1 - In the Words of Hall of Famer Hank Luisetti

Background, first:

In October 2013 cinematographer Jake Hamilton - of Austin, Texas – interviewed the late John Christgau – author of “The Origins of the Jump Shot” (1999).

Among the stories he recounted to Hamilton were statements made in 1997-1998 by Hank Luisetti to Christgau while the latter was completing his book.

These exchanges follow:

Christgau to Luisetti:

“I’m told by my college coach that you were the first jump shooter ever.”

Luisetti to Christgau:

“I was not. I didn’t have a jump shot! I had a running one hander, and that’s what I’m credited for inventing. But I never had a jump shot.”

Christgau to Luisetti:

“ . . . who do you think was the first jump shooter and who did you see?”

Luisetti to Christgau:

“That was Kenny Sailors.”

2 - In the Words of Hall of Fame Coach Joe Lapchick

From the Sunday News, New York City, March 14, 1965, p. 32

“Still, Luisetti and Kenny Sailors of Wyoming have to be the two who most influenced the game in my time. Luisetti came out of the West with that one-hander, and Sailors started the one-hand jumper which is probably the shot of the present and future.”

From Lapchick’s autobiography, “50 Years of Basketball,” Prentice-Hall, 1968, p. 78:

“Hank Luisetti was the first one-hand shooter to visit Madison Square Garden . . . . In 1945-46 Wyoming University came into the Garden with a kid named Kenny Sailors, who unveiled a new weapon – the jump shot.

The shot was a sensation and has been basketball’s chief scoring weapon ever since . . . . The one-hand jump shot is the most popular shot in the history of the game.”

From former St. John’s player Gus Alfieri’s book, “Lapchick,” Lyons Press, 2006, p. 25:

“Lapchick described how . . . . Originally only two shots were taken from the field: set shot and layup. The one-hand and jump shot were the later products of imaginative collegians Hank Luisetti and Kenny Sailors.”

3 - In the Words of Hall of Fame Coach Ray Meyer

In his autobiography, “Coach,” Contemporary Books, 1987, p. 99:

“I think the greatest development was the introduction of the one-hand shot. Hank Luisetti of Stanford is credited with having introduced the running one-hander in 1936. It evolved into the jump shot we have today.”

In a personal letter from Meyer to Kenny Sailors (undated) after Meyer had retired from coaching at DePaul:

“Kenny, you were the first one I saw who really had a one handed jump shot. There were variations, but I never saw one who actually used the true one handed shot . . . . Kenny, I don’t speak or write as an authority, but you were the first I saw with the true jump shot as we know it today.”

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Authentic quotes documented by:
Bill Schrage, an archivist for Kenny Sailors
Laramie, Wyoming
June 5, 2015