University of Illinois Athletics

Basketball  • 1963-65

Tal Brody earned international acclaim as Israel’s Mr. Basketball and International Goodwill Ambassador, using basketball to help develop relationships with many nations. He was named First-Team All-American and First-Team All-Big Ten in 1965 after earning Second-Team All-Big Ten honors in 1964. Brody was the No. 12 overall pick in the 1965 NBA Draft, but chose to play professionally in Israel for Maccabi Tel Aviv, helping the national team to the 1977 FIBA European Champions Cup title. He was Second-Team Academic All-American and First-Team Academic All-Big Ten in 1965. Brody scored 1,121 points during his Illini career, still ranking among the Top 50 scorers in UI history. He was the 1967 Israeli Sportsman of the Year and is a member of the Israeli Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1979, Brody became the first sportsman to be awarded the Israel Prize, Israel’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of his unique contribution to Israeli society and the State in the field of sports. In 1996, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2011 he was inducted into the U.S. National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Brody currently resides in Tel-Aviv, Israel.