View source for Bob Houbregs

{{Short description|Canadian basketball player (1932–2014)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox basketball biography
| name = Bob Houbregs
| image = Bob Houbregs.jpg
| width = 
| caption = 
| height_ft = 6
| height_in = 7
| weight_lb = 210
| birth_date = {{birth date|1932|03|12}}
| birth_place = [[Vancouver, British Columbia]], Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|2014|5|28|1932|3|12}}
| death_place = [[Olympia, Washington]], U.S.
| high_school = [[Queen Anne High School, Seattle|Queen Anne]]<br />([[Seattle|Seattle, Washington]])
| college = [[Washington Huskies men's basketball|Washington]] (1950–1953)
| draft_year = 1953
| draft_round = 1
| draft_pick = 2
| draft_team = [[Milwaukee Hawks]]
| career_number = 10, 14, 20, 8, 17
| career_position = [[Power forward]] / [[Center (basketball)|centre]]
| career_start = 1953
| career_end = 1958
| years1 = {{nbay|1953|start}}
| team1 = [[Milwaukee Hawks]]
| years2 = {{nbay|1953|start}}–{{nbay|1954|start}}
| team2 = [[Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954)|Baltimore Bullets]]
| years3 = {{nbay|1954|start}}
| team3 = [[Boston Celtics]]
| years4 = {{nbay|1954|start}}–{{nbay|1957|end}}
| team4 = [[Detroit Pistons|Fort Wayne / Detroit Pistons]]
| highlights = 
* [[Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year|Helms Foundation Player of the Year]] (1953)
* Consensus first-team [[NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans|All-American]] ([[1953 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans|1953]])
* Consensus second-team All-American ([[1952 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans|1952]])
* 3× First-team [[List of All-Pac-12 Conference men's basketball teams|All-PCC]] (1951–1953)
* No. 25 [[Washington Huskies men's basketball#Retired numbers|retired by Washington Huskies]]
| stat1label = [[Point (basketball)|Points]]
| stat1value = 2,611 (9.3 ppg)
| stat2label = [[Rebound (basketball)|Rebounds]]
| stat2value = 1,552 (5.5 rpg)
| stat3label = [[Assist (basketball)|Assists]]
| stat3value = 500 (1.8 apg)
| HOF_player = bobby-houbregs
| CBBASKHOF_year = 2006
}}

'''Robert J. Houbregs''' (March 12, 1932 – May 28, 2014) was a Canadian professional [[basketball]] player. Houbregs was inducted into the [[Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame]] in 1987.

==Basketball career==
A 6-foot 8-inch, 225-pound [[forward-center|forward-centre]], from [[Queen Anne High School, Seattle|Queen Anne High School]] in [[Seattle, Washington]], Houbregs played for the [[Washington Huskies men's basketball|University of Washington Huskies]]  from 1949 to 1953 (his family moved to Seattle from [[Vancouver, British Columbia]] when he was a child<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DDO3sdV6ytsC&dq=bob+houbregs+vancouver+washington&pg=PA217|title=Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary|first=David L.|last=Porter|date=January 21, 2005|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313309526|via=Google Books}}</ref>). In 1952, Houbregs was a Second Team Consensus All-America selection. In 1953, as a senior, he was named NCAA Player of the Year, was a Consensus All-America selection, helped lead the [[1952–53 Washington Huskies men's basketball team|1952–53 Huskies]] to the [[Final four|Final Four]] in the [[1953 NCAA basketball tournament|NCAA tournament]], and was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 34.8 points per game in the post-season. He became the first player to score 40 or more points in an [[NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament|NCAA tournament]] Final Four game when he scored 42 against [[1952–53 LSU Tigers basketball team|LSU]] in the national third-place game on March&nbsp;18,&nbsp;1953.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketball_RB/2010/Rules.pdf |title=Playing Rules History |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=ncaa.org |publisher=NCAA |access-date=June 25, 2024 |page=11}}</ref>

Houbregs was [[NBA draft|drafted]] by the [[National Basketball Association|NBA]]'s [[Milwaukee Hawks]] with the second overall pick in [[1953 NBA draft|1953]] and played five seasons (1953–1958) in the NBA with four teams: the Hawks, the [[Baltimore Bullets (1944–54)|Baltimore Bullets]], the [[Boston Celtics]], and the [[Detroit Pistons|Fort Wayne (later Detroit) Pistons]]. Houbregs' career scoring average was 9.3 points per game.

Houbregs served as general manager of the [[Seattle SuperSonics]] from 1970 to 1973.<ref name=allen>{{citation |last=Allen |first=Percy |title=Bob Houbregs, Husky basketball icon, dies at 82 | newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |date=May 28, 2014 |url=http://seattletimes.com/html/huskybasketball/2023717442_houbregsobit29xml.html}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Houbregs' father John was a minor league [[ice hockey]] player who moved to Seattle in 1934/35 with his family in order to play for the Seattle Sea Hawks of the [[North West Hockey League]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/file/20896|title=Houbregs, Bob (1932-2014)|website=www.historylink.org}}</ref> Houbregs was a member of [[Alpha Sigma Phi]] fraternity.<ref>{{cite web| title=Basketball Hall of Fame Greeks| url=http://www.nicindy.org/whos_greek/greeks_in_sports/basketball/BasketballHOF.htm| date=2008-01-06| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211133541/http://www.nicindy.org/whos_greek/greeks_in_sports/basketball/BasketballHOF.htm| archive-date=2012-02-11}}</ref>

Houbregs was elected to the [[Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame]] in 1987.

