'Burgh's best to wear it, No. 34: Pitt's Billy Knight won respect from John Wooden

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 34: Billy Knight

When Pitt’s Billy Knight scored a career-high 37 points against UCLA on Dec. 22, 1972, he shared top billing with the Bruins, who won their 50th consecutive game on the way to 88 in a row.

Plus, Bill Walton nearly had a triple-double (18 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists) in UCLA’s 89-73 victory.

Yet, when the game ended, legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, who received the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award at halftime, walked immediately toward Knight to congratulate him.

“I’ll never forget at the end of the game, the old man, John Wooden, comes walking across the court to shake Billy’s hand,” longtime Pitt radio play-by-play announcer Bill Hillgrove said in a video produced by the university. “One of the bystanders said he had never done that in his whole career, never shook the hand of an opposing player.”

That was Knight’s best game, statistically, but he had many more stellar performances over his three-year Pitt career. Knight’s No. 34 is retired at Pitt, and he is the Tribune-Review’s choice as the best Pittsburgh athlete to wear that jersey, standing out among a large group of outstanding performers.

A year after catching Wooden’s eye, Knight earned consensus second-team All-American honors while leading the Panthers to a 22-game winning streak, a 25-4 record and a berth in the 1974 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

Pitt’s championship quest ended in a 100-72 loss to eventual national champion N.C. State and David Thompson in the regional final in Raleigh, N.C. Knight had 19 points and 10 rebounds in a losing effort, one of his 50 career double-doubles.

Knight played three seasons and averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds each time — the only player in Pitt history to achieve that distinction. He finished 10th on Pitt’s all-time scoring list (1,731 points), fourth in rebounds (938) and shot 52.2% from the field.

“Hard to believe he was 6-7 and doing things that I’ve seen 5-9 guards do,” Hillgrove said.

That 1973-74 team was the first at Pitt to reach an Eastern Regional Final, but it was unique for another reason.

Of the 18 players on the roster, 12 were from Western Pennsylvania, including the starting five of Knight (Braddock), Mickey Martin (Baldwin), Tom Richards (Moon), Jim Bolla (Canevin) and Kirk Bruce (South Hills). When Sports Illustrated did a feature story on the team, those five, plus Sewickley’s Keith Starr, were pictured standing on an observation deck on Mt. Washington.

Knight was chosen in the second round of the 1974 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, but he initially joined the Indiana Pacers of the ABA before that franchise entered the NBA.

He played 11 seasons mainly with the Pacers and remains third on their all-time scoring list with 10,780 points, behind Reggie Miller and Rik Smits. Overall, with five teams, Knight scored 13,901 career points.

After he retired as a player in 1985, he embarked on a long career as an NBA executive, serving the Pacers, Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies and Atlanta Hawks through the 2008 season.

Knight was an all-time Pitt great, but two other Pitt products who wore the No. 34 jersey number also rose to celebrity.

Jerome Lane made an all-time great play Jan. 25, 1988, in a Big East game against Providence at Fitzgerald Field House, and running back Craig “Ironhead” Heyward was an All-American in 1987.

Lane’s iconic moment started as a routine fast break, with freshman guard Sean Miller retrieving a loose ball and racing up court with Lane on his right.

Miller fed him a pass, Lane took two long strides and attacked the rim with such ferocity that the backboard shattered, little bits of it scattering onto the floor. The Panthers mascot grabbed the rim and paraded around the court like it was his trophy. Maintenance workers needed 32 minutes to clean up the mess and install another backboard.

Miller finished his Pitt career with 744 assists (second in school history), but none like that one. The game was televised nationally, and ESPN’s Bill Raftery shouted the now-famous words, “Send it in, Jerome.”

Years later, Raftery told the Trib’s Kevin Gorman, “It was something either you couldn’t do or haven’t seen it before first-hand. Later, I saw Shaq take the glass and backboard down at the Meadowlands. It wasn’t as impressive. I was like, ‘I’ve seen this before. Big deal.’ ”

There was more to Lane and Pitt’s team that season than one thunderous dunk. The Panthers, who won that game, 90-56, were Big East regular-season champions, ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation. They finished 24-7, losing to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Barry Goheen’s last-minute basket.

Lane led the nation in rebounding the season prior (13.5 per game) and finished his career with 970, third all-time behind Sam Clancy and Charles Smith.

Heyward, father of the Steelers’ Cameron Heyward, rushed for the third-most yards in a season in Pitt history (1,791 in ’87), behind Dion Lewis (1,799 in 2009) and Tony Dorsett (2,150 in 1976).

Heyward sits fifth all-time at Pitt with 3,086 career yards.

Other 34s of note:

• John Milner hit 131 home runs in his 12-year career. None were as dramatic as the walk-off, pinch-hit grand slam as the Pirates defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 12-8, in the first game of a doubleheader Aug. 5, 1979, at Three Rivers Stadium.

Manager Chuck Tanner defied the odds and sent up Milner, a left-handed batter, to hit against lefty relief ace Tug McGraw. Milner, who had a .230 career batting average and only 23 home runs against left-handers, batted for Steve Nicosia, who was 4 for 4 in the game, including a home run against Steve Carlton.

A crowd of 46,006 saw the Pirates seize first place by a half-game from the Montreal Expos on their way to their most recent World Series appearance.

• Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Nellie Briles wore No. 34 when he threw a two-hitter to win Game 5 of the 1971 World Series, 4-0, against the Baltimore Orioles.

That turned into Briles’ second world championship. He also went the distance in Game 3 of the 1967 World Series, leading the eventual world champion St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-2 victory against the Boston Red Sox.

• Linebacker Andy Russell, a seven-time Pro Bowler, wore No. 34 through 12 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, recording 18 interceptions and helping the team win their first two Super Bowls.

Russell is in several halls of fame and the Steelers’ Hall of Honor, but not the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even though teammate Joe Greene has lobbied for Russell’s induction.

• Steelers running back Walter Abercrombie was the team’s first-round pick — 12th overall — in 1982 from Baylor. He ran for 3,357 yards in six seasons, falling short of the expectations that surrounded him.

• Power forward Melvin Bennett played one season at Pitt (1974-75), but he averaged a double-double with 10.1 points and 10.2 rebounds. The Peabody High School graduate left the next season for the Virginia Squires of the ABA.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.