Dickie Hemric

Ned Dixon "Dickie" Hemric (August 29, 1933 – August 3, 2017) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player for Wake Forest University (1952–1955) and the NBA's Boston Celtics (1955–1957).

Hemric played the first two college years at Wake Forest when the school was a member of the Southern Conference. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Male Athlete of the Year was created at the start of the 1954 season, and he played his last two seasons in the ACC, setting conference records for scoring and rebounding that were untouched for the first 50 years of the conference's existence. He was honored as the second recipient of the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1955. In 2002 Hemric was selected to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team, honoring the fifty greatest players in ACC history.

On February 25, 2006, Hemric's ACC scoring record of 2,587 points was broken by Duke University's J. J. Redick. Hemric's ACC record of 1,802 career rebounds has never faced a serious challenge—his contemporary Ronnie Shavlik was third on the list with 1,567 rebounds from 1954 to 1956, and the closest person to challenge the record since then was current NBA power forward Tim Duncan, who pulled down 1,570 rebounds in his career at Wake Forest from 1994 to 1997 (although Hemric is still fifth all-time in Division I career rebounds). He is now third all-time in ACC scoring, behind Redick and Tyler Hansbrough of the University of North Carolina.

For 55 years, Hemric held the NCAA record for free throws made in a career with 905, until being surpassed by North Carolina's Hansbrough on February 28, 2009. Hemric still holds the Division I record for most free throw attempts (1,359) in a career.

Hemric died on August 3, 2017 at his home in Akron, Ohio nearly four weeks shy of his 84th birthday.