Bob Petit’s death at age 93 closes the book on one of the defining figures in LSU basketball history and one of the early stars who helped shape the NBA’s modern forward position. He died Sept. 23 in Metairie, and the news marks the loss of a player whose reach stretched well beyond Baton Rouge and into the league record book.
Pettit was not just a great player by LSU standards. He was the original superstar for the program, a three-time collegiate force who carried the Tigers through a rapid rise in the early 1950s. In 1952, he led LSU to a second-place conference finish while averaging 25.5 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. A year later, he helped deliver the school’s first NCAA Final Four appearance, along with an SEC championship, while posting 24.9 points and 13.9 rebounds per game.
By 1954, Pettit had taken things even further. He led LSU to another SEC championship, averaged 31.4 points and 17.3 rebounds, and had his No. 50 jersey retired by the school. That same year, he was drafted in the first round by the Milwaukee Hawks, beginning an 11-year NBA career that would make him one of the sport’s pioneering big men.
A career that helped define an era
The Hawks moved to St. Louis in 1955, and Pettit remained central to the franchise’s identity. In 1958, he helped the team win the NBA Championship, one of the signature accomplishments of a career that also included five NBA Finals appearances, 11 NBA All-Star selections, four NBA All-Star Game MVP awards and two MVP awards.
His production was as historic as his résumé. In 1964, Pettit became the first NBA player to surpass 20,000 career points, a milestone that underlined how dominant he was in an era when scoring, rebounding and durability were all measured differently than they are today. The Basketball Hall of Fame later highlighted his role in revolutionizing the forward position, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970.
By the time he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1997, the case for Pettit was already well established. He had been an LSU icon, an NBA champion and a standard-setter for what a dominant forward could look like. Few players have ever mattered so much at so many different levels of the game.
For LSU, his legacy is more than historical. It is foundational. Pettit helped create the standard that later generations would chase, from Pete Maravich to Chris Jackson and beyond. Collis Temple summed up the personal side of that legacy, saying he was like a younger brother and good friend to Pettit, someone who stayed connected to LSU and continued to support the program.
Pettit’s family said he passed away peacefully at his home in Metairie on Wednesday, September 23. The phrasing fits the man his peers remembered: kind, humble and gentle, but also unmistakably great. LSU lost its original superstar, and the sport lost one of the players who helped define what greatness looked like before the modern era fully arrived.
