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Dick Groat was a giant who loved basketball more than baseball.
I met Groat back in 1984, when the former all-star shortstop with the Pirates wanted to rag me about Indiana and his buddy Bobby Knight beating Dean Smith, Michael Jordan and the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament.
Groat’s first daughter, Tracey, had married Duke assistant coach Lou Goetz during the Blue Devils’ long forgotten days of Bill Foster (prior to Coach K). Groat was a hero since becoming Duke’s all-time leading scorer in basketball during the early 1950s. His No. 10 was the first jersey retired at Cameron Indoor.
“Bobby Knight is the best college basketball coach ever,” he said of the fiery Hoosiers’ mentor. “Your guy is good but he’s no Knight.”
I swallowed hard, since I was still reeling from the Tar Heels’ upset in Atlanta in the NCAA Sweet 16, when IU stunned Smith’s top-ranked Tar Heels 72-68 due to Jordan’s foul trouble and Kenny Smith’s injured left wrist.
Before the shot clock, Knight’s team moved the ball until it could find an open look, most by freshman star Steve Alford, who had 27 points that night.
Recently retired from baseball, Groat revealed he would have preferred playing in the NBA if it paid anywhere close to Major League Baseball back in those days. He loved the hardcourt even more than the diamond.
Groat first made his bones in basketball after being recruited by Duke in both sports. He recounted how the Blue Blood rivalry existed long before the ACC was born, and that he sneaked into what was then called Duke Indoor Stadium to shoot the night before his senior game against Carolina because he could not sleep.
The practice paid off. He was carried from the court in tears after scoring a school record 48 points in the 94-64 blowout win over the hated Heels.
Since he remained in Pittsburgh, where as a Pirate he had opened Champion Lakes golf course in Ligonier with teammate Jerry Lynch, Groat was the radio color commentator for Pitt basketball next to Hall of Fame broadcaster Bill Hillgrove. And he knew the game.
He loved coming back to the Triangle whenever the Panthers played at Duke, UNC or NC State long before they eventually joined the ACC.
Groat passed away this week at 92 after a long fight with declining health. He was a tough nut and might have died years ago, but still loved greeting golfers as they registered and after their rounds at the 19th hole. He was one of those living legends who never left Pittsburgh but because of his basketball brilliance always called Durham his second home.
RIP.
Featured image via Associated Press/Keith Srakocic
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