| Awarded for | the New York area's top NCAA Division I men's college basketball player |
|---|---|
| Location | New York metropolitan area |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | MBWA |
| History | |
| First award | 1936 |
| Most recent | Tyler Thomas, Hofstra |
| Website | Official website |
The Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award is given to the top men's college basketball player from an NCAA Division I school in the New York metropolitan area.[1] The Haggerty Award is presented by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA).[2] First awarded in 1936, it is the oldest and arguably most prestigious award given to a metropolitan area player.[2][3] It is named after Frank J. Haggerty, a basketball and baseball star athlete from Long Island, New York who "was the first graduate of both Chaminade High School and St. John's University to die in military service during World War II … The Fathers Club of the Mineola school, to honor Haggerty, class of 1936, introduced a basketball tournament in his memory," according to the MBWA's website.[1]
The Haggerty Award has gone to players from 15 schools. St. John's in Jamaica, New York has the most at 27, roughly twice the 15 awards received by players from number two Seton Hall. The players on this list who represent modern day non-Division I schools are five players from NYU (Ben Auerbach, Sid Tanenbaum, Dolph Schayes, Satch Sanders, and Barry Kramer) and one player from CCNY (Bernie Fliegel). At the time of their awards, both NYU and CCNY were classified as Division I schools.[4][5]
Three players won the award three times: Jim McMillian of Columbia (1968–1970), Chris Mullin of St. John's (1983–1985) and Charles Jenkins of Hofstra (2009–2011). McMillian went on to win the 1972 NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers; Mullin went on to win two Olympic gold medals with Team USA (1984, 1992), was a five-time NBA All-Star and was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011; and Jenkins has played in the NBA and Europe.