Don Ohl

Donald Jay Ohl (born April 18, 1936) is an American former basketball player who played college ball at the University of Illinois then spent 10 seasons (1960–1970) in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where the guard took part in five consecutive All-Star Games (1963–67). He was born in Murphysboro, a rural town in southern Illinois, and after living in Peoria and Iowa, he moved to Edwardsville, Illinois when he was ten years old.^[1] He went by the nickname of Waxie because of his trademark crew cut.^[2]

Ohl attended Edwardsville High School, where he averaged 19.6 points per game in his senior year, 1953–1954, and his team finished fourth in the Illinois state basketball tournament. He also played baseball and golf in high school. As a basketball player, he made All-Southwestern Conference as a junior and senior, and was both first-team All-District and first-team All-State as a senior.^[1]

He chose to attend the University of Illinois over Saint Louis University, Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) and Vanderbilt, which also had extended scholarship offers.^[1] He averaged 6.7 points per game as a sophomore, 15.6 as a junior, and a team-high 19.6 as a senior in 1957, being chosen team most valuable player as well. He was also selected as an NCAA All-American and a second-team Converse All-American. He was first team All Big Ten as a junior and senior. He graduated as the No. 3 scorer in school history with 1,230 points.^[1]

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In his final college season, Ohl began to pique the interest of several NBA teams in advance of the 1958 draft. The Philadelphia Warriors selected him in the fifth round (37th overall),^[1] but he was unsure about his readiness for the next level. Ohl accepted a position with the Peoria Caterpillar Tractor Company in Morton, Ill., where he worked while playing one season for the Peoria Cats in the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL). He never signed with the Warriors.^[1]

As Ohl told The Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer in a 2008 interview, “'It may have been a mistake, but I didn’t end up playing in the NBA until two years after I got drafted. I didn’t think I was good enough for the NBA even though people who should have known kept telling me that I was. I started working for Caterpillar and they had a team in the Industrial League, which might be comparable to a farm club of the NBA.'"^[1] He played a couple of years in the NIBL.^[3]

“'In 1960, we won an AAU tournament in Denver, and the next week they had the Olympic Trials to see who would represent the U.S. in the Olympics. We played the final game against the college all-stars, who had a bunch of All-Americans like (future NBA stars) Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy and Jerry Lucas, and of course, they beat us.'”^[1]

Ohl performed well enough at the Olympic Trials to put himself back on the NBA radar.^[1][3] He was scouted by Detroit Pistons coach Dick McGuire, who acquired his rights from the Warriors, they made an offer that Ohl couldn't turn down.^[1][3] In his rookie year he went from bench player to starter, and by his third year with the Pistons he was an all-star, averaging 19.3 points a game. He made five consecutive NBA all-star teams from 1962–1963 to 1966–1967.^[3] He went on play 10 seasons for the Pistons, Baltimore Bullets, and St. Louis-Atlanta Hawks. He was the Bullets team MVP in 1965 and 1966.^[4] The crafty 6'3", 190-pounder scored 11,549 points, averaging 15.9 points per game for his career.^[5][4]

Ohl has the highest playoff scoring average in the Washington Wizards franchise history, at 26.23.^[6]

In 1968, Ohl was traded to the Hawks for Tom Workman and a third round draft choice.^[7] Two years later, he was taken in the 1970 NBA Expansion draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers but opted to retire at 34 years of age.^[8]

Ohl twice scored a career high of 43 points in a single game, first on January 23, 1963, in a 123–119 defeat against the Los Angeles Lakers and again on December 25, 1966, in a 129–127 loss to his former team, the Pistons.^[9]

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Shortly after the 1963–64 campaign, Ohl was involved one of the first so-called megatrades, this one an eight-player blockbuster between the Pistons and Bullets. On June 9, 1964, the Pistons sent Ohl, center Bob Ferry, future hall of fame forward Bailey Howell, forward Les Hunter and the draft rights to guard Wally (later Wali) Jones to the Bullets in exchange for forwards Terry Dischinger and Don Kojis and guard Rod Thorn.^[3] The deal turned out to a fortuitous one for the Bullets, as Howell and Ohl became mainstays with the team.

“They called it the Brinks robbery out in Baltimore because it was so one-sided to Baltimore,” Ohl told the Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer. “Dickey McGuire was my coach my first two years and I just admired him to death. He quit and Charlie Wolf took over, and for me it was not a good situation and apparently for two or three other players, because they went with me. I was happy to get out. I liked Detroit, but I was ready to go.”^[3]

In the 1964-65 campaign, Ohl, backcourt sidekick Kevin Loughery and the front line of Howell, Walt Bellamy and Gus Johnson carried the Bullets to the first playoff series victory in franchise history, a four-game upset of the St. Louis Hawks in the Western Division semifinals.^[3]

Ohl experienced his finest hour in the 1965 playoffs, in which he averaged 26.1 points in 10 games. In the Western Division finals, he and Los Angeles Lakers star guard Jerry West were involved in one of the more memorable shootouts in league postseason history.^[4] The Bullets top gun put up 28.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game before the Lakers prevailed in six games, each of which was decided by eights points or less.^[10][3]

“(Lakers co-star Elgin) Baylor wasn’t playing -- he was hurt,” Ohl recalled. “It was the third game. It was in Baltimore. We played, we won and in the locker room I said, ‘How many did West get?’ and they said, ‘51 (points).’ I said, ‘51, you got to be kidding me.’ I think I had 35 or 38, I don't remember. I said, ‘I guarantee you one thing you can print is he won’t get 51 tomorrow night.’^[3]

“We go play the next game, we win and I said, ‘How many did West get?’ They said, ‘53.’ I said, ‘You got to be kidding me.’ (Fred) Schaus, the coach, just put him on the side of the floor, gave him the ball and let him work it in until he got a shot, because like I said, Baylor wasn't playing. Great player, good friend. I enjoy him.”^[3]

Source^[8]

• Career stats @ basketball-reference.com
• All-Time Largest Trades in NBA History
• Catching Up With ... former Bullet Don Ohl