Born today in 1940 in Detroit, Dave DeBusschere was a dual-sport athlete who played both Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox and basketball for the Detroit Pistons in 1962. He chose basketball, becoming a coach-player and later joining the New York Knicks, where he played a key role in the NBA-ABA merger in the 1970s. After his passing in 2003, the University of Detroit Mercy honored him with a scholarship for student athletes exemplifying leadership.
TRANSCRIPT
Before Michael Jordan was double-dipping into both Basketball and Baseball in the 1990s, there was Dave DeBusschere [de-BUSH-ur], born today in 1940 in Detroit Michigan. In the 1962 season, he pitched for the Chicago White Sox in Major League Baseball, but also that year DeBusschere was playing basketball for the Detroit Pistons. In the end, he would stick with he Pistons and become a coach-slash-player before transferring to the New York Knicks. He would remain in New York where he helped shepherd the merger between the NBA and the struggling American Basketball Association in the mid-70s. Though Dave DeBusschere passed in 2003, the University of Detroit Mercy inaugurated a scholarship in his name that year to support student athletes with exceptional leadership skills which Dave had in abundance.