John Azary

Who is John Azary?

John Azary was an American standout basketball player for Columbia College between 1948–49 and 1950–51. He was also in the military and served in the Korean War.

Azary was born and raised in New York City. At 6 ft 3 in, he played the guard position, and when deciding on where to attend college, he chose to stay in the city to attend Columbia. At the time, college freshmen were not eligible to play varsity sports, so Azary's career actually began when he was a sophomore in 1948–49. In his first season he scored 298 points in 20 games, which gave him a new school record for a first season scoring average at 14.9 points per game. This average surpassed Walt Budko's mark, who had graduated just prior to Azary's first year.

Despite being undersized, Azary was routinely given the top defensive assignments against much taller players. He even played against centers and used his aggressiveness and hustle to outplay them. His head coach, Gordon Ridings, said of Azary, "I never saw a harder worker than John. He once stayed an hour after practice taking foul shots because he had missed two out of ten free throws in the previous night’s game."