Few individuals know the storied history of Stanford basketball. For sports author Mike DeLucia, the pre-NBA era — marked by two-handed shots and jump balls after each score — became his primary focus when he learned of Stanford’s three-time All-American Angelo-Giuseppi “Hank” Luisetti. In his three years at Stanford in the 1930s, Luisetti captivated the nation with his running, one-handed shot and led the program to three consecutive Pacific Coast Championships. He was the NCAA Division I leading-scorer in 1936 and 1937 and became the first player to score 50 points in a game the following year.

In one of his most remembered performances, Hank Luisetti led Stanford to a stunning 45-31 victory against No. 1 Long Island University (LIU) in 1936. In front of a crowd of 17,623, Stanford broke LIU’s 43-game winning streak in a game that introduced Luisetti as one of basketball’s premier stars.