Rick Mount

Rick Mount

Personal information
Born	(1947-01-05)January 5, 1947 Lebanon, Indiana,U.S.
Listed height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school	Lebanon(Lebanon, Indiana)
College	Purdue(1967–1970)
NBA draft	1970:8th round, 132nd overall pick
Selected by theLos Angeles Lakers
Playing career	1970–1975
Position	Shooting guard
Number	10, 30, 11, 2
Career history
1970–1972	Indiana Pacers
1972–1974	Kentucky Colonels
1974	Utah Stars
1974–1975	Memphis Sounds
Career highlights and awards
ABA champion(1972) 2× Consensus first-teamAll-America(1969,1970) Second-team All-America –UPI(1968) Third-team All-America –AP,NABC(1968) 2× Big TenSilver Basketballwinner (1969, 1970) Indiana Mr. Basketball(1966) First-teamParadeAll-American(1966)
Statsat Basketball-Reference.com
College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2017

Richard Carl Mount(born January 5, 1947) is an American former professionalbasketballplayer in theAmerican Basketball Association(ABA).Mount played basketball atLebanon Senior High SchoolinLebanon, Indiana,during which time he became the first high school boy representing a team sport to appear on the cover ofSports Illustrated.Mount then played forPurdue Universityfrom 1966 to 1970.

Early life

Rick Mount's father,Pete,was an avid basketball player who intended Rick to learn the game as well. He cut out the bottom of a peanut can so Rick could shoot tennis balls through it. Rick's first time playing with an official basketball goal was during the fourth grade. He was known to beat 8th and 9th graders. However, when it was time to try out for the school basketball team, he wasn't able to make a standard left-handlay up,which was a requirement for making the roster. That very night he practiced for hours until he had it down, and on the next day of tryouts, he made the team.

High school career

Rick "the Rocket" Mount attendedLebanon High SchoolinLebanon, Indiana.There, he led his team in scoring, including 33.1 ppg throughout his junior and senior seasons. His game started to attract national attention. In 1965, Lebanon playedCrawfordsville High SchoolatHinkle FieldhouseinIndianapolis, Indiana.With 10,000 people in attendance, the team made enough money to buy a bus. He scored 57 points in the game.

On February 14, 1966, Mount appeared on the cover ofSports Illustrated,which featured him standing in front of a barn located in hisBoone Countyhomeland. A frequent misconception is that Rick was the first high school athlete (or male high school athlete) to be featured on the cover ofSports Illustratedin 1966, though there had been several prior; he was, in fact, the first high school boy representing a team sport to appear on the cover.At the end of his senior year, he won the Indiana "Mr. Basketball" award and was named "USA Basketball Yearbook Player of the Year," given to the nation's best high school player. He finished his Lebanon career with 2,595 points, at the time the second-highest total in Indiana high school history; as of December 2021 he is seventh.

College career

Mount during a Purdue timeout in 1968.

Mount goes in for alayupagainst theUCLA Bruins.

1966–67 season

Mount was considering committing to University of Miami (Florida). Instead, he stayed home and attendedPurdue UniversityinWest Lafayette, Indiana,just 35 miles (56 km) northwest of his hometown, to play basketball under head coachGeorge King.

As a freshman, Mount was unable to play on the varsity team due toNCAAregulations then in effect. Rick scored 33 points in a scrimmage against the varsity team in front of 9,500 in attendance atLambert Fieldhouse.He averaged 35 points a game while shooting 54.5 percent on the freshman squad, tallying 490 points.

1967–68 season

In his first varsity game, Mount scored a game-high 28 points in a last-second, two-point loss to a top-rankedUCLAteam andLew Alcindor.It was also the first game played inMackey Arena.Averaging 28.4 points a game and leading Purdue to a 15–9 record, he was named a Second TeamAll-Americanand First Team All-Big Ten his sophomore season. Following the U.S. Olympic Trials in April, he was selected as an Alternate to the U.S. National Team.

1968–69 season

In his junior season at Purdue, along with seniorsBilly KellerandHerm Gilliam,he led theBoilermakersto aBig Ten Conferencetitle and the school's firstNCAA tournamentappearance, leading to theNCAA Finalsgame where they lost to aLew Alcindor-ledUCLA.

In a win againstMarquetteto bring the Boilers to the Final Four, Mount is remembered for his "leaping lofter" game-winning shot with two seconds left in overtime. He led all scorers in the tournament with a 40.6 point average in Purdue's three games. Purdue led the nation with 94.8 points a game during the 1968–69 season fronted by Mount's 33.3 a game. A regular season highlight was defeatingIndiana120–76 in the final game of the regular season, establishing a school record for most points in a game.

Rick had a keen eye on telling if a goal wasn't balanced. He twice had officials adjust the same goal prior to the NCAA Finals game atFreedom HallinLouisville, Kentucky.He went through the same procedure earlier in the season before a game atIowa.He led Purdue to a 23–5 record on the season. He shot 51.5 percent on the season, whereas well-known scorers such asPete MaravichandCalvin Murphyshot no better than 46 percent. He was selected as a First Team All-American and the Big Ten Player Of The Year.

1969–70 season

In his senior year, Mount had two 53-point games plus a 61-point game againstconference champ Iowa.Thirty-two of his 61 points were scored in the first half alone. Later research found that if the three-point line had existed in 1970 in the NCAA, he would have scored 74 points in that game, credited with 13 three-point field goals. The official school record is ten, held byCarsen Edwards.

