Steve H. Nisenson is an American former basketball player, who played the guard position.[1][2]
He set Hofstra University's all-time scoring record in basketball, which stood for 43 years.[3] He also set the all-time national college season free-throw record in 1964, becoming the first college player to have a free throw percentage of better than .900.
Nisenson is Jewish, and was from Livingston, New Jersey where he played basketball for Livingston High School.[2][4][5][6] He earned a bachelor's degree in business management at Hofstra, and a master's degree in guidance and counseling at Long Island University.[7]
Nisenson played basketball for Hofstra University from 1962 to 1965, where he was an All-American in both 1963 and 1964, and was the team's ball-handler and playmaker.[3][8][9] He was also elected to the Eastern College Athletic Conference small college All-East team in 1963, 1964, and 1965.[2][10] In 1964, he was a unanimous selection as the most valuable basketball player in the Middle Atlantic Conference northern college division.[11]
He set the school's career scoring record with 2,222 points, and it was not broken until 2008.[4][7][12] At the time that he set the record, there were only three years of eligibility, and there were not any 3-point shots.[12][13] The record stood for 43 years.[3]
His 1963–64 season scoring average of 27.7 points per game is the second-highest total in Hofstra history. His career average of 26.8 points per game is also the second-highest in school history.[3][14]
He set the all-time national college free-throw record in 1964, becoming the first college player to have a free-throw percentage of better than .900.[15] In 1963–64 he had a .913 free throw percentage, which is still a Hofstra single-season record.[3][5][14] Nisenson also holds the Hofstra single-season record for free throws made (230), in the same season.[14] His career free throw percentage (.879) is the second-best all-time in Division II history.[14]
He played on the United States basketball team that won a gold medal at the 1965 Maccabiah Games in Israel, along with Tal Brody, Ronald Green, Steve Chubin, and Ron Watts.[1][16][17]
Nisenson was drafted by the New York Knicks with the 37th pick overall, in the fifth round of the 1965 NBA draft.[1][7][18] He was at the team's training camp, but did not make the team.[7]
He turned down an offer to play with the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA.[7] Instead, he chose to coach basketball at Hofstra.[7]
Nisenson later was the director of admissions at C.W. Post for 16 years.[7][14][19]
In 2002, Nisenson was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in New York.[7]
He was inducted into the Hofstra Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006 [3] Hofstra also retired his jersey number (13), during the 2008–09 season.[14][20][21]