John Laskowski: The Super Sub

born 1953 · South Bend by birth and formation

John Laskowski was born June 7, 1953, in South Bend, and played at St. Joseph's High School — class of 1971, a year ahead of Abernethy, the two overlapping in the same program — before joining Bob Knight's first recruiting class at Indiana. There he became famous in a role players rarely accept: the sixth man, the "Super Sub," who averaged 10.8 points and 3.8 rebounds across three seasons coming off the bench. He helped the Hoosiers to three straight Big Ten titles, the 1973 Final Four and a 35–1 season in 1975 that ran undefeated until its last game, and on February 3, 1975, he became the first Indiana basketball player ever to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The Chicago Bulls drafted him in the second round of 1975, 32nd overall — the Kentucky Colonels took him in the ABA draft as well — and he played two NBA seasons for the Bulls, averaging 7.1 points. Afterward he called Indiana and Big Ten games as a television commentator, wrote Tales from the Hoosier Locker Room in 2003, and entered the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.

Sources

1. Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame record (2016) — the letters of 1973–75, the Super Sub record and averages, the Sports Illustrated cover, the Bulls seasons and the broadcasting career.
2. Basketball-Reference — the South Bend birth, the 1975 draft positions in both leagues.
3. Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame — the 1999 induction.