University of San Francisco Athletics

James Hardy was born on December 1, 1956 in Knoxville, AL and attended Jordan High School in Long Beach, prior to attending USF. At 6’ 8”, 220 lbs., he played power forward for the Dons for three seasons. He was a teammate of fellow Hall of Famers Bill Cartwright and Winford Boynes, and had a career total of 1075 points and 772 rebounds. Hardy was a Second Team All-WCAC selection as a freshman in 1975-1976, and as a sophomore in 1976-1977, was First Team All-Conference, and an Associated Press Honorable Mention. He finished his USF career seventh in rebounds at 772, and tenth in points at 1075.
 
Hardy was selected by the New Orleans Jazz in First Round (11^th pick overall) of the 1978 NBA Draft. He played two seasons with them, a season with the Anchorage Northern Knights, and two seasons with the Jazz after they relocated to Salt Lake City. James then moved on to play for multiple European teams: the Crispa Redmanizers in the Philippines; the APU Udine and Mens Sana Siena in Italy; the Paris Basket Racing and Olympic Antibes in France; and the CB Ourense in Spain. 

USF legend Bill Cartwright had this to say about James: “We won a lot of games together and climbed to No. 1 in the nation – but everyone would always remember that one spectacular play James made every game that you might not see again. He was a scorer, a rebounder, shot blocker and we all wished we were as gifted as he was (USF Athletics).”