Seattle Redhawks

The Seattle Redhawks are the intercollegiate varsity athletic teams of Seattle University of Seattle, Washington. They compete in the NCAA's Division I as a member institution of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). History Between 1950 and 1971, Seattle competed as an NCAA Division I independent, then joined the West Coast Athletic Conference (now West Coast Conference) in 1971. The Chieftains gained national attention in early 1952 when the basketball team defeated the Harlem Globetrotters. Seattle was led by the O'Brien twins, Eddie and Johnny, of South Amboy, New Jersey; Johnny became the first college player to score 1,000 points in a season and both were named All-Americans. The twins led Seattle to the NIT in Madison Square Garden in 1952, and then onto its first NCAA Tournament berth in 1953. The O'Briens were selected in the 1953 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Hawks but were also standouts in baseball. Upon graduation, Eddie and Johnny opted for the diamond and played together in the major leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1953 to 1958. Eddie (1930–2014) was later the baseball coach and athletic director at SU. Seattle has eight wins (plus two consolation game victories) in eleven NCAA basketball tournament appearances (all from 1953 to 1969); half of the wins came in 1958 when the Chieftains advanced to the championship game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, against the University of Kentucky. Seattle was led by consensus All-American and future NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor of Washington, D.C., who was named most outstanding player of the tournament. In the semifinal on Friday night against tournament favorite Kansas State, he scored 23 points and grabbed 22 rebounds as Seattle won by 22 points in an upset rout, 73–51. In the final the next night, John Castellani's Chieftains led by three points at the half, but Baylor soon picked up his fourth personal foul, which limited his effectiveness in the second half and Adolph Rupp's Wildcats won by a dozen, 84–72. During a period in the 1960s, Seattle led the nation with the number of active players in the NBA. Notable basketball alums include Eddie Miles, Tom Workman, Rod Derline, and Clint Richardson, who won an NBA title with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983. Tennis player Tom Gorman led SU before leading the USA Davis Cup teams in the 1970s.