Once a Jayhawk, Kirk Hinrich now a Bull...Again

Kirk Hinrich was one of the top players in KU history. And as so with the great ones, he was always surrounded by media during his four years at Kansas. I interviewed him countless times, asking him questions usually in-between other reporters’ queries after games or in breakout sessions before games. He wasn’t known as the best interview, but he was always direct and candid, and I appreciated that. A relentless player who knew the game as a coach’s son, I couldn’t help admire how hard he played.

I finally got the chance to do an extended one-on-one interview with Kirk when he came back to Allen Fieldhouse in October 2006 as a member of the Chicago Bulls. His Bulls were playing an exhibition game with the Seattle SuperSonics, who featured Kirk’s good buddy and former Jayhawk Nick Collison.

About 90 minutes before tipoff, when the players were first made available to the media, I hurried into the Bulls’ locker room where I saw Kirk sitting alone. Seizing my opportunity, I asked him several questions, including how he felt about returning to Allen Fieldhouse, his thoughts on the current KU basketball team, realizing his dream of playing in the NBA, and others.

Soon, I got to ask him the question I truly wanted. I remembered Kirk’s and Nick’s final home game against Oklahoma State in 2003, and how coach Roy Williams offered his memories of his two favorite players in the postgame press conference. He recalled a story about Kirk’s freshman year after a game against Saint Louis in Kemper Arena. Kirk struggled that night, going scoreless with five turnovers in 13 minutes. He was feeling extremely down, so as he and Williams walked back to the bus after the game, Roy put his arm around Kirk and said, ”You’re the guard I wanted."

I had always wanted to ask Kirk about that moment, and now I did. The Bulls’ point guard said he was really struggling in school and on the court early in his freshman season while trying to adjust to major college basketball, and feeling at his lowest point after the Saint Louis game, the 12th contest of the year.

So when Williams put his arm around him like a father and told Kirk he was “the guard I wanted,” it was like a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Kirk called it a defining moment and turning point in his career.

“To have a coach behind you 100 percent like that and show that much confidence in you, it meant a lot,” Kirk told me.

Kirk rebounded from adversity, earned a starting spot later that freshman year and blossomed into one of the best guards in school history. He left his career ranked No. 8 all time at KU in scoring, No. 5 in free throw percentage, No. 3 in three-point field goals made and three-point field goal percentage, No. 3 in assists and steals, and No. 2 in minutes played behind Jayhawk legend Danny Manning.

He was drafted with the seventh overall pick by the Bulls in 2003, and quickly made his name in Chicago. After three seasons, Captain Kirk was seen as the face of the franchise, something I mentioned to him in Allen Fieldhouse during our interview in 2006.

“I’m not the face of the franchise,” Kirk responded.

K.C. Johnson, the Bulls’ beat writer who had joined me by that that time in the locker room, just laughed.

The humble Hinrich had some very good years in Chicago, and was an extremely popular player among fans with his gritty work ethic and desire. While he was the subject of trade talk during his latter years in Chicago, it never seemed to affect his play too much. Kirk was all business, and this showed with the media and on the hardwood.

Finally, in the summer of 2010, Chicago traded Kirk to the woeful Washington Wizards to free up salary cap space in their pursuit of free agents Dwayne Wade and LeBron James. Well, the Bulls got neither of them. As for Kirk, he played in obscurity in Washington while grooming rookie John Wall as the Wizards’ point guard of the future.

The Wizards traded Kirk to the Atlanta Hawks for the stretch run in 2011. While Kirk showcased his defensive prowess, he wasn’t counted on too much offensively. I thought his talents weren’t used properly with all the Hawks’ isolation plays and teaming with ball stoppers like Joe Johnson. Kirk ended up getting injured in the first round of the playoffs, and never got the chance to play in the following series against the Bulls.

Kirk underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and missed the beginning of last season with the Hawks. He never seemed to find his groove, averaging a career-low 6.6 points per game. Now a free agent, Hinrich looked for a new start with a new team this past summer.

He found it in his old home of Chicago, signing a deal worth about $8 million for two years. With All-Star and former MVP Derrick Rose sidelined for most of next season recovering from a torn ACL, Hinrich will likely step right in and start at point guard just like old times in the Windy City. When Rose returns, Kirk should still see plenty of minutes as backup point guard and at shooting guard.

Kirk told the Chicago Tribune that he knew in his heart and gut that Chicago was the best place for him. He actually chose the Bulls after reportedly turning down more money from the Milwaukee Bucks, where he would have been reunited with former Bulls’ coach Scott Skiles.

"The stars kind of had to be aligned," Hinrich said of returning to the Bulls. "I didn't have any preconceived notions coming into free agency that this would be my decision. It just worked out that way, and I'm happy it did."

I’m happy it did, too, for this former Jayhawk standout. While there’s been plenty of speculation that his skills have declined and he’s not the same player, I still believe the 31-year-old Hinrich (NBA broadcaster Steve Kerr once said he had a chance to become the “next Steve Nash”) has plenty of game and that a return to the Windy City could indeed revitalize his career and bring crowds to their feet at the United Center once more.

Looking back on Sherron Collins

Life after KU hasn’t been easy for Sherron Collins. After being snubbed in the 2010 NBA Draft, Collins made the Charlotte Bobcats as a rookie free agent. But his stay in Charlotte didn’t last long, and even gained national attention when, after being released, Collins missed two flights out of Chicago to return to Charlotte.

“That was kind of it,” then-Charlotte head coach Paul Silas said about withdrawing the offer.

Collins, who played in 20 games with Charlotte and averaged just 0.8 points in 3.3 minutes per contest, has never found his way back to the NBA. He has bounced around since leaving KU, playing also for the Maine Red Claws in the NBDL and last seen competing professionally in Turkey in 2011. Now, he’s reportedly living in Chicago with hopes of returning to the NBA someday appear quite slim as this undersized point guard (5-11) constantly fights weight issues and the stigma of what happened with Charlotte.

