By Pepper Parr
May 28th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The sports world lost a basketball icon this week.
Bill Walton died of cancer; he was 71.
William Theodore Walton III (November 5, 1952 – May 27, 2024
Bill Walton: member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Bill was an American professional basketball player and television sportscaster. He played college basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego / Los Angeles Clippers, and Boston Celtics. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
The local angle of this story is the experiences Ron Foxcroft, a storied basketball referee who invented the pea-less whistle that is now used worldwide in every sports sector.
“I had the pleasure to referee the Legend Bill Walton once. It was at University of Iowa , when he was a member of the NBA All Stars and played against the United States Olympic Team. I was in awe of Bill Walton.
“When my nephew Grant Mullins from Burlington played point guard in his 5th year for Cal Berkley, after four years at Columbia in the Ivy League, Walton covered all his games for ESPN.
” Walton loved the Pac 12 Conference and always called the Pac 12 the Tournament of Champions. Grant was player of the game, and Bill interviewed him after the game on ESPN. Bill was a jokster and asked Grant if he was Canadian, and do they have running water and electricity in Canada. Grant caught on quickly that Bill was fooling around.
Ronnie my son was at the game and told Bill Walton that he was Grant Mullins cousin.
The shorter guy once refereed the tall guy. Bill Walton and Ron Foxcroft
Year after year, Bill would come to our booth at the Final Four, and tell me he was there to see Ronnie.
We became good friends. Walton came to Fox 40 in Hamilton for a day, and spoke to everybody in the plant. He lived every second of every day; nobody promoted the game of basketball like Bill Walton .
He was in the basketball Hall of Fame. He attended more than 800 Grateful Dead Concerts; he wore their tee shirt while broadcasting games on ESPN. When Bill met you he always said, Hi, I’m Bill with two l’s. He will never be forgotten. The last dinner I dinner I had with Bill was just over a year ago at the Final Four in Houston.
The Pac 12 disbanded this year and we lost the great Bill Walton.
