The NBA season commences on Tuesday, overlapping the World Series and recalling those who played both baseball and basketball professionally. Two such players had ties to Pittsburgh. We’ll discuss a third who didn’t get to play in the NBA.
Pittsburgh Produced Multi-Sport Athletes in Baseball and Basketball
The Kid from Duke
Dick Groat doesn’t get enough credit. He was perhaps the greatest athlete ever to come out of the Pittsburgh area. Born in Wilkinsburg and raised in Swissvale, two boroughs just outside the city, Groat played Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1952, 1955-62), St. Louis Cardinals (1963-65), Philadelphia Phillies (1966-67), and San Francisco Giants (1967). Primarily a shortstop, for his career, he hit .286/.330/.366, 39 HR, and 707 RBI. He also played in the NBA for the Fort Wayne Pistons for the 1952-53 season. As their point guard, he scored 309 points and added 69 assists. After that season, Groat spent two years in the military. When he returned, Pirates general manager Branch Rickey forbade him from playing basketball.
In 1952, Groat came out of Duke University, where he was a highly touted two-sport star before Bo Jackson made it fashionable. His college stats are incomplete, but we know that in three years, he scored 1,886 points and shot 40.9 percent from the field. I wish his assist total were available. His jersey No. 10 was the first to be retired at Duke. He was no slouch at baseball, either, hitting .381 in his senior year. He’s the only athlete in both the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
Big News in 1952
The Pistons made Groat their No. 1 draft choice (third overall) in the 1952 NBA draft. MLB had yet to institute its draft, so Groat was free to sign with whatever baseball team he pleased. With the 1952 Pirates having been one of the worst teams in MLB history, the local sports pages had little to write about. So, for much of June, they followed the bidding war for Groat’s services with big, bold headlines. Finally, on June 17, Rickey signed Groat by offering a staggering $50,000 bonus. That may not seem so outlandish today, but remember, Rickey traded seven-time home run champion Ralph Kiner to save $75,000 in 1953.
Two World Series Rings
Groat always said his first love was basketball, but for $50,000, a guy will accept baseball as his mistress. He went straight to the big club upon signing, never spending a day in the minors. His finest season was in 1960. That’s when he won the batting title with a .325 average and was the National League Most Valuable Player for the eventual World Series champion Pirates. Groat missed time with a wrist injury in September. That may have impacted his Series performance. He was just 6-for-28 against the New York Yankees in the Series. However, he managed an important RBI single in the eighth inning of Game 7, sparking the Pirates’ wild comeback from a 7-4 deficit.
In 1962, Groat received MVP consideration again when he hit .294 for Pittsburgh. After the season, Pirates GM Joe L. Brown traded Groat and Diomedes Olivo to St. Louis for Don Cardwell and Julio Gotay. Brown felt that his young shortstops, Dick Schofield (who hit .375/.460/.469 during Groat’s September 1960 absence) and Gene Alley, would play as well as Groat had, while Cardwell would strengthen the pitching staff. Although Alley was a two-time All-Star, it wasn’t a good trade.
Groat was bitter about the trade and took it out on the opposition. In 1963, he was the runner-up for NL MVP when he hit .319. In 1964, he earned a second World Series ring when the Cardinals defeated the Yankees in seven games. He was just 5-for-26 in that Series. Groat always said that his most enjoyable years in baseball were with St. Louis. He never forgave Brown for dealing him away.
“He Played at a Level Above Players of Greater Talent”
Of Groat, Brown told author Jim O’Brien in Maz and the ’60 Bucs, “Dick was never blessed with great talent, but he played at a level above many players of greater talent. He was successful because of his consistency of performance and intelligence and because he was highly motivated.”
Groat returned to Swissvale when his playing days were over. From 1979 to 2019, he served as the radio color commentator for Pitt basketball. The joke around Pittsburgh was that, according to Groat, Pitt never committed a foul. Groat passed away in 2023 at age 92.
The Kids from Pottstown
The Ricketts brothers hailed from Pottstown, a borough tucked away in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania. However, both starred in baseball and basketball at Duquesne University, so Pittsburgh claims them as their own. Dick Ricketts played in the NBA for the St. Louis Hawks (1955-56), Rochester Royals (1956-57), and Cincinnati Royals (1957-58). For his career, the six-foot-seven center/power forward scored 1,974 points and pulled down 1,337 rebounds. He also pitched professionally from 1955-64. He got his shot in the majors in 1959 with the Cardinals. In 12 games, he was 1-6 with a 5.82 ERA and 1.760 WHIP. His 4.90 FIP, although below average, indicates he was victimized by poor support and bad luck. In the minors, he was 99-91 with a 3.70 ERA and 1.379 WHIP.
Dave Ricketts never got a shot in the NBA, but his MLB career was longer than his brother’s. A backup catcher, Dave played for the Cardinals (1963, 1965, 1967-69) and Pirates (1970). For his career, Dave batted .249/.278/.305, 1 HR, and 20 RBI. His lone homer came off the Pirates’ Bob Veale in 1967. Hereinafter, the brothers will be referred to by their first names.
