Maurice Stokes (June 17, 1933 - April 6, 1970) was a professional American basketball player in the 1950s for the Cincinnati/Rochester Royals of the National Basketball Association (NBA) until his career - and then his life - was cut off by injury which is debilitating.
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Stokes was born in Rankin, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, one of four children - he has a twin brother and two brothers. His father worked in a steel factory and his mother was a domestic worker. When Maurice was 8 years old, the family moved to nearby Homewood, where she later attended Westinghouse Secondary School. Stokes did not start his first two years at Westinghouse, but in the last two years, he helped lead the Bulldogs to back-to-back city championships in 1950 and 1951.
Maps Maurice Stokes
College career
Stokes attended and graduated from Saint Francis College in Loretto, Pennsylvania. There he led Red Flash to the 1955 National Invitation Tournament and was named Most Valuable Player even though his team finished fourth in the tournament. In his first college season, Stokes averaged 23.1 points and 26.5 rebounds per game. In the following season, he averaged 27.1 points and 26.2 rebounds per game. Stokes remains St Francis' all-time leading rebounder with 1819 and the second in a rating of 2,282 points. The Red Flash is 79-30 for the four seasons of Stokes. He was subsequently sworn in at the St. Francis University Athletic Hall of Fame. NBA Career>
Playing for the Roy Royals of the National Basketball Association, who became the Cincinnati Royals in 1957, from 1955 to 1958, Stokes averaged 16.3 rebounds per game during the rookie season and was named NBA Rookie of the Year. The following season, he scored a league record for most of the rebounds in a season with 1,256 (17.4 per game). Stokes finished second in the NBA in a rebound and third in assists in 1957-58; a feat only Wilt Chamberlain has been fit for one full season.
For three seasons in the NBA (1955-58), he earned more rebounds than the other players with 3,492 (second Bob Pettit with 3,417) and also collected 1,062 assists, the second in the NBA only for Boston Celtics point guard Bob Cousy (1.583). Stokes was named a member of the All-Star Second Team and the All-NBA three times in his very short career. She was sworn in to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2004.
He is one of the five NBA players who has recorded 4 triple-double in a row.
Injuries and illnesses
On March 12, 1958, in the last game of the regular 1957-58 NBA season, Stokes collapsed after he went to the basket, withdrew contact, and hit his head when he fell to court. She was revived with salt smelling and returned to the game. Three days later, after scoring 12 points and 15 rebounds in the opening-round playoffs against the Detroit Pistons, he fell ill on a team flight back to Cincinnati. Stokes then suffers from seizures and is left permanently paralyzed. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy, a brain injury that damaged his motor control center.
Over the following years, Stokes will be supported and cared for by his friend and teammate, Jack Twyman, who became Stokes's legal guardian. Although paralyzed permanently, Stokes is mentally alert and communicated with a wink. She adopts a grueling physical therapy regimen that eventually allows her limited physical movement. He spent three years typing his own autobiography, which was never published. Stokes's condition worsened through the 1960s and was later transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, where Twyman continued to be a regular visitor.
Death
Twelve years after he suffered a post-injury coma, he died at the age of 36 from a heart attack on April 6, 1970. At his own request, he was buried at Friar Francis Cemetery on the campus of Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania..
Legacy
Jack Twyman organized a charity basketball charity event in 1958 to help raise funds for Stokes medical expenses. The game, pioneered by Milton Kutsher, became an annual tradition and was named Maurice Stokes Memorial Basketball Game. It was later changed to Maurice Stokes/Wilt Chamberlain Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament due to NBA and insurance company restrictions on athletes.
The lives, injury, and relationship of Twokman with Twyman are all depicted in the 1973 National General Pictures Maurie .
Athletic Center Maurice Stokes
The Maurice Stokes Athletics Center (originally named Maurice Stokes Physical Education Building when it opened in 1971) at St. Francis University is named after him.
NBA Twyman-Stokes Best Year Partners
On June 9, 2013, the NBA announced that both Stokes and Jack Twyman will be honored with an annual award on their behalf, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award, which recognizes players who embody an ideal team in the league that season.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
Playoffs
See also
- List of annual rebel leaders of the National Basketball Association
- List of the National Basketball Association, the leader of a single game rebound
- List of NCAA Division I man basketball players with 30 or more rebounds in the game
References
Farabaugh, Pat. Unbreakable Bond: The Brotherhood of Maurice Stokes and Jack Twyman , Haworth, N.J.: St. Johann Press, 2014.
External links
- College statistics
- ESPN Biography from Maurice Stokes: Stokes life stories of tragedy and friendship
- Maurice Stokes in the Search of the Mausoleum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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