Lou Tsioropoulos

Who is Lou Tsioropoulos?

Louis C. "Lou" Tsioropoulos is a retired Greek-American professional basketball player who played for the NBA's Boston Celtics for three seasons from 1956-1959.

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Tsioropoulos played college basketball at the University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp. As a sophomore in 1951 he was a member of Kentucky's NCAA Championship team, the Wildcats defeating Kansas State 68-58 in the Championship game.

In the fall of 1952, a point shaving scandal involving three Kentucky players over a four-year period forced Kentucky to forfeit its upcoming season, which would have been the senior year for Tsiroropoulos and future Hall-of-Famers Frank Ramsey and Cliff Hagan. The suspension of the season made Kentucky's basketball team, in effect, the first college sports team to get the "death penalty," which actually was nothing more than the NCAA asking members schools not to schedule Kentucky, and not mandating it.

Tsioropoulos, Ramsey and Hagan all graduated from Kentucky in 1953 and, as a result, became eligible for the NBA Draft. All three players were selected by the Boston Celtics—Ramsey in the first round, Hagan in the third, and Tsioropoulos in the seventh. All three also returned to Kentucky for one more season despite graduating. After finishing the regular season with a perfect 25-0 record and a #1 ranking in the Associated Press, Kentucky had been offered a bid into the NCAA Tournament. However, then-existing NCAA rules prohibited graduate students from participating in post-season play. The Wildcats declined the bid because their participation would have forced them to play without Tsioropoulos, Ramsey and Hagan, thus jeopardizing their perfect season.