UNCW Athletic Hall of Fame
With a silky-smooth jump shot and tremendous knowledge of the game, Jay Neary was one of the program's top guards in the program's early basketball days.
Neary started out his collegiate career at UNC Chapel Hill and led the Tar Heel freshman squad in scoring before coming to UNC Wilmington. In three seasons, he scored 1,513 points and was drafted by the NBA's New York Knicks in his Junior year and by the St. Louis Hawks after his senior season.
The crafty shooting guard, who still ranks second on UNCW's all-time scoring list, played six years in the Eastern Basketball League, winning four championships and making the circuit's All-Star team three times.
Following his playing career, Neary entered the corporate world and used his competitive fire on Wall Street. He started off as a broker with a wholesale brokerage house and was vice-president of that firm for ten years. He moved on to Toronto, Canada, and became chief operating officer of a brokerage house in the Canadian Government Market.
