Pete Maravich

About Pete Maravich

Peter Press Maravich (June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988) was an American basketball player known for his dazzling ballhandling, incredible shooting abilities, and creative passing. He learned at a very young age fundamental basketball and ball handling drills from his father, coach Press Maravich. He would follow his father and coach throughout the eastern and gulf seaboards as a young man before exploding onto the National Basketball Association (NBA) in his own right.

Nicknamed "Pistol Pete", Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University (LSU) and for three NBA teams. Maravich is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer, averaging a staggering 44.2 points per game, without the benefit of a three-point line and despite the fact that when Pete was in his first year of college, the NCAA had separate freshmen and varsity basketball teams and freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity team. Years later former LSU head basketball coach Dale Brown charted every college game Maravich played, taking into consideration all shots Pete took. The coach calculated that at the NCAA rule of a three-point line at 19-foot, 9-inches from the rim, Maravich would have averaged thirteen 3-point scores per game, which would have given the player a career average of 57 points per game.

Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a small steel town in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. His father Press Maravich, a former professional player turned coach, showed Pete the fundamentals starting when Pete was seven years old. Maravich would obsessively spend hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long range shots. The elder Maravich required his son to make 100 shots from the free throw line in their driveway every night after supper before he would be allowed to go to bed. Maravich claimed he often made 99 straight before deliberately missing the next several shots just so he could continue playing ball outside. Maravich's father claims that at the age of 13 the younger Maravich once succeeded in making 500 consecutive free throws one evening after school, stopping only when it became too dark to see the rim, illuminated only by the elder Maravich's flashlight. Pete got his nickname, "the Pistol," in high school. He would shoot the ball from the side like he was holding a pistol. Since he wasn't strong enough to shoot it from the front someone from a newspaper said "He shoots like he's holding a pistol." Maravich attended and played basketball at Daniel High School in Central, SC from 1961-1963. While at Daniel, Pete participated in the school's first ever game against a team from the then colored school. In 1963, the family moved to Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh, NC.