Hall of Fame
Born in Crookston, Minnesota, John Christau later moved to California, where he attended San Francisco State, where he was a member of the men's basketball team from 1957-60 and graduated in 1960. Christgau was inducted into the San Francisco State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997.
An ex-service player, the 6-foot-1 forward helped the Gators win the 1959-60 Far Western Conference Championship and was named to the FWC Honorable Mention team that season. In 1959, he scored a career-high 27 points, which was then tied for 12th most in a single season by a Gators player.
In 1958-59, he played in 23 games and averaged 8.2 points per game (76-of-209, 188 points), third most on the team. His 110 total rebounds were second most on the team that season. In 1957-58, he averaged 4.2 points per game (34-of-74, 80 points) in 19 games.
Christgau also earned a master's degree in creative writing and met his wife at San Francisco State.
Born into a family of writers it was only natural that Christau authored 11 books himself, several of which focus on sports, both fiction and non-fiction. He also penned poems, plays, and recorded a podcast about the Payless murders in San Mateo. Christau also taught English at Crestmoor High School and later at San Mateo High School, where he served as vice principal before retiring in 1990.
Christgau coached Crestmoor's first varsity basketball team, and later chronicled that experience in 2013's Michael and the Whiz Kids, which focused on his experiences as coach of the championship basketball team that featured Crestmoor's first African-American student-athlete. His first book, Spoon, was published in 1978 and won The Society of Midland Authors prize for best fiction work that year.
Before his career in education, Christgau served in the Army and was stationed in Oahu, where he was an intelligence officer.
Christgau also wrote The Origins of the Jump Shot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball, a story which delves into basketball's evolution and discovers that a number of pioneer players who can each claim credit for inventing the jump shot.
Christgau passed away on August 21, 2018 after suffering a heart attack. He was 84.
Â
