| Otto Petty |
Full Name: Otto Petty Jr.
Born: July 5, 1950, Louisville, Kentucky
Died: September 28, 2026, Saint Petersburg, Florida
School: Central HS, Louisville, Kentucky
Legacy Bricks: Legacy Walk Map Link
1992 Basketball HOF - Loc 39
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| Click On Photo To Enlarge |
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| Reggie Royals, OTTO PETTY, Ron King |
| FSU Career |
| Basketball | |
Year No Pos Hgt Wgt Cl Ltr Hometown 70-71 11 G 5-7 150 So * Louisville, Kentucky 71-72 11 G 5-7 150 Jr * Louisville, Kentucky 72-73 11 G 5-7 150 Sr * Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Member of the FSU Hall of Fame |
| Elected into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1992 |
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Referred to as one of the nation's best "little men" during his tenure at Florida State, 5-7 Otto Petty led FSU to its only Final Four appearance in 1972. Petty not only brought the Seminoles his great ball-handling wizardry, he also contributed his charismatic spark on the basketball court. A three-year letterman at FSU, Petty seemed to have a sixth sense of knowing when and where to put the ball. He put the ball in the right guy's hands 602 times during his career and still holds the all-time assist record at Florida State. Petty's 227 assists during the 1970-71 stands as the school record for assists in a season. He also holds the school record for assists in a game, handing out 16 in a game with South Alabama in 1972. Not to be forgotten in that season was Florida State's march through the NCAA tournament - a sting a victims over Minnesota, Kentucky, and eventually North Carolina in the National semi-final game. A string which landed Petty and the shocking Seminoles on the cover of Sport Illustrated. Petty's eminent talent and achievement are still honored today. He is unquestionably one of the best point guards to ever attend Florida State. Obituary for Otto Petty. Tonight in St. Petersburg, we lost one of Florida State's little great ones. FSU Hall of Famer Otto Petty was the 5-7 point guard from Louisville, Kentucky who lead the Seminoles to the National Finals in 1972. Otto came to FSU with his high school teammate Kentucky State Champion, Mr. Basketball, Ron King. King came to FSU because Kentucky's legendary coach Adolph Rupp wouldn't offer his teammate Otto Petty a scholarship because he said Petty was "too short for college ball." FSU offered both. King and Petty lead FSU to the NCAA Finals where they fell to UCLA 86-81 in Los Angeles in the Bruins closest final of their legendary championship streak. In that glorious 27-6 1972 season, in a 36 team NCAA Tournament, FSU defeated, in order, Eastern Kentucky, then Big 10 Champions Minnesota, in a marvelous payback they beat Coach Rupp's SEC Champion Kentucky Wildcats by 20 points sending Adolph Rupp into retirement, and then defeated Coach Dean Smith and Bob McAdoo's ACC Champions North Carolina. Otto Petty single handedly broke the Tar Heels vaunted full court press. Otto Petty's all-time assist record was broken by Charlie Ward 21 years later. Petty's behind the back and between the legs assists made Tully Gym a wonderous place to watch big time basketball. Otto attended many basketball reunions at FSU and was 76 years old. Heaven is getting
