Lapchick, Joe

Joe Lapchick, byname of Joseph Bohomiel Lapchick, (born April 12, 1900, Yonkers, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 10, 1970, Monticello, N.Y.), American professional and collegiate basketball player and coach who was a major influence in both professional and collegiate basketball.

Lapchick left high school in Yonkers in 1914 and played semiprofessional and professional basketball so successfully that at one point he was earning $75 a game and was playing in four leagues at once. The Celtics of New York, with whom he played (1922–27), were so good that they were disbanded in 1928 as a threat to the American Basketball League (ABL). He played with the Cleveland Rosenblooms, leading them to successive championships (1929–30) until the ABL went out of business in 1930. He then played with the original Celtics, who barnstormed throughout the United States but themselves disbanded in 1936.

Lapchick became a collegiate coach at St. John’s University (Jamaica, N.Y.; 1936–47, 1956–65), during which time his teams won four National Invitational Tournaments (NIT; 1943–44, 1959, 1965). From 1947 to 1956 he was coach of the National Basketball Association New York Knickerbockers. Lapchick popularized the give-and-go play in which one player makes a short pass to a teammate and cuts for the basket to receive a pass and shoot. After his retirement as a coach, he was a sports coordinator at a country club.