If only Jack Brett could be there: George Brett credits father for inspiring him to greatness

While this is a KU basketball blog, with the Kansas City Royals in the World Series for the first time since 1985, I thought I'd pay tribute and flash back to July 1999 when I wrote this cover story on George Brett for Kansas City Sports & Fitness Hall of Fame commemorative issue.

Although I was just in my first year with the magazine and my first season covering the Royals, my publisher at the time Jim MacDonald asked me to interview Brett and write the cover story, instead of choosing one of the other veteran writers who’ve covered the Royals for years.

“You’re the best writer we have,” Jim told me.

I was humbled and very honored. Jim immediately gave me George’s home phone number this June day in 1999 as he wanted me to do a one-on-one interview with the legend at his house with a photographer there as well. I didn’t know if that was possible giving Brett’s busy schedule preparing for his Hall of Fame induction on July 25.

But heck, it couldn't hurt to try.

So I called George at home. He answered and we spoke briefly. He told me to call back soon when he had more information. So I called him back a few days later and reached either him or his wife, Leslie. I can’t remember for sure who answered. One of them told me that Stacy Mayer from the McKellar Group was handling the itinerary, so I would need to contact her.

I think Jim made contact with Stacy, and she later called and told me that I was invited to Brett’s and Dick Houser’s suites at Kaufman Stadium for an interview with George. While I was a little disappointed I didn’t get a one-on-one interview, I was happy that I would at least get a chance to ask George questions and be able to write the story.

In preparation for the interview, I did extensive and exhaustive homework just like I did in college at KU when I received a 4.0 GPA my last four of five semesters. I read every book I could find on Brett, any articles I could read where I could get some grasp of what angle I wanted to take to make this cover story a very special one.

I also wanted to do justice in 2,000 words to the man whom I pretended to be playing whiffle ball in my backyard growing up. I’d stand in the batter’s box with weight on my back leg, waiting for the pitch from my friend Phillip. And I’d revel whenever I’d hit a home run or a liner for a double, just like George did for so many memorable years in Kansas City.

After concluding my research, I knew a few things. One, I had to focus on his relationship with his late father, who was a very hard-driving man who always wanted George to strive for greatness and make the Hall of Fame. That was Jack Brett’s ultimate wish. Two, I wanted to focus on George’s supreme work ethic and giving roots like shucking corn with the clubhouse boys in Milwaukee, and three, I knew I needed to ask him about his volunteer efforts with ALS. All proceeds from George’s Hall of Fame events were going to promote ALS awareness and funding.

After completing all that homework, I felt I was set for the interview and drove from my home in Lawrence to Kauffman Stadium on a mission. While I’m sure I was the youngest writer there and the least experienced, I was proud of the way I took over part of the interview with my questions. I was aggressive and didn’t hold back, knowing I needed to get to the heart of the story and who George Brett was all about. 

Here is that cover story, one of the most rewarding and crowning achievements of my professional career. I'm forever grateful to Jim MacDonald for giving me this opportunity.

July 1999

By David Garfield

The anticipation is building at 6:37 p.m. this June evening in the Dick Houser and George Brett suites at Kauffman Stadium. While the Kansas City Royals are preparing to play the Detroit Tigers in about a half hour, a small group of reporters waits for a legend to arrive. 

Brett, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a month on July 25, is running a little late. But who can blame him? After all, he’s been swamped with media requests ever since January 5 when he got the “call” from Cooperstown. The past few weeks have been especially brutal for him. This interview session will be Brett’s seventh media function today, and last week, he was on six radio stations in one day.

Suddenly, Stacy Mayer (communications specialist for The McKellar Group, which is handling Brett’s itinerary), thinks she sees Brett coming. “Do we have a sighting?” she asks. Not yet. The one and only George Brett walks in a few minutes later, and politely tells the media he has to make a quick appearance on Fox Sports Midwest. He returns at 6:53 p.m. Casually dressed in blue jeans and a Mutual Mortgage polo shirt, Brett cracks a joke and sits down. The writers immediately push their seats forward.

