April 1, 2007
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Atlanta, Ga. – Former Irish great Austin Carr, who still remains Notre Dame’s all-time leading scorer with 2,560 points and a career scoring average of 34.6 points per game, has been elected into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He will join 11 others who will be formally inducted in a ceremony on Nov. 18 at the College Basketball Experience next to the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., as the second class installed in the Hall.
Carr will be the second class inducted into the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The announcement was made on Sun., April 1 in Atlanta, Ga., in conjunction with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.
Carr played for the Irish for three seasons (1968-71), and more than 30 years following his graduation, and still today remains the school’s all-time career scoring leader. A consensus All-American during his senior season in 1970-71, Carr was the National Player of the Year by both Associated Press and United Press International in ’71. He ranks as the greatest scorer in NCAA tournament history, thanks to his 41.3 career scoring average in NCAA games. Carr still holds the record NCAA tournament single game scoring record with 61 points against Ohio University in ’70, one of six NCAA tournament marks he holds and has posted three of the top five single-game scoring efforts.
While at Notre Dame, he played in 74 career contests and scored 40 or points on 23 occasions. A three-year starter, he averaged 22.0 ppg., as a sophomore, 38.1 ppg., as a junior and 37.9 ppg. Carr’s 34.6 career scoring average ranks second all-time on the NCAA list.
Carr was the first player chosen in the 1971 National Basketball Association Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers and played 10 seasons in the NBA.
Joining Carr for the induction ceremony in November will be coaches Norm Stewart (Missouri), Guy Lewis (Houston) and Lefty Driesell (Maryland).
Players selected were Dick Barnett of Tennessee and Dick Groat from Duke. Former Duke coach Vic Bubas, a former basketball committee chairman and the first commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, will be inducted as a contributor.
Five others will receive recognition. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be honored as a founding class member, following last year’s founding class of Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, John Wooden, Dean Smith and James Naismith.
Also, four coaches will receive similar recognition: Phog Allen (Kansas), Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Henry Iba (Oklahoma A&M) and John McLendon (Tennessee State).
Founding class members are those who are already enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.