Lehman, Lou

Louis Lehman

Lehman was a member of St. Louis's 1948 NIT (National Invitational Tournament) championship team; they defeated the Dolph Schayes-led New York University Violets in the title game.

Birth and Death Dates:
unknown

Career Highlights:
Lehman was a guard at St. Louis University in the late 1940s. He helped lead the Billikens to the 1948 NIT Championship. That season, St. Louis (led by Hall of Famer "Easy" Ed MaCauley) finished the regular season with a record of 21-3 and ranked No. 2 in the country heading into the NIT. In the tournament, the Billikens defeated Bowling Green in the first round and then knocked off No. 1 seed, Western Kentucky in the semifinals; Lehman contributed 13 points off the bench. Hailed by the New York Times as, "the most talented college basketball team seen here in many a season," St. Louis captured the NIT championship by defeating NYU (New York University), with Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes, by a score of 62-52 (NYU was missing injured All-America guard Don Forman) . In the final, Lehman scored only two points, but averaged 7.3 points per game for the entire tournament.

Lehman, a junior, joined St. Louis's starting line-up the following year (1949) as a guard and helped the Bilikens remain one of the best teams in the nation. In an early-season game, he scored a team-high 12 points in the final of the Sugar Bowl tournament held in New Orleans, and St. Louis defeated Kentucky, 42-40 (it was Kentucky's only loss of the season). Statistically, this was Lehman's best offensive year. He finished eighth in the Missouri Valley with an average of 9.5 points per game (95 points in 10 conference games). By the end of the regular season, the Billikens were ranked No. 3 in the country with a 22-3 record (8-2 in conference) and returned to the NIT as the No. 2 seed. In the first round of the tournament, Lehman scored a team-high 16 points and the Billikens jumped out to an early 13 point lead over Bowling Green, but fell apart toward the end of the game and were upset, 80-74.

In his senior season (1950), Lehman was named first team All-Missouri Valley Conference and St. Louis finished with a respectable 17-9 record. They did not play in the postseason, however, since they finished second place in conference with a 8-4 record and two of their losses came to No. 1 ranked Bradley, the conference champion (at this time, only the conference champs played in the postseason).

Origin:
unknown

Career Dates:
Lehman played guard at St. Louis University from 1947-1950.

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