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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Robert Carswell "Bobby" Lowther, Sr. (Basketball player for Louisiana State UniversitTaby, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and the Waterloo Hawks: NCAA Me..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Robert Carswell "Bobby" Lowther, Sr.
(Basketball player for Louisiana State UniversitTaby, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and the Waterloo Hawks: NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans in 1946
| image=Bobby Lowther of LA.jpg
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| birth_date=December 14, 1923
| birth_place=[[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Texas
| death_date=May 23, 2015 (aged 91)
| death_place=[[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria, [[Louisiana]]<br>
'''Alma mater''':<br>
Bolton High School (Alexandria)<br>
[[Louisiana State University]]
|spouse= Merriam Hanesworth Lowther
'''Children''':<br>
Robert "Rob" Lowther (deceased)
Bradley Hanesworth Lowther<br>
Martha Merriam Burns<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Alexander Carswell and Jeanette Pippin Lowther
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Forces
|rank=Lieutenant (bomber pilot)
|battles=[[World War II]]}}
'''Robert Carswell Lowther, Sr.''' (December 14, 1923 – March 23, 2015), was the only two-sport [[All-American]] athlete at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]], [[Louisiana]]. In 1946, he garnered the recognition in [[basketball]] and track and field.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theadvocate.com/sports/11922843-32/bobby-lowther-two-sport-star-at|title=Bobby Lowther, two-sport star at LSU, dies at age 91|date=March 25, 2015|publisher=''The Baton Rouge Advocate''|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
==Early life==
Lowther was born in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Texas]], to Alexander Carswell Lowther and the former Jeanette Pippin. In 1931, he moved with his family to [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. He was reared on 13th Street in Alexandria. He and a brother, Buster, and best friend, Ace Higgins, staged mock track meets, which set the stage for his later demonstrations of athletic prowess. He graduated in 1941, while he was still seventeen, fromBolton High School in Alexandria. At LSU, he majored in [[English]] and was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.<ref name=funeral/> His education at LSU was interrupted by [[World War II]]. In 1943 and 1944, he was a [[United States Army]] Air Forces B-17 bomber pilot with the rank of [[lieutenant]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/sports/2015/03/23/bobby-lowther-lsus-lone-two-sport-american-dies/70348620/|title=Bobby Lowther, LSU's lone two-sport All-American, dies|author=Bob Tompkins (Sports editor)|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|accessdate=March 24, 2015}}</ref>
==Athletic career==
Because he averaged fifteen points per game as a forward at LSU, Lowther was named to the Helms Athletic Foundation All-America basketball team. He also finished in second and fourth places, respectively, in the [[javelin]] and pole vault in the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships. In 1995, on the occasion of his induction into the[Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Lowther told ''The Alexandria Town Talk'' that his success in javelin and pole vault was unusual because most athletes can excel at only one of the two competitions. Heavier athletes have an advantage with the javelin, and slimmer ones with the pole vault. He was 6'5" and weighed 185 pounds.<ref name=bio/>
Upon Lowther's death of a lengthy illness in Alexandria at the age of ninety-one, his long-time friend Frank S. Brian (born May 1923) of Baton Rouge became the lone survivor of the original five starting LSU players in the consecutive winning teams from 1945 to 1947. LSU had its best winning percentage (83.3) in those two seasons. The Tigers won fifty-three of sixty-four games when Lowther was on the court. In 1946, Lowther and four players from the [[University of Kentucky]] Wildcats were named to the five-man All-Southeastern Conference men's basketball first team.<ref name=bio/>
In another 1946 triumph, Lowther was named the triple-jump champion at the national Amateur Athletic Union]competition. In 1947, he was voted "Best All-Around Athlete" at LSU, having prevailed over Y. A. Tittle], Al Dark, and Joe Adcock.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lasportshall.com/inductees/basketball/bobby-lowther/|title=Bobby Lowther: Induction Year 1995|publisher=lasportshall.com|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref> In 1978, he was inducted into the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the LSU chapter of the National "L"etterman Club. In 2005, after surviving [[lung cancer|lung]] and [[brain cancer]], Lowther was honored as Southeastern Conference]"Living Legend" for his basketball prowess.<ref name=bio/>
Lowther placed third in the 1946 AAU decathlon and would have competed in the Olympics had he not broken a leg at an SEC meet in [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], [[Alabama]]. He was still seeded in 1948 ahead of [[Bob Mathias]] of [[California]], the Olympic champion in the trials who competed in 1948 and 1952. Lowther could not compete because his leg had yet to heal.<ref name=bio/>
For several years, Lowther played professional basketball for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, now the Atlanta Hawks in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia]],<ref name=funeral/> and the defunct Waterloo Hawks in Waterloo, [[Iowa]].
