Erling Platou

Erling Platou
College	Minnesota
Conference	Big Ten
Sport	Basketball
Position	Guard
Nationality	American
Awards
Helms Foundation All-American (1919) Helms National Player of the Year (1919)
Honors
Univ. of Minnesota Hall of Fame
Championships
Helms National Championship (1919) Big Ten Conference (1919)

Erling S. Platou was an American standout college basketball player at the University of Minnesota and, later, a pediatrician at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

As a guard on the basketball team, Platou led the 1918–19 Golden Gophers to an undefeated season (13–0 overall, 10–0 conference) by averaging a then-remarkable 11.6 points per game. In the early days of basketball, such a scoring average was unheard of, and it was his prowess that earned him the Helms Foundation National Player of the Year honor that season as a junior. The Helms Foundation also awarded Minnesota a retroactive national championship years later for the 1918–19 season.

Platou's basketball career was disrupted due to World War I. He played on the team in 1914–15 and 1915–16, but then the war temporarily ceased all intercollegiate sports at Minnesota. They resumed play in 1918–19, and Platou finished his career in 1919–20 before graduating that spring.