TTM Triumph #22: Bob Pettit

Successful returns from hall of famers is always nice, but it's even better when it comes from a guy who would be in the hall of fame's "Hall of Fame", if such a thing existed of course:

Bob Pettit was an absolute machine at LSU (1951-54), averaging 25.5 ppg and 13.1 rpg in his first three years. In his junior year he led the Tigers to their first ever appearance in the Final Four For his senior season he would bump up his already impressive numbers to 31.4 ppg and 17.3 rpg.

In 1954 he was the second overall pick in the NBA draft by the then (soon to be St. Louis) Milwaukee Hawks, where he would end up staying for his entire 11 year career.  As far as accolades go, Mr. Pettit has quite a few:   Rookie of the Year (1955), won the very first MVP award in 1956 and got another one in '59, won a championship in 1958 (still the only one in Hawks franchise history), 11 time All-Star, 4 time All-Star MVP winner, 10 time All-NBA first team, led the league in scoring twice ('56 & '59), and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970.

Over 11 seasons he averaged 26.4 ppg and 16.2 rpg. His 16.2 rebounds per game average is third all time behind Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. He was also the first played to reach 20,000 points. Bob retired in 1965 at the age of 32, still near the top of his game. He had already planned to retire at the end of the season because he thought his skills were diminishing, and a knee injury during the season just solidified his decision. It's interesting to note too, that despite missing 33 games in his final season, he still averaged 22.5 ppg and 12.4 rpg.

Not a bad career, for a guy that a lot of scouts thought wouldn't be tough enough to play in the NBA.

On a bit of a side note. Considering how many requests he must get, this card came back to me in less than two weeks.

As always, I would like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Pettit.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.