It all seemed like yesterday when Collins was the toast of the college basketball world. He left KU as the winningest player in school history (now Tyrel Reed holds that honor) and was a consensus first-team All-American his senior season. While he lost some explosiveness he had in high school, not many guards in college had Collins’ skills, a fearless competitor who could take it to the hole at will or rain three-pointers on you all night.

KU coach Bill Self simply called him the best guard he’s ever coached at Kansas — “by far.”

Back during the good times at KU, before he played his final home game at K-State, I wrote this piece on Sherron on how he had found true success, peace and happiness in Lawrence after overcoming so much adversity growing up in the West Side of Chicago.

At this time two years ago, Sherron Collins was living the basketball dream, loved by all and everybody’s All-American. He seemed destined for success after KU with a future so bright with endless possibilities.

Senior Class 

By David Garfield

Phog.net Senior Writer

Posted Mar 3, 2010

Sherron Collins doesn’t really want to let go. Not after the best four years of his life at Kansas, not after becoming the winningest player in Jayhawk history, not after maturing as much off the court as any player who’s ever donned the crimson and blue.

But on Senior Night against K-State this evening, one of the greatest players in KU annals will say goodbye in his final home game at Allen Fieldhouse.

Sherron Collins knows he can’t fight back the tears.

"I try not to think about it, but it is hard not to,” he said. “I wish I could run from it, but I can't. I wish I had more time to play here. I am trying to figure out if I am going to cry like a baby after the game, but I try to joke a lot and to stay happy."

There will be roses and cheers, tears and enduring memories. And there will be love. 

Lots of love.

“You can go anywhere and everyone treats you well and everyone shows so much support for KU basketball (regardless) if we win or lose,” the 5-11 senior guard said of his experience at KU. “Lawrence is my second home and I don't get homesick at all. 

“I love being here."

The fans, his teammates, and the KU coaching staff have loved having Collins here the last four years.

KU coach Bill Self said Collins has made a lasting impact on his life.

“He’s meant as much to me as any player I’ve ever coached,” Self said. “I think that’s a pretty bold statement because I’ve had some pretty good ones. I don’t know if you can say he means more than (Kirk) Hinrich or (Nick) Collison or Raef (LaFrentz) or Paul (Pierce) or Jacque (Vaughn). But to me personally, I can say that without any hesitation.”

From the mean streets of Chicago’s West Side, where he grew up in the gang and crime infested neighborhood, Collins came to Kansas nearly four years ago and found a new home, a salvation of sorts, an inner peace he longed for his entire life.

He was a guarded individual when he arrived in Lawrence in 2006, but evolved into a personable, trusting person who’s embraced the community and been a role model to children back home in Chicago and throughout the Jayhawk Nation.

Just listen to him speak. Just look at his smile.

“I have broken out of my shell and opened up by being around town and on campus,” Collins said. “Now, it just comes natural to me. At home in Chicago you have to keep to yourself in certain places and I think that stuck with me when I came here, but I realized I had to break that."

Growing up in Chicago with great adversity and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Collins could have bowed to the peer pressure as a youth and turned the wrong way and mixed with the wrong crowd.

But he didn’t.

“I had good people in my corner like my mother and my big brother,” Collins said. “My uncle was my father figure and they all helped keep me out of trouble.”

Self has great admiration for his senior leader. He calls Collins’ rise out of Chicago and maturation at Kansas a “pretty remarkable story.”

“I think all coaches have a soft spot in their heart for kids that do it against all odds,” Self said. “He came into this situation really needing a place to change his thought process and to mold him into what he could potentially become. And he embraced that.”

But like many young men, Collins fought that adjustment for a while when first coming to KU.

Self points at a breakthrough in their relationship.

“The first time I ever had Sherron over to my house,” Self said, “it was such a big deal to him because he had never been in an environment like that. And that won me and my wife over immediately. For him to to feel that something so trivial was so important to him, that was something I realized right then that we had something special if he could just stay the course.”

While the road has been bumpy at times fighting weight issues and injuries, Collins has stayed the course and flourished both on and off the court. He’ll graduate after this semester and become the first male in his family to receive a college degree, silencing some doubters back home in Chicago who told him, “you weren't going to make it or that you weren't good enough.”

Donning graduation cap and gown, Collins will walk down the Hill in May with great pride. And Self will be beaming with joy as well.

“I’ll be just as proud of him on that day as I will be if we were to play great Wednesday night and for him to have the most memorable night of his life,” Self said.

Collins said he’s learned many lessons at KU that will last him a lifetime. He “takes things more seriously now and knows how to take care of my responsibilities.” Becoming a father has made the most profound impact on his life.

“I think that’s what really woke me up,” Collins said.

Collins has a son Sherr’mari, who will be 3 in April. And his daughter Sharee’ was born in February.

Soon after his first son was born, Collins and Self had a heart-to-heart talk.

“Coach Self told me that everything you do for yourself doesn't matter anymore; it is for your mom and your son now,” Collins said. “I really took that to heart. My mother had a tough life working two jobs to support my brother and me. She wanted us to have everything all the other kids had. I owe everything to her. I think it is time for her to rest and I want to be there for my son because my dad wasn't there for me. I talk to my dad a lot now, but he always reminds me to do everything I can to be there for my son and not to make mistakes like he did."

Being a father, student, and basketball player has been a huge balancing act for Collins. He’s done all this while being under the microscope at powerhouse Kansas, where Collins faced pressure to live up to his press clippings and hype coming out of Crane High School. Self has constantly pushed him to be the true leader,  player, and student he envisioned when Collins was a high school standout and one of the two best point guards (along with Ty Lawson) in his Class of 2006.

