief foray into the NBA; Typically, while Koufax himself never made the claim, part of the myth of Koufax the basketball player was that he was heavily recruited, fielding offers from a wealth of big-time programs. See Mitchell, 24.

15 Koufax, 30.

16 Leavy, 48; Among the many myths about Koufax and his basketball career was that he was recruited by Jucker at Cincinnati. Indeed, while his record at UC needed no burnishing, the New York Times obituary on the coach asserted that he had “recruited a left-handed pitcher from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn and signed him to a basketball scholarship.” Frank Litsky, “Ed Jucker, 85, Who Coached Cincinnati to Basketball Titles,” New York Times, February 6, 2002: B8.

17 Leavy, 48.

18 “Pair Of Guards Star for Bearkitten Five,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 16, 1954; Koufax, 31; Leavy, 48.

19 “Pair Of Guards Star for Bearkitten Five.”

20 “History of Cincinnati Basketball,” gobearcats.com; https://gobearcats.com/sports/2017/6/15/history-of-cincinnati-basketball.aspx.