Richard Morrow Groat (November 4, 1930 – April 27, 2023) was an American professional baseball and basketball player, who was an eight-time All-Star shortstop and two-time World Series champion in Major League Baseball. He rates as one of the most accomplished two-sport athletes in American sports history, a college All-America in baseball and basketball as well as one of only 13 to play both at the professional level.
Groat attended Duke University, where he was a two-time All-American, two-time McKelvin Award winner as the Southern Conference athlete of the year, and the first basketball player to have his number (10) retired in school history. In 2011, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame, becoming the first person to be admitted to the college basketball and baseball halls of fame.
Early life and education
Groat was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, to Martin and Gracie Groat, the youngest of five children. He was raised in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, and attended Swissvale High School where he earned letters in basketball, baseball, and volleyball. The Blue Devils won in a 94–64 rout for their 13th consecutive triumph. Victories over Maryland and West Virginia extended the streak to 15 in the Southern Conference Tournament before the Blue Devils were ousted by North Carolina State 77–68 in the championship round to fall one win short of an NCAA Tournament berth.
On May 1, 1952, Groat had his jersey number 10 retired to the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium on campus. It would remain the only one retired by the school for 28 years. On November 18, 2007, he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
thumb|left|Groat sliding into third base for Duke (1952)
In baseball, Groat played shortstop at Duke. In his senior year (1952), he helped to lead the teams to a 31–7 record and their first College World Series. For the season, Groat hit .370 and led the team in doubles, hits, runs batted in, and stolen bases. He was a two-time winner of the McKelvin Award, given to the Athlete of the Year in the Southern Conference.
Professional athletic career
Groat, then 21 years old, joined the Pirates on June 17 in New York, without a day of minor league experience. He made his major league debut the following day and subsequently batted a team-high .284 for the remainder of the season, recording 109 hits and 29 runs batted in. Four months into the season, he enlisted in the US Army. He chose that time so his release would coincide with the start of baseball training camp two years later. During his military stint, he led Fort Belvoir teams to worldwide Army championships in baseball and basketball, the first time a single base had achieved the feat in the same year. He hit .362 on the diamond and averaged 35 points per game on the court. In an attempt to improve their tenuous relationship, manager Bobby Bragan named him team captain midway through the season. Groat hit a .273 overall, but after his average tailed off in the final two months, he spent more time on his mechanics in the off-season.
In 1960, as the team captain, Groat became the first Pirate to be selected Most Valuable Player since Paul Waner in 1927. He hit .325 to become the first right-handed Pirates hitter to win the batting title since Honus Wagner in 1911. He sat out 20 days after his right wrist was fractured by a Lew Burdette pitch on September 6. Originally, Groat was expected to be sidelined for at least one month but he lobbied hard for an early return in order to be better prepared for the expected trip to the World Series.
Groat was considered one of the most difficult hitters to defend against in his era and a master of the hit-and-run play, a skill he developed under Pirates batting coach George Sisler, a two time .400 hitting Hall of Famer. Groat had good knowledge of the strike zone, walking more times than he struck out in six of his 13 full seasons.
Trade to the Cardinals
In 1961, Groat batted .275, and teamed with Mazeroski to lead the league in double plays. One season later, he improved to a .294 batting average and finished third in the league in doubles (34). He also led the NL in putouts, assists, and double plays.
Fully intent to prove that Brown had made an egregious mistake, Groat responded with a vengeance in the 1963 campaign. In his best season in the big leagues, he set career marks in RBI (73), hits (201), doubles (43), triples (11), on-base percentage (.377), and slugging percentage (.450) to finish second to Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax in the NL Most Valuable Player vote. His .319 batting average ranked fourth in the league, seven points behind the leader Tommy Davis (Dodgers).
Groat reached base on a fielder's choice groundout and scored on Tim McCarver's three-run homer in the 10th inning of Game 5, which saw the Cardinals score a 5–2 victory. He had an RBI groundout in the 7–5 win in the Game 7 clincher.
Groat quickly became a fan favorite in Fort Wayne, whose partisans took a liking to his pull-up jump shot, leaping ability, and boundless energy. In only his second game, the rookie scored a career-high 25 points in a 112–83 rout of the New York Knicks, who had advanced to the NBA Finals the previous season. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated three times in his career, in 1960, 1963, and 1966.
Pirates Hall of Fame
In August 2022, the Pirates organization elected its inaugural Hall of Fame class. Former teammates Clemente and Mazeroski were among the 19 selections chosen by an unnamed panel but Groat was not. He was elected the next year, and informed of his selection on April 18, 2023, nine days before his death.
Post-playing career and interests
From the 1979–80 through the 2018–19 seasons, Groat spent 40 seasons as the radio color analyst for Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball games. In that period, he and play-by-play partner Bill Hillgrove were the longest tenured broadcast team in the college game. His road schedule was limited to games at Duke in his final two seasons, after which his contract was not renewed.
Golf
Groat became more active in golf after his baseball career. While he stopped playing the sport in 2014 because of physical limitations, he routinely shot in the 70s in his prime. In 1964, he and Pirates teammate Jerry Lynch designed and built Champion Lakes Golf Course in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, one of only three public courses to receive a four-star rating in Western Pennsylvania. As course owner and manager, he lived on the grounds and was a familiar face there.
Personal life
In November 1955, Groat married Barbara Womble, a former model who worked in New York City. The couple had three daughters: Tracey, Carol Ann, and Allison. They were married for 35 years until Barbara died from lung cancer in 1990.
Groat was the great-uncle of golfer Brooks Koepka, who won the 2017 and 2018 U.S. Open, and the 2018, 2019 and 2023 PGA Championship.
Groat was a resident of the Pittsburgh suburb of Edgewood. On April 27, 2023, he died at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh at the age of 92, from complications of a stroke he had a week before.
Career statistics
MLB
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center;"
! Category!! G !! BA !! AB !! R !! H !! 2B !! 3B !! HR !! RBI !! SB !! CS !! BB !! SO !! OBP !! SLG !! OPS !! E !! FLD%
|-
| Total || 1,929 || .286 || 7,484 || 829 || 2,138 || 352 || 67 || 39 || 707 || 17 || 27 || 490 || 512 || .330 || .366 || .696 || 376 || .961
|}
NBA
Source