As a collegian, Lucas led the Ohio State Buckeyes to three straight NCAA finals (1960–1962), winning the national championship in 1960, and finishing as runner-up in 1961 and 1962.

[7] Jerry Ray Lucas was born on March 30, 1940, in Middletown, Ohio, a community of 30,000+ halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati.

A straight-A student with a penchant for memorizing his school work, Lucas had started to develop memory games for himself as early as age nine.

His coach, Paul Walker, had already won three Ohio state champions at Middletown, and Lucas consistently found himself surrounded by strong teammates.

Lucas played at a time when freshmen athletes were ineligible for varsity college sports, so he and his new teammates had to wait until 1959–60 to lead Ohio State.

The four new recruits joined future NBA players Larry Siegfried and Joe Roberts on a loaded Buckeyes team for second-year varsity coach Taylor.

After two early losses to Utah and Kentucky, the team lost only one more the rest of the way en route to the 1960 NCAA national championship.

Lucas and the team received considerable national publicity that year, especially after winning the 1960 Holiday Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

In March 1961 against Kentucky, Lucas became the only college player to date to ever record a "30–30" in an NCAA tournament game (33 points, 30 rebounds).

Initially named to the U.S. team as a reserve forward, Lucas begged Olympic head coach Pete Newell to try him at his natural center spot.

The biggest game was played against the Soviet Union in September at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Rome, which the Americans won, 81–65.

[19] Despite the physical play near the basket during those Games, Lucas received just six free throws total, but shot 80% from the floor to be a top scorer.

[citation needed] The U.S. team also included future pro stars Jerry West, Terry Dischinger, Adrian Smith, and Bob Boozer.

In 1964, Lucas was also part of a team of NBA players that played behind the Iron Curtain in Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia.

That team was coached by basketball Hall of Famer Red Auerbach and included several Boston Celtics, in addition to his Cincinnati pro teammate, Oscar Robertson.

In addition to Lucas, the 1963–64 Royals squad included three NBA All-Stars: Oscar Robertson, Wayne Embry and Jack Twyman.

His role on the team would again be chiefly rebounding and other support play, but he scored 20 or more points several times, and led the league in field goal percentage as a rookie.

Knee pain was still a big concern, and after the 1965–66 season, he nearly retired, but he found a prescription anti-inflammatory drug that allowed him to continue as a player.

In the fall of 1966, the Royals announced the move of nine or more home games to Cleveland, where the team hoped to use Lucas, the former would-be ABL Piper, as a popular crowd draw.

Playing with Nate Thurmond, Clyde Lee, Jeff Mullins and Ron Williams, the .500 Warriors made the 1971 playoffs before losing to a powerful Milwaukee team that later won the 1971 NBA title.

[21] The Knicks needed a big man to back up their starting center Willis Reed and power forward Dave DeBusschere.

But at 31, Lucas had what may have been his best pro season, leading the Knicks in rebounds and shooting accuracy, and second on the team in both scoring and assists to Walt Frazier.

His outside shooting, often well past today's three-point line, changed defensive strategies, as opponents were forced to send their big man 20 feet from the basket to guard Lucas.

Lucas also played very well, averaging 20.8 points on 50% shooting, 9.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 46.6 minutes in the series against the Lakers and Wilt Chamberlain.

After other demonstrations, a party held by writer Dick Schaap and teammate Bill Bradley saw the trick tested by world chess champion Bobby Fischer, who was reportedly astounded.

This made Lucas one of the first to become a champion at every level of the game – high school, college, Olympics, and NBA (a feat matched by Quinn Buckner, and Magic Johnson).

[22][23] In the 1973–74 season, the Knicks made a run to repeat as champions, but lost to perennial rival Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals.

In 1980, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, all in their first year of eligibility.

In 1974 he co-authored a New York Times best-seller, The Memory Book, and he developed an educational product he named the Lucas Learning System.

[31] Lucas has been a committed Christian since his final year in the NBA when he memorized large sections of the New Testament, and many of his current speaking engagements are at churches.