LSU’s celebration gets off to roaring start

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 31, 2009 - Page: 4C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

The LSU basketball program’s 100th anniversary celebration weekend got off to a strong start Friday night, never mind the setting was inside Tiger Stadium.

As a reunion of the entire program unfolded with a reception Friday night in a large room on the west side of the football stadium, former coach Dale Brown was among the many whose voices cracked. Old tales were exchanged. And even “Pistol Pete” Maravich’s son, former player Josh Maravich, showed up with a haircut and maturity that made him looking amazingly like his father.

“Is that his dad? My gosh,” former guard Jordy Hultberg said as he spoke to the crowd and pointed out Josh, who stood.

Brown and the Voice of the Tigers on the radio, Jim Hawthorne, did a segment reminiscing over the program’s history. And then Hultberg led a discussion with Joe Dean, a former guard and athletic director at the school, and Rudy Macklin, a storied forward who was a teammate of Hultberg’s.

The evening had a fine close, with Bob Pettit, one of the enduring greats of the game, leading a champagne toast.

More than 130 players were on hand, even Geert Hammink, in from Holland.

There were jokes.

“We’re celebrating 100 years of LSU basketball in the football stadium,” said Hultberg, with knowing laughter breaking in. “And you know what I’m talking about.”

And there were poignant moments, like when Brown finished by crackling through his words.

“You players who were here during my 25 years, I can’t express to you enough how proud I am of the men you’ve become, what you’ve done with your lives,” said Brown, who coached LSU for 25 years, led the Tigers to the Final Four in 1981 and ’86 and, for a program that had amazing stars in Maravich and Pettit before he arrived, raised the program’s national and local standing by establishing consistent winning.

“I want to thank you so much for the contribution you made to this program. In 44 years, of all kinds of highs and lows, tonight is the greatest moment I’ve ever had in basketball.”

Brown summed up LSU’s three greatest players: Maravich, Pettit and Shaquille O’Neal.

Of Maravich, “Wow.”