Pete Maravich

Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.[2] Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants[7][8][9] and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.[10]

Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University.[2] The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School.[2] His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble.[2] Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.[2]

At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.[6]

Maravich at LSU in 1967

In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.[11]

Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:

• First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.[10]
• Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range."[12] It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game[13][14] and 12 three-pointers per game.
• Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)[15]

More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.[3]

After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982.[23] Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."[24]

On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40[25] while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great."[26] An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.[27]

Maravich died less than a year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5.

Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral.[15] However, a proclivity for basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."[28]

Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.[28][29]

On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown (a friend of Maravich) stated his wariness of memorials (or even jersey retirements), but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that he noticed how fans struggled to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.[30] Others opposed a Maravich statue because he had fallen a few credits short of graduation and therefore didn't meet the requirements for monuments to student-athletes.[31]

In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus, revising the stipulations required.[32] On July 25, 2022, the statue was unveiled to the public outside of the Assembly Center.[33][34]

Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction.[35] The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.[36]

• In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
• In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored Heir to a Dream, an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography, with Darrel Campbell. It devotes considerable focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
• In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
• In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary Maravich Memories: The LSU Years, based on Pete Maravich's college career.
• After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming LSU's basketball court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
• In 1991, The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season, was released.[37]
• In 1996, Maravich was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the ceremony during halftime for 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons.
• In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film, Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich, debuted on CBS.
• In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
• In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill; and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Kriegel's book, Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, Florida.
• In 2021, Maravich was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches.
• The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote "Pistol Pete", a song about Maravich.[38]

• The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
• USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
• Naismith Award Winner (1970)
• Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
• UPI Player of the Year (1970)
• Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
• AP College Player of the Year (1970)
• The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
• Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
• Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
• Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
• Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (February 7, 1970); 66 vs. Tulane (February 10, 1969); 64 vs. Kentucky (February 21, 1970); 61 vs. Vanderbilt (December 11, 1969)
• Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on January 29, 1969
• All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
• #23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
• In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament

• Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
• Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
• Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
• Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
• Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
• Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
• Field goals made, career: 1,387
• Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
• Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
• Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
• Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State, December 22, 1969

• Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on December 6, 2008[39]

• NBA All-Rookie Team
• All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
• All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
• Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
• Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
• Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
• #7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
• #7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
• NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
• NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
• #7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
• #44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)

Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves, November 28, 1973

• Broken by Vince Carter on December 23, 2005[40]

Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls, January 2, 1973

• Broken by Ben Wallace on December 11, 2005[41]

Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks (1972–73)
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029

Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets, April 10, 1977
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.

Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves, November 28, 1973

Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, October 26, 1975 (2 OT)

• List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
• List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders

• Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. ISBN 978-0-578-21343-9.
• Berger, Phil (1999). Forever Showtime: The Checkered Life of Pistol Pete Maravich. Taylor Trade. ISBN 0-87833-237-5.
• Federman, Wayne and Terrill, Marshall (2007). Maravich. SportClassic Books. ISBN 978-1-894963-52-7.
• Federman, Wayne and Terrill, Marshall (2008). Pete Maravich: The Authorized Biography of Pistol Pete. Focus on the Family/Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 978-1-58997-535-4.
• Gutman, Bill (1972). Pistol Pete Maravich: The making of a basketball superstar. Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-448-01973-6.
• Kriegel, Mark (2007). Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-8497-4.
• Maravich, Pete and Campbell, Darrel (1987). Heir To A Dream. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 0-8407-7609-8.
• Towle, Mike (2000). I Remember Pete Maravich. Nashville: Cumberland House. ISBN 1-58182-148-4.
• Towle, Mike (2003). Pete Maravich: Magician of the Hardwood. Nashville: Cumberland House. ISBN 1-58182-374-6.
• Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press ISBN 978-0-8071-3327-9

Wikiquote has quotations related to Pete Maravich.

• Official website
• Pete Maravich biography at NBA.com
• Pete Maravich at ESPN
• Pete Maravich at Find a Grave
• Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement at powertochange.ie
• ‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete at oklahoman.com
• Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics Archived February 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine