[1] He grew up poor, in the Brooklyn ghetto of Brownsville, and attended Flatbush's Samuel J. Tilden High School, where he was an all-city basketball player and graduated in 1955.

[1] He attended the University of Louisville on a scholarship that paid for room, board, and books, and played forward for the school from 1956 to 1959.

"[1] In 1959, Goldstein was named All-American and led Louisville to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Final Four.

[1][4] That same year, he and his team won a gold medal in basketball at the 1959 Pan American Games.

[4] Goldstein was the first pick in the second round (8th overall) of the Detroit Pistons in 1959, offered a $7,500 ($78,000 in current dollar terms) salary and a $500 ($5,000 in current dollar terms) signing bonus to buy a car, but he did not play in the NBA.