KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dan Pippin was a two-time All-Big 6 honoree for the University of Missouri basketball team in the 1940s.
During a standout career with the Peoria Cats, Pippin went on to become a two-time AAU All-American and captained the 1952 Olympic men’s basketball team to a gold medal.
Pippin, who led the Tigers in scoring at 10.7 points per game in 1948, played on a U.S. squad that included seven players from the rival University of Kansas.
That group of Jayhawks included Bill Hougland and Clyde Lovelette, but Pippin was a big-time contributor.
He scored in double figures four times — notching 13 points against Hungary, 11 against Czechoslovakia and 10 against Chile during pool and scoring 12 against Argentina in the semifinals.
Pippin scored 5.4 points per game for the U.S., which went 8-0 during the 1952 Helsinki Games.
He was posthumously inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 and was inducted in the Mizzou Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.
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The Kansas City region has a deep, rich history with respect to the Olympic Games. As the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games approach with the Opening Ceremony scheduled for July 23, we will profile an athlete with ties to Kansas City, Missouri or Kansas each day.
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