Luther 'Ticky' Burden

From the district:

The City School District of Albany is saddened to report the news of the death of Luther "Ticky" Burden, a 1972 graduate of Philip Schuyler High School and a 2014 inductee into the district's Hall of Fame.

Burden is considered the finest basketball player ever to come out of Albany. After earning All-American status during his career at Schuyler, Burden went on to a stellar career at the University of Utah. He was a first team All-American at Utah in 1975 and played on the United States team that traveled to the World Championships in Puerto Rico. There, he average 20.2 points per game, a record that stood until 2012.

The Virginia Squires of the former American Basketball Association drafted Burden and he averaged 20 points in his one season with the team. He went on to play for the NBA's New York Knicks for the next two seasons, ending his pro career in 1978.

For almost three decades, Burden had lived in Winston-Salem, N.C., teaching basketball to and coaching children at the Gateway YWCA there. You can read more about Burden in the Hall of Fame section of our website.

Burden suffered from ATTR amyloidosis, a disease that causes the body's immune system to produce abnormal forms of antibodies. He was hospitalized last week and died early Thursday.