Today in Boston Celtics history: Dickie Hemric born, wing John Janisch passes

Today in Boston Celtics history, Ned Dixon "Dick" Hemric was born in Jonesville, North Carolina, in 1933. He played his NCAA basketball with Wake Forest, with whom he would be named an All-American in both 1954 and 1955.

The Jonesville native set a scoring record (2,587 total career points) in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) that stood until 2009 and a rebounding record (1,802 total career rebounds) that still stands as of the time of writing. It was not even matched by San Antonio Spurs Hall of Fame big man Tim Duncan during his tenure with the Demon Deacons many years later. Evidently, Hemric played well enough to persuade the Celtics to draft him with the 10th pick of the 1955 NBA Draft.

Hemric played 138 games over two seasons for the Celtics. He averaged 6.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game over 17.3 minutes per game before walking away from the game as a player in 1957.

Rest in Peace

It is also the anniversary of the passing of former Boston guard and forward John Albert Janisch, who died at age 72 in West Branch, Michigan on this day in 1992. Born in Indiana on March 15, 1920, Janisch played collegiately for Valparaiso from 1943 to 1946 before he made the leap to the pro ranks with the now-defunct Detroit Falcons of the Basketball Association of America (BAA -- a precursor league of the NBA).

Janisch was drafted by the Celtics in the dispersal draft of the Falcons in 1947, but he played just three games total with Boston. He would play another 7 contests with the also-defunct BAA team the Providence Steamrollers before leaving the league to play in the National Basketball League (NBL, another precursor league of the NBA to later merge with the BAA, not to be confused with the Australian league of the same name of today).

He logged a point per game in his brief stint as a Celtic.

This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Celtics history: Dickie Hemric born, wing John Janisch passes