UPDATE: Pete Maravich’s 1969 LSU letterman’s jacket sold for $116,924; his 1978 NBA All-Star game uniform sold for $34,943; and his 1968, ’69, & ’70 NCAA First Team All-American plaques sold for $9,000.
LOS ANGELES (WGNO) — A “personal trove” of items belonging to the family of LSU basketball legend Pete ‘Pistol Pete’ Maravich is on the auction block in Los Angeles.
Grey Flannel Auctions, which specializes in selling sports memorabilia, says the items were “obtained directly from (Maravich’s) family” and bids will be accepted through December 11.
The items include Maravich’s “circa 1969 LSU letterman’s jacket, his 1978 NBA All-Star uniform, and the jacket Maravich wore at the 1987 induction ceremony for the Naismith Hall of Fame.”
According to LSUsports.net, Maravich was the “highest scoring player in the history of college basketball” at a time when the game did not have a three-point shot. Maravich holds the NCAA career record for having the highest average number of points per game – 44.
“To those who never saw him play live, but only watched what few games were on television,” says LSUsports.net, “the Maravich story at LSU may seem larger than life. But his skills were perfected through hours and hours of repetitious drills at all hours of the day and night and in all kinds of settings.”
After his LSU career, Maravich “received the richest contract ever offered a college player at the time to sign with the Atlanta Hawks ($1.9 million)” and he was a five-time NBA All-Star.
The LSU Assembly Center was named in his honor in 1988, just a few months after his death.
According to NBA.com, Maravich “died of a heart attack while playing in a pickup three-on-three game in a California gym.”
He was just 40 years old.
The items up for auction include two pairs of his exhibition shorts– but not a pair of his trademark floppy socks.
