BATON ROUGE, La.—Basketball great “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s college letterman jacket sold for nearly $117,000 at an auction over the weekend, more than 50 years after his record-setting career at Louisiana State University.
The auction of various Maravich memorabilia, conducted by Grey Flannel Auctions of Scottsdale, Arizona, netted over $160,000, including the earnings from the jacket, according to The Advocate.
The purple jacket, trimmed with gold and featuring a gold “L” on the left breast, was worn by Maravich during his three seasons as a Tiger. It went for $116,924. The rest of the auction items included his 1978 NBA All-Star game jersey, All-American plaques from all three seasons at LSU, and the jacket he wore in 1987 for his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
According to The Advocate, the items were all obtained directly from the Maravich family.
Maravich died in 1988 from heart failure at the age of 40. The Pennsylvania native remains the all-time leading scorer in Division I men’s college basketball history with 3,667 points in three seasons at LSU from 1967–70. He also holds the Division I records for most points per game for his career (44.2), and most points per game for a sophomore (43.8), junior (44.2), and senior (44.5). He was voted national player of the year in 1969 and 1970.
LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center, known as “The House that Pete Built,” was named for him shortly after his death.