{"id":1798,"date":"2015-06-02T09:36:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T09:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/?p=1798"},"modified":"2015-06-15T19:05:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T19:05:07","slug":"anthony-tony-lavelli-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2015\/06\/02\/anthony-tony-lavelli-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletic Hall of Fame 2015: Anthony \u201cTony\u201d Lavelli &#8217;45"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2015 Athletic Hall of Fame: Anthony &quot;Tony&quot; Lavelli &#039;45\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3tIrGzljxbs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A phenomenal athlete with a love of music, Tony Lavelli came to\u00a0Williston Academy as a post-graduate. He was elected captain of the varsity basketball team and led the team to a 14-0 record, scoring 307 points out of the team\u2019s 672 \u00a0total, before moving to tennis in the spring.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1899\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1899\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-7-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1899\" src=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-7-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Lavelli\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-7-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-7-1-250x188.jpg 250w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-7-1.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1899\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Lavelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the end of the year, Coach Lash told<em>The Log\u00a0<\/em>that it had been &#8220;probably the greatest team in Williston&#8217;s basketball history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This can be attributed to several factors,&#8221; the yearbook went on, &#8220;accurate shooting, aggressive team play, smart ball handling, and especially to a certain chap by the name of Tony Lavelli. Tony&#8217;s marvelous team play and sparkling leadership helped the Lashmen tremendously as Williston produced its first undefeated basketball team in thirty-five years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At Yale University, Tony scored 1,970 points (a school record that stood for 35 years) and, in his senior year, led the nation in (averaging 22.4 points\u00a0per game).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-11-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1903\" src=\"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-11-1-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Lavelli 11 (1)\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-11-1-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-11-1-185x250.jpg 185w, https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/files\/2015\/05\/Tony-Lavelli-11-1.jpg 473w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/><\/a>Tony was named second team All-American selection in 1946 and 1948 and a first team All-American selection in 1949. He was also named the College Player of the Year.\u00a0In February 1949, <em>Life<\/em> magazine called his\u00a0hook shot \u201cthe most spectacular offensive weapon in college basketball history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tony was the number four overall pick of the Boston Celtics in the 1949 NBA draft. In his rookie year, he averaged 8.8 points per game; he was traded to the NY Knicks the following year.<\/p>\n<p>Tony had a great love of music, so he had it written into his contracts with the Celtics and Knicks that he could play the accordion at halftime to entertain the crowds. After his first year with the Knicks, he quit the NBA to pursue a career in music at The Juilliard School. Tony then returned to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, where be was named captain of the College All-Star team and the Globetrotters musical director. Tony went on to release two albums and had a long career as a songwriter and musician.<\/p>\n<p>In a March 1949 issue of <em>Sport Life Magazine<\/em>, Anthony \u201cTony\u201d Lavelli \u201945, who as trained as a musician, was described as having taken up basketball for relaxation\u2014a nice break from his musical training.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome think that the secret of Lavelli\u2019s prodigious scoring\u2014he averages 20 points a game against the severest opposition\u2014is in his hands, the hands that were trained for music,\u201d the magazine said. \u201cThey are large, powerful hands, with tensile fingers, fingers study enough to control a basketball held at arm\u2019s length.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony, dinner, and reception was\u00a0held on Saturday, June 6, 2015.\u00a0Tony was the Veteran&#8217;s Committee selection for the 2015 Athletic Hall of Fame. His award was\u00a0presented by\u00a0Jake Ross \u201816 and accepted by his sister,\u00a0Ginny Lovett.<\/p>\n<p><em>Nominate your favorite athlete or team for the 2016 Athletic Hall of Fame <a href=\"www.williston.com\/hall-of-fame\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A phenomenal athlete with a love of music, Tony Lavelli came to\u00a0Williston Academy as a post-graduate. He was elected captain of the varsity basketball team and led the team to a 14-0 record, scoring 307 points out of the team\u2019s 672 \u00a0total, before moving to tennis in the spring. At the end of the year, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2015\/06\/02\/anthony-tony-lavelli-45\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Athletic Hall of Fame 2015: Anthony \u201cTony\u201d Lavelli &#8217;45<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletic-hall-of-fame"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1798"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1968,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}