National Champions
Dick graduated from Duquesne in 1955. During his time there, he was the captain of the baseball and basketball teams. Dave, who was two years younger, took over the captaincy of the two teams when Dick graduated. Dick was All-America at Duquesne, amassing 1,963 points and 1,359 rebounds. Dave, a small forward, scored 863 points during his college career.
The brothers helped lead the Dukes to the National Invitational Tournament championship in 1955. At the time, the NIT was a more prestigious tournament than the NCAA Tournament, and its winner was considered the national champion. The University of San Francisco, behind future NBA great Bill Russell, won the NCAA tourney. In recent years, revisionist historians, perhaps due to their admiration for Russell, have claimed that San Francisco was the 1955 national champion. They’re wrong.
Before the NIT championship games against Dayton, Duquesne coach Dudey Moore laid down the strange edict that only his two All-Americans, Si Green and Dick, would be permitted to shoot the basketball. Early in the game, Dave got the ball with no defenders near him. He took the shot, missed it, and was loudly admonished by Moore and threatened with bench time if it happened again. The Dukes won, 70-58. Green and Dick combined for 56 points. Dave fouled out without scoring.
First Overall
Dick was the No. 1 overall draft choice by the Hawks in the 1955 NBA Draft. Dick signed with the Cardinals that same year, beginning the season at Single-A Allentown. The next year, Rochester made Green the No. 1 overall pick, ahead of Russell. To this day, Duquesne is the only school to produce two consecutive No. 1 overall NBA draft picks.
We are STILL the only school with back-to-back No. 1 overall NBA Draft picks.#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/KS5wgu3D5s
— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) June 26, 2025
The Pittsburgh papers covered Dick’s progress through the NBA and baseball’s minor leagues. Meanwhile, after Dave hit .370 in his senior year at Duquesne, he signed with the Cardinals and joined Dick at Triple-A Rochester. Dave had offers from six other teams, including the Pirates, but the Cardinals were the only ones who promised to start him at Triple-A.
All the while, the Cardinals considered Dick a hot pitching prospect but thought he was held back by playing two sports. Dick told Associated Press, “If the Cardinals give me enough money to make up the difference, okay.” Finally, in August 1958, Dick informed the Royals that he was retiring from basketball. The Cardinals must have agreed to increase his salary by the amount of his basketball salary. Dick had turned down that offer the year before.
In the Majors
As noted, Dick’s MLB career didn’t go so well. His best game came on June 19, 1959, against the Pirates at Busch Stadium. In a losing effort, he pitched seven innings and gave up five runs, only two of which were earned. While Vern Law was tossing a four-hit shutout for Pittsburgh, Dick kept the Cards in the game through six innings until it was broken wide open, ironically, by a two-run homer off the bat of Groat. The papers missed a good storyline. They never played up the fact that Dick was facing the Pirates on that day or on July 12, when he started against them at Forbes Field.
Dave never appeared in more than 52 games in a season for the Cardinals but earned a World Series ring with them in 1967. The Cards returned to the Series the next year, losing to the Detroit Tigers. Dave had one hit in four at-bats as a pinch hitter over the two Series.
After the 1969 season, the Cardinals traded Dave to the Pirates, along with Dave Giusti, for Carl Taylor and minor leaguer Frank Vanzin. For the Pirates, Giusti was the key piece, while the media glossed over the return of the former Duquesne star. How soon they forget. Dave appeared in just 14 games for the Pirates in 1970, going 2-for-11 with the bat.
On August 31, the Pirates acquired pitcher George Brunet from the Washington Senators. To make room for Brunet on the roster, the Pirates placed Dave on waivers with the intent of hanging onto him and naming him their bullpen coach. Dave held that position with the 1971 Pirates, earning a second World Series ring. As a member of two Pittsburgh championship teams in two sports, he’s the answer to a trivia question.
The Last Word
Dick passed away in 1988 at age 54, and Dave in 2008 at 73.
A personal story: A few years ago, I took my mother to a basketball game at Duquesne. When she noticed Dick’s retired number 12 hanging in the rafters, she said, “That explains why he was so tall.” Mom explained that when she was in high school, she and a friend went on a double date with two Duquesne students. Dick was the friend’s date. Mom remembered the car seat being way back to accommodate Dick’s height. She had no idea that he played basketball until I took her to the game. Imagine being an All-America basketball player and not trying to impress girls with that nugget. Then there was I, trying to impress them with my knowledge of the infield fly rule.
Other notable athletes to play both major league baseball and NBA basketball were Danny Ainge, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, Dave DeBusschere, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, and Ron Reed. Connors was better known as “The Rifleman” on TV.
The World Series begins on Friday at 8:00 PM on FOX. The NBA season kicks off with a Tuesday doubleheader on NBC and Peacock. Houston is at Oklahoma City at 7:30 PM, and Golden State is at Los Angeles to play the Lakers at 10:00 PM. All times Eastern.
Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
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