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Temple basketball great Hal Lear dies at 81

Hal Lear, whose smooth lefthanded jump shot made him one of the top scorers in Temple basketball history and part of arguably the best backcourt combination ever in the college game, died Saturday at his home in White Plains, N.Y., after a long illness. He was 81.

Temple great Hal Lear hangs with the students after his number jersey was retired in 2013.
Temple great Hal Lear hangs with the students after his number jersey was retired in 2013.Read more(Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)

Hal Lear, whose smooth lefthanded jump shot made him one of the top scorers in Temple basketball history and part of arguably the best backcourt combination ever in the college game, died Saturday at his home in White Plains, N.Y., after a long illness. He was 81.

Mr. Lear had returned east from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., about two years ago and took advantage of the medical facilities in that area as his health began to decline, said Philadelphia community leader and basketball mentor Sonny Hill, his longtime friend.

"Hal Lear was not only one of the greatest players but one of the greatest people in Temple basketball history," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said in a statement released by the university. "He personified class in every way, was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He is someone that will be remembered for his great feats on the court and how he handled himself with grace off it. A great man has left us."

A 1952 graduate of Overbrook High School, Mr. Lear made an impact at Temple both on the basketball court, having his No. 6 retired in 2013, and in the classroom. His crowning achievement in basketball came in the 1955-56 season when he scored 745 points - a single-season record that still stands - and averaged 24.0 points in helping lead Temple to its first Final Four.

Playing alongside guard Guy Rodgers, a fellow Temple legend whom he met on the city playgrounds, Lear saved his best for last, scoring a Final Four record 48 points in the third-place game against Southern Methodist which the Owls won, 90-81, in Evanston, Ill., to finish 27-4. His scoring record stood until 1965 when Princeton's Bill Bradley scored 58 points in a third-place game against Wichita State.

Although Bill Russell led San Francisco to an unbeaten season and the national championship in 1956, Lear was named most outstanding player of the Final Four, one of only five players who won the award without appearing in the title game. In five NCAA tournament games that year, he averaged 32 points, including a 40-point outburst against Connecticut.

"I think we had the best shot at beating Bill Russell because we played against Wilt [Chamberlain] all the time," Mr. Lear said in a 2013 interview with the Daily News. "You couldn't press Guy. We played a 2-3 zone. Both of us were pretty quick. We took advantage of people who didn't pass the ball correctly out front."

The Owls never got to play San Francisco. They lost to Iowa in the national semifinal. Mr. Lear, who led Temple in that game with 32 points, said seven offensive fouls were called on him and Rodgers, a former Northeast High star who played 12 seasons in the NBA.

"We'd go up for a layup and a guy would run under you. It's why they had to change the rule," Mr. Lear said.

Although Mr. Lear played only one season with Rodgers - freshmen were not allowed to play varsity basketball back in those days - the pair made a definite impact.

"They were both great athletes, both as quick as a hiccup," Hill said Sunday. "Hal could stop on a dime and shoot the jump shot. Guy was the ultimate passer, so it made for great music. What people didn't realize was that the two of them played with and against each other back in the schoolyards and rec centers, so there was familiarity between the two of them.

"The sweet music they made together, to me and others that I've spoken to, made them the greatest backcourt in the history of college basketball - not just the Philadelphia Big Five."

Mr. Lear averaged 22.2 points as a junior. He left Temple with an 18.6-point average, fourth-best in school history, and ranks 19th on the career points list with 1,472 in 79 games. He said, however, the most important award when he left college was being named the outstanding scholar athlete.

"That meant the most to me," he said.

"He was such a great, great man, someone very special," former Temple coach John Chaney said. "He was one of the greatest scorers in the history of basketball, believe me. His shot was as pretty a thing as I've ever seen in my life. He had a quick first move that would give him the freedom to shoot."

Mr. Lear was drafted in the first round of the 1956 NBA draft by the Philadelphia Warriors but played just three games and scored four points his rookie season. Hill said Mr. Lear decided to start a career, first working for the City of Philadelphia and then for the Opportunities Industrialization Center founded by the Rev. Leon Sullivan. During that time, he played basketball on weekends in the Eastern League, where he spent nine years and was named to the league's all-time team during its 50th anniversary season.

"He showed me how to work hard, put in the work and the time, and I learned a lot from him from that point of view," Hill said. "But he did the same thing with the other aspects of his life. We had a saying, 'Nobody is going to be able to outwork us,' and he used the same work ethic in the real world that helped him be successful."

Mr. Lear later moved to the New York area to start a 30-year career at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, where he was an executive administrator in the Department of Psychiatry. He moved to Scottsdale after his retirement, Hill said.

Mr. Lear was one of five Temple basketball players - Rodgers, Bill Mlkvy, Mark Macon, and Marilyn Stephens are the others - to have their numbers retired. His ceremony took place on Jan. 30, 2013.

"One of the things you learn as you get older is, you begin to find out you didn't do it by yourself," he said. "My mother went to my junior high school in the 1940s and told the teacher, 'My son's going in the academic course.' Then they had all the African Americans going in shop [classes]. That's how they got jobs. The next year I was taking Latin. I would not have been able to go to Temple if I hadn't taken an academic curriculum."

Mr. Lear is survived by his wife, Maggie O'Keefe Lear, along with nine children, 21 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Funeral arrangements are pending.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq

Staff writer Keith Pompey contributed to this article.