==Later years==
Lowther was a [[business]]man and an inventor of fishing lures and board games.<ref name=funeral/> While in his seventies, he worked with youngsters at numerous area high schools and [[Louisiana College]] in [[Pineville, Louisiana|Pineville]] to demonstrate his knowledge of athletics.<ref name=bio/>
Lowther outlived by a year and a half his namesake son Robert "Robby" Lowther (1948-2013), who like his father graduated from Bolton High School and LSU, from which he received a basketball scholarship, and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The junior Lowther also played [[baseball]] and[[ golf]]. He held a [[Juris Doctor]]ate from the [[Louisiana State University]] Law Center. For a time while he resided in Many in Sabine Parish in western Louisiana, he practiced law and owned ''The Sabine Index'' weekly [[newspaper]]. He established a horse farm, "Beau Salael," in Blanchard north of [[Shreveport]] in Caddo Parish, where he raised thoroughbreds. He subsequently relocated to Covington in St. Tammany Parish, where he continued to practice law.<ref name=rcljr>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetowntalk/obituary.aspx?pid=166782851#sthash.WGMZD8Au.dpuf|title=Robert Carswell "Robby" Lowther, Jr.|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=September 4, 2013|accessdate=March 24, 2015}}</ref> Lowther and his wife, the former Merriam Hanesworth (born March 1926), have two surviving children, Bradley Hanesworth Lowther (born November 1950) of Baton Rouge, divorced from Cynthia Chaudoir Lowther Cortello,<ref name=brianlowther/> and Martha Merriam Burns (born c. 1956) and husband, Michael Eugene Burns (born c. 1952), of Pearland, near Houston, Texas..<ref name=rcljr/>
Lowther died at an Alexandria nursing facility at the age of ninety-one after a lengthy illness of [[Alzheimer's disease]]. Memorial services were held on March 27, 2015 at St. Timothy's [[Episcopal]] Church in Alexandria.<ref name=funeral>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/sports/2015/03/25/visitation-at-9-am-service-at-11/70426062/|title=Services Friday for LSU legend Lowther|publisher=The Alexandria Town Talk|accessdate=March 26, 2015}}</ref> Four months after Lowther's death, his family sustained another loss when grandson Brian Joseph Lowther (1978-2015), died in Metairie at the age of thirty-seven.<ref name=brianlowther>{{cite news|url=http://obits.theadvocate.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=brian-joseph-lowther&pid=175359985&fhid=29014|title=Brian Joseph Lowther|publisher=''The Baton Rouge Advocate''|accessdate=July 24, 2015}}</ref>
Lowther's younger brother, Charles A. "Buster" Lowther (1926-2015), was also a Houston native and graduate of Bolton High School, at which like his brother excelled in basketball and track and field. At LSU, from which he graduated in 1949, Buster Lowther was all-SEC in the pole vault and affiliated like his brother with Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Charles Lowther enlisted in the [[United States Navy]] in World War II and was an [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] officer in the [[Korean War]]. An [[insurance agent]] and member multiple times of the Million Dollar Round Table, Lowther was also an orator, singer, and stage actor, with the ability to voice nearly any accent. He was long involved with the Alexandria Little Theatre. He was the father of five children.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetowntalk/obituary.aspx?n=charles-a-lowther-buster&pid=175661158&fhid=6588#sthash.rEfwFC13.dpuf|title=Charles A. "Buster" Lowther|publisher=The Alexandria Town Talk|accessdate=August 28, 2015}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External link==
*[https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/players/l/lowthro01n.html National Basketball League stats]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowther, Bobby}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]
| name=Robert Carswell "Bobby" Lowther, Sr.