Self and Collins clashed at times. But through their trials has come a mutual respect and love. Self points to one situation where he rode Collins particularly hard.

“I realized then, dear gosh, this kid does care because I was on his butt and I thought there was a chance he may go home and not come back,” Self said. “Just to see how he responded to that. I said, ‘hey, we got him because he cares so much more than what we ever dreamed he would care. He’s a fighter and he likes it when it’s the most challenging. I always respect that about guys. I think all coaches do.”

Self said Collins has “been an absolute joy to coach.”

“I love everything about him,” Self said. “I love the stubbornness. I love the competitive spirit. We’ve definitely had our moments, but I definitely know at the end of the day, he’s going to fight as hard as he can. He’s certainly matured himself into quite a young man that will be very successful, regardless if basketball takes him there or not.”

He has certainly been a great success on the hardwood. Collins is one of only three Jayhawks (along with Hinrich and Darnell Valentine) to have recorded 1,700 career points and 500 career assists. He ranks as the school’s No. 7 all-time leading scorer, just 26 points shy of 1,800  points. Collins is also fourth on KU’s career three-point field goals list, seventh in assists, and 20th in steals.

But beyond all the statistics, Collins is the winningest player in school history who does all the intangibles, a true extension of Self on the floor.

“He’s the best guard by far that I’ve coached since I’ve been here,” Self said.

Collins’ teammates are also true believers. Just listen to junior center Cole Aldrich.

“He’s everything for us,” Aldrich said. “He’s the pulse of our team, the kind of general that runs everybody. He’s just the guy that you want to be that because he’s so competitive. He’s got a great head on his shoulders. He’s a humble kid, but he loves competing.”

And Wednesday night, Collins will be competing in Allen Fieldhouse for the final time in his storied career. 

You can bet one thing. Just as he’s played with great heart the last four years, his senior speech after the game will be straight from the heart.

Collins could do it no other way.

He knows how he’d like the fans to remember him.

“Just winning,” Collins said. “A player that tried to win every game, a player that was a fan favorite (who) interacted with the fans, let them know we appreciate them. 

“A winning player that left it all out there.”

Rick Suttle: My First KU Basketball Hero

Rick Suttle was my first KU basketball hero, the first player to give me chills and truly capture my imagination. My first memories of him center around the 1972-73 team or the 1973-74 Final Four team. To this day, I cannot completely remember the exact moment he entered my consciousness as wonder-eyed 6 or 7-year-old growing up in Lawrence about five minutes from Allen Fieldhouse.

But make no mistake, he left an impression on me that has lasted a lifetime.

Suttle, a 6-10 high school All-American from East St. Louis, Ill., made an immediate mark on the freshman team in 1971-72, averaging 22.3 points and 12.5 rebounds per game while shooting a scorching 54.5 percent from the field.

Then, in his first year of eligibility as a sophomore, he led KU with 16.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He was one of the bright spots on that team, which struggled mightily with an 8-18 record. Suttle scored a career-high 28 points against Iowa, tying Dale Greenlee’s 28 against Oklahoma State for the best single-game mark for KU that season. He also grabbed a career-high 19 boards against Notre Dame.

Suttle was awarded for his accomplishments by being named Second-Team All-Big Eight by the Associated Press.

The following year in 1973-74, Suttle was relegated to sixth man as he became one of the top Super Subs in KU history and helped lead KU to the Final Four. If I remembered Suttle from the previous season, there’s no doubt he truly emerged on my radar this year, the Final Four dream team which gave me pure joy and excitement seeing my heroes like Suttle, Danny Knight, Roger Morningstar, Norm Cook, Dale Greenlee and Tom Kivisto displaying their magic in Allen Fieldhouse.

With their remarkable turnaround from the previous season en route to the Final Four, and just how they made a dramatic comeback in the final minutes against Oral Roberts in the Midwest Regional Final, that team made me believe in miracles, that anything in life was possible.

Above all, they made my childhood a whole lot sweeter and brighter.

While all those Jayhawks were my heroes, Suttle stood out the most. At 6-10 with a huge 70s style afro, Suttle was hard to miss. He was regal looking, like a Greek God on the basketball court, long, lean, agile and sinewy, one of the best big man shooters (along with Cook) in the country. I fondly recall watching him swish jumpers from the free-throw line, or just inside the charity stripe.

It was one of the prettiest sights I had ever seen to that point, and I wanted to hold on to Suttle and that Final Four team forever.

As I learned over the years interviewing his former teammates, Suttle was also a very unselfish player. While he came off the bench in 1973-74 and his scoring average dipped from 16.3 points to 11.3 (KU had five players average in double figures that season with Knight top scorer at 12.4 ppg), that didn’t matter to Suttle.

KU was winning games, and he was enjoying the ride.

“Rick Suttle might have been our best player, but he came off the bench,” Morningstar once told me. “He did that willingly. He just said, ‘Hey, if I’m more effective coming off the bench, that’s what we’ll do.’ It was that kind of (unselfish) attitude that everybody had.”

Despite coming off the pine, Suttle still played plenty of minutes.

“Danny Knight would start, but Rick would actually play more minutes during the game, and sometimes, coach (Ted Owens) would play both at the same time,” Greenlee said in a 2000 interview. “We’d run our double low post. Back in the 70s, it was a pretty nice luxury to have two 6-10, 6-11 people in at the same time.”

On and off the court, Suttle kept everybody loose with his joking and eccentric nature.

“I roomed with Rick. He was funny,” Greenlee said. “I can still see Rick. He was late for a practice. To punish him, we had a pre-game meal and Rick was supposed to sing his school song as the punishment. He didn’t know his school song. I remember him going, ‘I don’t know it.’ We said, ‘So pick a song.’ He leaves the room and came in singing “Hello Dolly.” Here’s Rick, 6-11. He actually left the room, came in waving a handkerchief like Louis Armstrong. He had us roaring. Probably every one in the room remembers that. Things like that, he was always good for something. He always kept you loose.” 

