For the past four-plus years, geographically anyway, Steve Mix has been firmly lodged in Vero Beach, Fla., along with wife Maryalice, with occasional visits from their four grown children, and some friends.
In his heart, however, the former Rogers High School, University of Toledo, and NBA basketball star will always hold a special place for his hometown.
These days, Mix, 72, is healthy, happy, and feels blessed for the life he’s led. He is forever grateful to the people around him who helped make it all possible — none more than Maryalice, with whom he celebrated the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary July 3.
All she did was raise four children while her 6-foot-7 husband was traveling coast to coast to the cities of the National Basketball Association for 13 seasons (1969-71, 1973-83), much of it with the Philadelphia 76ers.
He later worked another 22 years as a television commentator for 76ers games.
“In order for me to do what I did, it took a lot on her part to let me do that,” Mix said. “I certainly do appreciate all the things that she’s allowed me to do over the years. I played basketball, and she was mom and raised four kids. I give her all the credit in the world for four great kids.”
Steven Charles Mix was born Dec. 30, 1947, the youngest of Nelson and Mildred Mix’s three tall and athletic sons. He mixed his combination of reasonable natural ability and relentless work ethic into a dream fulfilled on the basketball court.
The birthplace of that dream was on the side lot next to the Mix family home on Wesleyan Drive near Detroit Avenue.
That’s where Nelson Mix — who worked second shift as a photo engraver for The Blade — hung a basketball hoop that would become the hub for seemingly constant basketball games for his sons and other neighborhood kids.
That magical little plot of land also contained rose bushes that served as the goal-line marker for sandlot football games, and would be frozen into a skating rink by Nelson in the cold of winter.
It was where older brothers Jerry, now 81, and Bob, 77, first honed their skills before playing basketball at Libbey High School, and later where Steve first learned under them and eventually surpassed them on his journey to the top level of the game.
Steve Mix took what he had learned from his brothers to Rogers, where his fundamentals were shaped under eventual Ohio Hall of Fame coach Will Collins. An All-Great Lakes League player at Rogers (1965 graduate), Mix was not exactly a blue-chip college recruit when he followed older brother Bob to the University of Toledo to play for highly-successful Rockets head coach Bob Nichols.
He played on the UT freshman team in 1965-66, and worked diligently in the summer on his overall game. He joined friend Howard “Butch” Komives, the former Bowling Green scoring star, who was by then an NBA player, for two-a-day sessions at the old UT Field House.
With Mix averaging 23.0 points and 13.5 rebounds as a sophomore, the 1966-67 UT team averaged 87.0 points per game, and won the Mid-American Conference. Going 23-1 overall during the regular season, the Rockets fell to Virginia Tech in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Mix, who would three times earn first team All-MAC honors, averaged 23.0 points and 11.9 rebounds in his 73 career games for Nichols’ Rockets playing alongside fellow UT talents like John Brisker, Bob Miller, John Rudley, Willie Babione and Bill Backensto.
He was selected in the fifth round (61st overall pick) of the 1969 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons, where the late bloomer got off to a slow start at the professional level. He began the 1969-70 season away from the team in basic training for the Army Reserve at Fort Dix in New Jersey, and played in just 18 games that season.
He waived after playing just eight games with the Pistons in 1971-72.
With his NBA career on the rocks, Mix revived his game with the Grand Rapids Trackers of the minor-league Continental Basketball Association, averaging 31.1 points and helping that team to a CBA championship in 1972-73.
Having added a reliable perimeter jump shot to his game that season, Mix got an NBA opportunity with the 76ers in 1973-74, and made the most of his chance.
He played all 82 games with the 76ers in 1973-74, averaging 14.9 points and 10.5 rebounds for a 25-57 Philadelphia team. He put up career bests of 15.6 points and 10.9 rebounds the following season and was chosen to play in the 1975 NBA all-star game. In 1975-76 the 76ers went 46-36 and reached the playoffs, with Mix contributing 13.9 points and 8.2 rebounds.