In 2000, Houbregs was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame for his significant contributions to the sport as a player.<ref name=cbcsports>{{cite news | title=Houbregs named to Canadian Basketball Hall|url=https://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/houbregs-named-to-canadian-basketball-hall-1.207336| date=2000-11-10 | work=CBC News}}</ref>

Houbregs died on May 28, 2014 in Olympia, Washington. He was 82 years old.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10998530/former-washington-huskies-star-bob-houbregs-dies-82| title = Former Washington Huskies star Bob Houbregs dies at 82| date = 29 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.nba.com/2014/news/05/29/bob-houbregs-dies-at-82.ap/index.html | title=Hall of Famer, ex-No. 2 overall pick Houbregs dies at 82 | website=nba.com | date=May 29, 2014 | access-date=May 29, 2014}}</ref>

==Career statistics==
{{NBA player statistics legend|leader=y}}

===NBA===
Source<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/houbrbo01.html|title=Bob Houbregs NBA stats|website=[[Basketball Reference]]|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|accessdate=26 September 2023}}</ref>

====Regular season====
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"
|-
! Year
! Team
! GP
! MPG
! FG%
! FT%
! RPG
! APG
! PPG
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1953}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1953–54 Milwaukee Hawks season|Milwaukee]]
| 11 || 15.1 || .306 || .765 || 4.2 || .8 || 5.8
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1953|nolink=y}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1953–54 Baltimore Bullets season|Baltimore]]
| 59 || '''30.6''' || .380 || .707 || 5.6 || 1.9 || 9.2
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1954}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1954–55 Baltimore Bullets season|Baltimore]]
| 10 || 30.0 || .359 || .706 || 5.5 || '''2.8''' || 9.0
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1954|nolink=y}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1954–55 Boston Celtics season|Boston]]
| 2 || 7.5 || &ndash; || '''1.000''' || .5 || 1.0 || .5
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1954|nolink=y}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1954–55 Fort Wayne Pistons season|Fort Wayne]]
| 52 || 19.4 || .391 || .707 || 4.6 || 1.1 || 6.4
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1955}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1955–56 Fort Wayne Pistons season|Fort Wayne]]
|'''70''' || 21.9 || .430 || .739 || 5.9 || 2.3 || 11.1
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1956}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1956–57 Fort Wayne Pistons season|Fort Wayne]]
| 60 || 26.5 || '''.432''' || .714 || '''6.7''' || 1.9 || '''11.2'''
|-
|style="text-align:left;"| {{nbay|1957}}
|style="text-align:left;"| [[1957–58 Detroit Pistons season|Detroit]]
| 17 || 17.8 || .358 || .698 || 3.8 || 1.1 || 7.5
|- class="sortbottom"
|style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 281 || 23.9 || .404 || .721 || 5.5 || 1.8 || 9.3
|}

====Playoffs====
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"
|-
! Year
! Team
! GP
! MPG
! FG%
! FT%
! RPG
! APG
! PPG
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| [[1955 NBA playoffs|1955]]
| style="text-align:left;"| [[1954–55 Fort Wayne Pistons season|Fort Wayne]]
| style="background:#CFECEC;"|'''11'''* || 19.4 || .381 || '''.784''' || 5.6 || '''1.7''' || 7.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| [[1956 NBA playoffs|1956]]
| style="text-align:left;"| [[1955–56 Fort Wayne Pistons season|Fort Wayne]]
| style="background:#CFECEC;"|10* || '''21.7''' || '''.462''' || .705 || '''6.7''' || 1.4 || 10.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| [[1957 NBA playoffs|1957]]
| style="text-align:left;"| [[1956–57 Fort Wayne Pistons season|Fort Wayne]]
| 2 || 19.0 || .412 || .727 || 3.0 || 1.5 || '''11.0'''
|- class="sortbottom"
|style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 23 || 20.3 || .424 || .739 || 5.9 || 1.6 || 8.8
|}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070804110857/http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-bob-houbregs.html Hoophall.com]
*[https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/houbrbo01.html Career Statistics]
*[http://www.seattlepi.com/cbasketball/152750_where17.html Where Are They Now: Bob Houbregs]

{{navboxes
|list=
{{Oklahoma City Thunder general manager navbox}}
{{1952 NCAA Men's Basketball Consensus All-Americans}}
{{1953 NCAA Men's Basketball Consensus All-Americans}}
{{Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year}}
{{1953 NBA draft}}
{{1987 Basketball HOF}}
{{Basketball Hall of Fame centers}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houbregs, Bob}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2014 deaths]]
[[Category:All-American college men's basketball players]]
[[Category:American men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) players]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Seattle]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Vancouver]]
[[Category:Boston Celtics players]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriate basketball people in the United States]]
[[Category:Canadian men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Dutch descent]]
[[Category:Centers (basketball)]]
[[Category:Detroit Pistons players]]
[[Category:Fort Wayne Pistons players]]
[[Category:Milwaukee Hawks draft picks]]
[[Category:Milwaukee Hawks players]]
[[Category:Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:NBA players from Canada]]
[[Category:Power forwards]]
[[Category:Seattle SuperSonics general managers]]
[[Category:Washington Huskies men's basketball players]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian sportsmen]]