HistoricSiteMarkers
Postwar & Contemporary

Harvey Pollack (1922-2015)

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Innovator of basketball statistics and player evaluation. NBA statistician from 1946 to 2014 with the Philadelphia Warriors and 76ers. Known as "Super Stat," he revolutionized analysis by creating categories such as rebounds, assists, and turnovers. A Temple graduate, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. His annual NBA statistical guide was in demand worldwide.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

Harvey Pollack, a Temple graduate known to fans as "Super Stat," spent nearly seven decades chronicling professional basketball in Philadelphia. Working with the Warriors and later the 76ers from 1946 to 2014, he invented ways of measuring the game that we now take for granted—counting rebounds, assists, and turnovers—and his annual statistical guide was sought after around the world. In 2002 the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame honored his lifetime of work.

Why it matters

Pollack helped turn basketball into a game understood through numbers, laying groundwork for the data-driven analysis that now shapes modern sports.

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