On Friday, former Moon High School legend Tom Richards passed away.
Richards played for Moon in the early 1970s, and went on to play for Pitt afterwards. While at Moon, he had an infamous 63-point game against Beaver. According to a 2020 article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Richards’ 63-point effort was still tied for third-most in WPIAL history, at the time of the story (April 2020).
Playing for Pitt from 1972-76, Richards averaged 8.6 points and three rebounds per game throughout his career with the Panthers. The guard scored over 870 points in his career, and was a career 45% shooter. Richards was also a part of the 1973-74 Pitt team that made it all the way to the Elite Eight.
Richards is also the father of Jason Richards, who played for Davidson and spent time on Pitt basketball’s staff for 11 years, including most recently as Director of Student-Athlete Development. On Sept. 30, he left the staff to pursue a job in the private sector.
