Rick Mount

Richard Carl Mount (born January 5, 1947) is an American former professional basketball player in the American Basketball Association (ABA).

Mount played basketball at Lebanon Senior High School in Lebanon, Indiana, during which time he became the first high school boy representing a team sport to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In 1965, Lebanon played Crawfordsville High School at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

With 10,000 people in attendance, the team made enough money to buy a bus.

He scored 57 points in the game.

Mount then played for Purdue University from 1966 to 1970.

Rick Mount's father, Pete, was an avid basketball player who intended Rick to learn the game as well.

He cut out the bottom of a peanut can so Rick could shoot tennis balls through it.

Rick's first time playing with an official basketball goal was during the fourth grade.

He was known to beat 8th and 9th graders.

However, when it was time to try out for the school basketball team, he wasn't able to make a standard left-hand lay up, which was a requirement for making the roster.

That very night he practiced for hours until he had it down, and on the next day of tryouts, he made the team.

Rick "the Rocket" Mount attended Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Indiana.

There, he led his team in scoring, including 33.1 ppg throughout his junior and senior seasons.

His game started to attract national attention.

On February 14, 1966, Mount appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which featured him standing in front of a barn located in his Boone County homeland.

A frequent misconception is that Rick was the first high school athlete (or male high school athlete) to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1966, though there had been several prior; he was, in fact, the first high school boy representing a team sport to appear on the cover.

At the end of his senior year, he won the Indiana "Mr. Basketball" award and was named "USA Basketball Yearbook Player of the Year," given to the nation's best high school player.

He finished his Lebanon career with 2,595 points, at the time the second-highest total in Indiana high school history; as of December 2021 he is seventh.

Mount was considering committing to University of Miami (Florida).

Instead, he stayed home and attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, just 35 mi northwest of his hometown, to play basketball under head coach George King.

As a freshman, Mount was unable to play on the varsity team due to NCAA regulations then in effect.

Rick scored 33 points in a scrimmage against the varsity team in front of 9,500 in attendance at Lambert Fieldhouse.

He averaged 35 points a game while shooting 54.5 percent on the freshman squad, tallying 490 points.

In his first varsity game, Mount scored a game-high 28 points in a last-second, two-point loss to a top-ranked UCLA team and Lew Alcindor.

It was also the first game played in Mackey Arena.

Averaging 28.4 points a game and leading Purdue to a 15–9 record, he was named a Second Team All-American and First Team All-Big Ten his sophomore season.

Following the U.S. Olympic Trials in April, he was selected as an Alternate to the U.S. National Team.

In his junior season at Purdue, along with seniors Billy Keller and Herm Gilliam, he led the Boilermakers to a Big Ten Conference title and the school's first NCAA tournament appearance, leading to the NCAA Finals game where they lost to a Lew Alcindor-led UCLA.

In a win against Marquette to bring the Boilers to the Final Four, Mount is remembered for his "leaping lofter" game-winning shot with two seconds left in overtime.

He led all scorers in the tournament with a 40.6 point average in Purdue's three games.

Purdue led the nation with 94.8 points a game during the 1968–69 season fronted by Mount's 33.3 a game.

A regular season highlight was defeating Indiana 120–76 in the final game of the regular season, establishing a school record for most points in a game.

Rick had a keen eye on telling if a goal wasn't balanced.

He twice had officials adjust the same goal prior to the NCAA Finals game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

He went through the same procedure earlier in the season before a game at Iowa.

He led Purdue to a 23–5 record on the season.

He shot 51.5 percent on the season, whereas well-known scorers such as Pete Maravich and Calvin Murphy shot no better than 46 percent.

He was selected as a First Team All-American and the Big Ten Player Of The Year.

In his senior year, Mount had two 53-point games plus a 61-point game against conference champ Iowa.Thirty-two of his 61 points were scored in the first half alone.