Pete Maravich

Born on June 22, 1947 in Aliquippa[?], Pennsylvania, Pete seemed to marvel his family and friends with his basketball ability since he was little. As a boy, he would spend hours dribbling a basket-ball or learning to do tricks with it around his hands and arms.

He attended three high schools as a teen: Daniel High School in Clemson, South Carolina, Needham Broughton in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Edward Military Institute in Salemberg, North Carolina[?].

During his years at those schools, he vowed college scouts with his ability to play his favorite sport. And so, in 1966, Pete decided to attend Louisiana State University[?], where he became a basketball legend. He averaged a record 44.2 points per game for his career there, and was named The Sporting News[?] player of the year in 1970. He scored a personal record of 69 points versus Alabama[?] during a game that year. He garnered numerous other awards and college records and had the governor sign a proclamation that officially named the LSU home court the Maravich Assembly Center. He graduated LSU in 1970, but the respect he garnered among many of Louisiana's basketball fans would bring him back to that state soon.

In November of 1970, Maravich started his NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks. After four years there, he was back in New Orleans, traded to the Jazz. Many say that he had his best years in the NBA as a player while in New Orleans with the Jazz. In the 1979-1980 season the Jazz became the Utah Jazz, and Maravich was soon traded to the Boston Celtics, where he played for one season alongside Larry Bird and then retired.

Maravich led a relatively quiet life as a retired basketball player and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. On January 5, 1988, while playing a pickup basketball game, he suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 40.

Maravich was a 24.4 points per game scorer in his NBA career, scoring 15,948 points in 688 games. He scored 68 points in one game versus the New York Knicks and shares the record for most free throws made in a quarter with 14. He was a 5 time all star and led the league in points in 1977 when he scored 31.1 points a game. In 1996, he was named one of the 50 greatest NBA players in history by a panel made up of NBA historians, former players and coaches.

In 1991, a biographical movie about him, Pistol Pete[?], was produced in Hollywood.