Morningstar agrees. He loved being around Suttle.

“Rick was goofy, real eccentric,” Morningstar recalled. “In those days, we had a dress code. We had the same ties, the same shirts, the same coats, same pants, all that stuff that everyone wore. As a team, you walked around. I think it was on our way to Oral Roberts, Rick comes down. We had the option of wearing a tie or wearing those blue turtlenecks with a Jayhawk on them. We all chose for that game and that trip to wear the turtlenecks. Rick comes out with his turtleneck, one of those clip-on bow ties that you slit a spot and put it in.  He was always doing goofy stuff like that.  

“Our last couple of games, I believe it was our senior year, in the introductions, everybody was on the bench and you just ran out from the bench all by yourself and the crowd was going crazy.  Rick stopped and did this goofy dance, he stopped about half way out and put his hands in the air, running in place and spinning around. The crowd went nuts. Coach was just rolling his eyes, shaking his head, ‘What are you doing Rick?’” 

Maybe that dance was something Suttle learned in his fraternity.

“Him and Tommie Smith and a couple of other guys were all in this fraternity (Kappa Alpha Psi),” Morningstar said. “They had all kind of trinkets around their room. Tommy actually was one of my other roommates. He had more (Kappa Alpha Psi) paraphernalia in our room, and Rick had a table full of it.

“... (Suttle) was a legendary Illinois basketball player,” Morningstar added of his former teammate who averaged 26.6 points and 15 rebounds his senior year at Assumption High School. “He was down just across the river from St. Louis. Those players, northern Illinois and southern Illinois were two different worlds from a basketball standpoint. They’d usually meet somewhere for a state tournament. I knew of Rick, how great he was, but I hadn’t watched him play.”

Morningstar was elated to play with Suttle for two years at KU. In their last year together in 1974-75, that team suffered some growing pains early dealing with the loss of their floor general and leader, Kivisto. Still, KU went 19-8 and won the Big Eight championship before falling to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Suttle became a starter again that season, pacing the squad with 14.6 points per game and earning All-Big Eight honors. He currently ranks No. 37 in school history in career points (1,166), and is tied with Greg Ostertag for fourth all time on the single-game blocked shots chart (eight against K-State in 1975). Suttle is also tied for No. 20 on the school’s all-time double-doubles chart with 11.

After concluding his KU career, he was drafted in the seventh round of the NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers before embarking on an extremely long and successful pro basketball career in Argentina. 

It was 2005 I believe when Suttle came back for the 1974 Final Four team’s 30-year reunion. After the team was introduced at halftime, I walked over to the south end zone behind the goal where Suttle stood (I saw him taking video during the game) and introduced myself to him.

“Hi Rick, I’m David Garfield. You were my childhood hero.”

“Thank you,” he said politely with a deep voice.

I then asked him what he was doing these days, and he said he was coaching ball in Argentina.

It was a very brief conversation, but a very fulfilling one for me. He was gracious, and I know he was reveling in his first time back in the fieldhouse since he left KU and catching up with his former teammates so I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. But I felt at peace talking to him and knowing I had introduced myself to my first KU basketball hero, someone who meant so much to me during childhood.

I walked back to my seat on press row, smiled and took a deep breath.

And whenever I want to see Rick Suttle swishing buckets, grabbing rebounds, or blocking shots like he did in the 1970s, I can pop in the DVD Dale Greenlee (as classy and positive a guy as you’ll ever meet) sent me a few years ago on KU’s 1974 and ‘75 teams and relive part of my childhood, when I was innocent and young and believed everything was attainable.

It was a simpler and carefree time then as I could forget about any problems in school, and cheer for Suttle and his teammates and get lost in the moment in my own KU hoop dreams.

For that, Rick Suttle and the entire 1974 Final Four team, I thank you for those magical memories. You are in my heart, spirit and soul forever.

KU Flashback: Jayhawks post first-ever win over Kentucky in 1973

With Kentucky’s victory over Kansas in the national championship game on April 2, the Wildcats now hold a 21-6 all-time series lead. However, before UK's last two wins over KU (the Wildcats also beat KU early this season in November), Kansas had won three straight with five of its six wins coming in the last eight meetings.

In the aftermath of the national title game, I began thinking of KU’s six wins over Kentucky, the players that made the plays and the specifics of each game. In this blog entry, I travel back in time to Dec. 3, 1973 when KU beat the mighty Wildcats for the first time in school history.

***

With KU still winless in the overall series to Kentucky (0-5), the Jayhawks looked to get their first victory over the Wildcats in Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 3, 1973, three days after crushing Murray State, 103-79, in the season opener. KU hit its first 12 shots after halftime in that game and finished the contest with 49 field goals, a school and fieldhouse record.

Now, KU was looking to keep the hot shooting cooking against the Wildcats, who won their opening game against Miami of Ohio, 81-68.

Even though it was just the second game this season, after going just 8-18 last year, this was a game KU needed to win to get its confidence boosted for the long season ahead.

And they did.

Behind 20 points from junior college transfer Roger Morningstar and strong inside play (KU’s frontline scored 62 points), the Jayhawks notched their first-ever win against UK, 72-61. Kentucky forward Kevin Grevey was game-high scorer with 23 points, though the Lawrence Journal-World reported that Morningstar “did a sticky first-half defensive job” on the Wildcats’ star player.

KU led just 31-28 at halftime, but hit 19 of 31 shots in the second half to build its lead. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks held the Wildcats to just 39 percent shooting for the game.

Morningstar was the star — “This is the biggest game I’ve ever played in my life,” he told the Lawrence Journal-World — but he had help this night from post players Danny Knight (17 points) and Rick Suttle (12 points), who hit shots and also put the clamps on Kentucky’s 6-8 big man Bob Guyotte (1 of 7 shots for just four points), UK’s sixth man last year who was pressed into pivot duty this season.

