He was the starting forward on the Bruins' national championship team in 1964, when he served as co-captain along with Walt Hazzard.
Hirsch attended a school of predominantly black students, and he played basketball on the asphalt courts of the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood.
[5] He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a favor to his father, who promised to quit his five-packs-a-day smoking habit.
[4] Serving as co-captain of the team along with Walt Hazzard,[8] Hirsch averaged 14.0 points along with 7.6 rebounds per game,[1] and he earned first-team All-AAWU honors that season.
[11] After Hazzard was fired by the school following the 1987–88 season, Hirsch was reassigned and finished his career at UCLA working as an administrative analyst in the assistant chancellor's office until 1990.