UPI College Basketball Player of the Year

The UPI College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual basketball award given to the best men's basketball player in NCAA Division I competition. The award was first given following the 1954–55 season and was discontinued following the 1995–96 season. It was given by United Press International (UPI), a news agency in the United States that rivaled the Associated Press but began to decline with the advent of television news.

UPI College Basketball Player of the Year

Awarded for	the most outstanding NCAA Division I men's basketball player
Country	United States
Presented by	United Press International
History
First award	1955
Final award	1996

Five players—Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Lew Alcindor^[a], Bill Walton and Ralph Sampson—won the award multiple times. Of these five, only Robertson, Walton and Sampson were three-time UPI Players of the Year.

UCLA had the most all-time winners with six. Ohio State was second with four winners, while Cincinnati and Virginia were tied for third with three winners apiece. Five other schools had two winners and sixteen schools had only one UPI Player of the Year.

Eight of the winners were sophomores, seven were juniors, and the remaining 27 were seniors. No freshman was ever presented the award.

Key

Player (X)

Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Player of the Year award at that point

Winners

Bill Russell won the award in 1956.

Bill Bradley (42) won the award in 1965.

Bill Walton won the award three times from 1972–74.

David Robinson won the award in 1987.

Ray Allen was the final recipient of the award, winning it in 1996.

Season	Player	School	Position	Class
1954–55	Tom Gola	La Salle	F	Senior
1955–56	Bill Russell	San Francisco	C	Senior
1956–57	Chet Forte	Columbia	PG	Senior
1957–58	Oscar Robertson	Cincinnati	PG	Sophomore
1958–59	Oscar Robertson (2)	Cincinnati	PG	Junior
1959–60	Oscar Robertson (3)	Cincinnati	PG	Senior
1960–61	Jerry Lucas	Ohio State	F / C	Junior
1961–62	Jerry Lucas (2)	Ohio State	F / C	Senior
1962–63	Art Heyman	Duke	G / F	Senior
1963–64	Gary Bradds	Ohio State	F	Senior
1964–65	Bill Bradley	Princeton	SF / SG	Senior
1965–66	Cazzie Russell	Michigan	SG	Senior
1966–67	Lew Alcindor[a]	UCLA	C	Sophomore
1967–68	Elvin Hayes	Houston	F / C	Senior
1968–69	Lew Alcindor[a] (2)	UCLA	C	Senior
1969–70	Pete Maravich	LSU	G	Senior
1970–71	Austin Carr	Notre Dame	G	Senior
1971–72	Bill Walton	UCLA	C	Sophomore
1972–73	Bill Walton (2)	UCLA	C	Junior
1973–74	Bill Walton (3)	UCLA	C	Senior
1974–75	David Thompson	NC State	SG / SF	Senior
1975–76	Scott May	Indiana	F	Senior
1976–77	Marques Johnson	UCLA	G / F	Senior
1977–78	Butch Lee	Marquette	PG	Senior
1978–79	Larry Bird	Indiana State	SF	Senior
1979–80	Mark Aguirre	DePaul	SF	Sophomore
1980–81	Ralph Sampson	Virginia	C	Sophomore
1981–82	Ralph Sampson (2)	Virginia	C	Junior
1982–83	Ralph Sampson (3)	Virginia	C	Senior
1983–84	Michael Jordan	North Carolina	SG	Junior
1984–85	Chris Mullin	St. John's	SF / SG	Senior
1985–86	Walter Berry	St. John's	PF	Senior
1986–87	David Robinson	Navy	C	Senior
1987–88	Hersey Hawkins	Bradley	SG	Senior
1988–89	Danny Ferry	Duke	PF / C	Senior
1989–90	Lionel Simmons	La Salle	SF	Senior
1990–91	Shaquille O'Neal	LSU	C	Sophomore
1991–92	Jim Jackson	Ohio State	SG	Junior
1992–93	Calbert Cheaney	Indiana	SF	Senior
1993–94	Glenn Robinson	Purdue	SF / PF	Sophomore
1994–95	Joe Smith	Maryland	C	Sophomore
1995–96	Ray Allen	Connecticut	SG	Junior

Winners by school

School	Winners	Years
UCLA	6	1967, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977
Ohio State	4	1961, 1962, 1964, 1992
Cincinnati	3	1958, 1959, 1960
Virginia	3	1981, 1982, 1983
Duke	2	1963, 1989
Indiana	2	1976, 1993
La Salle	2	1955, 1990
LSU	2	1970, 1991
St. John's	2	1985, 1986
Bradley	1	1988
Columbia	1	1957
Connecticut	1	1996
DePaul	1	1980
Houston	1	1968
Indiana State	1	1979
Marquette	1	1978
Maryland	1	1995
Michigan	1	1966
Navy	1	1987
NC State	1	1975
North Carolina	1	1984
Notre Dame	1	1971
Princeton	1	1965
Purdue	1	1994
San Francisco	1	1956

Notes

• ^a Lew Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 after converting to Islam.

See also

• List of U.S. men's college basketball national player of the year awards

References

General sources

1. "United Press International Player of the Year". AmericasBestOnline.com. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
2. "Men's College Basketball: Player of the Year Awards → United Press International". HickokSports.com. 2006. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2010.