Coach Ted Owens’ game plan was to get the ball inside to test Guyotte.

“Inside was the place we felt we could hurt them,” Owens said.

KU was now 2-0 and riding high after beating the nationally ranked and defending SEC champs.

"I think we beat a good team Saturday in Murray State, but I think it was important for us to beat a ranked basketball team,” Owens said. “I’m very pleased. We were doing the things necessary to win. This team is more and more beginning to understand the things necessary to succeed. Some of the guys have had all the losing they need. We don’t have to lose anymore to learn lessons. They’ve worked awfully hard to become a team so they don’t want to let it slip away.”

KU marched to the Final Four that season with a 23-7 record, the best turnaround in school history and one of the best comebacks in NCAA history after finishing just 8-18 in 1972-73.

Ricky Ross: A shooting star who flamed out way too soon

This article was published in Jayhawk Illustrated.

By David Garfield

It was one of the happiest days of my life.  

Flash back to April 1979 when high school phenom Ricky Ross from Wichita South signed with Kansas. He chose the Jayhawks over North Carolina, Arkansas and Wichita State.

Ross, who verbally committed to KU twice before “wavering” and ultimately signing with the Jayhawks, told the Lawrence Journal-World at the time “that there was very big pressure” to choose KU, with his high school coach Bill Himebaugh, his mother, and KU backers in Wichita all favoring Kansas.

But now that his decision was finally made, he was looking forward to starting his collegiate career in Lawrence.

“I’m excited about playing with Darnell (Valentine, KU junior-to-be point guard and All-American candidate),” Ross said. “With all the pro coaches and scouts that will be watching him the next two years, that has to be a plus for me, too.”

Himebaugh was elated his franchise player was going to be a Jayhawk.

“I think he had KU in his mind all along,” Himebaugh said. “He’s the type of player who can turn a program around. And that guard tandem of KU now has to be one of the best around.”

I was 12 years old growing up in Lawrence, and recall going to our preseason baseball meeting at coach Bill Platz’s house that night after learning Ross had signed with Kansas.

As soon as I arrived, my buddy asked me, “Did you see we got Ricky Ross?”

I smiled and said I did.

For someone whose life revolved around KU basketball 365 days a year, the thought of Ross teaming with Valentine in the KU backcourt had me salivating. They would be the best guard tandem in college basketball, I predicted. With Valentine one of the best penetrators in college hoops and Ross a deadly pure shooter, I believed they could revolutionize Kansas basketball.

As I sat happily during our baseball meeting looking forward to my final season with the Merchants, my mind couldn’t help but dance with images of Ross raining jump shots throughout Allen Fieldhouse. The fans would come to their feet and roar. KU would win the Big Eight title. And then the Jayhawks would make a deep run in March and win the national championship. 

I had this all figured out. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

***

With Wichita Heights standout and KU signee Perry Ellis concluding a memorable high school career (he led his team to four consecutive state championships and a 97-3 record while Heights set a state record with 62 straight victories), the 6-8 forward has been compared to some of the greatest players in Wichita City League history.

Including Ricky Ross.

Longtime Wichita Eagle columnist Bob Lutz penned in his February blog that Ross ranks as the greatest player to come out of Wichita that he’s seen since the early-1960s. High praise, indeed, considering Wichita City League hoops has produced the likes of NBA players Valentine, Antoine Carr, and former Jayhawk star Greg Dreiling. 

With Ross in the news, I’ve been thinking of him more often these days, not that he’s ever drifted far from my thoughts since that magical day in 1979 when I read he was going to be a Jayhawk, the next superstar to don the crimson and blue.

He was a ballyhooed McDonald’s All-American and part of arguably the greatest high school senior class of all time, which also included Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy and Jon Paxson. Ross led Wichita South to consecutive state championships and broke Valentine’s City League career scoring record while averaging 32.1 points his senior season.

He once scored 47 points in a game (before the three-point shot), a City League record which stood for 32 years before Jayhawk-to-be and Wichita North standout Conner Frankamp broke it with 52 points in December 2010.

Ross, along with fellow McDonald’s All-Americans Valentine and Tony Guy, was a key reason why KU still had high hopes for the 1979-80 season despite losing starters Paul Mokeski and Wilmore Fowler (he transferred to Georgia after his sophomore season) from the 1978-1979 team, which went 18-11 and won the Big Eight Holiday Tournament.

The Jayhawks, though, stumbled out of the gate, losing five of their first nine games. After next winning three straight, KU finished the season losing nine of its final 17 games to finish just 15-14.

The parts just never fit, and Ross never found his way, despite finishing second on the team with 11.7 points per game. He pouted when he was on the bench and pouted when he didn’t get the ball.

What was supposed to be a dream season and a dream backcourt never materialized. My thoughts of winning the national championship dashed early in the season, although I still looked forward to watching Ross play in the Phog. He had one of the most beautiful shots I had ever seen, picture-perfect form with a feathery touch that he released so effortlessly, the kind of jumper that former superscout Howard Garfinkel might describe as “soft as drifting fog.”

And he had all the confidence in the world. My dad, who was a professor of social welfare at KU for 34 years (his most famous student was KU legend Bud Stallworth), once spoke to Ross on campus. He said Ricky told him that he believed all his shots would hit nothing but net.

He ended up shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 73.3 percent at the free-throw line, while chipping in 1.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 2.5 rebounds per game. Along with his 11.7 point average, these certainly weren’t All-American stats. And he and Valentine certainly didn’t revolutionize Kansas basketball as I had hoped.

Still, I was hopeful he would blossom at Kansas the next three seasons. But then word came out prior to his sophomore season that Ross had decided to transfer after being caught with two other KU teammates using an assistant coach’s credit card for long-distance phone calls. I was stunned and saddened that Ross would leave. While I didn’t think Ricky seemed too happy at KU, I saw Kansas basketball through rose-colored classes and believed everything would work out.

