Don J. Sunderlage was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player.

A 6'1" guard from Roselle, Illinois

Roselle, Illinois

Roselle is a city located in DuPage County and a small portion in Cook County Illinois in northeastern Illinois. It was first incorporated in 1922 and can correctly be relegated to a bedroom community — that is, a community that largely consists of residential zoning in both income streams...

, Sunderlage played collegiately at the University of Illinois

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

, earning the Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball

Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball

The Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball was an award that was presented annually by the Chicago Tribune to the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Conference for both men's and women's basketball in the United States through 2007. The Chicago Tribune awarded the Silver Basketball for men's basketball...

 award in 1951. From 1953 to 1955, he played in the National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 as a member of the Milwaukee Hawks and Minneapolis Lakers. He averaged 7.7 points per game

Points per game

Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by number of games. The terminology is often used in...

 in his career and represented the Hawks at the 1954 NBA All-Star Game

1954 NBA All-Star Game

The 1954 NBA All Star Game was the fourth NBA All-Star Game. It was held on January 21, 1954 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics was the game MVP. Joe Lapchick of the New York Knicks coached the Eastern Conference and John Kundla of the Minneapolis Lakers...

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On July 15, 1961, Sunderlage died following a car accident in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Lake Geneva is a city in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,148 at the 2000 census. A resort city located on Geneva Lake, it is southwest of Milwaukee and popular with tourists from metropolitan Chicago and Milwaukee.-History:...

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