Former UCLA Star Walt Hazzard Dies

R.I.P. to Walt Hazzard, former co-captain of the 1964 UCLA National Championship and NCAA Player of the Year. Hazzard played for the Sonics in their inaugural ’67-68 season, and was selected to play in the 1968 All-Star Game. “Walt Hazzard, the former UCLA and NBA star who played on the Bruins’ first NCAA championship basketball team in 1964 and later coached the team for four seasons in the 1980s, died Friday. He was 69. Hazzard’s family said he had been recuperating for a long time from complications following heart surgery. The school said Hazzard died at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. He had a stroke in March 1996 and made a strong recovery, but became less publicly active. He made occasional appearances at UCLA games in recent years.”