The Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual men's college basketball award given to the most outstanding men′s player in the United States. It was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation, an organization founded in 1936 by Bill Schroeder and Paul Helms, the owner of Helms Bakery in Los Angeles.^[1]

The award was first presented in 1944, when the Helms Athletic Foundation announced Schroeder′s player-of-the-year selection for the 1943–44 season as well as his retroactive picks for the player of the year for each season from 1904–05 to 1942–43.^[1] Schroeder then began selecting a player of the year annually.

After Paul Helms' death in 1957, his family continued supporting the foundation until 1969, when the bakeries went out of business.^[2] Schroeder found a new benefactor in United Savings & Loan,^[2] and the foundation's name became United Savings–Helms Athletic Foundation.^[3][4] United merged with Citizens Savings & Loan in 1973, when the foundation became the Citizens Savings Athletic Foundation.^[2] It was again renamed when First Interstate Bank assumed sponsorship and was known as the First Interstate Bank Athletic Foundation in the award's final years after 1981.^[5][6] Schroeder made his last player-of-the-year selection for the 1982–83 season, after which the award came to an end.

Key

NOTE: Winners prior to the 1943–44 season were selected retroactively in 1944.

Winners

In 1944, Christian Steinmetz retroactively was named the award winner for 1905.

John Wooden (Purdue), who’s more well known for his coaching career, was retroactively named the winner for the 1931–32 season in 1944.

George Mikan of DePaul won in 1944 and 1945.

Bill Russell is the only winner from San Francisco.

Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was the only three-time winner.

Bill Walton of UCLA was awarded in 1972 and 1973.

David Thompson was a two-time winner with NC State in 1974 and 1975.

Larry Bird was the recipient of the award in 1979.

Season	Player	School	Position	Class	Ref
1904–05	Christian Steinmetz*	Wisconsin	F	Senior	[7][8]
1905–06	George Grebenstein	Dartmouth	F	Junior
1906–07	Gilmore Kinney	Yale	F	Senior
1907–08	Charles Keinath	Pennsylvania	F	Junior
1908–09	John Schommer*	Chicago	C	Senior
1909–10	Harlan "Pat" Page	Chicago	G	Senior
1910–11	Ted Kiendl	Columbia	F	Senior
1911–12	Otto Stangel	Wisconsin	F	Senior
1912–13	Eddie Calder	St. Lawrence	F	Senior
1913–14	Gil Halstead	Cornell	C	Senior
1914–15	Ernest Houghton	Union (NY)	G	Senior
1915–16	George Levis	Wisconsin	F	Senior
1916–17	Ray Woods	Illinois	G	Senior
1917–18	Bill Chandler	Wisconsin	C	Senior
1918–19	Erling Platou	Minnesota	G	Junior
1919–20	Howard Cann*	NYU	F	Senior
1920–21	George Williams	Missouri	C	Senior
1921–22	Chuck Carney	Illinois	C	Senior
1922–23	Paul Endacott*	Kansas	G	Senior
1923–24	Charlie T. Black	Kansas	G	Senior
1924–25	Earl Mueller	Colorado College	C	Senior
1925–26	Jack Cobb	North Carolina	F	Senior
1926–27	Vic Hanson*	Syracuse	F	Senior
1927–28	Victor Holt	Oklahoma	C	Senior
1928–29	John "Cat" Thompson*	Montana State	F	Junior
1929–30	Chuck Hyatt*	Pittsburgh	G	Senior
1930–31	Bart Carlton	Ada Teachers College	G	Senior
1931–32	John Wooden*	Purdue	G	Junior
1932–33	Forest Sale	Kentucky	F / C	Senior
1933–34	Wesley Bennett	Westminster (PA)	C	Senior
1934–35	Leroy Edwards	Kentucky	C	Sophomore
1935–36	John Moir	Notre Dame	F	Sophomore
1936–37	Hank Luisetti	Stanford	F	Sophomore
1937–38	Hank Luisetti* (2)	Stanford	F	Junior
1938–39	Chet Jaworski	Rhode Island	F	Senior
1939–40	George Glamack	North Carolina	C	Junior
1940–41	George Glamack (2)	North Carolina	C	Senior
1941–42	Stan Modzelewski	Rhode Island	G / F	Senior
1942–43	George Senesky	Saint Joseph's	G	Senior
1943–44	George Mikan*	DePaul	C	Junior
1944–45	George Mikan* (2)	DePaul	C	Senior
1945–46	Bob Kurland*	Oklahoma A&M	C	Senior
1946–47	Gerald Tucker	Oklahoma	C	Senior
1947–48	Ed Macauley*	Saint Louis	C	Junior
1948–49	Tony Lavelli	Yale	F	Senior
1949–50	Paul Arizin*	Villanova	F	Senior
1950–51	Dick Groat	Duke	G	Junior
1951–52	Clyde Lovellette*	Kansas	F / C	Senior
1952–53	Bob Houbregs*	Washington	C	Senior
1953–54	Tom Gola*	La Salle	G / F	Senior
1954–55	Bill Russell*	San Francisco	C	Junior
1955–56	Bill Russell* (2)	San Francisco	C	Senior
1956–57	Lennie Rosenbluth	North Carolina	F	Senior
1957–58	Elgin Baylor*	Seattle	F / C	Junior
1958–59	Oscar Robertson*	Cincinnati	G	Junior
1959–60	Oscar Robertson* (2)	Cincinnati	G	Senior
1960–61	Jerry Lucas*	Ohio State	F / C	Junior
1961–62	Paul Hogue	Cincinnati	C	Senior
1962–63	Art Heyman	Duke	G	Senior
1963–64	Walt Hazzard	UCLA	G	Senior
1964–65†	Bill Bradley*	Princeton	G / F	Senior
	Gail Goodrich*	UCLA	G	Senior
1965–66	Cazzie Russell	Michigan	G / F	Senior
1966–67	Lew Alcindor*	UCLA	C	Sophomore
1967–68	Lew Alcindor* (2)	UCLA	C	Junior
1968–69	Lew Alcindor* (3)	UCLA	C	Senior
1969–70†	Pete Maravich*	LSU	G	Senior
	Sidney Wicks	UCLA	F / C	Junior
1970–71†	Austin Carr	Notre Dame	G	Senior
	Sidney Wicks (2)	UCLA	F / C	Senior
1971–72	Bill Walton*	UCLA	C	Junior
1972–73	Bill Walton* (2)	UCLA	C	Senior
1973–74	David Thompson*	NC State	G / F	Junior
1974–75	David Thompson* (2)	NC State	G / F	Senior
1975–76†	Kent Benson	Indiana	C	Junior
	Scott May	Indiana	F	Senior
1976–77	Marques Johnson	UCLA	G	Senior	[9]
1977–78	Jack Givens	Kentucky	G / F	Senior	[10]
1978–79	Larry Bird*	Indiana State	F	Senior	[11]
1979–80	Darrell Griffith	Louisville	G	Senior	[12]
1980–81	Mark Aguirre	DePaul	F	Sophomore	[13]
1981–82	Ralph Sampson*	Virginia	C	Junior	[5]
	James Worthy*	North Carolina	F	Junior
1982–83	Akeem Olajuwon*	Houston	C	Sophomore	[14][15]