Background
Hirsch grew up in Brooklyn in an affluent Jewish family. His father ran a successful chain of bowling alleys.
Hirsch grew up in Brooklyn in an affluent Jewish family. His father ran a successful chain of bowling alleys.
Hirsch attended a school of predominantly black students, and he played basketball on the asphalt courts of the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood.
He was the starting forward on the Bruins" national championship team in 1964, when he served as co-captain along with Walt Hazzard. Hirsch also earned all-conference honors that season. He later became an assistant coach in college, and served as the top assistant to Hazzard.
Hazzard and Hirsch coached at University of California, Los Angeles from 1984 to 1988.
Hirsch was inducted into the University of California, Los Angeles Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012. His family moved to the Los Angeles district of Van Nuys when he was 14.
After high school, Hirsch attended junior college at Los Angeles Valley College for two years from 1959 to 1961, where he was a two-time All-Metropolitan Conference player. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles) as a favor to his father, who promised to quit his five-packs-a-day smoking habit.
Hirsch played for the Bruins from 1961 to 1964, starting at forward in his last two seasons.
Recognizing Hirsch"s defensive skills, Wooden assigned him to their opponent"s top player. Hirsch served as co-captain of the team along with Walt Hazzard, and he earned All-AAWU honors that season. Former University of California, Los Angeles teammate Hazzard became a head coach, and Hirsch was his top assistant starting at Compton College in 1980 for two years and Chapman College for another two.
He followed Hazzard to University of California, Los Angeles in 1984.
After Hazzard was fired by the school following the 1987-1988 season, Hirsch was reassigned and finished his career at University of California, Los Angeles working as an administrative analyst in the assistant chancellor"s office until 1990. Hirsch became a millionaire from the family bowling business.
His family had gone into the pornography industry, which he said back in 1984 was "infinitely cleaner" than college recruiting.
In 1994, the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Hirsch has become the least-known member of the starting five from 1963-1964." He was inducted into the University of California, Los Angeles Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.