An undefeated team, an NCAA Tournament it never got to enter, and a coach who refused to accept the NCAA’s ruling. Few careers in basketball history have taken a stranger turn than that of a future NBA champion whose college team went 25–0 in 1954, only to miss the NCAA Tournament because of an eligibility rule.
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Three of Kentucky’s biggest stars had graduated in 1953, the year NCAA sanctions kept the program off the court. Under the rules at the time, graduate students could not play in the NCAA Tournament. Rather than enter without them, coach Adolph Rupp withdrew the entire team. Kentucky’s perfect season ended without an NCAA Tournament appearance.
That player was Cliff Hagan, who died on October 15, 2026, at the age of 94. He went on to become an NBA champion with the St. Louis Hawks, deliver a dramatic buzzer-beater against Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics in the 1957 NBA Finals, and build a reputation for a hook shot that helped him score over much taller defenders. His career also placed him at the center of one of the NBA’s most consequential trades: the deal that sent the draft rights to Russell to Boston. “So, so saddened to hear news former UK All American Cliff Hagan passed away today,” longtime Kentucky sports journalist Oscar Combs wrote. Combs added, “A dear friend, Cliff was a great influence on my career and a vocal supporter of The Cats’ Pause when it was launched in 1976.” And when the subject turned to Kentucky’s lost chance at a national title, Hagan’s response was blunt: “We don’t recognize it.”
Hagan’s rise began in Owensboro, Kentucky, where he led his high school to the 1949 state championship. At the University of Kentucky, he helped the Wildcats win the 1951 NCAA title with a 68–58 victory over Kansas State. He became a two-time consensus First Team All-American and finished his college career with 1,475 points and 1,035 rebounds. His No. 6 jersey now hangs in Rupp Arena, a reminder of a player whose college career was shaped by both championship success and an unusual interruption.
Kentucky’s 1952–53 season was cancelled after the NCAA imposed sanctions following a point-shaving scandal. Hagan remained on campus, completed his degree requirements, and returned to the court the following season. The Wildcats went 25–0 in 1953–54 and finished the regular season ranked No. 1, only for the NCAA to rule Hagan, Ramsey, and Tsioropoulos ineligible for the tournament because they had graduated during the year Kentucky did not play. Rupp withdrew the team rather than enter without them.
Hagan still left a remarkable mark on the court that season. On December 5, 1953, he scored 51 points against Temple, setting a Kentucky single-game scoring record that stood until Dan Issel broke it in 1970.
Boston drafted Hagan in 1953, but his military service delayed his NBA debut. While he was serving in the Air Force, the Celtics worked on a deal that would change the league’s history. On April 30, 1956, Boston sent Hagan and Ed Macauley to the St. Louis Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to Bill Russell, whom St. Louis had selected second overall.
The deal also carried a famous story about how Boston cleared the path to draft Russell. According to an account later shared by Celtics coach Red Auerbach, Boston owner Walter Brown arranged for the Ice Capades to perform in Rochester if the Royals passed on Russell with the first pick. Rochester selected Sihugo Green instead, leaving Russell available at No. 2. The story became part of NBA lore, although the details of the alleged arrangement have never been conclusively established. Boston ultimately acquired Russell’s draft rights in the transaction that sent Ed Macauley and Hagan to St. Louis.
On April 11, 1957, the Hawks were facing elimination against the Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. With the score tied 94–94, Hagan scored the game-winning basket at the buzzer for a 96–94 victory, forcing a deciding Game 7. The play is widely recognized as the first game-winning buzzer-beater in NBA playoff history, although accounts differ on the precise mechanics of the shot. The result mattered immediately: St. Louis had survived, and Boston would have to finish the series at home.
The Hawks still lost Game 7, 125–123, in double overtime. Hagan recorded 24 points and 16 rebounds in that defeat. A year later, Hagan and the Hawks would get another chance against Russell and the Celtics, and this time they would finish the job.
In 1958, the Hawks met Boston in the Finals again and won the series 4–2, giving Hagan an NBA championship against the very franchise that had traded him away. He averaged 27.7 points per game during that postseason and became a five-time NBA All-Star, earning five consecutive selections from 1958 through 1962. He spent all 10 of his NBA seasons with St. Louis before retiring in 1966.
Hagan later returned to the game as player-coach of the Dallas Chaparrals during the ABA’s inaugural season in 1967. He scored 40 points in his ABA debut and became the first player to earn All-Star selections in both the NBA and ABA. But one part of his game helps explain how he managed to compete against defenders who had a major advantage in size.
Hagan’s signature weapon was an ambidextrous hook shot, a high-arcing release he could use with either hand to get the ball over taller defenders. The idea came to him after he watched Western Kentucky center Bob Lavoy use the shot. Recalling the moment in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hagan said, “I went to see the Hilltoppers and Bob Lavoy was, I think, about a 6-7 center. He threw up a hook shot, and I don’t think I had ever seen one. I couldn’t believe it.”
Hagan then worked out the technique himself. At just 6-foot-4, he needed a way to score against much bigger players, and the hook gave him an option that did not depend on beating a defender with height. He later explained how he adjusted it against one of the game’s most imposing centers: “Against the giant Chamberlain, I just had to loft the hook shot a little higher. You have to make those kind of adjustments.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would later perfect the skyhook, one of the most famous shots in basketball history. But Hagan’s influence on that legacy is worth noting. In interviews, Abdul-Jabbar said watching Hagan succeed with the hook shot helped convince him it could work at the highest level. Hagan, however, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I have read that, but I have never talked to Kareem.” The connection was not a lesson passed directly between the two players. It was a smaller forward showing that the hook shot could work against elite NBA defenders, with a future legend taking notice. Hagan’s own assessment of the shot’s decline was simple: “It’s sort of gone with the wind.”
Hagan’s impact reached beyond the court, and one of the most revealing parts of his legacy had little to do with points or championships. In David Halberstam’s book The Breaks of the Game, Hagan is described as a white Hawks star who welcomed Black teammate Lenny Wilkens at a time when St. Louis remained deeply segregated. Hagan and his wife socialized with Wilkens and his wife away from basketball, crossing social lines that other members of the team did not.
Hagan also left a lasting mark on Kentucky athletics after his playing career ended. He became an assistant athletic director in 1972 and the university’s athletic director in 1975, serving until his resignation in November 1988. During his tenure, Kentucky moved its basketball program from Memorial Coliseum to Rupp Arena in 1976. The university later honored him by naming its baseball venue Cliff Hagan Stadium in 1993; the stadium was demolished in 2023. His name also lives on through the Cliff Hagan Boys & Girls Club in Owensboro, which provides programs for local children and teenagers.
Hagan entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, becoming the first former Kentucky player to receive that honor. He helped Kentucky win a national championship, gave the Hawks a weapon against the Celtics, and developed a hook shot that allowed a 6-foot-4 forward to challenge some of the tallest players of his era.
No cause of death has been publicly disclosed. Hagan leaves behind a career that stretched across several eras of basketball, from the turbulent college game of the 1950s to the rise of the NBA and ABA.
From an undefeated Kentucky team denied an NCAA Tournament appearance to an NBA champion whose hook shot caught the attention of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hagan’s career left its mark on basketball in ways that extended well beyond his statistics.