PITTSBURGH—Before Bo Jackson knew everything, before Deion Sanders introduced Prime Time, there was Dick Groat.
A wiry shortstop with a slick glove and a lightning-quick guard with a lethal set shot, Groat was a star on the baseball diamond and the basketball court in the 1950s, long before Jackson and Sanders made major sports multitasking a thing.
Groat, who parlayed a spectacular hoops career at Duke into a brief stint in the NBA before becoming an All-Star and the 1960 National League MVP while playing baseball for his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, died Thursday. He was 92.
Groat’s family said in a statement that he died at UMPC Presbyterian Hospital from complications of a stroke….