1. Thomas Nicholas Meschery is an American former professional basketball player.
16 Facts About Tom Meschery
1. 2.
Tom Meschery played in the 1963 NBA All-Star Game, making him the first foreign-born NBA player to be selected as an NBA All-Star.
3.
Tom Meschery's parents were Russian emigrants who fled from the October Revolution in 1917.
4.
The Tom Meschery family was later relocated to a Japanese internment camp near Tokyo during World War II.
5.
Tom Meschery helped Saint Mary's reach the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight in 1959.
6.
Tom Meschery received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961.
7.
Tom Meschery played alongside legend Wilt Chamberlain, to whom he later dedicated a poem.
8.
Tom Meschery led the NBA in personal fouls in 1962 and he became the first foreign born player to play in an NBA All-Star Game when he played in the 1963 NBA All-Star Game.
9.
Tom Meschery has been inducted into the San Francisco High School Hall of Fame; Saint Mary's College Hall of Fame ; and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
10.
Tom Meschery published his first book of poems in 1970, and returned to school after his coaching stint, receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1974.
11.
Tom Meschery studied poetry with Mark Strand, US poet laureate, at the University of Washington.
12.
Tom Meschery is a poet, whose works often relate to basketball, teaching, and being a Russian immigrant.
13.
In 2002, Tom Meschery was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
14.
Tom Meschery was previously married to notable author Joanne Meschery, with whom he has three children: Janai, Megan, and Matthew.
15.
Tom Meschery has two published collections of poetry: Nothing We Lose Can Be Replaced and Some Men and Sweat: New and Selected Poems About Sports.
16.
Tom Meschery says he wishes to introduce the public to fine contemporary poems whose subject is sports in the same way Garrison Keillor makes poetry in general available to his listeners on his morning radio broadcasts.