Cliff Hagan, a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee who won NCAA and NBA championships, died at the age of 94. Hagan was a standout player for the University of Kentucky and the St. Louis Hawks, and later served as Kentucky's athletic director from 1975 to 1988. His death came just weeks after his former Hawks teammate Bob Pettit also passed away, marking the end of an era for the franchise's only championship-winning squad.
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Cliff Hagan, whose basketball career brought both an NCAA championship and an NBA title before earning him a place in the Hall of Fame, died at 94, drawing tributes from the University of Kentucky and from across the sport.
John Calipari, who both played for and now coaches Kentucky, took to X to share that Hagan held the status of a programme icon and a close personal friend, adding that his influence would remain woven into the history of Kentucky basketball and the structure of Rupp Arena for generations to come.
No cause of death has been made public, while those close to the family have offered their thoughts and support.
Word of Hagan's death surfaced through Oscar Combs — a Kentucky sportswriter and author with long ties to the sport — who noted that during Hagan's tenure overseeing the school's athletic department from 1975 through 1988, he worked to advance opportunities in women's athletics. On X, Combs expressed a wish that Hagan be recalled for the kindness and consideration he extended to those around him, a reflection written against the backdrop of an era when financial support for women's basketball and Olympic sports programmes stood at a fraction of present-day investment.
Bob Pettit, a Basketball Hall of Fame member who had played alongside Hagan on the St. Louis Hawks, passed away at 93 — roughly four weeks before Hagan's own death. On X, NBA Today host Justin Termine drew attention to the fact that Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagan — the two most prominent players from the Hawks' only title-winning roster — died within roughly three weeks of one another. At the time of their deaths, the pair held a distinction no other surviving player could claim: both had earned championship rings during the Hawks' tenure before the franchise relocated to Atlanta.
Hagan was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, and his place on the Kentucky Wildcats roster contributed to the national championship the squad secured in 1951 under coach Adolph Rupp. That campaign saw Kentucky post a 32–2 overall record and go unbeaten through all 14 conference matchups to claim the programme's third SEC title, with Hagan contributing 9.2 points per outing in his second year on the roster. He earned All-American honours in each of the two seasons that followed, yet his collegiate career came to an abrupt end when three of his Kentucky teammates were drawn into a point-shaving affair.
When that summer's NBA Draft carried Hagan's name onto the Boston Celtics' roster, he nonetheless chose to put one additional season under Rupp's direction in Lexington — a decision that came after the school had already wiped out his junior year's results. Hagan's path to the NBA was further interrupted by military obligation; he fulfilled Air Force duty at Andrews Air Force Base across 1954 and 1955 before any professional basketball opportunity could materialise.
Hagan and Ed "Easy" Macauley, who played centre for the Celtics, were packaged together and dealt to the St. Louis Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to Bill Russell — a transaction that has since become one of the most frequently cited in the annals of the NBA. Hagan, reflecting in 2018, offered his account of how the deal had come together: the Hawks, he said, had moved Russell chiefly to land Ed Macauley, who had built his reputation as an All-American at Saint Louis University and was regarded as a premier talent at the time, with Hagan noting that his own name had entered the trade largely as an afterthought rather than a central piece of the arrangement.
Four players — Hagan, Macauley, Pettit, and Slater Martin — fell short against Boston in the 1957 NBA Finals, then returned the following year to claim a championship that stands as the lone title in franchise history. Hagan paced St. Louis in playoff scoring that postseason, a detail that sits alongside Pettit's 50-point performance in the Game Six clincher. Of the 11 NBA Finals that followed, Boston walked away with ten championship banners, a stretch that many observers tied directly to the value Russell brought on the defensive end.
Hagan's remark about Boston having no physical counter to him set the stage for a five-season run — 1957 to 1962 — in which he averaged 22.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, all while connecting on close to 80 percent of his free-throw attempts. Six All-Star selections — five earned during his NBA tenure and one more after he moved to the ABA — marked Hagan's playing career before he stepped away from the game in 1970.
A retirement taken after the 1965–66 campaign proved short-lived, as he was persuaded to return for the ABA's Dallas Chaparrals — the franchise that later relocated to San Antonio and took on the Spurs identity.
Two years after stepping away from playing, Hagan moved into the role of assistant athletic director at Kentucky, then assumed leadership of the department in 1975. His time in the role included advocacy for expanded women's sports funding in Lexington, as well as involvement in the 1988 recruiting scandal involving basketball coach Eddie Sutton. A two-year ban from postseason play was handed down against the Wildcats.
A departure from the role opened a spot that C.M. Newton — who had played alongside Hagan at Kentucky — stepped in to fill. Newton brought Rick Pitino aboard to lead the Wildcats programme, a hire that would later carry Hall-of-Fame weight.
Prior to a replacement venue opening in 2019, Kentucky's baseball facility carried Hagan's name and featured a bleacher section that fans called "The Cliff." When asked whether he and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had ever spoken about the hook shot, Hagan said the two had not been in contact.
Martha, his wife, outlives him alongside their four children — daughters Lisa, Laurie, and Amy, and a son, Cliff Jr.