Walt Hazzard facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Walt Hazzard

Hazzard with UCLA c. 1964
Personal information
Born	(1942-04-15)April 15, 1942 Wilmington, Delaware
Nationality	American
Died	November 18, 2011(2011-11-18) (aged 69) Los Angeles, California
High school	Moton (Easton, Maryland) Overbrook (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
College	UCLA (1961–1964)
NBA Draft	1964 / Round: Territorial pick
Selected by the Los Angeles Lakers
Pro career	1964–1974
Coaching career	1980–1988
Career history
As player:
1964–1967	Los Angeles Lakers
1967–1968	Seattle SuperSonics
1968–1971	Atlanta Hawks
1971–1972	Buffalo Braves
1972–1973	Golden State Warriors
1973–1974	Seattle SuperSonics
As coach:
1980–1982	Compton CC
1982–1984	Chapman
1984–1988	UCLA
Career highlights and awards
As player NBA All-Star (1968) NCAA champion (1964) NCAA Final Four MOP (1964) USBWA Player of the Year (1964) Helms Player of the Year (1964) Consensus first-team All-American (1964) 2× First-team All-AAWU (1963–1964) No. 42 retired by UCLA Bruins As coach Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1987)
Career statistics
Points	9,087 (12.6 ppg)
Rebounds	2,146 (3.0 rpg)
Assists	3,555 (4.9 apg)
Medals Men's basketball Representing  United States Olympic Games Gold 1964 Tokyo Team competition

Mahdi Abdul-Rahman (born Walter Raphael Hazzard Jr.; April 15, 1942 – November 18, 2011) was an American professional basketball player and college basketball coach. He played for the UCLA Bruins in college. He was part of their first national championship team in 1964. That same year, he won a gold medal with the U.S. national team at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Hazzard started his professional career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played for the Los Angeles Lakers, who chose him in the 1964 NBA draft. In 1968, he was named an NBA All-Star while playing for the Seattle SuperSonics. After his playing career, he became the head coach at UCLA in the 1980s.

Walt Hazzard's College Basketball Journey

Hazzard at UCLA in 1964

Walt Hazzard went to Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. His high school teams had an amazing record of 89 wins and only 3 losses. In his senior year, he was named the best player in the city.

After high school, Hazzard joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) basketball team. He quickly became a very important player for the Bruins. In his first year on the main team, UCLA reached the Final Four for the first time. This was during the 1962 NCAA tournament. They lost a close game to Cincinnati in the semi-finals.

Becoming a National Champion

The 1963–64 UCLA team had a perfect season, winning every game. Walt Hazzard, his teammate Gail Goodrich, and their famous coach John Wooden were key to this success. The team won its first ever NCAA Championship. Hazzard was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

After UCLA's big win, Sports Illustrated magazine featured Walt Hazzard on its cover. The headline read, "UCLA Is The Champ. Walt Hazzard Drives Through Duke." Hazzard was also named an All-American player. The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) also picked him as their College Player of the Year.

In 1996, UCLA honored Hazzard by retiring his number 42 jersey. This means no other player would usually wear that number. However, Hazzard gave special permission for star player Kevin Love to wear it later on.

Olympic Gold Medalist

In 1964, Walt Hazzard and another great player, Bill Bradley, earned spots on the U.S. Olympic basketball team. As expected, the U.S. team won the gold medal at the Olympics. After his amazing college career, Hazzard was chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1964 NBA draft.

Walt Hazzard's NBA Playing Career

After college, Walt Hazzard played in the NBA. He started with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1964 to 1967. Then, he played for the Seattle SuperSonics, the Atlanta Hawks, the Buffalo Braves, and briefly for the Golden State Warriors. He returned to the SuperSonics for the 1973–74 season. After that season, he retired from playing professional basketball.

All-Star Season

During his time with the Seattle SuperSonics in their first season (1967–68), Hazzard had his best year. He scored a career-high 24.0 points per game. He also averaged 6.2 assists per game, which means he helped his teammates score a lot. Because of his great performance, he was chosen to play in the 1968 NBA All-Star Game. His highest average for assists came in the 1969–70 season with the Hawks, where he averaged 6.8 assists per game.

Walt Hazzard's Coaching Career

In 1980, Walt Hazzard began his coaching career at Compton Community College. He had a good record there, winning 53 games and losing only 9 in two seasons. However, some wins from his first season were later removed because of a rule issue with a player. He then moved to Division II school Chapman College. He coached there for two seasons, with a record of 44 wins and 14 losses.

Coaching the UCLA Bruins

In 1984, Hazzard returned to UCLA, this time as the men's basketball coach. This was 20 years after he had won a national championship there as a player. In the same year, he was honored by being added to the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. He coached the Bruins for four seasons, winning 77 out of 125 games.

The 1984–85 UCLA team won the NIT championship. The 1986–87 Bruins won both their conference championship (the Pac-10 regular season) and the first-ever Pac-10 tournament. After the 1987–88 Bruins finished with a record of 16 wins and 14 losses, Hazzard was no longer the coach.

Later, he worked for the Los Angeles Lakers for many years. He started as a scout and then became a special advisor.

Walt Hazzard's Personal Life

In the summer of 1972, Walt Hazzard became a Muslim. He started using the name "Mahdi Abdul-Rahman" in the 1972–73 NBA season. In 1976–77, he went back to UCLA to finish his college degree in kinesiology at age 35. When he started coaching at Compton in 1980, he used the name Abdul-Rahman Hazzard. He felt that changing his name was not well-received in basketball. Even though he remained a Muslim, he decided to use his original name, Walt Hazzard, for his professional work. UCLA introduced him as Walt Hazzard when they hired him as coach in 1984.

Walt Hazzard and his wife Jaleesa had four children: Yakub, Jalal, Rasheed, and Khalil. Khalil is a well-known record producer in hip hop music, known as DJ Khalil. Hazzard's grandsons, Jacob and Max Hazzard, also play basketball.

On March 22, 1996, Hazzard had a stroke and was hospitalized. He recovered quite a bit, but his health was never fully the same. After his illness, he was less active in public. The owner of the Lakers, Jerry Buss, promised Hazzard's family that he would stay on the team's payroll as long as Buss owned the team. Walt Hazzard remained an employee of the Lakers for the rest of his life.

By mid-2011, his health got much worse, and he was in intensive care. On November 18, 2011, Walt Hazzard passed away at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. He was 69 years old and died from problems after heart surgery. He is buried in the Muslim section of Rose Hills Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Images for kids

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  Hazzard with UCLA circa 1964

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  Hazzard at UCLA in 1964

See also

In Spanish: Walt Hazzard para niños