Ed Steitz​

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Steitz was the editor of the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee from 1968 up until his death in 1990 at the age of 69.  Considered the worldwide authority on amateur basketball rules.  Steitz was widely given credit for the introduction of the three-point shot in 1987 and the 45-second shooting clock in 1986 and for bringing the dunk back into the collegiate game. He viewed the three-pointer the most important rule change since the elimination of the center jump in 1937.  Steitz spent his entire career at Springfield College, the same college at which James Naismith invented the game of basketball.  He earned Master’s and Doctoral degrees at Springfield and taught at Springfield starting in 1948.  He was the men’s basketball coach at Springfield from 1956 until 1966 and the school’s AD for 33 years before retiring in 1990 … He was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984 and was one of the founders of the hall in 1959.  He was also a co-founder of the Amateur Basketball Association, now called USA Basketball and was its president for 10 years.  He was also a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive committee and of the NCAA executive committee.  He wrote or edited 91 books and more than 300 articles for magazines and professional journals…He also served as the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Selection Committee between 1964 and 1980…. He was enshrined as a contributor in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007 and the USA Basketball’s Edward S. Steitz award was created in his honor in 1991 to recognize an individual for valuable contributions to international basketball.