some real assists. Eastern Kentucky were the Ohio Valley Conference champs. But the day of that game was not what FSU expected. At 7:30 am, AD Clay Stapleton called Hugh Durham and told him NCAA officials wanted to "interview" three Seminoles: Lawrence McCray, Reggie Royals and Ron King. Someone said the three may have committed themselves to agents to negotiate pro contracts. There were separate interviews and the three signed affidavits saying they had not committed themselves to agents. This cut into morning practice. Durham said he didn't think the interviews affected his team but wondered why the NCAA waited so long to conduct them. However, Royals, McCray and King only scored 12, 11 and 10. The trio averaged 45.6 points/game. Guess who picked up the slack? Otto Petty, who scored 15. The Seminoles won the game by 2. |
| FSU Statistics |
| Basketball |
--3 Point--- ----REBOUNDS-----
Year GP GS Min FGM FGA PCT FGM FGA PCT FTM FTA PCT PTS AVG OFF DEF TOT AVG PF DQ AST TO BLK STL
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70-71 26 22 75 172 .436 .000 47 60 .783 197 7.6 64 2.5 65 4 227
71-72 31 4 66 149 .443 .000 72 101 .713 204 6.6 63 2.0 68 3 173
72-73 25 15 86 209 .411 .000 32 50 .640 204 8.2 55 2.2 69 2 202
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Tot 82 41 0 227 530 .428 0 0 .000 151 211 .716 605 7.4 0 0 182 2.2 202 9 602 0 0 0
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| Basketball |
Game Statistics 1970-71 3 Point --REBOUNDS-- Date Opponent GP GS Min FGM FGA FGM FGA FTM FTA PTS OFF DEF TOT PF AST TO BLK STL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 1 Texas 1 g 4 7 2 2 10 3 2 5 7 Dec 3 Biscayne 1 g 1 5 2 3 4 2 1 14 4 Dec 5 South Dakota 1 g 2 2 0 0 4 0 4 8 Dec 7 Southern Mississippi 1 g 6 11 4 5 16 3 4 10 Dec 8 Jacksonville 1 g 3 6 1 2 7 2 5 11 Dec 12 Valdosta State Coll 1 g 3 6 0 2 6 2 3 10 Dec 18 Southern California 1 g 3 8 3 3 9 3 5 9 6 Dec 19 Miami of Ohio 1 g 1 5 2 2 4 2 3 4 0 Dec 23 Pan American College 1 g 2 5 3 5 7 2 1 15 Dec 31 Arizona 1 6 9 2 3 14 3 2 12 Jan 2 Pepperdine 1 g 3 5 2 2 8 1 4 8 Jan 8 Miami 1 g 4 10 7 7 15 0 4 10 Jan 11 Manhattan College 1 g 6 10 1 2 13 7 4 10 Jan 13 Tulane 1 g 30 4 10 1 1 9 6 3 4 Jan 16 Samford 1 g 6 13 1 1 13 5 1 15 Jan 18 Stetson 1 g 3 9 2 3 8 2 1 10 Jan 23 Georgia Tech 1 g 2 5 1 1 5 1 3 4 Jan 27 Jacksonville 1 g 2 5 2 2 6 4 1 6 Jan 30 Cal-Irvine 1 g 0 3 2 2 2 0 1 6 Feb 3 Wisconsin-Milwaukee 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 Feb 8 Georgia Tech 1 1 6 2 3 4 2 3 5 3 Feb 11 Georgia Southern 1 2 6 0 1 4 3 1 6 Feb 15 Jacksonville 1 g 5 9 2 3 12 6 3 9 Feb 22 North Carolina 1 g 35 0 3 1 1 1 4 1 11 4 Feb 25 Florida Southern Col 1 g 2 6 2 2 6 2 1 Feb 27 Miami 1 g 4 5 2 