OT-Robert "Tractor" Traylor dies at age 34

Another contributing factor was stress from the legal system over whether he would have to do time for a tax problem. He had a probation violation a couple of years ago and was playing under the stress for the last 2 years of the decision still to come. Many people's lives are shortened by heart attacks after battles with the legal system.

 

Dirk AND Pat Garrity who also had a better career then the Tractor!!!

 

He had aorta surgery long before he was drafted and scouts knew about it. He always had to hold himself back and finally when he had a heart problem, the NBA wouldn't touch him anymore. His last year he played a lot of minutes. The career didn't end due to his inability to play, a lack of talent, or a non-heart injury. Same thing happened to John Shumate, a Suns starter who was the best center Bill Walton ever faced in college, but Shumate is still alive.

 

I probably saw every college game John Shumate played. Back then, Notre Dame, under Digger Phelps, was relevant in basketball. Back in those days, before cable and satellite TV, I was lucky enough to live close enough to South Bend to get WNDU over air and they broadcast all of Notre Dame's football and basketball games. I was also close enough to Chicago to get the Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks and DePaul games over the air. DePaul had some great teams back then under Ray Meyer. Of course, IU and even Purdue had some great teams and players back then. And then, there was also Larry Bird at Indiana State. If you liked great basketball, it was a fantastic place and time to grow up.

I moved to the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina in the early 1980s and got to see NC State and UNC win national titles and Duke make it to the title game. I got to see a lot of great college basketball and some of the all time great college players back in the 70s and 80s. Shumate was indeed an outstanding college player, but I believe Bill Walton said the best center he ever faced in college was the one he practiced against - Swen Nater.

BNM

 

I considered mentioning Nater, but my post was already too far afield from the thread and I figured I'd confuse the reader. Yes, Nater was 2 inches taller than Shumate and coached by Wooden, so he was better. I tried a couple of wordings and used "faced" in college, hoping that includes only game opponents. All that to avoid mentioning that Nater was better.

You've told the Indiana stuff before but I didn't know you then lived in North Carolina at its peak. I've told the story before how all UCLA games were telecast (not just on a college station, apparently as you had, but on the #1 non-network Los Angeles station) right after the live game ended. So the starting time was unpredictable. I've also told the story that in high school Trig I sat next to 2 guys on the school paper who would happily gab to each other, "Did you see that move Big Lew put on last night when...." I didn't understand what they meant and I'd ask, "Who's Big Lew?" They got to sit under the backboard as student journalists for free. There was no college game coverage in the high school paper.