George Beamon Drafted by the Oklahoma Blue
George Beamon, the reigning MAAC Championship MVP, was drafted in the third round – 42nd overall – of the NBA Development League Draft to the Oklahoma City Blue, the D-League affiliate of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“George Beamon is one of the greatest players to ever play at Manhattan,” men’s basketball Head Coach Steve Masiello said on “The Five Borough Hoops Show” on Oct. 27.
He joins his classmates and teammates Mike Alvarado and Rhamel Brown, who also signed with professional basketball teams in Puerto Rico and Israel, respectively.
Beamon, the Jaspers leading scorer last season, is fourth on Manhattan’s all-time scoring list with 1,843 career points. He was selected to the All-MAAC second team last season where he eventually led his team to its first MAAC Championship in 10 years.
Beamon was the only player from the MAAC drafted into the D-League this year, and the first since 2012 when Ryan Rossiter from Siena and Nate Brown were taken in the second and eighth round respectively.
The Blue failed to make the D-League Playoffs last season with a 24-26 record.
Junius Kellogg and Lisa Toscano Inducted Into MAAC Hall of Fame
It’s hard to imagine what Manhattan College would be like without Junius Kellog ’53 and Lisa Toscano ’79.
Both have been inducted into the MAAC Honor Roll, which will be enshrined in the “MAAC Experience” exhibit at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Each institution of the MAAC honored one male and one female from its basketball program’s history as part of the 2014-2015 induction class.
Kellogg was the first African-American to play basketball for the college in 1949. Kellogg was approached with a $1000 bribe to shave points of a 1951 game. He refused and reported it to Head Coach Ken Norton, who called authorities and ended the largest betting scandal in U.S. history.
Kellogg was paralyzed in a car accident in 1954, but was able to regain the use of his arms and hands to play wheelchair basketball. He passed away in 1998. His brother, John Kellogg, accepted the award in his honor.
Toscano was the co-founder of the women’s basketball team. She went around campus and knocked on doors in attempt to find a few women who would make a basketball team. She found teammates, and they bought a few basketballs, taped “Manhattan” over their green T-shirts and created the first women’s varsity basketball team at the school.
She also helped establish the softball team and was one of the first female members of the crew team.
Kellogg and Toscano have both been inducted into the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame.