George Nostrand, who played basketball at High Point University from 1941-44, played in the first-ever NBA game on Nov. 1, 1946 in Toronto, Ontario. Nostrand was a member of the Toronto Huskies, who lost to the New York Knickerbockers, 68-66, before a crowd of 7,090 at the Maple Leaf Gardens, longtime home of the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs. Nostrand played in the NBA from 1946-50.
Nostrand was featured in newspaper ads that promoted the game between the Huskies and Knickerbockers. At 6-foot-8, Nostrand was the tallest player for Toronto. The poster had a picture of Nostrand and read: "Can you top this? Anyone taller than Nostrand 6 Ft. 8 Inches will be admitted free to opening game." Tickets were between $0.75 and $2.50.
According to an article on NBA.com, Toronto player-coach Ed Sadowski fouled out three minutes into the second half and Nostrand replaced him. Nostrand quickly scored to put the Huskies ahead, 44-43. Toronto held the lead late into the game, but New York scored five points on a pair of field goals and a free throw to pull away and win, 68-66.
Nostrand was a forward/center and played in the NBA, originally known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), from 1946-50. During the inaugural season of 1946-47, Nostrand played 13 games for Toronto before he was traded to the Cleveland Rebels, where he played 48 games. He averaged 7.9 points that season.
In the summer of 1947, Nostrand was taken by the Providence Steam Rollers in the dispersal draft as the Cleveland team shut down. He played 45 games for the Steam Rollers in 1947-48, averaging a career-high 11.6 points per game. Nostrand began the 1948-49 season with Providence before being traded to the Boston Celtics in January. He played in 60 total games in 1948-49, averaging 9.8 points and 1.6 assists. In Nostrand's final season of 1949-50, he played in 55 games for the Celtics and Tri-Cities Blackhawks (now the Atlanta Hawks) and averaged 3.9 points. That was the first season the NBA was known as the NBA.
Over his BAA/NBA career, Nostrand played in 221 games and had 1804 points, 184 assists and 575 fouls. He averaged 8.2 points per game. As one of the tallest players in the NBA, Nostrand probably would have been a leading rebounder if that statistic was kept.
Nostrand played on the High Point University freshman team in 1941-42. At that time, freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity team, and the varsity squad had the best season in HPU history, going 24-1. Nostrand was elevated to the varsity as a sophomore as the team went 7-15. In Nostrand's junior year, the Panthers rebounded with a 13-4 record. Nostrand played under longtime HPU coach and Athletic Director Virgil Yow.
Nostrand attended the University of Wyoming his senior year and led the team in scoring. Wyoming was a national powerhouse in the 1940s, winning its only national championship in 1942-43.
Originally from Uniondale, N.Y., Nostrand died in 1981. Nostrand is the only former HPU player to play in the NBA.
Gene Littles, who played at HPU from 1965-69 and still holds the school's all-time scoring record, played six seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) before the ABA combined with the NBA. He was taken by the New York Knicks in the NBA draft, but elected to play in the ABA instead and played five seasons for the Carolina Cougars and one for the Kentucky Colonels. Littles went on to a long coaching career in the NBA, including brief stints as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Hornets and Denver Nuggets.
