MALIBU, California – William “Bird” Averitt, one of the greatest scorers in Pepperdine men’s basketball and West Coast Conference history, will the Waves’ 2017 inductee into the WCC’s Hall of Honor in March.

The ninth annual ceremony will be held on Saturday, March 4, at the Orleans hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the midst of the WCC Basketball Championships. Tickets can be purchased online at WCCsports.com for $40 each.

This year’s other inductees are Tina Gunn Robison (BYU women’s basketball), John Stockton (Gonzaga men’s basketball), Paul Westhead (Loyola Marymount men’s basketball), Jennifer Joines-Tamas (Pacific women’s volleyball), Shannon MacMillan (Portland women’s soccer), Mark Teahen (Saint Mary’s baseball), John Cunningham (San Diego baseball), Brittany Lindhe (San Francisco women’s basketball) and Dick Davey (Santa Clara men’s basketball).

Pepperdine’s previous eight inductees were Doug Christie, Gail Hopkins, Wayne Wright, Dana Jones, Katherine Hull, Mike Scott, Dane Suttle and Maureen Formico-Caloiaro.

William “Bird” Averitt bio:

William “Bird” Averitt enjoyed the two greatest seasons in Pepperdine men’s basketball history, as he averaged 28.9 points as a sophomore and then led the NCAA in scoring with 33.9 points per game as a junior. He still holds the WCC records for points in a game and scoring average for both a season and career.

A native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the 6-foot-1 left-hander headed west for college. During his first season of 1970-71 he was unable to play with the varsity due to the NCAA rule of freshmen being ineligible at the time. But his legend began when he scored 43 and 44 points in games against UCLA during freshman games.

Averitt then broke Pepperdine’s season scoring record as a sophomore, and again as a junior. His single-game best of 57 points vs. Nevada in 1973 set a school record, one of 11 times he scored at least 40 points. Averitt scored in double-figures in all 49 of his games in a Pepperdine uniform. His career scoring average of 31.5 points per game is nearly 13 points more than the second-ranked Wave. He scored a remarkable 1,541 points in just two seasons, which was a school record that has since been broken.

He earned All-American honorable mention honors from both the Associated Press and UPI after his junior year, and was the 1973 WCC Player of the Year.

Pepperdine moved to Malibu from Los Angeles during his career. But because Firestone Fieldhouse had yet to be built, all of his records were set off campus, 20 miles away, at the Culver City Auditorium.

Averitt turned professional after his junior season, and though he was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1973 NBA Draft, he instead signed with the San Antonio Spurs of the ABA. He moved on to the Kentucky Colonels, where he won the ABA championship in 1974-75 playing alongside the likes of Artis Gilmore and Dan Issel and being coached by Hubie Brown.

Averitt averaged double-figures in points in each of his three ABA seasons, including a career-best 17.9 with the Colonels in 1975-76. When Kentucky was disbanded as part of the ABA-NBA merger, he played two seasons in the NBA with the Buffalo Braves and the New Jersey Nets.