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As part of the first-ever national championship basketball team at ICC, Rick Park turned in one of the top individual performances ever seen at an NJCAA Tournament. Against Moberly (Mo.), in the 1963 title game, he had a game-high 39 points, which still stands as the second-highest point total ever recorded in a junior college championship game.
For the tournament, Park averaged 32 points per game to earn All-Tournament recognition. A native of Sayre, Pa., he played two seasons at ICC and ranks eighth in career scoring with 1,187 points. He was named an NJCAA All-American and became a member of the NJCAA Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
Park finished his college career at the University of Tulsa and was picked by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1965 NBA Draft.
At the completion of his playing career, Park returned to Independence as head coach and led the Pirate to back-to-back Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division championships in 1974 and 1975. He later served two years as an assistant coach at Tulsa.