McGill hoops grad named to hall of fame in Pennsylvania
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MONTREAL - Dr. John Naponick, a former McGill basketball star who graduated from medical school in 1973, has been selected as one of 16 inaugural inductees to the Norwin High School Sports Hall of Fame in North Huntingdon, Penn. The ceremony is slated for Sept. 24.
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A 6-foot-10, 335-pound native of Irwin, Penn., Naponick played centre for the basketball Redmen in 1971-72, where he averaged 25.9 points and 17.9 rebounds in 25 games overall. He reached the 30-point plateau five times that season, including a 40-point performance in a 69-59 win over Royal Military College on Dec. 4, 1971.
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In the 1972 Quebec league championship game, Naponick tallied 24 points and pulled down 29 rebounds, leading McGill to a 73-71 upset over Loyola and a berth at the Nationals in Vancouver, B.C., where he was the tournament's leading scorer.
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Prior to attending McGill, he played both football and basketball at the University of Virginia, played in the Canadian Football League with Winnipeg in 1966 and was drafted by the NFL's Oakland Raiders in 1968.
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Naponick, who has spent much of his life, practicing medicine in third world countries, specializes in maternal and reproductive health. He acted as a health expert for United States Agency for International Development for eight years delivering reproductive health programs in Burma and Bangladesh. In his last post, he served as medical director in Alexandria, Louisiana, an area located 220 miles north of New Orleans, where was responsible for a $12 million dollar public health program. He is currently serving as a British government-sponsored medical consultant to the Cambodian minister of health.
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SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514-398-7012