2 10 3 3 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals 26 22 65 75 172 0 0 47 60 197 0 0 68 64 214 24 0 0 1971-72 3 Point --REBOUNDS-- Date Opponent GP GS Min FGM FGA FGM FGA FTM FTA PTS OFF DEF TOT PF AST TO BLK STL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 1 Oglethorpe 1 2 3 4 4 8 1 3 6 2 Dec 4 Eastern Kentucky 1 2 5 5 6 9 3 3 9 Dec 6 Stetson 1 1 2 0 0 2 3 1 5 Dec 7 Jacksonville 1 0 0 4 6 4 1 3 2 Dec 11 Valdosta State Coll 1 5 6 1 2 11 2 1 3 2 Dec 22 Hawaii 1 24 1 5 0 1 2 2 4 4 0 Dec 27 Washington 1 1 1 2 2 4 2 0 3 Dec 29 Oregon State 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 Dec 30 Washington State 1 2 3 3 4 7 4 1 4 Jan 3 Denver 1 1 4 0 2 2 0 0 3 Jan 4 Saint Louis 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 4 Jan 8 East Tennessee State 1 1 1 3 6 5 2 1 5 Jan 11 Mercer 1 1 4 2 4 4 1 0 4 Jan 15 Houston 1 1 1 2 2 4 0 3 2 Jan 19 South Alabama 1 0 3 0 0 0 3 2 8 Jan 22 Georgia Tech 1 0 3 4 4 4 0 3 6 1 Jan 26 Jacksonville 1 2 3 1 1 5 2 5 6 Jan 29 Florida Southern Col 1 g 7 9 4 6 18 6 3 9 Jan 31 Pan American College 1 g 9 15 6 9 24 5 3 10 Feb 4 Houston 1 g 40 6 15 3 3 15 3 4 10 7 Feb 7 South Alabama 1 5 9 0 0 10 4 2 16 2 Feb 12 Tulane 1 1 5 0 1 2 3 1 7 Feb 19 Georgia Tech 1 g 1 6 3 4 5 0 1 4 Feb 23 Jacksonville 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 1 1 Feb 28 Biscayne 1 3 5 0 1 6 0 4 Mar 4 Cincinnati 1 30 3 7 2 3 8 2 5 3 Mar 11 Eastern Kentucky 1 5 8 5 6 15 2 3 3 Mar 16 Minnesota 1 23 0 8 2 3 2 1 1 6 2 Mar 18 Kentucky 1 32 2 5 9 9 13 6 2 8 1 Mar 23 North Carolina 1 27 3 5 4 7 10 1 5 6 5 Mar 25 UCLA 1 9 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 2 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals 31 4 185 66 142 0 0 72 101 204 0 0 63 67 162 26 0 0 1972-73 3 Point --REBOUNDS-- Date Opponent GP GS Min FGM FGA FGM FGA FTM FTA PTS OFF DEF TOT PF AST TO BLK STL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 1 Georgia Southern 1 g 8 18 0 0 16 4 4 6 Dec 4 Eastern Kentucky 1 g 31 3 6 1 1 7 1 2 3 2 Dec 9 Biscayne 1 g 2 7 0 0 4 1 2 7 Dec 15 Princeton 1 g 40 1 7 2 2 4 2 3 10 Dec 16 Baylor 1 g 33 2 4 2 2 6 2 2 6 Dec 22 Alabama 1 g 40 2 9 0 1 4 5 4 10 7 Dec 23 Northwestern 1 g 36 3 8 1 1 7 3 3 14 5 Dec 28 Penn State 1 g 6 8 0 1 12 3 3 Dec 29 Brigham Young 1 g 7 12 1 2 15 0 4 Jan 6 Connecticut 1 g 24 4 9 2 4 10 3 0 8 Jan 8 Georgetown 1 g 5 9 0 0 10 1 2 10 Jan 13 Cincinnati 1 g 35 2 7 5 7 9 2 3 9 Jan 17 Stetson 1 g 37 4 12 2 2 10 6 1 13 Jan 20 Jacksonville 1 g 40 0 4 1 2 1 1 4 10 3 Jan 25 Samford 1 2 6 0 0 4 2 1 5 2 Jan 27 Southern Illinois 1 27 4 10 7 9 15 1 1 5 Jan 29 South Florida 1 23 6 10 0 0 12 2 2 7 Feb 1 Virginia Tech 1 32 3 9 1 2 7 4 4 3 Feb 3 Seton Hall 1 4 8 2 2 10 2 3 13 Feb 10 Cincinnati 1 23 2 6 0 0 4 0 5 3 Feb 14 Jacksonville 1 28 1 5 0 3 2 4 2 9 Feb 17 North Carolina 1 1 3 1 2 3 2 5 9 Feb 23 South Alabama 1 18 0 4 0 0 0 0 3 8 Feb 26 Marshall 1 3 11 0 0 6 1 4 6 Mar 3 Mercer 1 g 34 11 17 4 7 26 3 4 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals 25 15 501 86 209 0 0 32 50 204 0 0 55 71 183 19 0 0 |