So I decided to write a petition imploring Ricky to stay at KU. I would get all my friends and classmates to sign it, deliver it to Ricky, and surely he would see how much he was still loved by Jayhawk fans and decide to stay.

That was my plan at age 13, when I still believed in miracles, I still believed in the unlimited possibilities of the mind, and I still believed everything was possible after watching my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series a year before after trailing Baltimore three games to one.

My hero Willie Stargell was the Pirates’ savior who rallied his team and hit the game-winning home run in Game 7 to lift Pittsburgh to the sweetest victory of my life. Now, as events and circumstances suggested otherwise, I held on to faint hope that Ricky was still KU’s savior who could find happiness in Lawrence.

One day in Spanish class at South Junior High, I was working on my petition (instead of paying attention to the teacher) when my classmate Amy Lienhard, who sat next to me, asked me what I was doing. I told her my mission and asked if she would sign my petition and help keep Ricky in Kansas.

“Oh no,” she said. “We don’t want him.”

Amy, the daughter of Bill Lienhard, a starter on the 1952 KU national championship team, was one of the nicest and most popular people in school. I respected her opinion, and I believed if she wouldn’t sign my petition, who else would? Maybe Amy was right, I thought. Maybe Ricky wasn’t a good fit for KU.

Just like that, I dropped my petition. Later, I heard stories of how assistant coach Lafayette Norwood used to walk Ricky to class, and he’d typically walk out the back door. I also heard whispers he didn’t get along with Valentine.

Guy relayed an anecdote to me several years ago about Ross’ selfishness. The story goes that Ross scored over 20 points one night, but KU lost. Afterwards, all the Jayhawks were feeling down in the locker room, except Ross. He was upbeat since he had a good game and wondered why his teammates were so depressed.

Looking back, it was indeed best that Ricky left KU. Kansas basketball moved on without him, bouncing back from that disastrous 15-14 year and advancing to the Sweet 16 the following season in 1980-81. Guy emerged as a star and the team’s leading scorer after being moved back to his natural position at shooting guard, where Ross had played the previous season. Valentine and Guy became one of the best backcourts in college hoops, and there was great team chemistry, unlike in Ross’ freshman season, where dissension and egos ruled KU hoops.

***

But whatever happened to my hero Ricky Ross? Did he ever live up to the hype? Did he ever find stardom in college and the NBA?

After finishing his lone season at KU, Ross was a lost soul trying to find himself. He made brief stops at Wichita State (left school after failing to qualify academically) and Santa Ana (Calif.) College (he never actually enrolled) before landing at the College of Marin in California, where he averaged a nation-leading 30.5 points while achieving — get this — a 3.0 GPA.

Ross finally realized if he wanted to play hoops, he had to crack the books. In a 1982 interview with Sports Illustrated , Ross credited College of Marin head coach John Johnson for getting his life back on track. 

“Coach Johnson was a big influence in turning me around," Ross told SI. "I needed somebody like that, and fortunately I ran into a great guy."

Ross ran into another “great guy” and strong authority figure in head coach Nolan Richardson, when he next transferred to Tulsa. He found great success there in two seasons (1982-84), averaging 17.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while becoming the player everybody expected out of high school.

I ran into Richardson in November 2008 after his press conference leading up to his induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame that night in Kansas City. Richardson smiled when I mentioned Ross’ name.

“Ricky Ross, my man,” Richardson said. “Let me tell you what, Ricky played for me for two years. That kid could shoot the basketball. He was a player. I always thought he could have been a very, very, very super point guard because he was 6-7, he was rangy. The thing that Ricky didn’t play when he got there, is he wouldn’t play (any) defense because he was such an offensive threat. But in his senior year, he became a very good defensive player in our style.”

I thought surely Ross would make the NBA after his experience at Tulsa and follow the lead of his fellow high school class members of 1979 who excelled in the pros like Sampson, Wilkins and Thomas.

I was puzzled that he didn’t get selected until the third round (53rd pick overall) in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, and even more confused when I didn’t see Ross on the opening day NBA roster.

And he wasn’t on a roster the next year. Or the next. Or the next.

You see, Ricky Ross — this once can’t miss superstar — never made the NBA, and to my knowledge, never found basketball success outside the NBA like in Europe or the minor leagues. I asked Richardson that November day in Kansas City what happened.

“I’ve had several players (play in the NBA), but Ricky to me should have been one of those guys that spent 10 or 12 years in the NBA,” Richardson said. “I think sometimes he listened to the wrong people, and the wrong people kept (telling) him the wrong things. It’s a combination of many things, but Ricky had so many other people in his life telling him what to do. Sometimes, those people were more concerned about themselves than about Ricky Ross.”

I always had a curiosity and affinity for Richardson’s “man.” That’s what drove me to pick up the phone and call then-KU coach Larry Brown 20 years earlier on his Hawk Talk radio show during the 1987-88 season and ask his thoughts on why Ross never found his way to the NBA.

“Ricky Ross’ problem was with his head more than his ability,” Brown said. “He didn’t like school, he wasn’t the hardest worker, and I think he got himself into a rut. He had a great year at Tulsa his senior year. I just don’t think he gave himself enough chance to be prepared for four years, and that’s why he didn’t make it.”

That fact saddens Brian Martin, the former Jayhawk forward who played against Ross in high school at Wichita Northwest. Martin said Ross was the bomb in high school.

“I just thought he was one of the most pure shooters I ever saw,” Martin told me. “He would dribble across the court, one dribble, look at his high school coach, his high school coach would give him the nod, he’d pull up and shoot. Nothing but net. He did that to us twice in one game in high school. He was amazing. Unfortunately, he had some of the greatest talent I think any guard had, too bad it was a waste. He was a phenomenal shooter.”

