Elvin Ernest Hayes (born November 17, 1945), nicknamed "the Big E", is an American former professional basketball player and radio analyst for his alma mater Houston Cougars.

[1] In Hayes' senior year at Britton High School, he led his team to the state championship, after averaging 35 points a game during the regular season.

He would attempt 31 field goals, score 25 points, and get 24 rebounds in a 73–58 semifinal loss to the eventual champion UCLA Bruins featuring Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

[2][3] On January 20, 1968, Hayes and the Houston Cougars faced Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins in the first-ever nationally televised regular-season college basketball game.

In the rematch to the "Game of the Century", Hayes faced Alcindor and UCLA in the 1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

While a student at Houston, Hayes was initiated into Alpha Nu Omega chapter of Iota Phi Theta fraternity alongside fellow future Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy.

After a series of conflicts with Houston coach Tex Winter, Hayes was traded away to the Baltimore Bullets for Jack Marin and undisclosed considerations on June 23, 1972.

On March 3, 1978, Hayes set a career-high of 11 blocks in a single game, while also scoring 22 points and grabbing 27 rebounds, in a 124–108 win over the Detroit Pistons.

Desiring to finish his playing career in Texas and preferably Houston, Hayes was sent back to the Rockets for second-round draft picks in 1981 (Charles Davis) and 1983 (Sidney Lowe) on June 8, 1981.

[10][11] After his playing career ended in 1984, Hayes was hired as the head coach of the Houston Shamrocks of the newly founded Women's American Basketball Association.

[17] Hayes is the younger brother of Bunny Greenhouse, a whistleblower and former chief contracting officer of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

[18] He boycotted the Hall of Fame beginning in 1990 and refused to return until Guy Lewis, his coach at the University of Houston, was admitted.