The Jewish Sports Heritage Association, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about the roles of Jewish individuals in athletics, has announced its 2025 induction class, which will include two Binghamton University alumni. The two honorees are father-and-daughter basketball stars Bess Greenberg ‘01 and Mickey Greenberg ‘63.

Bess Greenberg, who held the all-time scoring record for 17 years, amassed 2,024 points during her collegiate career. When she started, the then-Colonials posted an impressive 97-16 record, and as a freshman, she led the team to a 22-3 record, securing the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Year Award. Mickey Greenberg, BU’s first 1,000-point scorer, was Harpur College’s Athlete of the Year for two consecutive years.

Alan Freedman, the founder of the Jewish Sports Heritage Association, described the organization’s importance given current events in a statement to Pipe Dream.

“With all that is going on in the world, before October 7 and [since], it is more important than ever to try and break down the barriers that exist about diverse groups that people carry in their hearts and minds — anti-semitism is definitely on the rise and we believe that Jewish Sports Heritage Association is helping to create discussions of stereotype and prejudice,” Freedman wrote.

The two BU alumni will join six others as part of the association’s 2025 class.

In her sophomore year, playing Division II basketball for the first time, Bess Greenberg averaged 19.2 points and contributed to the team’s 26-4 record, winning a New England Collegiate Conference title. She willed the Bearcats to a 16-0 record in conference play during her junior year, when BU lost only two of their 29 games, breezing to an ECAC Championship. Throughout the season, she averaged 21.3 points and shot 53 percent from the field, in no small part thanks to her shooting 49 percent from three-point range. As a senior, she captained BU to a 22-7 record and their second straight ECAC championship, earning her the tournament’s Most Valuable Player Award for the second straight year.

Throughout her four-year career, Bess Greenberg filled her trophy cabinet, winning a multitude of individual awards. In her sophomore and junior years, she was named Binghamton University Athlete of the Year. In her senior year, she received the Outstanding Jewish Female College Athlete of the Year Award and was chosen as the NCAA New York Woman of the Year. Off the court, she excelled as a three-time academic All-American.

After graduating, she went on to play with Denmark’s Virum Basketball Club, where, in 2003, she was named the Most Valuable Player. She played in Denmark for four years before moving to Ramat Hasharon, Israel to play for Anda Ramat Hasharon.

Her father, Mickey, was a dominant force on the court during his final two years in Vestal, becoming the school’s first 1,000-point scorer in just 60 career games. As a junior in 1960, he led Harpur to a 14-3 record, the best single-season record they had at the time. He finished his collegiate career with a total of 1,013 points.

His senior year scoring average of 25.1 points per game ranks him second-best in school history, and he also holds the Bearcats’ single-game scoring record, after scoring 45 points against Utica in his senior year. He was the recipient of the first Jake Pitler Award in 1963.

After graduation, the elder Greenberg played professionally for the Washington Generals, the lauded opponents of the Harlem Globetrotters. Following his professional career, he spent 50 years coaching youth basketball in the Greater Binghamton region.

“They are both outstanding basketball players, teachers and role models,” Freedman wrote.

The pair will be inducted into the Jewish Sports Heritage Association on April 6, 2025, which will be held at Temple Israel in Lawrence, New York, and will be open to the public free of charge.