Jerry Summers: Pistol Pete Is Still King

  • Monday, July 15, 2024
  • Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the majority sex, Title 9 beneficiaries and being shunned, tarred, and feathered by Caitilin Clark’s (CC) multitude of sports bra wearers, I rise to attempt to justify the sports record as the all time collegiate basketball scorer by the LSU Tiger- Pete Maravich (PM).

My first self serving admission is that women’s basketball is now probably more exciting than the dunking of the oval sphere by a 7’3’’-7’4’’ escapee from France or the down under continent.

The second attempt at forgiveness is that the same sport has unfairly paid low salaries of the ladies in the past, present, and future in spite of a projection that the 12 teams in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) will “bring on up to 200 million” in income for the first time in its 28 year history.

Lastly, it would be oversight to not acknowledge what a tremendous contribution the former Iowa Hawkeye and freshman Indiana Fever forward achieved in her four seasons in surpassing Pete Maravich’s record that she accomplished in more than 130 games.

However, before a reader takes the crown off the forehead of Mr. Pete Maravich (PM) a few specific historical facts should be revealed:

1) Pete M played in only 83 games in 3 years in college(1967-1970);

2) During that period basketball did not have a shot clock and a player did not earn 3 points successfully completing a bucket from outside the twenty foot line;

3) During the game he played “Pistol Pete” averaged 44.2 points;

4) His former coach at LSU and a retired sports writer in Baton Rouge theorized that Pete would have averaged 54 points per game if the 20 foot 3 point line had been in effect during his career where he scored a 3667 tallies.

The immediate increase in attendance in 2024 at WNBA games has already enhanced discussions concerning the inequities in salaries for men and women players in professional basketball.

Pete Maravich and Caitlin Clark are both historical great college basketball players from different eras. Both are entitled to recognition of their accomplishments, just from a different perspective.

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If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact him at jsummers@summersfirm.com)

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