Tribute to Basketball Great Lou Hudson

It is truly sad news that Lou Hudson, a tremendous player with the NBA Hawks in both St. Louis and Atlanta passed away at the age of 69.

He was as good an outside shooter as there ever was and was nicknamed “Sweet Lou.” Hawks’ greats Bob Pettit, Dominique Wilkins, who did it twice, and Hudson share the one game team scoring record with 57 points.

I remember keeping an “Athlete of the Day” book in 1969 and though regrettably the book is gone, I know Lou won the “award” three times in November that year, including November 10th, 1969 when he had those 57 points in a game.

Though the fact there is “only one basketball” caused friction between them, I would like to think former Hawks’ teammates Pete Maravich and Lou Hudson are shooting baskets together in some form of heaven. It certainly was a piece of heaven watching each do so on earth.