Richardson, too, thought Ross was all the rage at Wichita South.

“Out of high school, whew, Ricky was high, high profile,” Richardson gushed. “He was so high we didn’t even try (to recruit him) because we knew he’d probably end up going to Kansas. And then when he went off to junior college and when things changed, we started recruiting him.”

While Martin said he wasn’t around Ross when he traveled on his basketball odyssey after high school, he had his doubts that Ricky possessed the mental makeup to be an NBA player or have success playing in other professional leagues.

“I just don’t think he was disciplined enough to be able to handle the structure and life because in pro ball, it’s tough,” said Martin, who played briefly in the NBA and several years in the minor leagues and overseas. “Your lifestyle outside the game, nobody cares what you do as long as you show up for the games. I saw a lot guys when I was playing that couldn’t hack the responsibilities. Great talents, but couldn’t make it because they were on their own.”

Martin added that Ross was very close to his mom.

“I think he had a hard time being that far away from family,” Martin said.

***

Far away — both literally and figuratively — from the bright lights of the NBA — I watched Ricky Ross play an AAU game in Topeka in the early-to-mid 1990s. When I first heard he’d be in Topeka, despite knowing Ross was past his prime and in his mid-30s, I was overjoyed and thrilled to get another glimpse at the player I once worshipped.

So I sat in Lee Arena on the Washburn campus with about 100 other fans and watched Ross play a virtually meaningless basketball game. Armed with a notebook and pen, I wanted to write down everything I saw, every move Ross made, every shot that swished through the net. I wanted to rediscover the great talent who moved me so much that day I read he had signed with Kansas, the one who had initially inspired me to write a petition asking Ricky to stay at Kansas.

I was soon disappointed in what I saw. I was no longer an impressionable 13-year-old boy, but a young man trying to find my way who was about to turn 30. Maybe that was part of the reason I was not awed by Ricky’s jump shot this night. But with my wiser eyes, the older and aging Ricky didn’t move as well, didn’t shoot as well, didn’t have that same magic that I once remembered.

He didn’t stand out during the game, and he certainly wasn’t the Second Coming headed to the League. Ricky, who had surely given up that dream years ago, was just a former shooting star who had flamed out way too soon, now trying to seemingly feed his hoops fix and maybe hold on to part of his past when he was the baddest baller ever out of Wichita. 

From an outsider’s perspective, he seemed inexpressive, maybe even solemn that day, and I truly wondered if he ever found peace or if life was just filled with memories and yesterday’s hoop dreams.

Memories when he lit up Tulsa basketball for two years, memories of when he was the bringing crowds to their feet in Wichita, memories that were surely brought to life if he read Lutz’s words about him in February when he ranked him the No. 1 all-time City League player in Wichita. (Ross, a mystery man who’s kept out of the public eye all these years and been extremely difficult for media to track down, is reportedly still living and working in Wichita.)

“Go down the list of basketball attributes, and Ross gets an ‘A’ in all,” Lutz wrote in his blog. “He was a prolific scorer, but his mentality was the pass first, shoot second. He didn’t shy away from rebounding, despite a spindly frame on a 6-6 body. And Ross played defense because his coach, Bill Himebaugh, wouldn’t allow him not to.”

For a moment, Ricky Ross was a young, McDonald’s All-American again, back on top where he belonged. But after reading Lutz’s remarks, I soon became saddened.

I just couldn’t help wonder and ask myself: What might have been?

Lewis still 'thrilled' 40 years later

For Part 2 of my tribute to Delvy Lewis, I am posting my Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him back in the March 20, 2003 issue of Jayhawk Insider. A few weeks later that year, KU marched to the national championship game before losing to Syracuse. Nine years later, I’m just sad Delvy passed too soon (last month on March 5) and wasn’t able to see Bill Self’s Jayhawks make their magical run to the national title game on April 2. Lewis, who always bled crimson and blue, would have been proud.


Jayhawk Insider March 20, 2003

Where Are They Now?

By David Garfield

Delvy Lewis can close his eyes and still feel the chills and excitement of those cold, winter nights as a wonder-eyed 9-year-old growing up in Topeka and listening with his dad to the Kansas basketball games on the radio. Clyde Lewis was an avid KU fan who always dreamed of his son playing for KU one day.

They’d cheer mightily for B.H. Born, and oh sure, Clyde would kick the radio when a call went against his beloved Jayhawks. This was their time together, their own sanctuary. For Lewis, it was a chance to grow closer with his father and fantasize about wearing the crimson and blue.

As a high school senior, Lewis was beginning to think his dream would never become reality. Playing in the shadow of superstar teammate Ron Paradis at Washburn Rural, Lewis was just recruited by K-State and a handful of other major colleges. He was actually planning on signing with the Wildcats until the semifinal game against Wyandotte in the state tournament, when Lewis busted loose for 28 points and finally caught the eye of  the Kansas program.

“Of course, when I got the  opportunity, there was no question,” Lewis said recently from his home in Topeka. “They offered me a full scholarship, and I said, ‘Lets go.’ We just are a KU family. My dad was such a fan, and it just kind of rubbed off on me. That was where my heart was.” 

Signing Lewis turned out to be one of the best decisions Kansas head coach Dick Harp ever made. After a brilliant freshman campaign, Lewis started his sophomore season at point guard for the the first part of the season. Then, Harp experimented with different lineups until academic casualties at semester break forced him to insert Lewis back in as a starter.

And Lewis never looked back.

“That’s really I think when I started being better as a player, because I knew that I was going to play,” he said. “I know that it was a fun thing. It was real challenging.”

Lewis averaged 4.5 points per game in 1963-64, while Kansas struggled with a 13-12 record.  After Harp resigned, assistant coach Ted Owens took over the job and improved Kansas to 17-8 the following season. Owens relied heavily on Lewis (9.8 ppg) and other members of the stellar junior class like Walt Wesley, Riney Lochmann, and Fred Chana.

