Elvin Hayes facts for kids
Hayes with the Washington Bullets in 1975
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 17, 1945 Rayville, Louisiana, U.S. |
| High school | Eula D. Britton (Rayville, Louisiana) |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (206 cm) |
| Listed weight | 235 lb (107 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | Houston (1965–1968) |
| NBA Draft | 1968 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1st overall |
| Selected by the San Diego Rockets | |
| Pro career | 1968–1984 |
| Career history | |
| As player: | |
| 1968–1972 | San Diego / Houston Rockets |
| 1972–1981 | Baltimore / Capital / Washington Bullets |
| 1981–1984 | Houston Rockets |
| As coach: | |
| 1984 | Houston Shamrocks |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Career statistics | |
| Points | 27,313 (21.0 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 16,279 (12.5 rpg) |
| Blocks | 1,771 (2.0 bpg) |
Elvin Ernest Hayes, also known as "The Big E", is a famous American basketball player. He was born on November 17, 1945. He played basketball professionally for 16 years! Elvin was so good that he's considered one of the best power forwards in NBA history. He's even in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also named one of the top 50 and top 75 players in NBA history! What's amazing is that he played for so long and hardly ever missed a game.
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Early Life and High School Success
When Elvin was in his last year of high school at Britton High, he was an amazing player. He led his team to win the state championship! During the regular season, he scored about 35 points in every game. In the championship game, he scored 45 points and grabbed 20 rebounds.
College Basketball Career
Elvin Hayes played college basketball for the Houston Cougars. In 1966, he helped his team reach the semifinals of a big tournament. But they lost to the Oregon State Beavers.
The next year, in 1967, Elvin led the Cougars to the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. In one game, he scored 25 points and got 24 rebounds. This was against the UCLA Bruins, who had another famous player named Lew Alcindor (who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Elvin's 24 rebounds are the second-highest in Final Four history!
On January 20, 1968, Elvin Hayes and the Houston Cougars played against Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins. This game was special because it was the first time a regular-season college basketball game was shown on national TV. More than 52,000 fans watched in the Houston Astrodome! Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds. He also helped limit Alcindor to only 15 points. Houston won 71–69, ending UCLA's amazing 47-game winning streak. This game is known as the "Game of the Century". Because of this game, Hayes was named College Basketball Player of the Year by Sporting News.
Later that year, Hayes faced Alcindor and UCLA again in the 1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. This time, UCLA won 101–69.
Hayes was the top scorer for Houston in all three of his college seasons. He averaged 31.0 points and 17.2 rebounds per game during his college career. He holds the record for the most rebounds in NCAA tournament history, with 222.
After college, Elvin Hayes was the very first player chosen in both the 1968 NBA draft and the 1968 ABA draft. He chose to play for the San Diego Rockets in the NBA.
Professional Basketball Career
Starting with the Rockets (1968–1972)
Elvin Hayes joined the San Diego Rockets in 1968. In his first year, he led the NBA in scoring with 28.4 points per game! He also averaged 17.1 rebounds per game. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. His scoring average is the fifth-best ever for a rookie. He's also the last rookie to lead the NBA in scoring. On November 11, 1968, he scored a career-high 54 points against the Detroit Pistons.
In his second season, Hayes led the NBA in rebounding. He was the first player other than Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain to do this since 1957! In 1971, the Rockets team moved to Houston. This meant Hayes could play in the city where he had been a college star.
Playing for the Bullets (1972–1981)
In 1972, Hayes was traded to the Baltimore Bullets. He became a key player for them.
Hayes, along with his teammate Wes Unseld, led the Washington Bullets to the NBA Finals three times (in 1975, 1978, and 1979). In 1978, they won the NBA championship against the Seattle SuperSonics! This was the Bullets' only NBA title. During that championship run, Hayes averaged 21.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game in the playoffs.
On March 3, 1978, Hayes set a career-high by blocking 11 shots in one game. He also scored 22 points and grabbed 27 rebounds in that game! The next year, in the 1979 NBA Finals, Hayes set a record for the most offensive rebounds in a game, with 11.
Back to the Rockets (1981–1984)
Hayes wanted to finish his career in Texas, especially in Houston. So, in 1981, he was traded back to the Houston Rockets. He played for them until he retired in 1984.
After Basketball
After his playing career ended, Hayes became the head coach for a women's basketball team called the Houston Shamrocks. However, he only coached for one game before resigning.
Elvin Hayes went back to the University of Houston to finish his college degree. He said that finishing his degree was "the hardest thing I've ever done," even after playing 16 years of professional basketball!
In November 2007, Hayes became a Liberty County, Texas, sheriff's deputy. This was a dream he had since he was a child. In 2010, he started working as a sports analyst for radio broadcasts of Houston Cougars games.
On November 18, 2022, the Houston Rockets honored Elvin Hayes by retiring his jersey number, 44. This means no other Rockets player will ever wear that number.
Personal Life
Elvin Hayes grew up as a Methodist. In the 1970s, he became a Catholic.
Elvin Hayes's younger sister is Bunny Greenhouse. She is known for being a whistleblower who worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Stats and Honors
During his 16 seasons in the NBA, Elvin Hayes played 1,303 games. He scored 27,313 points, which is the twelfth-highest in NBA history. He also had 16,279 rebounds, which is the fourth-highest ever! He is the all-time leading scorer for the Washington Bullets/Wizards team. Hayes was incredibly durable, never missing more than two games in any of his 16 seasons.
Besides leading the NBA in scoring in 1968, he also led the league in rebounding in 1970 and 1974. He was chosen to play in 12 straight NBA All-Star Games from 1969 to 1980. When he retired, he held the NBA record for the most minutes played in regular-season games, with exactly 50,000 minutes.
Elvin Hayes was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. In 2021, he was also voted to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
In 2003, Hayes was inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame, which celebrates San Diego's best athletes.
Images for kids
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Hayes with the Washington Bullets in 1975
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Houston's Hayes is carried in a victory celebration after the defeat of UCLA in the Game of the Century at the Astrodome
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Hayes with San Diego in 1969
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Hayes at the University of Houston
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One of five numbers retired by the University of Houston men's basketball team, Hayes's No. 44 hangs in Fertitta Center.
