From Playmaker to Playcaller
The son of Lithuanian immigrants, Leo Rautins, after attending high school in Ontario and participating as a member of the Toronto-based Lithuanian Athletic Club, Ausra, took a basketball scholarship to Syracuse University, New York, where the 6’8” forward for the Orangemen was an assist leader, an all-American in 1983 and, in the same year, picked 17th in the NBA first-round draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. Rautins is, today, a national broadcaster for the NBA on CTV. [Photo, courtesy Lithuanian Museum-Archives, Mississauga]