The 1976-77 season saw the arrival of Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and the 76ers went 50-32 and reached the NBA finals before falling 4-2 in the championship series to the Portland Trail Blazers.
It would be the first of four career trips to the NBA finals for Mix, two more (1980 and 1982) with Philadelphia, and the last in 1983 with the Los Angeles Lakers.
In 788 career NBA games, Mix averaged 10.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 50 percent from the field and 80 percent at the foul line before retiring after the 1982-83 season.
For Mix, stats were secondary.
“In order to be successful I think you’ve got to hate to lose more than you love to win,” he said.
Mix and Maryalice have four grown children — Darrick, 48, who attended St. John’s Jesuit and swam for the Titans; Stephanie, 46, who played basketball at Perrysburg and later Drexel University; Courtney, 38, who played at Central Catholic and later at Villanova University; and Andy, 36, who played at Central and then at Muskingum College.
In the early 1990s, Mix started the Steve Mix Basketball Academy in Maumee, where his brother Bob did the building construction and leased the eventual multi-sport facility to Steve, who ran camps during the summer months.
This academy became the prime offseason basketball spot in northwest Ohio for two decades, with over 10,000 boys and girls players attending camps, and close to 300 teams playing in summer leagues over the years.
TOLEDO’S BEST: According to Mix, the 1966-67 Rockets were not “one of the best basketball teams in UT history,” but were “the best.”
Who could argue? That team finished 23-2 and reached the NCAA tournament.
“We had all positions filled,” Mix said. “Coach Nichols and Bob Conroy did a fabulous job of recruiting my freshman year. You had John Rudley, our point guard who delivered the ball right where you needed it. You had John Brisker, who played in the ABA and NBA and could really play. You had Bob Miller, and Calvin Lawshe from Macomber, myself, and my roommate, Jim Hayes.
“We also had Willie Babione, who could flat-out shoot it, and Bill Backensto, who was the glue guy coming off the bench.
“When a coach gives you the freedom to run, that’s what happens. And, we moved the basketball, as well. Everybody touched it, and everybody got shots up. It was a fun time to play at Toledo”
SECOND CHANCE IN THE NBA: “Once you start figuring out the league, it gets better. When I was in the CBA my whole idea was to develop an outside game, which I really didn’t have. I developed an 18-foot jumper when I was there, and ended up scoring over 30 points per game. I was third in the league in scoring. We ended up winning the league, but my focus was to develop an outside game.
“I had tried out for the 76ers in 1972 and got cut from that team, which was actually a pretty good thing, because they went on to be the worst team ever in professional basketball at 9-73.
“At the end of that year [after CBA], I started looking around for the teams that might need some players, and I ended up getting ahold of the GM, Pat Williams. They brought me in, and I ended up making the team that year. I was comeback player of the year that year [1973-74], and an all-star the next year.”
THE DOCTOR: “I still maintain good contact with Doc [Julius Erving]. He and I roomed together for seven years on the road. We hit it off rather quickly, along with our wives, and that helped considerably. He brought an awful lot to our team. We were a rock-star team. We had people following us all over the place. We were the best individually-talented team in the league. Portland beat us in the finals, and they were the best team. We had more talent than they did, but they played better as a team.
“Doc was the leader of the team, there’s no doubt about it. He always made himself available if you wanted to talk about things. That’s what you respected about him, that he would listen to you and give you some advice. We would go to lunch after practice periodically and get some cheesesteaks. I just enjoyeed being around him. I think he and played together exceptionally well.”
END OF THE ROAD: Mix knew when his basketball career was over and didn’t need any convincing.
“It was actually pretty easy. I was playing one game and somebody took a shot from the opposing team from the left corner. I had my man boxed out, and the ball bounced high and was going over my head. I looked at it and said, ‘Oh man, I’ll get the next one.’
“From that point I was like, ‘I’m done. I can’t run any more sprints in the summer. I can’t run any more steps.’ Mentally, I was fatigued after staying in shape for 13 years and working out almost every day. That was it. I knew that year was going to be my last year.”
First Published August 3, 2020, 3:57 p.m.
