Education
North Providence High School.
North Providence High School.
Due to a severe knee injury suffered early in DiGregorio"s professional career, he played only five National Basketball Association seasons. DiGregorio played on the 1968 Rhode Island (Class B) champions at North Providence High School. DiGregorio and Marvin Barnes lead Coach Dave Gavitt"s Providence team to a Final Four appearance in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament in DiGregorio"s senior season, where they eventually lost to Memphis State, but only after Barnes sustained a knee injury that forced an early exit.
After playing for the Providence College Friars, DiGregorio played on a college all-star team, and along with Bill Walton, led the United States. in defeating a Soviet team in an exhibition game which helped heal the still-open wound of the United States" loss in the 1972 Summer Olympic finals debacle.
Ernie "Doctorate" was then drafted by the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association but opted instead for the National Basketball Association. DiGregorio still holds the National Basketball Association rookie record for assists in a single game with 25 (a record now shared with Nate McMillan). He would never again come close to that level of production, but managed to have a decent National Basketball Association career, most of which he spent with the Braves.
During the 1976-1977 season, DiGregorio led the league in free throw percentage a second time, with a then-National Basketball Association record 94.5%. In 1977, DiGregorio joined fellow National Basketball Association stars Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Wilt Chamberlain, and Pete Maravich, in endorsing Spalding"s line of rubber basketballs, with a signature "Ernie Doctorate." ball making up part of the collection.
After playing 27 games with the Braves in the 1977-1978 season, DiGregorio was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, but he played in a Lakers uniform in only 25 games before being waived.
The Boston Celtics signed him as a free agent but he played only sparingly for the rest of the season. He would not play in the National Basketball Association again, although he did not formally retire until 1981. In 1999, he was elected to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.