Pittsburgh, Pa. – A total of four former student-athletes of the Duquesne men's basketball team, former head coach Keith Dambrot and the 1976-77 Duquesne men's basketball team will be formally inducted into the Pittsburgh Basketball Club (PBC) Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024 Sunday, March 2, at Montour Country Club.
Earning enshrinement as part of the Legends Class is former guards Tom Cvitkovic (1980-82), Lonnie McClain (1975-78) and Norm Nixon (1973-77). The trio are among 16 former players to make up the legends portion of the Class of 2024. Dambrot will join former Washington High School head coach Ron Faust for the coaches portion of the class, while Keith's father, Sid Dambrot, who played for the Dukes from 1952 to 1954, is one of four members of the Class of 2024 for the In Memory portion.
Finally, the 1976-77 Duquesne men's team will be honored along with the 1982-83 Sto-Rox High School team, which finished 32-0 and claimed Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) championships. The Vikings squad featured Darren DiMichele, the father of sophomore guard
Jake DiMichele, who spent the 1983-84 season as a walk-on for the Dukes.
The PBC Hall of Fame was established in 2009 to honor the rich basketball tradition of Western Pennsylvania, honoring coaches, players, teams and contributors in the region. The PBC Hall of Fame is broken into seven divisions, including players, coaches, contributors, teams, legends, community partner of distinction and lifetime achievement.
A closer look at each of the inductees from Duquesne …
Tom Cvitkovic (1980-82)
A graduate of Ambridge High School, Cvitkovic began his freshman season in 1979-80 at the University of Cincinnati before transferring midway through the year to the Bluff. In three seasons with the Dukes, Cvitkovic appeared in 74 career games, including 20 starts, compiling career totals of 242 points, 89 rebounds, 198 assists and 44 steals. He led Duquesne in assists per game in each of his final two seasons in 1980-81 and 1981-82 with averages of 3.1 and 3.2 assists, respectively.
Lonnie McClain (1975-78)
A member of the 1976-77 squad that earned an automatic to the NCAA Championship, McClain is a graduate of West Mifflin High School. Over the course of three seasons at Duquesne he played in 77 games, averaging 8.6 points and 2.6 rebounds per contest. During the 1977 run to the NCAA Tournament, McClain averaged 10.3 points while shooting 41.7 percent from the field. Against VMI in the first round of the NCAA East Regional in Raleigh, N.C., McClain contributed six points, three rebounds and a pair of assists.
Norm Nixon (1973-77)
Nixon, a native of Macon, Ga., is one of five players in program history to have his jersey number retired, as his No. 10 hangs in the rafters of the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. Nixon was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 1977 Atlantic 10 Championship, at the time called the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (ECBL). He ranks fifth all-time on the all-time scoring list at Duquesne with 1,805 career points and during the 1976-77 season averaged 22.0 points per contest. Nixon owns the career program records for field goals (753) and assists (577) and during his career produced averages of 17.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. The 22nd overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1977 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, Nixon won a pair of NBA Championships (1980, 1982) with the Lakers.
Sid Dambrot (1952-54)
During three seasons on the Bluff, Dambrot, a native of New York, N.Y., was part of Duquesne teams that finished ranked in the
Associated Press Top 10 in 1952 (No. 4), 1953 (No. 9) and 1954 (No. 5). The 1953-54 squad that finished 26-3, a school record for victories, made it to No. 1 in the AP poll for two weeks in February of 1954. The Dukes played in both the NCAA Tournament and National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in 1952 as well as the NIT in both 1953 and 1954. During his three seasons as a starter at Duquesne, Dambrot helped the Dukes amass 70 victories.
Keith Dambrot (2017-2024)
Dambrot, a native of Akron, Ohio, was named head coach of the Dukes March 28, 2017, and guided the program to an overall record of 116-96 (.547) in his seven years on the sidelines. The veteran coach wasted no time making an impact on the Duquesne program with 65 wins in his first four seasons, while his three 20-win campaigns rank third in program history. During a historic 2023-24 season that saw the Dukes post an overall record of 25-12 (.676), the most wins since his father, Sid, played for Duquesne in the 1950s, the program earned its first Atlantic 10 Championship and automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament since 1977 with a 57-51 victory over VCU in the title game. Dambrot helped the Dukes take their success a step further with a 71-67 triumph over No. 6 seed BYU in Omaha, Neb., at CHI Health Center Arena to claim their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1969. Overall in 26 seasons as a head coach, Dambrot amassed a record of 529-305 (.634).
1976-77 Duquesne Dukes
Led head coach John Cinicola and anchored by its linchpin, Norm Nixon, Duquesne earned a 65-55 victory over Penn State followed by an 89-82 win over Massachusetts in Philadelphia, Pa., at the Spectrum to advance to the first title game of the Atlantic 10 Championship, at the time called the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (ECBL). A 57-54 upset of No. 2 seed Villanova helped the Dukes earn their first conference championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Nixon would tally 67 points and 20 assists over the course of the three games to earn Most Outstanding Player accolades, while Don Maser hit a pair of free throws with six seconds left to secure the victory over the Wildcats in the title tilt. Nixon would go on to lead Duquesne in the NCAA East Regional against VMI with 27 points.
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