Joe Holup – Men’s Basketball Player of the Century

He is the Paul Bunyan of GW sports. Just how in the world did Joe Holup average 25 points and 23 rebounds in the same season?

And no, that’s not a typo.

Over his four-year career (thankfully, for a short period in the old days, freshmen could play varsity) Holup scored 2,226 points and grabbed 2,030 rebounds. Besides those marks, he holds the GW career records in scoring average (21.4), field goals (756) and free throws (714). He has the mark for season rebounding average, points in a game (49), free throws in a game (25) and field goals in a game (18). He led the team in scoring his freshman and senior years. GW’s field goal percentage and rebounding stats only go back to 1953, so it’s only known for sure that Holup led the team in both categories his last three years.

He led the nation in field goal percentage two of his four seasons and in rebounding his senior year. (As an aside, Eliot Karver was second in field goal percentage in 1954, the only time in NCAA history teammates have been one and two in that category.) Shawnta Rogers is the only other Colonial to lead the nation in a statistical category.

Holup led his team to 23-3 and 24-6 records (the first is a GW record for winning percentage, the second is a record for wins). He was third-team Associated Press all-American his senior year – the only time a Colonial has made an AP team.

Perhaps this is folly, but it seems safe to say that there will never be another like Joe Holup.