The Marquette University basketball team wouldn't have won a national championship in 1977 without Jerome Whitehead. Not only was he an integral part of the team all season, Whitehead sent Marquette to the championship game with a game-winning layup at the buzzer to beat North Carolina-Charlotte in the national semifinal.
The former Marquette star center was found dead in his El Cajon, Calif., home by his sister on Dec. 20, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. An autopsy on the body revealed that Whitehead, 56, died from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage caused by chronic alcohol abuse.
"Jerome was a great guy," former Marquette teammate and current Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Jim Boylan said Saturday, the day news of Whitehead's death got out. "He had a great spirit about him. He was a quiet, gentle giant, but his play on the court was anything but. He was a man's man inside. The greatest thing about Jerome, in my opinion, is how hard he worked and where he went from when he first came to Marquette – the progress he made in the three years he played there. It was just incredible."
The 6-foot-10 Whitehead spent three seasons playing for Al McGuire and Hank Raymonds at Marquette, averaging 11.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. He was the team's third-leading scorer in its national championship season, scoring 10.5 points per game. His best season came the following year, when he averaged 14.0 points and 8.3 rebounds.
Following his time at Marquette, Whitehead went on to play 11 years in the NBA with the San Diego Clippers, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. Selected in the second round of the 1978 draft by San Diego, Whitehead played in 679 career NBA games and 6.5 points and 4.8 rebounds.
Whitehead's death comes just weeks after Marquette lost Rick Majerus, an assistant coach during Whitehead's time at the school.
"It also made me think about how Rick Majerus was the guy who worked almost exclusively with Jerome," Boylan said. "So as soon as I heard that I was like, ‘Well, Rick's up there with him and they're probably working out right now. Rick's firing those balls at him.' I always remember Rick throwing the ball about 100 mph at Jerome because he was always trying to make his hands better. After practice every day, those two would work and work and work. Whatever he got in his life he earned, and he reached his potential as a player, so I guess that's all you can ask for."
Marquette will observe a moment of silence in Whitehead's honor prior to Tuesday's Big East conference opener against Connecticut.
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