Career
He played collegiately for the Indiana State Sycamores and scored 1,119 career points. He led the team in scoring during the 1951-1952 and 1952-1953 seasons. He was a 3-time All-Indiana Collegiate Conference guard was selected as an All-American for the 1953 season.
Leading the Sycamores to a 3rd-place finish in the National National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Tournament.
He started every game during his 3-yr varsity career (85 games). He has a career high 32 points vs Arkansas Technical, in the 2nd round of the 1952-1953 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Tournament
He was selected by the New York Knicks in the 1953 National Basketball Association Draft.
However, he served two years in the United States Army before beginning his professional career. He played for the Knicks (1955-1956) and Fort Wayne Pistons (now the Detroit Pistons) (1957-1958) in the National Basketball Association for 43 games before an injury ended his playing career.
Following his National Basketball Association career, Atha was the head basketball coach at Oxford High for ten seasons.
When Oxford High consolidated into Benton Central High School in Oxford, Indiana, he became the principal, serving during the 1970s and "80s. He moved to the athletic director post in the summer of 1986, and retired from that position in 1997. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.
He was inducted into the Indiana State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1984.