Hall of Fame
A native of Toulon, IL, Paul Unruh was a two-time, first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball choice, earning consensus All-America honors and becoming the first Bradley player to do so in the process.
One of only two Braves to lead the team in scoring four consecutive seasons, Unruh played basketball at Bradley from 1946-1950. He also ran track for BU, establishing a school record for the 440 (49.7 seconds).
In his first two basketball seasons at Bradley while playing for legendary coach A.J. Robertson, Unruh paved the way for the Braves to compile a two-season win-loss record of 53-10, before Forddy Anderson took the reigns in 1948.
During his junior season in 1948-49, a campaign which saw him crack the 500-point plateau, numerous pundits wrote great things about “the man who never got tired”.
Stan Lomax of Sport Magazine once wrote, “Six feet, four inches tall, with 181 pounds distributed over all hat length, Unruh has been one of Bradley’s steadiest scorers. He is one of the fastest men playing college basketball … but is best known at Bradley for his amazing endurance. He’s the ’40-minute man’ and never shows any signs of slowing up”.
To cap the 1948-49 campaign, he was named to the 1949 All-NIT squad after leading the tournament in scoring (20 points per game) and landed on the Helms Foundation All-America unit.
By the time Bradley completed the 1949-50 season as the nation’s number one team (by the Associated Press), Unruh had made all experts look very smart.
A consensus All-American, he finished his career as Bradley’s scoring leader with 1,822 points. That total would stand for a decade until former Bradley great Chet Walker surpassed it.
Also in 1949-50, Unruh led the Braves to the national championship game of the NCAA Tournament and he NIT. Unruh and his teammates fell to City College of New York, 71-68, in the NCAA final, and dropped a 69-61 decision to CCNY in the finals of the NIT.
In addition to its runner-up finishes in the NCAA and NIT events, Bradley posted a 32-5 record in 1949-50 and the 32 victories are still tied for the most in program history. During Unruh’s four-year career, the Braves had a 112-23 record.
In 1971, he placed ninth on the fan balloting for the all-time All-Missouri Valley Conference Team, listing among the likes of Valley Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson, Wes Unseld, Walker, Dave Stallworth, Ed Macauley and Bob Kurkland.
One of seven former Bradley greats to have his jersey retired (#15 on Feb. 9, 1991), Unruh lives in Peoria, IL.