The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. is a good place for Iona College in 2013. The Men’s Basketball team won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship there in March, and Richard “Richie” Guerin, class of 1954, was elected to the Hall of Fame.

Guerin is the first Iona alumnus to receive this honor. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 13 seasons with the New York Knicks and the St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks. In his career, he netted 14,676 points. The six-time NBA All-Star was the first guard in NBA history to score 2,000 points in a season.

He led the Knicks in scoring three times, including in 1962, when he averaged a career-best 29.5 points per game. After suiting up for New York for seven seasons, Guerin went to the St. Louis Hawks, who moved to Atlanta in 1968. With the Hawks, he served as a player-coach and won the 1968 NBA Coach of the Year Award.

“No one was as tough as he was,” Boston Celtics great John Havlicek said in an article on palmbeachpost.com. “There were some guys who had game, but they didn’t have the strength or the attitude that he had.”

Guerin finished his playing career with the Hawks, and in 1970, he gave up playing and became the full-time head coach. He compiled a 327-291 record in eight seasons as head coach. For the 1972-73 season, he served as the Hawks’ general manager.

Guerin played for the Gaels from 1951 to 1954. He amassed 1,375 career points, for an average of 19.6 points per game in his time with the Maroon & Gold. When he graduated, he held the school’s career scoring record. He also held the single game scoring record of 40 points.

Guerin will be inducted into the Hall of Fame with other deserving candidates. Among them are University of Louisville Men’s Basketball head coach Rick Pitino, nine-time NBA All-Star Gary Payton, University of North Carolina Women’s Basketball head coach Sylvia Hatchell and former University of Nevada at Las Vegas Men’s Basketball head coach Jerry Tarkanian.

The enshrinement ceremony is on Sept. 8 at 2 p.m. at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The ceremony will be broadcast on NBA TV.