I was watching my favorite sport, basketball, on television a few nights after NASA announced the fifth service mission to Hubble. UCLA legend and NBA great Bill Walton was the analyst during the game. As Walton made one of his trademark hyperbolic comments, I remembered a connection he holds with Edwin Hubble.
Both played center on college basketball teams that won the national title. Although Hubble wasn’t as prominent as Walton, he was a strong presence on the hardwood. At 6’2”, Hubble averaged around 9 points per game while anchoring the 1909 national champion University of Chicago Maroons. One of Hubble’s masterful performances that year was against Northwestern. In this match-up, he dominated the game by scoring 12 points in a 17-15 triumph. Not only an excellent basketball player, Hubble also received an athletic letter for his participation in track and boxing. In 1910, Hubble received his degree from the University of Chicago and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study law at Queens College, Oxford, ending his basketball-playing days. It is safe to say that basketball’s loss was astronomy’s gain.