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Mark Eaton
One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Mark Eaton: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you have a better example of his signature, or a story about it, the note at the foot of this page still stands.
Eaton was a 7-foot-4 auto mechanic fixing cars in Anaheim when a Cypress College assistant coach talked him into basketball. After riding the bench at UCLA — 41 minutes his entire senior year — he took Wilt Chamberlain's advice to guard the rim instead of chasing scorers, and the Jazz gambled a fourth-round pick on him in 1982. He repaid them with eleven seasons, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, and single-season block records — 456 in a year, 5.6 per game — that still stand.
The Jazz retired his No. 53, fitting for a man who helped turn a last-place team into a perennial playoff club. Eaton died on May 28, 2021, at age 64.
HOW HE CAME & WENTThe last-place Jazz took him 72nd overall in 1982 as a long-term project, and he never played for anyone else. A worsening back cost him the whole of 1993-94 and he retired that September, at 37, with two Defensive Player of the Year awards and his number in the rafters.
- Full name
- Mark Edward Eaton
- Utah Jazz tenure
- 1982–93
- Position
- Center
- Born
- 1957, Inglewood, California
- Died
- 2021
- Height
- 7′4″ (224 cm)
- Weight
- 276 lb (125 kg)
- College
- UCLA
- Drafted
- 1982, 4th round (No. 72), Utah
With the Jazz
MARK EATON · 1982–93 · PER GAME| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982–83 | UTA | 81 | 18.9 | 4.3 | 5.7 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 3.4 | .414 | .000 | .656 |
| 1983–84 | UTA | 82 | 26.1 | 5.6 | 7.3 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 4.3 | .466 | .000 | .593 |
| 1984–85 | UTA | 82 | 34.3 | 9.7 | 11.3 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 5.6 | .449 | — | .712 |
| 1985–86 | UTA | 80 | 31.9 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 4.6 | .470 | — | .604 |
| 1986–87 | UTA | 79 | 31.7 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 4.1 | .400 | — | .657 |
| 1987–88 | UTA | 82 | 33.3 | 7.0 | 8.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 3.7 | .418 | — | .623 |
| 1988–89 | UTA | 82 | 35.5 | 6.2 | 10.3 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 3.8 | .462 | — | .660 |
| 1989–90 | UTA | 82 | 27.8 | 4.8 | 7.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.5 | .527 | — | .669 |
| 1990–91 | UTA | 80 | 32.3 | 5.1 | 8.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.4 | .579 | — | .634 |
| 1991–92 | UTA | 81 | 25.0 | 3.3 | 6.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.5 | .446 | — | .598 |
| 1992–93 | UTA | 64 | 17.3 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | .546 | — | .700 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 11 SEASONS | 875 | 28.8 | 6.0 | 7.9 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 3.5 | .458 | .000 | .649 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Did you know
MARK EATON · 12 NOTES- Was working as an auto mechanic when a junior college coach spotted him and persuaded him to play.
- After basketball he was a partner in the Salt Lake City-area restaurants Tuscany and Franck's and worked as a motivational speaker on teamwork.
- Died in 2021 after he was found unconscious beside his bicycle during a ride near his Park City-area home.
- Wilt Chamberlain pulled him aside at a summer pickup game and told him to guard the rim instead of chasing quicker players — Eaton called it the turning point of his career.
- Wore No. 53 because Darrell Griffith already had his UCLA number 35, so he simply reversed the digits.
- Before Utah called, his best offers were 15,000 dollars to play in Israel and 25,000 in Monte Carlo.
- He blocked ten shots in a 1985 playoff game against Houston, a record nobody surpassed until Victor Wembanyama's twelve in 2026.
- At 6-foot-11 and 175 pounds he appeared in roughly two games as a high school senior, spending the rest of the season on the bench.
- He threw away the program the coach handed him and needed four months of after-work sessions before agreeing to try junior college.
- Settled near Park City, he skied, kept burros, and rode a Clydesdale-Thoroughbred named Big Tim, becoming the world's tallest cowboy.
- He became a friend and mentor to Rudy Gobert, the only other Defensive Player of the Year in franchise history, over a shared love of cycling.
- He announced his retirement in a column for the Salt Lake Tribune: 'It has been a great ride, but life does have a way of moving on and I must move on with it.'
All photographs
2 PHOTOS