“This is a great day for North Carolina A&T men’s basketball,” said head coach Cy Alexander. Growing up, he was a ball boy for Winston-Salem State and had a close-up view to see Attles play for A&T.

Attles’ No. 22 jersey now hangs from the rafters at Corbett after a ceremony between the women’s and men’s games against N.C. Central. There could hardly have been a more appropriate choice for the first Aggie to receive the honor.

Oscar Robertson, one of the greatest players in basketball history, was quoted as saying Attles was the "toughest man I ever played against."

"Once you were guarded by Al Attles, you never forgot him," Robertson said.

During his acceptance speech, the 1960 A&T graduate stressed education.

“Get your education,” Attles said, turning to the current A&T men’s basketball team lined along the baseline. “The basketball will take care of itself.”

After graduating from A&T with a degree in physical education and history, Attles earned a master’s in curriculum and instruction from the University of San Francisco in 1983. His wife Wilhelmina was a school teacher.

“A&T has always been important to me because it allowed me to do two things,” Attles said. “It allowed me the opportunity to play basketball, but more importantly it allowed me to be a better person.”

Attles was a 6-foot tall point guard and a star on the Aggies’ back-to-back CIAA championship teams in 1958 and ‘59. He thought after graduating in 1960 he would go back home to New Jersey and teach physical education. Instead, the Philadelphia Warriors drafted him. It began an unprecedented 55-year relationship with the Warriors organization, a relationship still going strong today.

He played 11 seasons, twice going to NBA finals. In 1963, he played superbly in one of the NBA’s most historic games – the night teammate Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. Though few may have noticed, Attles himself couldn’t miss in that game, hitting all eight of his shots from the field and his one free throw. 

As a Warrior, he averaged a solid 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 711 games.

He was the Warriors’ coach for 14 seasons, the first two as a player-coach. In 1975, he coached the San Francisco Warriors to what is still their only NBA championship since moving to the West Coast in 1962.

“I never thought I would get an opportunity to play professional basketball,” Attles said. “Basketball to me was something that allowed me to get an education. I have a plaque in my house for having the highest academic average of any athlete that year.

“That to me was more important than the All-American plaque that I have because I accomplished something I was told I would never be able to do – and that’s graduate from college.”

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