Ernest Houghton was an American college basketball standout at Union College

Union College

Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...

 in the 1910s. He was an Helms Athletic Foundation

Helms Athletic Foundation

The Helms Athletic Foundation was an athletic foundation based in Los Angeles, founded in 1936 by Bill Schroeder and Paul Helms. It put together a panel of experts to select National Champion teams and make All-America team selections in a number of college sports including football and basketball...

 All-American

NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans

The NCAA Men's Basketball All-American teams are honorary teams made up of those NCAA basketball players voted the best in the country by a variety of organizations.-History:...

 in both 1914

1914 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans

The 1914 College Basketball All-American team, as chosen by the Helms Foundation. The player highlighted by gold indicates that he was chosen as the Helms Foundation Player of the Year....

 and 1915

1915 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans

The 1915 College Basketball All-American team, as chosen by the Helms Foundation. The player highlighted by gold indicates that he was chosen as the Helms Foundation Player of the Year....

, and was named their National Player of the Year after the 1914–15 season. After college, Houghton played in one of the earliest professional basketball leagues in the United States – the New York State League. He played for Hudson

Hudson, New York

Hudson is a city located along the west border of Columbia County, New York, United States. The city is named after the adjacent Hudson River and ultimately after the explorer Henry Hudson.Hudson is the county seat of Columbia County...

 and was a high scoring player, but the league was disrupted and ultimately folded due to World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. In 23 games, Houghton scored 100 career points.