American basketball player and coach (1922–2023)
Stanley Lee "Whitey" Von Nieda Jr. (June 19, 1922 – September 6, 2023) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He was the longest lived National Basketball Association (NBA) player in history.[1]
Career
Von Nieda played basketball at Ephrata High School and Penn State University. Enlisting in the army during World War II, he played with the paratroopers at Fort Benning, Georgia. There, he led the country, both college and service teams, in scoring with 1062 points in 44 games. After being discharged, he played for the Lancaster Red Roses in the Eastern Basketball League, where he led that league in scoring, averaging more than 24 points per game.[citation needed]
In 1947, he began playing for the Tri-Cities BlackHawks in the National Basketball League (NBL). While with the Blackhawks, he made the All-Rookie team, averaging 12 points a game. His team made it to the final round of the playoffs in both of the years he played there. In 1949, the founding year of the NBA, Von Nieda was traded to the Baltimore Bullets, where he completed the 1949–50 NBA season. In Baltimore, he started every game playing both point guard and shooting guard. Von Nieda was known for his quickness on the court.[citation needed]
After leaving the NBA, he coached at Elizabethtown College for two years. In 1952, he became the player/coach of the Lancaster Red Roses for four years, making it to the finals three of those years. Von Nieda was selected to the All-EPBL Second Team in 1951.[2] Again in 1985, he coached Lancaster in the Continental League; these teams were a stepping stone to the NBA. Once again, his team made it to the finals. For many years, he coached junior teams, working with 10- and 12-year-old players and teaching them the fundamentals of basketball.[citation needed]
Personal life and death
Von Nieda resided in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Arlene. He turned 100 on June 19, 2022; he was the first NBA player to reach 100 years of age, and thus the longest lived NBA player in history.[3] He died on September 6, 2023, at the age of 101.[4][5]
