Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year
Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year
Awarded for
National men's college basketball player of the year
Country
United States
History
First award
1943 (with retroactive awards for 1905–1943)
Final award
1983
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.
^ ab"Helms Athletic Foundation — Collegiate Basketball Record — Part II" (Press release). Los Angeles: Helms Athletic Foundation. February 1943. p. 10. Retrieved December 22, 2023. These Basketball Player of the Year selections have been made by Helms Athletic Foundation, following careful study of the performances of outstanding players for each season since 1920. Basketball Player of the Year selections will be made by Helms Athletic Foundation at the conclusion of each season in the future.
^ abcdBjarkman, Peter (1996). Hoopla: A Century of College Basketball. Masters Press. ISBN1-57028-039-8.
^Ashford, Ed (April 4, 1950). "Helms Rates Arizin Top Player, CCNY No. 1 Quintet". The Lexington Herald. p. 6. Retrieved December 27, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Selection of CCNY as the nation's top team was not difficult after the Beavers made an unprecedented sweep of the NIT and NCAA tournaments.
^ Written at Los Angeles. "Thompson, Walton Honored by CSAF". The Times and Democrat. Orangeburg, South Carolina. Associated Press. April 3, 2023. p. 14A. Retrieved December 28, 2023. David Thompson of North Carolina State and Bill Walton of UCLA were named college basketball Players of the Year Wednesday by the Citizens Savings Athletic Foundation. It was the third consecutive year Walton was cited.
^ Written at Los Angeles. "Bird Is Named Player of Year". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. United Press International. April 1, 1979. p. 6-C. Retrieved December 28, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Larry Bird was named college basketball's Player of the Year by the Citizens Savings Athletic Foundation. Sophomore Earvin Johnson of NCAA champion Michigan State finished second in the voting.
^"Griffth adds two more awards". The Kansas City Times. April 1, 1980. p. D-4. Retrieved December 4, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Griffith has also been named college basketball player of the year by Citizens Savings Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles an award that goes back to 1905.
^Anderson, Claude (April 7, 1981). "Getting set for run at the roses". The Sun. pp. D-1, D-5. Retrieved May 2, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. DePaul's Mark Aguirre was player-of-the-year and UC Irvine's Kevin Magee (the only other Southlander selected) made it at a forward.
^Bender, Jack (June 29, 1983). "It's summer—and basketball is back". Waterloo Courier. p. B-1. Retrieved December 5, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. And only the Athletic Foundation funded by First Interstate Bank (formerly the Helms awards) picked Akeem Abdul Olajuwon of NCAA runnerup Houston as its player of the year.