(Basketball player for Louisiana State UniversitTaby, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and the Waterloo Hawks: NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans in 1946
| image=Bobby Lowther of LA.jpg
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| birth_date=December 14, 1923
| birth_place=[[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Texas
| death_date=May 23, 2015 (aged 91)
| death_place=[[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria, [[Louisiana]]<br>
'''Alma mater''':<br>
Bolton High School (Alexandria)<br>
[[Louisiana State University]]
|spouse= Merriam Hanesworth Lowther
'''Children''':<br>
Robert "Rob" Lowther (deceased)
Bradley Hanesworth Lowther<br>
Martha Merriam Burns<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Alexander Carswell and Jeanette Pippin Lowther
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Forces
|rank=Lieutenant (bomber pilot)
|battles=[[World War II]]}}
'''Robert Carswell Lowther, Sr.''' (December 14, 1923 – March 23, 2015), was the only two-sport [[All-American]] athlete at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]], [[Louisiana]]. In 1946, he garnered the recognition in [[basketball]] and track and field.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theadvocate.com/sports/11922843-32/bobby-lowther-two-sport-star-at|title=Bobby Lowther, two-sport star at LSU, dies at age 91|date=March 25, 2015|publisher=''The Baton Rouge Advocate''|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>
==Early life==
Lowther was born in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Texas]], to Alexander Carswell Lowther and the former Jeanette Pippin. In 1931, he moved with his family to [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. He was reared on 13th Street in Alexandria. He and a brother, Buster, and best friend, Ace Higgins, staged mock track meets, which set the stage for his later demonstrations of athletic prowess. He graduated in 1941, while he was still seventeen, fromBolton High School in Alexandria. At LSU, he majored in [[English]] and was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.<ref name=funeral/> His education at LSU was interrupted by [[World War II]]. In 1943 and 1944, he was a [[United States Army]] Air Forces B-17 bomber pilot with the rank of [[lieutenant]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/sports/2015/03/23/bobby-lowther-lsus-lone-two-sport-american-dies/70348620/|title=Bobby Lowther, LSU's lone two-sport All-American, dies|author=Bob Tompkins (Sports editor)|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|accessdate=March 24, 2015}}</ref>
==Athletic career==
Because he averaged fifteen points per game as a forward at LSU, Lowther was named to the Helms Athletic Foundation All-America basketball team. He also finished in second and fourth places, respectively, in the [[javelin]] and pole vault in the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships. In 1995, on the occasion of his induction into the[Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in [[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]], Lowther told ''The Alexandria Town Talk'' that his success in javelin and pole vault was unusual because most athletes can excel at only one of the two competitions. Heavier athletes have an advantage with the javelin, and slimmer ones with the pole vault. He was 6'5" and weighed 185 pounds.<ref name=bio/>
Upon Lowther's death of a lengthy illness in Alexandria at the age of ninety-one, his long-time friend Frank S. Brian (born May 1923) of Baton Rouge became the lone survivor of the original five starting LSU players in the consecutive winning teams from 1945 to 1947. LSU had its best winning percentage (83.3) in those two seasons. The Tigers won fifty-three of sixty-four games when Lowther was on the court. In 1946, Lowther and four players from the [[University of Kentucky]] Wildcats were named to the five-man All-Southeastern Conference men's basketball first team.<ref name=bio/>
In another 1946 triumph, Lowther was named the triple-jump champion at the national Amateur Athletic Union]competition. In 1947, he was voted "Best All-Around Athlete" at LSU, having prevailed over Y. A. Tittle], Al Dark, and Joe Adcock.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lasportshall.com/inductees/basketball/bobby-lowther/|title=Bobby Lowther: Induction Year 1995|publisher=lasportshall.com|accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref> In 1978, he was inducted into the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the LSU chapter of the National "L"etterman Club. In 2005, after surviving [[lung cancer|lung]] and [[brain cancer]], Lowther was honored as Southeastern Conference]"Living Legend" for his basketball prowess.<ref name=bio/>
Lowther placed third in the 1946 AAU decathlon and would have competed in the Olympics had he not broken a leg at an SEC meet in [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], [[Alabama]]. He was still seeded in 1948 ahead of [[Bob Mathias]] of [[California]], the Olympic champion in the trials who competed in 1948 and 1952. Lowther could not compete because his leg had yet to heal.<ref name=bio/>
For several years, Lowther played professional basketball for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, now the Atlanta Hawks in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia]],<ref name=funeral/> and the defunct Waterloo Hawks in Waterloo, [[Iowa]].
