| Dick Boushka | |
| Width: | 250px |
| Height Ft: | 6 |
| Height In: | 5 |
| Weight Lbs: | 209 |
| Birth Date: | 29 July 1934 |
| Birth Place: | Springfield, Illinois, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Port St. Lucie, Florida, U.S. |
| High School: | Campion (Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin) |
| College: | Saint Louis (1951–1955) |
| Draft Year: | 1955 |
| Draft Round: | 3 |
| Draft Pick: | 20 |
| Draft Team: | Minneapolis Lakers |
| Career Position: | Forward |
| Highlights: |
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Richard James Boushka (July 29, 1934 - February 19, 2019) was an American basketball player who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Boushka played collegiately at Saint Louis University.
In addition to his play on the gold-medal winning 1956 American Olympic team, he was a member of the American team in the 1959 Pan American Games and was a standout player for the Wichita Kansas) Vickers of the AAU. Boushka eventually became the president of team sponsor Vickers Petroleum.[1] [2] Boushka was named to the Saint Louis Billikens All Century Team. He was on the team with other Saint Louis players such as Jordair Jett, Anthony Bonner, and Larry Hughes.
After parimutuel gambling was legalized in Kansas in 1986, Boushka approached RD Hubbard with the idea of a greyhound track. The Los Angeles Times wrote that they planned on building a "combined horse-dog complex, and now Kansas has a $70-million facility [named The Woodlands], the two tracks sharing a joint parking lot." According to Hubbard, "if we didn't do what we did, the greyhounds and the horses would have wound up competing against one another in the same market. It was a better idea getting the two industries to work together." In Kansas City, they funded the construction and opening of The Woodlands racing park in 1989. Built to serve as both a greyhound track and later as a horse racing track, the venue was the first legal gambling outlet in the area since the 1930s, and in its second year attendance peaked at 1.7 million attendees.
Boushka died on February 19, 2019.[3]