Art (Arthur Cornelius) Spoelstra was a 6-foot-9 basketball center in the late 1940s and 1950s out of Godwin Heights High School who went on to be an All-American at Western Kentucky University and play with three teams in a four-year NBA career.
At Godwin he played four years on the varsity and was the star of three conference championship teams and the 1949-50 team that was runner-up in Class B, falling to Ishpeming 43-37 in the state championship game.
Western Kentucky named him to the school’s All-Century team and he has been in the WKU Athletics Hall of Fame since 1998. He was a standout for the 1953-54 Hilltoppers who were 29-3, and he earned All-American honors while setting a then-record single game points total of 52 versus Morehead State. He ranks among the all-time leading scorers and rebounders at WKU with 1,510 points (16 per game) and 1,367 rebounds.
After graduating from WKU he was drafted by the NBA’s Rochester Royals (34th pick overall). He played four years, earning a top salary of $5,500 in the barnstorming days of the league. His career included playing most of the first three with the Royals and a half season with the Minneapolis Lakers and a final partial year with the New York Knicks before knee injuries forced him to retire. He averaged 7.2 points and 4.6 rebounds in his NBA career.
Following his basketball career, Spoelstra worked in the insurance industry and was a union stagehand for several Broadway theatres in New York. He died in 2008 in Evansville, Ind. He was 75.