A former Pepperdine Wave will be inducted into the West Coast Conference’s ninth annual Hall of Honor next month.
William “Bird” Averitt, college basketball’s leading scorer over four decades ago, is one of 10 individuals — one from each WCC university — who will be celebrated on March 4 at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during the conference’s championships for men’s and women’s basketball.
Averitt, 64, a 6’2” guard for three seasons with the Waves, will be the ninth Pepperdine inductee into the hall. The previous honorees were Dana Jones, Dane Suttle, Doug Christie, Katherine Hull, Maureen Formico-Caloiaro, Mike Scott and Wayne Wright.
The Hopkinsville, Ky. native, who averaged a tick over 30 points per contest for the Waves, will be cemented into WCC history with BYU’s Tina Gunn Robison, Gonzaga’s John Stockton, Loyola Marymount’s Paul Westhead, Pacific’s Jennifer Joines Tamas, Portland’s Shannon Mac Millan, Saint Mary’s Mark Teahen, San Diego’s John Cunningham, San Francisco’s Brittany Lindhe and Santa Clara’s Dick Davey.
The skilled player, nicknamed “Bird” because of his small frame, was persuaded to come to California to play college basketball by Fred Overton, a Pepperdine assistant coach from Kentucky, and the Waves’ coach at the time, Gary Colson.
Averitt established himself as a scorer during the 1970-71 season as a member of the Waves frosh team. He scored 43 and 44 points in games against a UCLA all-freshman team that included basketball greats Bill Walton and Keith Wilkes.
Averitt was a prolific scorer for Pepperdine’s varsity hoops team the next two seasons. He pumped in an average of 28.9 points per game as a sophomore, and the next season he led all of college basketball in scoring, thanks to an average of 33.9 points per contest.
The left-handed guard scored at least 40 points 11 times, with his highest scoring game a 57-point outburst in 1973 against Nevada. Averitt scored in double-figures in all 49 of his college hoops game and averaged 31.5 points a game for two seasons. He scored 1,541 points total in the 1971-72 and 1972-73 seasons.
Averitt is the WCC record holder for points in a game and scoring average for a season and career.
The electric guard began his professional basketball career after his junior season by signing with the then ABA-affiliated San Antonio Spurs. Averitt played three seasons in the ABA, in which he averaged 14.2 points per game, and helped the Kentucky Colonels win the league’s title in 1975. He then averaged 8.3 points a game in two NBA seasons.
Today, Averitt lives in his native town of Hopkinsville, Ky. and is partially paralyzed due to a car accident in 1995.