Photo courtesy of Alum91At halftime of last night's game, one of Marquette's great all-time players had his number 20 retired to the rafters. Though he only played two years at Marquette, Maurice Lucas was one of MU's most important player in bringing the program to the pinnacle of it's historic heights. Lucas helped lead Marquette to the 1974 championship game against North Carolina State. He played all 40 minutes and led the Warriors with 21 points and 13 rebounds in defeat to the Wolfpack.
Lucas was named MVP of that 1973-74 squad and was named a 2nd team All-American. In 1974 he left school early and was drafted in the first round in both the ABA (Carolina) and the NBA (Chicago). He played 14 seasons in the NBA including a magical season in 1977 when he averaged 20.2 points per game and captured a NBA title with the Portland Trailblazers. He was an NBA All-Star four times and an ABA All-Star once. He also was voted one of the Greatest 30 ABA players in history. In 1991 he was inducted into the Marquette University Hall of Fame.
Do you have a favorite story and memory of THE ENFORCER? Click on the comments section and share it with us and we will publish it.Maurice Lucas career NBA statistics here
Maurice Lucas Wikipedia entry here
Luke's greatest moment and probably one of the 10 greatest MU moments of all time was when he drilled that shot at the buzzer to beat Wisconsin at the Arena that snowy night in 73 or 74. That shot capped a last minute comeback victory, put Al cheering on the scorer's table and earned the famous finger photo shot from the father of the Hughes twins.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad that play was not included in the video highlights last night. I wonder besides the 77 championship game if there is any video available of those McGuire years? It was also hard to tell if any of the clips last night were from that great performance Luke had against NC State.
I would love to see that Wisconsin game again or at least his winning shot.
I met Mr. Lucas about 8 or 9 years ago at a MU scrimmage at the Old Gym. He was a pleasure to meet and somewhat bigger than life for me. I never saw him play in a MU uniform as I was too young and did not even know about MU at the time. However, I saw him plenty of times in the NBA while watching the Lakers play. He was just so tough.
ReplyDeleteGood to see his number retired.