Shumate, who helped Irish end UCLA streak, passes away
John Shumate, who sparked Notre Dame to the 1974 upset of UCLA that snapped the Bruins’ record 88-game winning streak, has actually died. He was 72.
Notre Dame announced that Shumate passed away on Monday.Shumate played at Notre Dame from 1971-74 and was a first-team Associated Press All-America selection in 1974. The Phoenix Suns made Shumate the No. 4 pick in the 1974 draft, and he stayed in the NBA through 1981 before starting a lengthy coaching profession at the college and pro levels.
“When you pay the rate and do things the right way and you look after yourself– your body, your mind– and stay true to yourself, good things can take place for you and to you,” Shumate said when Notre Dame inducted him into its ring of honor and put his No. 34 jersey in the Purcell Pavilion rafters in 2022. “I appreciate that.”
He gathered 24 points and 11 rebounds while dueling with Bill Walton when Notre Dame stunned UCLA 71-70 on Jan. 19, 1974, ending the longest winning streak in Division I males’s basketball history. Shumate said he called his daddy, a Pentecostal minister, at about 4 or 5 a.m. the day of that game to express his concerns about the job he was facing.
“So my father wished me over the phone,” Shumate remembered. “And you understand what? When he was ended up, I seemed like I might head out and contend against the world.”
Shumate made a game-clinching rebound in the closing seconds and then threw the ball in the air as a celebration occurred.
“I’m still very pleased with it, our guys and our team, the fact we might head out and manage something that was so essential and important for, I think, college basketball,” Shumate stated in 2022 as he discussed that game. “Since the Bruins were beating everyone. No one might take on them. They were great. On that day, we were the best team.”
Previous Notre Dame legend John Shumate passed away at 72. Shumate got a key rebound in the Irish’s upset win that ended UCLA’s record 88-game win streak. Matt Cashore/USA TODAY Sports
Shumate averaged 22.6 points and 11.6 rebounds while at Notre Dame despite dealing with all sorts of health concerns throughout his college profession. Throughout his sophomore year, Shumate had a blood clot in his calf and had a virus infection around his heart that put him in intensive care and caused him to lose 45 pounds.He topped his college profession by averaging 28.7 points over three games in the 1974 NCAA tournament.As an NBA player, Shumate averaged 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds while betting the Suns, Buffalo Braves, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Seattle SuperSonics. He made the NBA All-Rookie team in 1975-76. He entered into coaching and posted a 78-118 record at SMU from 1988-95.
SMU’s 1992-93 team went 20-8 and reached the NCAA tournament.Shumate coached the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury in 2003. He was an assistant coach at Notre Dame(1981-82
and 1986-88)and with the Suns( 2009-10 ).