This is one of those stories without a winner or loser. Both individuals have been great for college basketball and both brought out legends of fans to follow their exploits. It also is not a story to infer the difference between male and female athletics. I have been asked about my feelings on this comparison, so here we go.
Caitlin Clark is a six foot and 155 pound basketball player for the University of Iowa. This 2023 basketball season she broke the all-time scoring record set back in the 1970s by Pete Maravich of Louisiana State University. That is the basic story and one the mass media was quick to pound into our heads.
Clark was a two-time Associated Press Player of the Year. a two-time John Wooden Award winner as the most outstanding player in college basketball, a three-time unanimous All-American, and a three-time First Team All-American.
She also was the number one player in high school basketball back in 2020 as voted by ESPN. Scoring is the name of the game and Clark scored a bunch. Three thousand, nine hundred, and fifty-one to be exact. Most came her way by taking advantage of the long three point shot (25 feet from goal). Clark was good on 548 three point shots for 1,644 points of her total.
She finished her four-year career at Iowa and was the first overall player taken in the WNBA. The professional Indiana Fever made Clark their first pick and she will be a rookie in 2024.
As for Pete Maravich,...Here is a kid that grew up with a basketball in his hands. Being the son of a college coach, he ate and slept with a basketball. Pete practiced by himself for hours on end, learning trick passes and taking shots nobody else could conceive. His father, Press Maravich, was coach at Clemson when he got the job at Louisiana State. He insisted that Pete come to Baton Rouge to play his college ball. Pete had acquired the nickname 'Pistol Pete' during his high school days; one of which he scored 68 points in a single game.
Pete was 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighed 197 pounds in college.
Pete could not play his freshman year at LSU since the NCAA had a ruling against first year players on the varsity at that time. When his sophomore season rolled around Pete was ready and exploded for 1,138 points that year for an average of 43.8 points per game. As a junior he was slightly better, scoring 1,148 points for a game average of 44.2. Remember this was at LSU, a school known for football and not basketball. Maravich changed all that. As a senior, Pistol Pete tallied 1,381 points for an average of 44.5 per game. Each year was a new NCAA record. Maravich finished his college career with a total of 3,662 points in just a three year career. An NCAA scoring record that stood for 50 years. At the time of his playing days there was no such thing as a three-point shot, so all of Pete's points came as two-point field goals or one-point foul shots.
LSU has no bigger rival in the Southeast Conference that the Alabama Crimson Tide. The schools circle the calendars on dates they meet in football. Maravich showed the Tide that LSU was ready to battle in basketball also. His senior year Pete scored 68 points against Alabama. After he left school the following year the Tigers renamed their home floor Maravich Arena.
As good as Maravich was in college, the professional game was just not for him. He was the number pick of the Atlanta Hawks but they had nobody around him to post a winning record. After four seasons he was traded to the New Orleans Jazz, an expansion team. They did not build a following, despite having the high scoring Maravich. The Jazz moved the franchise to Utah and Pete finished a 6 year stay there before moving to the Boston Celtics. He played half a season before announcing his retirement.
Pete died in 1988 at the age of 40, ironically the end came while Pistol was playing in a pick-up game of basketball.
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