Steve Nisenson

Steve H. Nisenson is an American former basketball player, who played the guard position.

He set Hofstra University's all-time scoring record in basketball, which stood for 43 years. He also set the all-time national college season free-throw record in 1964, becoming the first college player to have a free throw percentage of better than .900.

Early life Nisenson is Jewish, and was from Livingston, New Jersey where he played basketball for Livingston High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in business management at Hofstra, and a master's degree in guidance and counseling at Long Island University.

Basketball career

College career Nisenson played basketball for Hofstra University from 1962 to 1965, where he was an All-American in both 1963 and 1964, and was the team's ball-handler and playmaker. He was also elected to the Eastern College Athletic Conference small college All-East team in 1963, 1964, and 1965. In 1964, he was a unanimous selection as the most valuable basketball player in the Middle Atlantic Conference northern college division.

He set the school's career scoring record with 2,222 points, and it was not broken until 2008. At the time that he set the record, there were only three years of eligibility, and there were not any 3-point shots. The record stood for 43 years.

He set the all-time national college free-throw record in 1964, becoming the first college player to have a free-throw percentage of better than .900. In 1963–64 he had a .913 free throw percentage, which is still a Hofstra single-season record.

Nisenson was drafted by the New York Knicks with the 37th pick overall, in the fifth round of the 1965 NBA draft. He was at the team's training camp, but did not make the team.

Honors

In 2002, Nisenson was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in New York.