==Later years==
Lowther was a [[business]]man and an inventor of fishing lures and board games.<ref name=funeral/> While in his seventies, he worked with youngsters at numerous area high schools and [[Louisiana College]] in [[Pineville, Louisiana|Pineville]] to demonstrate his knowledge of athletics.<ref name=bio/>
Lowther outlived by a year and a half his namesake son Robert "Robby" Lowther (1948-2013), who like his father graduated from Bolton High School and LSU, from which he received a basketball scholarship, and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The junior Lowther also played [[baseball]] and[[ golf]]. He held a [[Juris Doctor]]ate from the [[Louisiana State University]] Law Center. For a time while he resided in Many in Sabine Parish in western Louisiana, he practiced law and owned ''The Sabine Index'' weekly [[newspaper]]. He established a horse farm, "Beau Salael," in Blanchard north of [[Shreveport]] in Caddo Parish, where he raised thoroughbreds. He subsequently relocated to Covington in St. Tammany Parish, where he continued to practice law.<ref name=rcljr>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetowntalk/obituary.aspx?pid=166782851#sthash.WGMZD8Au.dpuf|title=Robert Carswell "Robby" Lowther, Jr.|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=September 4, 2013|accessdate=March 24, 2015}}</ref> Lowther and his wife, the former Merriam Hanesworth (born March 1926), have two surviving children, Bradley Hanesworth Lowther (born November 1950) of Baton Rouge, divorced from Cynthia Chaudoir Lowther Cortello,<ref name=brianlowther/> and Martha Merriam Burns (born c. 1956) and husband, Michael Eugene Burns (born c. 1952), of Pearland, near Houston, Texas..<ref name=rcljr/>
Lowther died at an Alexandria nursing facility at the age of ninety-one after a lengthy illness of [[Alzheimer's disease]]. Memorial services were held on March 27, 2015 at St. Timothy's [[Episcopal]] Church in Alexandria.<ref name=funeral>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/sports/2015/03/25/visitation-at-9-am-service-at-11/70426062/|title=Services Friday for LSU legend Lowther|publisher=The Alexandria Town Talk|accessdate=March 26, 2015}}</ref> Four months after Lowther's death, his family sustained another loss when grandson Brian Joseph Lowther (1978-2015), died in Metairie at the age of thirty-seven.<ref name=brianlowther>{{cite news|url=http://obits.theadvocate.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=brian-joseph-lowther&pid=175359985&fhid=29014|title=Brian Joseph Lowther|publisher=''The Baton Rouge Advocate''|accessdate=July 24, 2015}}</ref>
Lowther's younger brother, Charles A. "Buster" Lowther (1926-2015), was also a Houston native and graduate of Bolton High School, at which like his brother excelled in basketball and track and field. At LSU, from which he graduated in 1949, Buster Lowther was all-SEC in the pole vault and affiliated like his brother with Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Charles Lowther enlisted in the [[United States Navy]] in World War II and was an [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] officer in the [[Korean War]]. An [[insurance agent]] and member multiple times of the Million Dollar Round Table, Lowther was also an orator, singer, and stage actor, with the ability to voice nearly any accent. He was long involved with the Alexandria Little Theatre. He was the father of five children.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thetowntalk/obituary.aspx?n=charles-a-lowther-buster&pid=175661158&fhid=6588#sthash.rEfwFC13.dpuf|title=Charles A. "Buster" Lowther|publisher=The Alexandria Town Talk|accessdate=August 28, 2015}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External link==
*[https://www.basketball-reference.com/nbl/players/l/lowthro01n.html National Basketball League stats]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowther, Bobby}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]