Thanks Tiger, I have a number of Pete items in my collection, I had him sign the LSU basketball book 3 days before he went to Cal. I remember Pete very well as he married the girl who lived next door to my cousin. My cousins played many pick up games with him, and like you see in the movie he always had a basketball with him, I can remember him sitting by the door talking with his future wife and dribbling the basketball for hours at a time while they were talking. I have all the press guides from Pete's years at LSU and the NIT guide.
It's not widely known, but Pete actually wore #19 for his rookie preseason with the Hawks. He switched to 44 when the regular season began.
Two years ago Jackie Maravich put up for auction all of Pete's basketball memorablia that she had. It included the ball used to break the all-time NCAA scoring record (which he had autographed to her), one of his LSU uniforms, his Celtics uniform, rings, awards, trophies, etc. The items fetched a huge amount of money, particularly the LSU uniform, and some of that money went to one of Dale Brown's charitable causes. But I could not figure for the life of me why she would part with all of these precious items. Maybe she needed the money. Maybe she just wanted to get rid of it and move on. Maybe it was to support Dale's cause. Anyone have any info on this?
My all-time favorite athlete in any sport, anytime, anywhere. I was too young to see him play at LSU, but did see him play a lot w/ the N.O. Jazz during the 70s. Unbelievable. I think he wore #24 freshman yr at LSU. One question, and a comment -- question is, and I know this may sound very stupid, but, I bought an "LSU vintage" b-ball jersey on the internet, it is white, gold number 23, "Pistol" on the back, but, the trim is black, not purple. I think I know the answer to this, but, back in Pistol's time, were the LSU basketball jersey colors actually black and gold, or purple and gold? Yeah, I know, I'm pretty sure purple and gold --- the jersey IS nice otherwise, but, kinda blows it's not purple and gold. Comment: I live out of town and haven't been to the LSU campus since probably 1998. However, as of then, in the old Ag Center, where Pistol played his games at LSU, they still had the basketball lockerrooms, and, you could see Pete's locker, it had his name stenciled over it. Nothing fancy, but kind of cool to see. I got the impression not many people knew about it. I have no idea if it's still there. Seemed to be pretty unnoticed and forgotten -- I wondered whether LSU might want to take the locker and put it in some sort of display in the Athletic Bldg?
That's the answer I wanted to hear! Good to know. As for the black trim on the vintage LSU jersey, I think the manufacturer has taken some liberties with that. I've seen Pete's sophomore and senior jerseys and they are purple, gold and white. You may be interested to know that during the Billy Cannon era, the numbers on the football jerseys were black instead of purple.
Yeah, that's it. Like I said, it's a pretty good quality jersey, but I hardly think authentic. I think the black instead of purple is incorrect. Also, did he have "Pistol" on the back of his LSU jersey? BTW, I've thought about buying a throwback Maravich N.O. Jazz jersey, No. 7, but the one they sell on the internet (Mitchell & Ness ?) has "Maravich" on the back ... and I could SWEAR that he had "Pistol" on the back of his No. 7 jersey -- maybe I'm mistaken but I went to a lot of Jazz games in Municipal Auditorium, Loyola Fieldhouse, and the Superdome, and I remember "Pistol" on the back of his jersey.