Leading Purdue to an 18–6 season, he averaged 35.4 points a game and took second straight First Team All-American and Big Ten Player Of The Year honors. Mount left as the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,323 points throughout only three varsity seasons. At the time, it was also the Big Ten scoring record, surpassing the total ofIndiana's Don Schlundt. It is currently held by Indiana'sCalbert Cheaney's 2,613, though Cheaney's career collegiate scoring average of 19.8 falls well short of Mount's 32.3.

Mount scored in double figures for 72 consecutive games while scoring 30-plus points in 46 of those games. Both remain school records. He broke numerous Purdue scoring records that were held byDave SchellhaseandTerry Dischinger.During his career, he led the Boilers to a 56–20 overall record.

Mount never received a national player of the year award. He finished behind UCLA'sLew AlcindorandLSU'sPete Maravich.

Professional career

Indiana Pacers

1970-1971

Mount was considered an excellent pro prospect, but because the general managers of the NBA knew that Mount was already signed by theABA,he was not drafted by theLos Angeles Lakersuntil the middle of the eighth round of the1970 NBA draft.Mount was, however, drafted in the ABA by theIndiana Pacersas the first overall pick in 1970.As a result, his legendary status in Indiana made it a foregone conclusion that he would sign with the Indiana Pacers of the rival ABA. At the time, the ABA was the only professional league that featured a three-point line, which worked to Mount's advantage, as he was an outside shooter. During his first season in the ABA, Mount was offered $40,000 from Pro-Keds to wear its newsuedebasketball shoe. He declined the offer, because he personally preferredChuck Taylorsof theConversebrand.

1971-1972

Playing for head coachBob "Slick" Leonard,along with such teammates asGeorge McGinnis,Mel DanielsandBob Netolicky,he led the Pacers to the1972 ABA ChampionshipagainstRick Barryand theNew York Nets.He handed off 2.9 assists and averaged 14.2 points a game, racking up 57 three-pointers in his second season as a Pacer. Along with old college teammate Billy Keller andRoger Brown,they made Indiana a constant threat beyond the arc.

Kentucky Colonels

1972-1973

Rick Mount was traded to theKentucky Colonelsfor the 1972–73 season. He averaged 15 points a game on the season. Teamed withDan Issel,he averaged 17 points in playoff games while leading the Colonels to theABA Finalsagainst his former Pacers.

Utah Stars

1973-1974

In the middle of the 1973–74 season, Rick was traded to theUtah Stars,where he joinedRon Boone.For the third straight season, Mount led a different team to theABA Finals,eventually losing to the New York Nets.

According toCharley Rosen,Mount displayed the most astounding exhibition of pure, one-on-none shooting he ever saw. Rosen was invited by the Utah coach,Joe Mullaney,to participate in an intra-squad scrimmage. After Mullaney officially terminated the session, several players lingered to playHORSE.Because of Mount, the Stars' rules were unique. Shots had to be perfectly clean, counted only if the ball didn't touch the rim. Despite this wrinkle, Mount won every game. In the end, only Mount and Rosen were left on the court, and Mount was able to adjust the trajectory of every jumper so that the ball hit the inner part of the backside-rim in such a way that the ball would nudge the iron, split the net, and then bounce back to him. He supposedly could do this about 90 percent of the time.

Memphis Sounds

1974-1975

Mount spent the last season of his ABA and professional basketball career playing for theMemphis Sounds.He averaged a career season-high scoring average of 17.1 points a game. His career was cut short due to a dislocated shoulder that he sustained during the 1974–75 season.

Career notes

Mount was amongst the top of the league in three-point shooting during the time he spent in the ABA, while averaging 11.8 points a game and in his career with a total of 3,330 points. Known mainly for his scoring abilities in high school and college, Mount contributed in a greater variety of ways during his pro career. As one of the finest passers in the league, he averaged 2.4assists,tallying a total of 676. He was also a finefree throwshooter with 82 percent accuracy. Rick shot 31.7 percent beyond the arc and held a 43.3 field goal percentage in his five seasons in the ABA.

After retirement

Today, Mount still lives in his hometown of Lebanon, Indiana, with his wife, Donna. His son, Rich, played on the Purdue basketball team for two seasons (1989–1991) before transferring toVCU.Rich, who also played at Lebanon, left high school with the ninth most points in Indiana high school history. He currently works as a police officer in Lebanon.

Mount currently runs "shoot camps" for high school players throughout the Midwest, where each player will take 2,500 supervised shots. The instructional school is based solely on shooting and there is no scrimmaging involved.

An avid quail hunter in his spare time, he opened Rick Mount's Sports Shop, a hunting and fishing shop. Purdue is among Mount's customers for the "Shoot-A-Way" retrieval system, a device which returns a basketball down a track to a player after a shot. Rick left college 10 credits shy of his degree requirements; that decision later affected his opportunity to be a head coach at an Indiana high school.

In 1992, Mount and his father were both inducted into theIndiana Basketball Hall of Fame,located inNew Castle, Indiana.In 2014, his son, Rich, was named to theIndiana Basketball Hall of Fame's Silver Anniversary Team.

In 2016, Mount gave an interview to the Indianapolis Star where he discussed his career and the public perception of him.

See also

• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game

References

General

• Jeff Washburn,Tales from Indiana High School Basketball(Sports Publishing 2004).
• Mike Bresnahan,Covered in Glory(Los Angeles Times,January 3, 2003)
• The Lafayette Journal and Courier,Most Memorable Moments In Purdue Basketball History(Sports Publishing 1998)

Specific

External links

• Career statistics and player information fromBasketball-Reference.com
• Rick Mount Purdue University Biography
• Rick Mount Shooting Clinic Website
• A Video Visit with Rick MountonYouTube