Oscar Robertson to Receive UC's Top Alumni Award

This year’s top alumni award at the University of Cincinnati will be presented on Thursday, October 16, to one of the most enduringly popular and respected athletes of the 20th century.

The UC

Alumni Association

will present the William Howard Taft Medal for Notable Achievement to Oscar Robertson, a 1960 graduate of the College of Business.  Robertson, considered the greatest all-around player in basketball history, is a labor leader, an entrepreneur and a community activist. Robertson, president of Orchem, ORDMS and Orpack-Stone, with interests in banking, real estate and media, is still scoring points for Cincinnati as mentor, benefactor and organ-donation advocate.

To celebrate Robertson’s William Howard Taft Medal for Notable Achievement, the Oscar Robertson Transplantation Fund has been established at the UC Foundation. The fund benefits transplantation education and research in the Department of Surgery at the UC College of Medicine. The UC Alumni Association will match the first $10,000 donated to the fund.

Robertson is involved in numerous charitable and community activities, including the NBA Legends Foundation, NAACP, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army, HOME (Housing Opportunities Made Equal), Boys and Girls Clubs of America, National Lupus Foundation and the National Kidney Foundation, for whom he acts as an advocate for organ donation.

For three years he was National College Player of the Year and first-team All-American, plus NCAA top scorer – the first to do so. Robertson twice led the Bearcats to the Final Four and, after graduation, co-captained the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold-medal team. A stellar 14-year NBA career followed with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks (NBA champions, 1971).

The Taft Medal for Notable Achievement will be presented to Robertson at the 2003 UC Day Banquet October 16 at UC’s Marriott Kingsgate Conference Center and Hotel ballroom with cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.

Three other awards will be given at the UC Day Banquet: The Alumni Distinguished Service Award, the Jeffrey Hurwitz Young Alumni Association Outstanding Achievement Award and the Faculty Member of the Year Award.

Awards will be presented after dinner.  Reservations are required by Oct. 8.  Cost to attend is $80 per person, and reservations can be made by calling 513-556-4344.