Forward thrived with Broncos
Ken Sears, an All-America basketball player for Santa Clara in the 1950s who later played eight seasons in the NBA, died Sunday in his hometown of Watsonville, the university announced Monday. He was 83.
Mr. Sears played from 1951 through ’55 for the Broncos under head coach Bob Feerick and started as a freshman on their Final Four team of 1952.
He was twice named the WCC Player of the Year, beating out USF’s Bill Russell for the honor in 1955. Mr. Sears was named an All-American after that season. In a game against Pacific, he had 41 points and 30 rebounds.
In 1954, the 6-foot-9 forward became the first basketball player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The magazine was then a few months old.
A first-round pick by the New York Knicks (fourth overall) in 1955, he played six seasons in New York, making the All-Star Game in 1958 and ’59. With a deadly outside shot, he twice led the Knicks in scoring, averaging 18.6 points per game in 195758 and a career-high 21.0 in 1958-59. He led the NBA in field-goal percentage those two seasons.
His first Knicks contract was for $8,500, Mr. Sears told an interviewer. He later signed a two-year deal for $18,500 per year, which he negotiated and signed at the Watsonville bar that he owned at the time.
Following a 21-58 season with the Knicks, Mr. Sears jumped in 1961 to the San Francisco Saints of the shortlived American Basketball League.
He returned to the Knicks in 1962 but played just 23 games before they traded him to the Warriors, who had just moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco.
Mr. Sears spent his last two seasons with the Warriors, who lost in the 1964 Finals.
In 2007, his jersey No. 55 was retired at Santa Clara.
Regarding his NBA career, he said, “I thought I would be driving a lettuce truck after college, but I was lucky enough to be able to keep playing ball.”