La Salle recently unveiled a sculpture of legendary men’s basketball player Tom Gola, ’55, in the Hall of Athletes section of the Hayman Center.

Gola, a four-time All-American, 1955 National Player of the Year, and member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, led La Salle to the 1952 NIT and 1954 NCAA Championships. He died in January 2014 at the age of 81.

The statue was created by artist Chad Fisher, who has also sculpted monuments honoring former Philadelphia Flyers coach Fred Shero and NFL Films President Steve Sabol.

“I can’t express how important an individual that Tom Gola was in my life and in so many lives,” said Larry Cannon, ’69, a member of the Hall of Athletes who was coached by Gola on La Salle’s 1968–69 men’s basketball team.

“To honor him and celebrate him in this fashion with a statue truly is an appropriate tribute. Tom Gola was basketball royalty and his accomplishments were such that they should not be forgotten. And now with a statue such as this, his memory will continue for a very long time.”

Brother Joe Grabenstein, F.S.C., ’73, La Salle Archivist and a close friend of the Gola family, blessed the statue.

“Today we remember a person who touched our hearts and who gave us pride in being Philadelphians and in being Lasallians,” he said. “What a life’s journey was Tom Gola’s.”