I am inspired to relate some personal anecdotes about the early days of NBA Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick Adelman’s sports career; I was there at the beginning of his journey. This is not a eulogy, rather a couple of my 66-year-old anecdotes that have relevance to the futures of talented young people beyond athletics.
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Upon learning of Rick’s death this week, my mind flashed to a particular high school basketball game. Rick and I were teammates for four years aon the St. Pius X Catholic High School team, known as the “Warriors.” He played guard, and I was a forward. We were in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs in both 1963 and ’64, it was a sudden-death elimination format; we took 3rd place as Juniors in ’63, defeating Compton High School.
In ’64, following an hours-long bus ride from our school in South Gate to San Bernardino, we handily defeated the formidable and highly ranked Mira Costa High School team by nearly 40 points, a lot at any level, before a hostile crowd. I remember Rick stealing a pass made by one of the Mesa players. Unchallenged, he streaked to their basket, but missed the layup. I had followed him on the breakaway and was able to grab the rebound in midair, scoring the points after all. Rick turned to me with a beaming smile, immediately praising my above-the-rim athleticism; I was only 6′ tall, but could “dunk.” “Holy Cow, Tom, great job, where’d you come from?” A great memory for me, but not the point of this story.
Every first-string player on our team was offered “full-ride” scholarships to different colleges and universities, educations none of us could have otherwise afforded. Rick followed his brother Cletus to the prestigious Loyola University in Los Angeles, where they continued to excel athletically, with Rick entering the NBA and eventually into coaching. Our center, Jim LaCour, was poor growing up in gang-infested South Central. He went on to a “full-ride” at Seattle University, where he reportedly broke the scoring records of L.A. Laker Superstar Elgin Baylor. Teammate Dean Donnellon (guard) went to Chapman University, while Dick Zembal (forward) chose Long Beach State. Dean and Dick later joined the Washington Generals professional travel-team that played against Meadowlark Lemon and the Harlem Globetrotters. I obtained a graduate degree from USC on grant/scholarship money, after which I joined that rarified handful of ’60s American high jumpers over 7′. So, the significance of scholarships, specifically athletic scholarships, to each of us and to those who follow us cannot be overstated!
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I lost touch with Rick. I’m not aware of his politics or if he remained a practicing Catholic. My prayer is that his family and priest were near him in the end. That said, in my opinion, Rick’s high school athletic career and subsequent scholarship were pivotal in his journey through life and his successful rise into the upper-middle-class; it’s the “American Story.” Athletic scholarships continue to be crucial to many on life’s journey, but the challenge today has become more about honing media protest skills over athleticism. Girls’ athletic scholarships are under siege by a cult using young boys struggling with dysphoria for depraved anti-culturalism. Scholarships to colleges for athletic girls are jeopardized by boys in girls’ sports advocates. Followed to their professed conclusion, biological women in sports will end, and with them paid tuitions. Women currently playing in the WNBA will be replaced by dysphoria-suffering males or those feigning it for professional sports paychecks they can’t successfully acquire competing against other men.
In ’64, we played Long Beach Poly for the CIF Championship before 16K at the Long Beach Arena. Poly was “given” the one-point victory by a referee’s controversial decision ending the game without review of the last shot. The court filled with a raucous crowd, sealing the referee’s decision. That decision was proven wrong on the front of the Daily Signal’s sports page the next day. The Daily Signal photograph showed Dean Donnellon’s last-second jump shot with the ball having left his hand and the game clock showing one second left. That shot went in, giving St. Pius X, that little Catholic school of 600 boys and 600 girls, the victory by one point. To this day, Long Beach Poly, with its student body of nearly 4K, will not give up that championship trophy to the rightful champions, “the boys of ’64”, and their “basket case” fans!
Via Con Dios, Rick, thanks for the days of camaraderie, and in death, inspiring others to work to keep athletic scholarships alive for the next generation of girls.
Image: NBA