PITTSBURGH — Before Bo Jackson knew everything, before Deion Sanders introduced Prime Time, there was Dick Groat.
Groat, who was from the Swissvale neighborhood just east of Pittsburgh’s downtown, earned All-American honors in both basketball and baseball while starring at Duke. His No. 10 jersey hangs in Cameron Indoor Stadium; the program retired his number following the end of his senior season in 1952.
Long before Jackson and Sanders made two-way playing en vogue in the 1980s and ’90s, Groat was regularly shuttling from Durham, North Carolina, to Fort Wayne, Indiana in the winter of 1952-53 so he could split time between his classes at Duke — where he was finishing his degree after his eligibility expired — and the Pistons.
“Baseball was always like work for me,” Groat said in a 2014 interview. “Basketball was the sport that I loved, but it was baseball where I knew I would make a living.”Article content A member of the college basketball and college baseball Halls of Fame, Groat was a two-time All-American guard at Duke and remains the second-leading scorer in school history, averaging 23.0 points for the Blue Devils. He was taken third overall by the Pistons in the 1952 NBA draft.
The list of players who finished behind Groat in the 1960 NL MVP voting includes Hall of Famers Clemente, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Eddie Matthews.
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