David Bing, a former Syracuse basketball student-athlete and 1991 Silver Anniversary Award winner, was elected mayor of Detroit in a recent special election. He defeated interim mayor Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. to replace Kwame M. Kilpatrick, who resigned last fall.

Bing graduated from Syracuse in 1966, then the only basketball player to be named the school’s athlete of the year. After leaving Syracuse, he played in the NBA for 12 years and was voted rookie of the year in 1967. His jersey number was retired by the Detroit Pistons in 1983. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990.

Bing has been in the auto parts business for years and had never run for elected office before. He has had extensive civic involvement, working with the Michigan Cancer Foundation, March of Dimes, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Special Olympics, the Boys and Girls Club of Metropolitan Detroit, Junior Achievement and the Detroit Urban League. In 1985, Bing received Detroit’s Humanitarian of the Year award. He also contributes to Syracuse’s minority scholarship fund.

Bing will face re-election in the regularly scheduled election in November.