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Game state source: whynba · Retrieved Oct 9, 6:37 pm EDTNBA legend. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Biography, honors and career statistics below.
Frank Ramsey
Career at a glance
Frank Ramsey played 9 NBA regular seasons between 1954 and 1964, appearing in 623 games and averaging 13.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He spent his whole career with Boston (9 seasons between 1954 and 1964, 623 games). His best scoring season was 1957–58 with Boston: 16.5 points per game over 69 games.
Championship seasons: 1956–57 (Boston), 1958–59 (Boston), 1959–60 (Boston), 1960–61 (Boston), 1961–62 (Boston), 1962–63 (Boston), 1963–64 (Boston). In the playoffs he appeared in 9 postseason runs (98 games, 13.6 points per game). Multiplying each season’s games by its scoring average gives roughly 8,400 regular-season points (an estimate from per-game figures, not an official total).
whynba analysis of the season-by-season statistics below (Wikipedia revision, CC BY-SA 4.0). Totals are estimates from per-game averages.
About Frank Ramsey
Frank Vernon Ramsey Jr. (July 13, 1931– July 8, 2018) was an American professional basketball player and coach. A 6-3 swingman, he played his entire nine-year (1954–1964) National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Boston Celtics and played a major role in the early part of their dynasty, winning seven championships as part of the team. Ramsey was also a head coach for the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association (ABA) during the 1970–71 season. Ramsey was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.
- Born
- July 13, 1931 Corydon, Kentucky, U.S.
- Listed height
- 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
- Listed weight
- 190 lb (86 kg)
- Position
- Small forward / shooting guard
- High school
- Madisonville (Madisonville, Kentucky)
- College
- Kentucky (1950–1954)
- NBA draft
- 1953: 1st round, 5th overall pick
- Playing career
- 1954–1964
Career highlights and awards
- 7× NBA champion (1957, 1959–1964)
- No. 23 retired by Boston Celtics
- NCAA champion (1951)
- Consensus second-team All-American (1954)
- Second-team All-American – AP, UPI (1952)
- Third-team All-American – AP, UPI (1951)
Career statistics
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954–55 | Boston | 64 | 27.4 | .399 | .755 | 6.3 | 2.9 | 11.2 |
| 1956–57† | Boston | 35 | 23.1 | .393 | .791 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 11.9 |
| 1957–58 | Boston | 69 | 29.7 | .419 | .811 | 7.3 | 2.4 | 16.5 |
| 1958–59† | Boston | 72 | 28.0 | .378 | .782 | 6.8 | 2.0 | 15.4 |
| 1959–60† | Boston | 73 | 27.5 | .397 | .787 | 6.9 | 1.9 | 15.3 |
| 1960–61† | Boston | 79 | 25.6 | .407 | .833 | 5.5 | 1.8 | 15.1 |
| 1961–62† | Boston | 79 | 24.2 | .428 | .825 | 4.9 | 1.4 | 15.3 |
| 1962–63† | Boston | 77 | 20.0 | .382 | .816 | 3.7 | 1.2 | 10.9 |
| 1963–64† | Boston | 75 | 16.4 | .374 | .841 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 8.6 |
| Career | 623 | 24.6 | .399 | .804 | 5.5 | 1.8 | 13.4 |
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Boston | 7 | 22.0 | .519 | .731 | 5.0 | 2.3 | 10.7 |
| 1957† | Boston | 10 | 22.9 | .463 | .780 | 4.3 | 1.7 | 12.2 |
| 1958 | Boston | 11 | 32.0 | .425 | .915 | 8.2 | 1.5 | 18.4 |
| 1959† | Boston | 11 | 27.5 | .495 | .802 | 6.2 | 1.8 | 23.2 |
| 1960† | Boston | 13 | 35.3 | .413 | .873 | 7.7 | 2.1 | 16.7 |
| 1961† | Boston | 10 | 30.0 | .404 | .813 | 6.4 | 2.3 | 17.1 |
| 1962† | Boston | 13 | 16.2 | .375 | .911 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 9.2 |
| 1963† | Boston | 13 | 19.3 | .356 | .723 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 8.3 |
| 1964† | Boston | 10 | 13.8 | .349 | .857 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 6.2 |
| Career | 98 | 24.4 | .424 | .826 | 5.0 | 1.5 | 13.6 |
Per-game averages. † won an NBA championship · * led the league · ‡ NBA record (as marked).
Profile observation date unavailable.
- Height
- 6′ 3″
- Weight
- 190 lb
- Position
- Small forward / shooting guard
- Jersey
- Not listed
- Country
- USA
- School / last affiliation
- Not listed
- Draft year
- 1953
- Draft pick
- Round 1 · Pick 5
Height, Weight, Position, Country, Draft year, Draft pick: blank in the NBA.com profile, filled from the Wikipedia infobox credited in the About section above.
Why Frank Ramsey mattered as a sixth man
For the Boston Celtics, Ramsey’s bench role was a deliberate choice: Red Auerbach could introduce a rested scorer and still use him to finish games. A sixth man changes the substitution pattern. Keeping a trusted scorer outside the opening five gives a coach another way to sustain the offense when starters rest; it does not set a ceiling on that player’s importance late in a close game.
A reserve with a postseason role
Ramsey’s 1959 playoff line is a useful example: 23.2 points per game across 11 appearances, compared with 15.4 in that regular season. Those are different samples, but they show why the reserve label alone tells too little about his contribution to that championship run.
He also finished his career with six wins in six Game 7 appearances. That is a team result, rather than a measure of one player’s impact, but it places him repeatedly in the highest-pressure games of Boston’s early dynasty.
Ramsey’s role also predates the Sixth Man of the Year award, introduced in 1982–83. His legacy concerns how Boston used its bench, rather than an award he had an opportunity to win.
Roster observations
These dates show when our saved NBA directory observations listed this player with a team. They are not signing, trade or contract dates, and this is not a complete career history.
No roster observations are stored for this player. Historical profile details above do not establish a current team assignment.
Profile source
Biographical fields reflect the saved official profile at the check time shown above. Team assignments use the dated directory evidence in Roster observations. Offseason rosters and jersey numbers can change.
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