Duke basketball: Former Blue Devil great passes away

Dick Groat was Duke basketball's first bonafide superstar.

Dick Groat, the first player to see his Duke basketball jersey number (10) retired, died on Thursday. He was 92.

After becoming a two-time All-American and one-time Southern Conference Player of the Year as a 5-foot-11 guard for the Blue Devils in the early 1950s and starring for the Duke baseball program, Groat enjoyed an impressive career as a Major League shortstop.

He was an eight-time All-Star, one-time National League MVP, and two-time World Series champion (with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960 and St. Louis Cardinals in 1964). Some consider him one of history's most inexplicable MLB Hall of Fame snubs.

Before having to bid farewell to his pursuits on the hardwood due to his baseball prowess and two years spent in the armed forces, he also played one season as a professional basketball player after going No. 3 overall to the Fort Wayne Pistons at the 1952 NBA Draft.

Dick Groat could play some basketball. Put Duke on the map. Watch. pic.twitter.com/qZ3vLRHmNJ

— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) April 27, 2023

In 1979, a decade after retiring from baseball, Dick Groat, a native of Western Pennsylvania, became a radio analyst for Pitt basketball games. He remained in that role for 40 years.

His death marks the second among the 13 Duke basketball players whose jersey numbers forever hang from Cameron Indoor Stadium's rafters. The other is Art Heyman, who starred for the Blue Devils in the early 60s and led the program to its first Final Four appearance as a senior in 1963; he died in 2012 at age 71.

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