Yakima Valley College Athletics

In 1936 Ralph Bishop was the only collegiate player selected to the thirteen-man U.S. Olympic basketball team.  He had just completed a brilliant three-year career with the University of Washington Huskies.  In his senior year (1936) he received All-America recognition and was the Huskies' team captain.

Bishop played for the national AAU power Safeway Stores of Denver the following year and then joined the Denver Nuggets in the 1937-38 season.  In 1947 he became the coach of the Nuggets.  Under his direction, the Nuggets took second place in the American Basketball League, second in the National AAU Tournament, and third in the 1948 Olympic Trials.

A graduate of Yakima High School, he attended Yakima Valley College in 1932-33 and played on the 1933 basketball team coached by H.C. "Bim" Hopf.  The team compliled an 8-6 record, mostly against four-year schools, with Bishop scoring 211 points for a 15.1 points per game average.  He was captain-elect of the 1934 team before accepting a basketball scholarship to the University of Washington. He was inducted into the NWAC Hall of Fame in 2006.