Germaine "Gerri" DeBusschere, wife of NBA Great and NBRPA founder Dave DeBusschere. We are very grateful to have had Germaine in our lives. While her husband, Dave, was recognized for his efforts on the court, we knew Germaine for her contributions off the court. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire DeBusschere family
Joseph Warren Hutton Jr., 81, a 6-1 guard
for the 1951-52 Minneapolis Lakers championship team died Tuesday, October 22 of
a heart attack.
After
leaving the NBA, Hutton Jr. coached high school basketball at Minneapolis North
and Bloomington Lincoln.
Ron Sobieszczyk, 75, Standing tall for a guard of his era at
6-foot-4, scored 1,222 points for the DePaul Blue Demons between
1953 and 1956. He ranks fourth all-time at DePaul in scoring average at 18.2
points per game. He played four
seasons for the Knicks, appearing in 192 games, and scored nearly 1,700 points.
Randy Smith, 60, an All-Star with the Buffalo Braves in the 1970s who once held the NBA record for consecutive games. Smith played 13 years in the NBA and appeared in 906 consecutive games from 1972-83. His mark was broken by A.C. Green in 1997.
Wayman Tisdale,44, a three-time All-American at Oklahoma in the mid-1980s before playing a dozen years in the NBA and later becoming an accomplished jazz musician passed away on Friday, 5/15/09. Those who knew Tisdale, recalled not only his professional gifts but a perpetually sunny outlook, even in the face of a two-year battle with cancer that eventually took his life. After three years at Oklahoma, Tisdale played in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns. The 6-foot-9 forward, with a soft left-handed touch on the court, averaged 15.3 points for his career. He was on the U.S. team that won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. Last month, Tisdale was chosen for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Gov. Brad Henry attended Oklahoma at the same time Tisdale did and later appointed him to the state's Tourism Commission. "Oklahoma has lost one of its most beloved sons," Henry said. "Wayman Tisdale was a hero both on and off the basketball court. ... Even in the most challenging of times, he had a smile for people, and he had the rare ability to make everyone around him smile. He was one of the most inspirational people I have ever known."
Glen Gondrezick, 53, former UNLV basketball star who later played for the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets before turning to broadcasting. School officials and close friend Bobby Gleason said Gondrezick died on April 27, 2009 at
St.
Rose
Hospital in
Henderson,
Nev., after apparent complications from a heart transplant that he received last September.
Gondrezick starred on the Rebels' Final Four team in 1977, and his jersey No. 25 was retired by the program in 1997. He ranks 16th on the school's career scoring list with 1,311 points, and his 831 rebounds rank ninth. Gondrezick played for the Knicks and Nuggets from 1977 to 1983, and later spent 17 years doing color commentary on UNLV basketball broadcasts. A memorial service was held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Thomas &
Mack
Center at UNLV. We don’t have any additional family information at this time.
McCoy McLemore, 67, who was battling cancer, died Thursday, April 30, 2009. Yates graduate McCoy McLemore, played 17 games for the Rockets during the 1971-72 season, his final year in the NBA. McLemore, who played college basketball for Drake, was a third-round pick by
San Francisco in 1964 and played for five additional NBA teams in his career. The 6-7, 235-pound forward was a reserve for the 1970-71 NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. McLemore was a color analyst in the late 1980s for Rockets’ television broadcasts on Home Sports Entertainment.
Grady Lewis, 91, recently passed away at his home in
Peoria,
Arizona. Out of the
University of
Oklahoma, Mr. Lewis played four seasons with the Phillips 66 Oilers of the AAU and three seasons (1946-1949) in the Basketball Association of America as a member of the Detroit Falcons, St. Louis Bombers and Baltimore Bullets.
Gene Hudgins, 73, passed away on December 14, 2008, in his home town of
Atlantic City, NJ. Mr. Hudgins, also known as "Hooks," is said to be the greatest
Atlantic City player of all-time. A 1952
Atlantic City
High School graduate, he went on to play collegiate basketball at
Morgan
State
University in
Baltimore. He then had a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, prior to his starring role with the Allentown Jets and the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the Eastern Professional Basketball League. Following his playing career, Mr. Hudgins remained a fixture on the local basketball scene in
Atlantic City. He coached
Pleasantville
High School in the late 1960s and was inducted into the Atlantic City High School Hall of Fame in 2003.
Nick Weatherspoon, 58, passed away on October 17, 2008, in his hometown of
Canton,
Ohio after a long battle with degenerative disc disease. Known as "Spoon," he was a graduate of the
University of
Illinois, where he had an outstanding collegiate career. He holds the highest average in career points and rebounds in
Illinois history and was the career scoring leader with 1,481 points when he left school. During his senior year, he averaged 25 points per game, third-highest in
Illinois history. Weatherspoon was only one of 30 former Illini players to have their jersey retired by the school. He was a first-round pick of the Capital Bullets during the 1973 NBA Draft and went on to spend seven seasons in the NBA, playing for the Washington Bullets, Seattle Supersonics, Chicago Bulls and San Diego Clipp
Founder Dave Bing is elected Mayor of Detroit.