Ed Macauley
(1928-2011)
Hall of Fame Induction: 1960
Card Shown:
2008-09 Upper Deck
Premier Penmanship
Position: C/PF
Height: 6’8″
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Easy Ed Macauley was one of the top basketball players to play the game during the late 1940s and 1950s. At 6’8″ and 185 pounds, Macauley was not beefy enough to battle with the big centers and power forwards of his day. Instead, he relied on finesse and quickness. He would drive to the basket for easy lay-ups and rely on his hook shot to score.
Macauley led his college team, the St. Louis University Billikens, to an NCAA college basketball championship. In the pros he teamed with Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman to form one of the most potent scoring trios in the game. Ed later won an NBA Championship with the St. Louis Hawks as a player and then led the Hawks into the NBA Finals as a coach.
Awards and Honors
- Macauley was named an NCAA All-America First Team player in both his junior and senior seasons at St. Louis University.
- In 1948, Macauley led St. Louis to the NIT Championship. At that time the National Invitational Tournament was considered the national championship. St. Louis outscored New York University 41-24 in the title game, with Macauley scoring 24 of his team’s points.
- Ed was the Most Valuable Player of the very first NBA All-Star Game which was played during the 1950-51 season. In that game he scored 20 points and had six rebounds and one assist.
- Macauley was an NBA All-Star in seven of the ten seasons that he played in the league.
- Ed was a three-time All-NBA First Team selection and was named to the All-NBA Second Team once.
- Macauley and the St. Louis Hawks lost the NBA Championship to the Boston Celtics in 1957, but rebounded to defeat the Celtics for the championship in 1958. Other Hall of Famers on that championship team included Bob Pettit, Slater Martin, and Cliff Hagan.
Points of Interest
- When he was a sophomore at St. Louis, Easy Ed Macauley earned his nickname by leading his team onto the court in his first game as captain. He drove down the court and made a layup before he realized that his team had not followed him because the national anthem was being played. Some of the people around him were shouting, “Take it easy, Ed!”
- During his ten-year professional basketball career, Ed played one year for the St. Louis Bombers, six years for the Boston Celtics, and three years with the St. Louis Hawks.
- In the early 1950’s, Macauley was the second-highest-paid player in the NBA. His $17,500 salary was topped only by George Mikan at $20,000 per year.
- On April 29, 1956, Ed was traded, along with the draft rights to future Hall of Famer Cliff Hagan, to the St. Louis Hawks for Bill Russell. Russell would go on to become the most successful player, in terms of championships won, in the history of the NBA.
- Ed Macauley became the youngest person ever inducted into the Hall of Fame when he was enshrined at the age of 32.
Statistics
Ed Macauley Statistics
provided by Basketball-Reference.com
Ed Macauley – 2016 Leaf Best of Basketball
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