Mahershala Ali
The Academy Award winner went to St. Mary’s College on a basketball scholarship, playing in 97 games over four seasons. As a senior in 1995-96, Ali, then Mahershala Gilmore, averaged averaged seven points per game and shot 39.8 percent from deep. “It was about getting a basketball scholarship to a Division I school,” he told GQ in 2016. “Once I got that, I didn’t set a realistic next goal on how to get to the NBA, which is perhaps for the best. I fell into acting. A teacher gave me an opportunity to be in a play and it came a little easy to me. When it got difficult was when I decided to study acting and I went to grad school. I felt like if I got [into NYU] this was what I was supposed to pursue. It just so happened that it worked out.”