It will soon be January.  My schedule is uncertain, so I want  to do a blog in honor of my all time favorite basketball player. PISTOL PETE MARAVICH.  He died on  January 5,  1988, at the age of 40. 

Despite all of the great achievements in basketball (which were MANY), he did have some problems.  Pete was loved by many, yet understood by few.  It's said that he knew no real peace until he accepted the Savior into his life.  I am so glad that he did. 

I am including, below,  a four minute video obituary   of Tom Brocaw announcing his death, shots of some of the fantastic basketball skills that he had, and the video also includes comments by other great athletes about him. 

Also, in this blog, is a short summation of some of his achievements. 

I am thankful that Louisiana was blessed to have him play for LSU!  Yes, I know he was also pro and some of that is in the summation.  However, this is more about the time he played for LSU, but made history all over.   Absolutely amazing to watch him play!  

If movie below, does not work--
go to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwiVuVga3No

Pete Maravich, a 6'5" shooting guard, was born on June 22, 1947 in Pennsylvania.  I believe he was the best basketball player of all time.  Even with all his achievements in basketball, it seems that he  couldn't find peace until he retired (because of bad knees)  and found Christianity in 1982. 

In 1959 he played Varsity basketball at Daniels High in Clemson, South Carolina.  Pete was only in 8th grade that year.  It was that year he got the nickname of  “Pistol” Pete Maravich.  

He went to college at LSU and played for his father, Press Maravich.  He was not allowed to play Varsity as a freshman, so people would fill the stands to watch the freshman game and leave before the Varsity game.   In three years at LSU he scored 3,667 points.

He was the NCAA leading scoring all three years.  Averaged 44.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.1 assists in his college career.   He was named the College player of the year in 1970.  Maravich holds nearly every major NCAA scoring record, including most career points (3,667), highest career scoring average (44.2 ppg), most field goals made (1,387) and attempted (3,166), and most career 50-point games (28). And he accomplished all this without the benefit of the three-point basket, which wasn't introduced into the college game until the 1986-87 season.

Maravich missed 32 games in 1977-78 because of a combination of surgery on one knee, a bacterial infection and tendinitis in his other knee. He was on the sidelines often throughout the rest of his career. He tore up one knee against Buffalo in classic Maravich style: instead of just throwing an outlet pass, he jumped into the air to whip a between-the-legs pass down three-quarters of the court. He landed awkwardly and never again played with his old joy and abandon.
 

 In the Pros,  his uniform number was retired by the Jazz in 1985. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987, and was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996.
 

On January 5, 1988 the Pistol died.  Pete Maravich died of a heart attack at the age of 40.  He died just as he  had lived, on the basketball court.  He was plying a 3 on 3 game in a California gym.  (A church gym, I believe)

He felt great. One minute, enjoying playing basketball. The next, in a seizure, having a heart attack.  He was taken by ambulance  to the hospital where doctors tried for fifty minutes to revive him.  Peter Press Maravich, known to the world as "Pistol Pete," died at 9:42 a.m. on January 5, 1988, at the age of 40. He was a legend in his own time, one of the greatest basketball players who ever lived, and probably the most colorful.