Ralph Milton Beard Jr. (December 2, 1927 – November 29, 2007) was an American collegiate and professional basketball player.\n', 'He won two NCAA national basketball championships at the University of Kentucky and played two years in the National Basketball Association prior to being barred for life for his participation in the 1951 point shaving scandal.\n', '

Beard was born in Hardinsburg, Kentucky. Beard grew up in Louisville and attended Louisville Male High School. He later cited the family\'s finances as a reason he took money from the gamblers. His mother worked a cleaning lady after his father left the family. \n', '

He was a member of Adolph Rupp\'s "Fabulous Five" University of Kentucky basketball team, with Alex Groza, Wallace Jones, Cliff Barker, and Kenny Rollins. Beard won a gold medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics with the Fabulous Five and the Phillips 66ers.\n', '

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