University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA Mourns Death of Former Center Mark Eaton
May 29, 2021 | Men's Basketball
Former UCLA men's basketball center Mark Eaton has passed away at the age of 64.
ย
Eaton, a two-year letterwinner with UCLA's program in the early 1980s, was a fourth-round NBA Draft selection in 1982 by the Utah Jazz and enjoyed an 11-year NBA career. The Jazz organization confirmed on Saturday that Eaton had died on Friday from a bicycle accident in Summit County, Utah.
ย
Eaton enrolled at UCLA for the 1980-81 season as a 7-foot-4 junior, after two seasons at Cypress College (Cypress, Calif.). During his two seasons at UCLA (1980-81, 1981-82), Eaton played in 30 games. He averaged 1.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per contest and totaled 27 blocks.
ย
As an NBA rookie, Eaton played in all 81 games during the 1982-83 campaign for Utah, averaging 4.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. During his second and third NBA seasons, Eaton played in all 82 regular-season games for Utah and led the league in most blocks per game (4.3 in 1983-84 and 5.6 in 1984-85).
ย
In fact, Eaton finished his NBA career with 3,064 blocks shots, the fourth-highest total in NBA history. He led all NBA players in blocks in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988. Eaton's 456 total blocks in 1984-85 stands as the league's single-season record.
ย
Eaton was named an NBA All-Star during the 1988-89 season. He secured Defensive Player of the Year acclaim twice โ in 1985 and 1989. Eaton was honored a first-team All-Defensive NBA selection twice and was a second-team selection one season. His NBA jersey number of 53 was retired by the Utah Jazz during the 1995-96 season.
ย
Eaton, who resided in the Salt Lake City community, has attended UCLA's game at Utah (Jon M. Huntsman Center) each season for the past several years (since Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference in the summer of 2011).
ย