“I think it was our group that kind of laid the foundation to getting the program back on its feet,” Lewis said. 

A great leader, crafty playmaker, and tenacious defender, Lewis was the consummate coach on the floor. He got the team in its multiple defenses, and on offense, his first, second and third priority was getting the ball to 6-11 center Wesley, who averaged a whopping 23.5 points per game.

“Walt would always yell out, ‘Ball,’ in  his deep old voice,” Lewis said. “I was kidding him about it at the reunion (105 year KU reunion held in February). I kept kidding him about yelling out, ‘Ball, Ball,’ because that’s all he did. He wanted that ball, and the coaches wanted him to have the ball. We got him the ball.”

Kansas was, indeed, enjoying themselves and having a ball during Lewis’ senior season in 1965-66. The Jayhawks, who started the season at 15-3, became a dominant team when Jo Jo White became eligible at semester break. KU won its next eight games before getting beat by Texas Western in the Midwest Regional finals.

Despite the heartbreaking double overtime defeat, Lewis was comforted that Texas Western went on to win the national title.

“I’m very happy they won the whole thing, because the coach from Texas Western (Don Haskins) said that was their toughest game when they beat us,” Lewis said. 

Lewis, 59, truly came into his own his senior year, upping his scoring average (10.9 ppg) and leading the team in assists and free throw percentage. He capped a stellar career by being named All-Big Eight. A co-captain along with Lochmann, Lewis endeared himself to Owens and the Jayhawk faithful with his scrappy play and overall work ethic.       

“I think Riney and I were his (Owens’) favorites on that team, because he just appreciated the ‘roll up your sleeves and work,’ and that’s pretty much what Riney and I did,” Lewis said. “I hustled and gave it all I had every game. Everybody did. We had a group that pretty much got after it. We were pretty no nonsense. “ 

Above all, Lewis loved playing for Owens.

“I just have nothing but great words to say about Ted Owens as a coach,” Lewis said. “He was a gentleman. I just feel badly, because I think he’s kind of gotten a bad rap, as far as perception.  He still has a tremendous winning record. .... I just hope he gets some credit for what he did, because I think he did a lot more than people realize. To this day, I have the greatest respect for him. He’s just a neat, neat man.”

After his KU career ended, Lewis spent the next seven years in the insurance business. In 1972, he joined Xerox for eight years before working the next 10 years in upper management for two other copier companies (Savin Corporation and Modern Business Systems). In 1988, Lewis bought his own copier business, which he owned until 1998. He then opened a consulting company, where he does performance and hiring assessments for CEO’s and executives. Lewis continues this business today, along with working 40 hours per week as account manager of outside sales for Office Depot.

It’s been a rich and rewarding business life for Lewis, who is at peace with himself living back in native Topeka. He returned home in 1968.

“I’ve had more success than I probably deserve,” Lewis said. “I think that’s one of the big pluses of going to a school like KU. The recognition — that’s helped big-time, just the exposure that you get has been a real plus.”

In addition to his work, Lewis coaches a touring high school boys select team from Kansas in the summer. Lewis is so passionate about coaching that he hopes to enter the profession full time in the next year.

“I just enjoy the game,” he said. “I enjoy the competitiveness. I just like to compete, and I enjoy working with kids. I always have.” 

When he’s not working or coaching, Lewis loves watching his daughter Mindi play basketball for MidAmerican Nazarene. And when he’s in the stands or out in other public venues, successful people from all walks of life come up to Lewis and tell him he was their childhood hero. Lewis calls that one of the best compliments he could ever receive.

“I‘ve had a number of people tell me that they used to play outside in their own goal, and would pretend they were in my shoes playing at KU,” Lewis said. “That’s kind of a neat honor for people to think enough of you to emulate you in that regard.” 

Indeed, it is. For Lewis, this only makes his decision to turn down K-State and become a Jayhawk 41 years ago that much sweeter.

“It was just a great honor to play at KU,” Lewis said. “It’s a great tradition. To say that you played there and to have some success, is just a thrill.”

A Closer Look at Delvy Lewis:

Years at KU: 1962-66

Career Notables: All-Big Eight and team co-captain in 1965-66...Led team in assists and free throw percentage in ‘65-66 (82.5 percent)...MVP of Big  8 Holiday Tournament in 1964.

Family: Wife, Karen, and children — Kristi, 29, Kerri, 24, and Mindi, 21.

Education: Majored in Education.

Since Leaving KU: Lewis worked seven years in the insurance business before changing directions and entering the copier industry, where he worked for three companies (Xerox, Savin Corporation and Modern Business Systems) for 17 years until 1988. Lewis then bought his own copier business, which he owned until 1998. Next, Lewis opened a consulting company, where he does assessments for CEO’s and executives.

Currently: Lewis owns his consulting business (Corporate Development Services) in Topeka and works for Office Depot as account manager of outside sales.

Hobbies:  Golf, coaching.

Favorite Memories: Playing and beating K-State on television during frosh year in 1962-63.  “That was unheard of back in those days to have  game (freshman) on TV. There were a lot of people interested in it. Everybody was kind of hyped. It was a big deal.”...Shocking Cincinnati, 51-47, on Dec. 7, 1963 and breaking its 80-plus game home winning streak. “They just had some great players. No one expected us to win that game. I think that was a highlight of that year.”...Hitting the game-winning shot at the buzzer against Colorado on March 2, 1964. “The play was supposed to go to Harry Gibson. I think they figured out what we were going to do. ... That wasn’t there so I just took it to the basket and fortunately made the shot. That was a good feeling.”

On the Jayhawks today: “I think he’s (Roy Williams) a great coach. I think he does it the right way. He’s obviously got that tradition where it’s supposed to be.”