Review: Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photos of Pete Maravich at LSU by Danny Brown

LSU was home to one of the best college basketball players ever to set foot on the hardwood, but to anyone under the age of 40, the memory of Pete Maravich remains steeped in legend, a virtual myth relegated to the pages of several books about his life and ubiquitous highlight reels on ESPN. LSU alum Danny Brown now offers Tiger fans young and old a rare glimpse of the Pistol’s storied college career.

Sure, his story has been told before. They even made it into to a movie, but it’s never been told like this. Brown’s Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photos of Pete Maravich at LSU combines more than 80 photographs never before published, along with game statistics and personal recollections to create one of the more complete portraits of Maravich’s time at LSU.

Brown, a journalism student at LSU, was assigned to cover several beats, including campus security, the golf team, the baseball team and the floundering basketball team. It was there he met Maravich while serving as the young freshman’s squadron sergeant in Air Force ROTC training, required of all male students at the time at LSU.

From 1967 to 1970 Brown photographed almost every LSU home game Maravich played. His photos perfectly capture the Pistol’s gravity-defying skill and grace. Brown’s narrative provides an accurate game-by-game account, while humorous anecdotes round out this unbelievable tale. Brown takes a larger-than-life figure like Pistol Pete Maravich and makes the story tangible.

Who knew this scrawny, mop-topped kid towering around 6 feet 5 inches would average 44.2 points every time he laced up his Chuck Taylor’s at LSU before the invention of the three-point line, let alone shatter the all-time scoring record? Brown sure didn’t. His photographs and stories are a must-read, transporting fans back in time to witness sports history. lsu.edu/lsupress