College Player
Hazzard attended Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his teams went 89-3 and he was named the city's player of the year when he was a senior. Hazzard then went on to UCLA, where he became an important player on the varsity basketball team. In Hazzard's first season on the varsity squad, the UCLA Bruins made their first Final Four appearance in the 1962 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. They lost to the eventual champion, the Cincinnati Bearcats in the semi-finals.
UCLA's undefeated season, 1963–64, was in no small part due to Hazzard, his backcourt partner Gail Goodrich, and the team's coach John Wooden. The team won the NCAA Championship, and Hazzard was selected by the Associated Press as the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Hazzard was chosen as an All-American and also selected as College Player of the Year by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). His number 42 jersey was retired by UCLA in 1996 in Pauley Pavilion, but Hazzard gave his permission for stand-out recruit Kevin Love to wear the number.
Hazzard earned a spot on the 1964 Olympic basketball team for the U.S., which won the gold medal. He was the number 1 draft pick in the NBA draft of 1964 by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Read more about this topic: Walt Hazzard
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