1960 Olympics
In 1960, Lucas was also named to the U.S. Olympic team for the Rome Games that year. Exhausted from the NCAAs, he had a mediocre Trials, but easily outrebounded everyone there by a clear margin. The team had four challenging games in the Olympic tournament, two against Italy, one versus the Soviets and one with Brazil.
Lucas figured strongly in every key win. He earned just six free throws from referees during the physical tournament, but tied Robertson, who had 52 free throw tries, for the team scoring lead at 17.0 per game.
Lucas also was noteworthy as he had taken the time to memorize paragraphs of Japanese, Italian and Russian to converse with opposing athletes.
The co-top scorer, top rebounder and shooter, U.S. coach Pete Newell later called Lucas "the greatest player I ever coached, and the most unselfish."
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