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Two-sport star Groat began winning tradition at Duke**

Before Ray Farmer, there was Dick Groat. Farmer is currently Duke's best known two-sport star, an All-American in football who was drafted out of high school in baseball. Groat was one of the school's first two-sport stars, playing baseball and basketball from 1949 to 1952.

These days, due to the popularity of college football, Farmer is more known for his gridiron play than his performance on the diamond.

But it wasn't always that way. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, baseball was the sport to play. All of the top athletes pursued a career in the major leagues. So naturally, Dick Groat wanted to be a baseball player. Even though basketball was his first love, Groat played both baseball and basketball in high school. He continued that combination while at Duke.

Groat dominated both sports as a Blue Devil. In basketball, he was named Southern Conference Player of the Year in both 1951 and 1952. The latter year, Groat averaged 26.0 points per game, a mark that earned him NCAA Player of the Year honors.

Even with all of Groat's accolades in 1960, most baseball fans remember one swing from that year's World Series. The Pirates were underdogs against the powerful New York Yankees, a team loaded with future Hall of Famers like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. Yet Groat's double play partner at second base, Bill Mazeroski, made the unthinkable come true with his home run in Game 7 of the World Series. Groat was the year's MVP, but Mazeroski is the memory.

Even so, Groat has never been bitter about not receiving proper attention for his stellar season.

"Bill Mazeroski is one of my closest friends," Groat said. "He hit the biggest home run that made me the happiest guy in the world. He gave me a championship in my hometown of Pittsburgh."

During his early years with the Pirates, Groat was a predecessor to Deion Sanders, playing two professional sports at once. He was a first-round pick of Fort Wayne in 1952, and spent some time in the NBA. But then the Korean War came, and Groat went into the service. When he returned, Pirates owner Branch Rickey said he could no longer play basketball. Sadly, he left the game he loved.

"I played in the NBA, knowing that was my first love," Groat said. "I really wanted to play after going into the service. But major league baseball was wonderful to me. I can't thank baseball enough for what it did to me. Even after all these years, I still consider myself a retired basketball player, not a retired baseball player."

Like many baseball fans, I too first heard of Dick Groat, the baseball player, before hearing about Dick Groat, the Duke basketball star. I remember looking on the back of Groat's 1962 Topps baseball card and reading that he played basketball at Duke.

But that was in 1989, and at that time Duke basketball was Danny Ferry, Johnny Dawkins and Final Fours. I had a narrow sense that Duke basketball only became good in 1986, the year the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA championship game and started their streak of seven Final Fours in nine years.

Sadly, Groat's basketball talents are often lost among his baseball accolades. Fans seem to forget that Groat considers Cameron Indoor Stadium, not Jack Coombs Field, to be his true home. Part of that stems from the fact that Groat never played in an NCAA tournament game. The rules were different then--only the winner of the conference tournament advanced. So even though the 1952 team Groat captained finished with a 24-6 mark, it was denied a chance at a national title.

Last Friday, Dick Groat returned to Cameron to take his place among the legends of Duke basketball. Fans rushed up to him to shake his hand, telling stories about the first time they saw him play. One gentleman told Groat that he too was a basketball and baseball player in high school, and he decided to attend Duke because of Dick Groat. Of course, there were the fans who mentioned his baseball glory. Heck, even I told one young autograph seeker, "This guy was National League MVP in 1960."

But when Groat took his place among Duke's nine retired jerseys, he was simply a Duke basketball player. In fact, after the modern stars, Groat received the loudest applause. He admits some of that may have come from fans recognizing his baseball personality. But most of it was in appreciation for beginning the tradition of winning at Duke.

"The walk onto the floor of Cameron is a major league experience for any basketball player," Groat said. "It's simply a great thrill.

"Cameron is the one place where I can be remembered for being a basketball player, not a baseball player."

John Seelke is a Trinity senior and associate sports editor of The Chronicle.