Jerome Whitehead dead at age 56

Jerome Whitehead was found dead on December 20th in Southern California. Whitehead helped lead the Warriors to the national championship in 1977 and played in the NBA for 11 seasons.

Whitehead finished with the following stats in the NBA during his career with the San Diego Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers.

At Marquette, he earned All American honors from Converse and NABC during the '77-'78 season.  He is currently 4th all time in FG% at 54.8%.  He is also in the top 20 all time for career rebounds.  He earned the MVP of the Milwaukee Classic in 1977.

 Whitehead may best be remembered for the winning basket with less than one second left against UNCC in the Final Four.  With the game tied 49-49, Butch Lee sent a full court pass down to Whitehead who caught it off a deflection from Cornbread Maxwell, dribbled once and banked the layup in to win 51-49.  It took the referees several minutes to confirm the basket was good which sent the Warriors into pandemonium and into the championship game against the Tarheels.

RIP Jerome Whitehead