Another famous figure in LSU Athletics was immortalized as the Pete Maravich statue was officially unveiled Aug. 25 in front of a crowd of family and fans.
The statue comes 52 years following the end of Maravich’s electric LSU career where he broke just about every scoring record both at LSU and in all of college basketball. He finished his career as the all time leading scorer both in LSU and NCAA history.
He finished his career with 3,667 total points over his college career, averaging 44.3 points per game. This was also before the introduction of the three-point shot and the shot clock, meaning his numbers could have been even more eye-popping in today’s game. After his time at LSU, he played 10 seasons in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans/Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics. He averaged 24.2 points per game over his NBA career and was inducted into the hall of fame in 1987.
Following his death in 1988, the then LSU Assembly Center was renamed the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, the first physical devotion to him on LSU’s campus. His No. 23 jersey was retired in 2007, before the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame committee unanimously voted in 2016 to erect a statue of Maravich.
The statue itself was made to honor the details of him as a player. From his floppy hair to his iconic, long socks, the statue honored the small details that many associate with Maravich’s unassuming look as a basketball star.
That campaign was led, in part, by former LSU men’s basketball coach Dale Brown, who spoke about the decision at the unveiling ceremony.
“I don’t know why some things become so difficult, they’re so simple,” Brown said, addressing some of the issues he and others ran into when campaigning for the statue. Some were opposed to Maravich having a statue due to him not graduating, therefore not meeting the requirements for monuments to student-athletes.
“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future,” is what Brown said he told opposers to the statue, a quote originally attributed to Irish playwright Oscar Wilde.
Six years on from the decision to erect the statue, Maravich’s family, led by his widow, Jackie Maravich-McLachlan officially unveiled the monument. She also spoke, talking about what Maravich brought to LSU and the sport of basketball as a whole.
“Over Pete’s lifetime, many have described him as an entertainer, artist, showman or basketball wizard,” Maravich-McLachlan said. “Whatever the adjective used, they describe and represent the joy and excitement Pete brought to the game of basketball.”
She, along with their two sons, Jaeson and Josh, got the honor of unveiling the statue following the ceremony. The statue is located in front of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Practice Facility, next to statues of other former LSU basketball greats Bob Petit and Shaquille O’Neal. A statue of former women’s basketball star Seimone Augustus is slated to be added soon
