Obituaries
- News | Article published Thursday, July 11, 2002
DAVID L. SORENSON, 1948-2002
Basketball player was star on court,
praised for faith
FINDLAY - David L. Sorenson, a former Ohio State University basketball player
who was the team’s eighth all-time leading scorer and later played several
seasons in the National Basketball Association, died of cancer Tuesday in
Hospice House, Cleveland.
The Findlay native was 54 and had lived in Rocky River, Ohio, for about a year.
Mr. Sorenson was the starting center on the Buckeye’s 1968 Big Ten
championship team, and it was his game-winning basket against Kentucky that sent
the Buckeyes into the 1968 NCAA Final Four.
He scored 1,622 points while at OSU and his career scoring average of 21.1
points per game ranks fifth. His career 9.9 rebounds per game ranks sixth.
The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him into the National Basketball Association in
April, 1970. In his 21/2 seasons there, he was a 6-foot, 8-inch forward. Then he
was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he played for half a season. In the
NBA, he averaged 8.1 points.
In his collegiate days, he was regarded as exceptionally agile and coordinated.
A smooth outside shooter, his rebounding was done with a flowing, finessing
style without elbows flying or legs kicking.
From there, he played for several European teams in Italy. "He did very
well there," Steve Sorenson, his son, said. "He averaged 26 to 27
points per game."
Mr. Sorenson retired from basketball in 1980. Married to his high school
sweetheart, he returned to Findlay. For nine years he was a sales representative
for Converse, maker of the Chuck Taylor canvas high-top sneaker.
For a time, he was co-owner of Totem Nuts, a retail shop in Findlay, and later
was national sales manager for Peterson Nut Co.
"He was a great basketball player," his son said. "All the
accolades were great. But people respected him for his character. He was a
born-again Christian. You could see his lovingness of God."
Mr. Sorenson was inducted into the Hancock County Sports Hall of Fame in 1985
and inducted into the Ohio State University Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.
A standout basketball player at Findlay High School, he was first-team All
Buckeye Conference his junior and senior years. He graduated from Ohio State in
1970.
In his spare time, Mr. Sorenson enjoyed golf.
"He coached my baseball team," his son said. "But to be honest,
he was a family man. He really loved his family."
Surviving are his wife, Wanda; sons, Andrew and Steve, and sister, Louise
Campbell.
Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday in Findlay Evangelical Free Church. The body
will be in the Coldren-Crates Funeral Home after 2 p.m. tomorrow. The family
requests tributes to the Word of Life Bible Institute, Pottersville, N.Y.