A CASE IN POINTS
the same shots that his favorite college players shot.
There was the indefatigable Maravich, floppy
socks and all. There was Purdue's stylish Rick Mount and Marquette's explosive tandem of George Thompson and Dean Meminger.
some of Maravich's ball-handling and shooting videos.
Lud Wurtz got his hands on the tapes with the
help of his brother, Lucky Wurtz, the head coach at Kimberly High School. Lucky's son, Aris, is rapidly moving up the career scoring lists at Ri- pon College.
"I watched a lot of those tapes,'' said Taylor
Wurtz, who once listed Pistol Pete Maravich, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln as the three people she would most like to meet in history.
Maravich died of heart failure in 1988. He was 40 years old. "His whole story is incredible,'' said Wurtz,
who has tried to read all the books written on Maravich, including one that he co-authored, "Heir to a Dream.'' Maravich has left a lasting impression. What did she admire the most?
"His basketball skills would be the ideal thing to say and it was something that I admired be- cause he was a great basketball player,'' she said. "But what comes to mind most is his faith. He went through his whole life trying to describe it, always searching for that championship ring, al- ways missing something …'' Near the end, though, he did find a peace of mind through his conversion to evangelical Christianity. Not long after his death, he was named one of the top 50 players in the history of the NBA.
Lud Wurtz would make like Maravich, then Mount, then Thompson, then Meminger, in no particular order. "I'd have to make each of those shots,'' he said, "before I would go in at night.'' Maravich's uniqueness as one of the game's most creative offensive threats struck a chord with Taylor Wurtz; especially after she watched
That also resonated with Wurtz. "I could talk basketball all day,'' she admitted. When she's not playing basketball, of course. As a result, she conceded, "I don't read as much because I always feel like I've got to do some- thing.''
That something is usually shooting on her own before and after practice, and on those off- days. "It's my release for everything,'' Wurtz said. "Just go out there and shoot … 45 minutes to an hour.''
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DAVID STLUKA
