Bobby “Slick” Leonard, one of the most celebrated, beloved members of the state of Indiana basketball family, has died. He was 88.
The first basketball player inducted into the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame, Leonard captained IU to the 1953 national championship — the first of back-to-back All-American seasons for the Terre Haute product. Famously, Leonard drained the game-winning free throw that lifted the Hoosiers to their second NCAA title. He finished his IU career with 1,098 points.
Leonard also played seven seasons in the NBA with the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Packers/Zephyrs before coaching the Chicago franchise — which later moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets — for two seasons in the mid-1960s.