Robert Francis „Bobby" Wanser (eng. Robert Francis „Bobby" Wanzer; June 4, 1921, Brooklyn, New York – January 23, 2016, Pittsford, NY) – American professional basketball player and coach.

Player career

Played as an attacking defender and point guard. He studied at Seton Hall University, in 1948 he was selected in the NBA draft under the 10th number by the Rochester Royals team and spent his entire sports career in this club. In total, he spent 9 seasons in the NBA. In the 1950/51 season, Wanser became the NBA champion with the Royals. He took part in the NBA All-Star Game five times (1952-1956). Three times included in the 2nd national team of all NBA stars (1952-1954). In 1987 he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In total, during his career in the NBA, he played 568 games, in which he scored 6924 points (an average of 12.2 per game), made 1,979 rebounds and 1,830 assists.

Wanser became the first player to cross the 90% free-throw line (90.4) in the 1951/52 season.

Coach career

For the last two seasons as a player, Wanser was the playing coach of the Rochester Royals home team (1955-1957), and after retiring from his professional career he worked at the Royals as head coach for two more seasons (1957-1959), however at the moment the club had already become known as „Cincinnati Royals".

In the 1957/58 season, Cincinnati got a solid team, but in March 1958, team leaders Dick Ricketts and Maurice Stokes were seriously injured, as a result of which, after the end of the championship, both were forced to retire from basketball, although they were both only 24 years old. Ricketts later became interested in baseball, and Stokes, after losing consciousness, suffered an attack, then fell into a coma and, finally, was paralyzed, doctors later diagnosed him with post-traumatic encephalopathy, which led to dysfunction of the brain. It was a hard blow for the young coach, so after spending only 18 games at the helm the following season, Wanser left the club.

He later coached the St. John Fisher College team from Pittsford, New York’s Monroe County, eight miles from Rochester.

In 1957, he was appointed head coach of the NBA All-Star Game for the West team.

Statistics

Statistics in the NBA