Walt Hazzard was a driving force in leading the UCLA Bruins to an NCAA title in 1964 and earned the MOP Award for the tournament

Wali Jones as a member of the Temple University Prep team after leaving teammate Walt Hazzard at Overbrook High in Philadelphia, PA. The changing of the guard to Temple University Prep from left Wali Jones, Bobby Fives, Herman Feldstein and James Loving

SPORTS NOTES EXTRA- REMEMBERING THE NBA'S WALT HAZZARD

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

It was a day of the changing of the guard. Hazzard's Overbrook teammate and best friend Wally (Wali) Jones played the first half with Brook. The second half he played with our Temple Prep team. Jones graduated from high school at mid season enabling him to make the transfer. After that game and graduation he joined our squad. Hazzard and Jones were very close friends and both went on to have successful 10-year NBA careers.

Monday December 26, 2011 - (Updated - Monday January 22, 2024)

THE PHILADELPHIA CONNECTION

November was not a good month for Philadelphia's athletes. First former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier passed away on November 7th at the age of 67. Then former NBA player Walt Hazzard died Friday November 18th at the age of 69 and we just received the bad news via a friend December 2nd. The news came as a shock but given Hazzard having had a stroke and was wheelchair bound the news was understandable.

Christmas day the NBA finally began after a league lockout that reduced the schedule to 66 games down from the regular 82 game season. The sad thing is that Hazzard will not be in his regular spot at Los Angeles Lakers games in the section reserved for wheel chairs. Hazzard was a former college player of the year at UCLA after they went undefeated and won their coach John Wooden's first of his 10 NCAA Championship titles. He was selected as the tournaments Most Outstanding Player (MOP). He was chosen as an All-American and also selected as College Player of the Year by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and was a consensus NCAA All-American First Team (1964). His number 42 jersey was retired by UCLA in 1996 in Pauley Pavilion. The Lakers selected him in the 1st round of the 1964 NBA draft and 5th in the draft overall.

Hazzard was a guy that I knew prior to his college and NBA career successes having played against him while he was at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA. Our Temple University Prep team had a mid season scrimmage against Brook as they were referred to in slang. We defeated them by four points.

It was a day of the changing of the guard. Hazzard's Overbrook teammate and best friend Wally (Wali) Jones played the first half with Brook. The second half he played with our Temple Prep team. Jones graduated from high school at mid season enabling him to make the transfer. After that game and graduation he joined our squad. Hazzard and Jones were very close friends and both went on to have successful 10-year NBA careers.

In the early 90's after an NBA game I saw Hazzard in our press area at the Los Angeles Sports arena and we talked about our scrimmage game experience and his friend Jones. There was no way one could think of one without the other if they had seen and were aware of how the duo led Overbrook to city league title success.

You couldn't think of one without the other. They were high school basketball legends within their own time. The first time I saw them was when the city title was on the line in a game with rivals West Philadelphia High at the West Philly home court. Jones and Hazzard along with Bobby Jones were the leaders of the team. Hazzard's quickness and Jones floor leadership stood out. Little did I know at the time that Jones and I would eventually become teammates.

In the scrimmage Hazzard was a load to cover. He leaped like a gazelle and had the strength and quickness of a lion. I could feel his power as he drove past me on his way to the hoop. In the press area I jokingly I said to Hazzard we beat you by four points. "Yea, but it was only a scrimmage," he responded about a game that he would never forget as it was his last with Jones.

At the end of that year Jones received a scholarship to play at Villanova and Hazzard moved on to a Junior college in California. As I recall he said that he attended Los Angeles City College (LACC) for a year. The information that we've sourced on the Internet notes that he attended Santa Monica College. In the scheme of things it's apple and oranges.

After finding out about his passing we searched the Internet for information. Knowing that Phil Jasner the award winning writer for the Philadelphia inquire was a classmate at Brook with Jones and Hazzard we sought his opinion. There was none as we later found that Jasner also passed away from cancer a year earlier. Jasner and I often talked about those days and the Hazzard and Jones experience he was the authority on their history.

Hazzard had the better college experience in being a member of that 1964 NCAA UCLA title winning team.

Jones was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the 3rd round (2nd pick) of the 1964 NBA draft. After being traded Jones was selected as a member of the NBA All-rookie team that season as a member of the Baltimore Bullets. Poncho as he was referred to by his friends had more success in the NBA being a member of the 1967 NBA title winning Philadelphia 76ers which featured him as a starting guard along with Hal Greer, Wilt Chamberlain, Chet Walker and Luke Jackson with Billy Cunningham coming off the bench as the sixth man. That Sixers team is believed by many to be the best ever NBA team for ONE season. . He tied his career best scoring average with 13.2 PPG.

Hazzard spent three seasons with the Lakers before moving on to the Seattle Super Sonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder) and stints with the Atlanta Hawks, Buffalo Braves (now Los Angeles Clippers) and Golden State Warriors. His best season was with Seattle in 67-68 when he averaged 24 points per game. Seattle traded him to the Hawks during the off-season for Lenny Wilkens who eventually became the winningest coach in NBA history. Hazzard's career high average in assists came during the 1969-70 season, when he averaged 6.8 assist per game while playing for the Hawks. He finished his career with a 12.6 ppg. average. He was a member of the 1964 Olympic Gold Medal winning team with Bill Bradley and Larry Brown as teammates. Brown also became a big winner as an NBA coach.

Hazzard also tried his hand at coaching. In 1984, he returned to UCLA as its men's basketball coach. That same year, he was inducted into the UCLA's Athletic Hall of Fame. He coached for four seasons, winning 77 out of 125 games. The 1984-1985 UCLA Bruin basketball team won the NIT championship. The 1986-1987 UCLA Bruin basketball team won both the Pac-10 regular season championship as well as the inaugural Pacific-10 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.

In 1996 Hazzard suffered a stroke that confined him to a wheelchair. Before the stroke he worked as primary West Coast advance NBA scout for the Los Angeles Lakers. He later was a special consultant with the Lakers. On November 18, 2011, Hazzard died at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center due to complications following heart surgery. He left his wife of 47 years and four children. He also left some good memories for those of us who knew him.