The University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University met on Jan. 3, 1968, in MAC tournament play. Blade photographer Don Strayer was courtside for the action and snapped this photo of UT’s Steve Mix trying to go up and over Falcons player Albert Dixon at the UT Fieldhouse. UT won in overtime, 73-69, before a crowd of 4,118. Mix is arguably the best player to put on a Rockets jersey. A Rogers High School graduate, Mix decided to play college basketball for his hometown team. In three seasons — freshmen could not play on the varsity team then — he played in 73 games, scored 1,676 points, and had 872 rebounds. He earned All-MAC honors three times and was the league’s first Player of the Year. He was the third Toledo player to earn All-American honors. Mix was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and played 13 seasons in the NBA with Detroit, Los Angeles, Denver, and Milwaukee. He was with the Philadelphia 76ers for the longest time, from 1973-1982. Mix and his wife, Maryalice, called Toledo home until about a year ago, when they moved to Florida Albert Dixon, Jr., also a Toledo native, played at Scott High School before enrolling at Bowling Green State University. While at BGSU, he tied former player Nate Thurmond’s record of 31 rebounds in a single game. He was a third-round draft choice for the Kentucky Colonels in the old American Basketball Association and was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA. But he chose to play with the Harlem Globetrotters rather than join a professional league. Dixon played for the Globetrotters for about a year, and then taught in the Toledo public schools in the early 1970s. He also taught school in the Detroit area. He died in 2001.
BLADE/DON STRAYER