Athlete – Basketball
Joe “Little Joe” Hamilton, a 5’10” guard, was an All-American basketball player at the old Lexington Dunbar High School who went on to star in junior college and college and play six seasons in the American Basketball Association. As a high school senior, Joe led the city in scoring with a 24.4 points per game average. He was twice named JuCo All-American at the Christian College of the Southwest, averaging 31.5 points per game as a freshman and 30.1 as a sophomore. Joe went on to earn All-Missouri Valley Conference status twice for North Texas State University and as a senior in 1970 was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. He also was an alternate for the 1968 Olympic Team.
Joe was drafted by both the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA and the Texas Chaparrals of the upstart ABA where he earned All-ABA rookie team honors. He played a total of 344 games during the course of six seasons with the Chaparrals, San Antonio Spurs, Kentucky Colonels, and the Utah Stars.
After the ABA, Joe went overseas and played with the Munich All-Stars before coming back home to Kentucky to run the Joe Hamilton Basketball Camp for 25 years before his retirement in 2012. Joe worked for the city of Louisville for 20 years.
