Great scorers are rarely forgotten, unfortunately Jack Twyman is rarely remembered and rarely ranked with the top players of all-time. He is arguably the greatest player to be left off the top 50 list and is likely even highly underrated in our list right now. Twyman was a four year player at the University of Cincinnati. His freshman year he seen limited minutes only averaging 7 points a game. In his second year he broke into the rotation and his averages jumped to 15 points and 15 rebounds. By his senior season he averaged 25 points and 17 rebounds. When all was said and done at Cincinnati he finished with career averages of 18 points and 14 rebounds. He was drafted in the second round of the 1955 NBA by the Rochester Royals. That might seem odd today where a player of Twyman’s caliber would never fall to the second round, but in 1955 there was only 8 NBA teams and there was also the territorial draft where teams could forfeit their first round pick to take a local college player to help boost attendance. So in essence Twyman was actually the 10th overall pick in the draft, not the 8th pick as listed (There was 2 territorial picks that season) or the 2nd pick of the 2nd round.

He lead the NBA in field goal percentage his third year, a year which also seen the Royals moved to Cincinnati where Twyman had played his college ball. In 1958-59 his scoring went up to 26 a game and he was getting series considerations for the MVP.

He become one of the first two players in NBA history to average over 30 points a game in a season in 59-60, when he averaged 31 points a game. The only thing that kept him from the scoring title that season was Wilt Chamberlain’s 37 points per night average.

Tywamn’s numbers began a slight decline after 1960, but they were still highly respectable. He played for the Royals his entire career and was noted as one of the most durable players in the league and for that matter of all-time. In his 11 seasons in the NBA he either lead the NBA in games played, usually tied with several other players, or played in the maximum number of games his team had in 9 of his 11 seasons. He averaged 20 or more points in 5 straight seasons from 59 until 63 and was a six time all-star.

Following the 65-66 season Twyman retied from the NBA having played in 823 career games and owning career averages of 19 points and 7 rebounds. He was inducted into the basketball hall of fame in 1983 and served as a broadcaster for ABC in the late 60s and early 70s.

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