Confident and at ease, Brett clasps his hands together and fields questions from reporters. He is holding court, just as he’s done so eloquently on and off the field since he played his first game in Kansas City on August 2, 1973. Brett, 45, begins reflecting on his family, coaches, teammates, and other people that have influenced him and shaped his identity as a player and human being.  

Asked if he ever came to peace with his dad, Brett says simply, “There was never anything to reconcile. He was just a tough father. He wasn’t the nicest man in the world, but he taught me the qualities of life. He taught me never to be content. How do you get 3, 154 hits? Because you’re not content with what you’ve accomplished. You want to accomplish more.”  

It’s been documented how Jack Brett expected greatness from George and his other three boys—John, Ken, and Bobby. Nothing less would do. He wanted them to extend the unlimited possibilities of the human mind, and reach a level reserved for the very elite who have ever played major league baseball—the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Jack Brett was especially hard on his youngest son, George, who he viewed as the laziest of all the siblings and lacking motivation. Jack prodded, criticized, yelled, and inspired George to become a man and accept responsibility for his potential. He constantly compared him to his older brothers, and as the baby, George was always last on the pecking order.

In John Garrity’s 1981 book, “The George Brett Story,” he wrote about the time George struck out twice in a Little League game, and suffered the short drive with his father from Recreation Park in El Segundo, Calif., up Mariposa Street to his house on 628 Penn Street. As George got out of the car, he shamefully hung his head, and “the next thing I felt was a foot coming right up my” butt.  

Jack Brett was critical of his boy because he loved him and just couldn’t accept him failing. He hoped sports would be his one salvation since George didn’t take much interest in school.  Although George wasn’t blessed with the natural talent as his brother Ken, he certainly had some unique abilities. As a senior at El Segundo High School, he played every position in an all-star game, and retired the side in the ninth inning pitching both right and left handed.  

When he wasn’t playing baseball, Brett’s priorities were spending time in school looking out the window and seeing which way the planes were turning from Los Angeles International Airport.

“I could tell you back in 1970 and ‘71 if United Airlines schedule was on time or not because I used to watch them fly out,” he says this evening. “I just kept a log. I could go back and look, ‘United 1:12 is running at 1:15 today. Three minutes late.’”

His priorities in life immediately changed after he was selected by the Royals in the second round of the 1971 baseball draft. Brett now found himself in the real world in Billings, Mont. He was no longer the carefree high school star, but a scared rookie fighting for a job, and playing with guys four years older than him.

“My work ethic got tuned up a notch,” he said.

The rest is history. On July 25, Kansas City’s favorite son will achieve baseball’s highest honor and his late father’s greatest wish—enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. Brett, who aches that his dad will not be with him in Cooperstown, hasn’t quite figured out what he’ll say in his induction speech about the man he calls his “biggest role model.” However, he does know one thing.  His dad will be the last person he thanks.  

“That will be the most emotional,” Brett said. “I’d rather try to kind of cruise through it real smooth and then in the end get emotional.”

Crack. Brett suddenly rises from his chair. “There’s a home run,” he says, watching the game action through his suite window. “No, only a double.”

Brett now eases back into his chair, crosses his legs, and puts his right hand on his right knee.  “Only a double.” Brett is the only  player in major league history to have 600 doubles, 100 triples, 200 stolen bases, 300 home runs, and 3,000 hits. Still, Jack Brett rarely acknowledged his son’s success during his playing career. However, as he was preparing to undergo open-heart surgery in March 1988, Jack finally decided to express his innermost feelings to George. In the Kansas City Star’s book, “George Brett: A Royal Hero,” George said his dad told him: 

“There’s only one thing I want to do before I do die, and that’s to go to Cooperstown. I want to go back and see you inducted into the Hall of Fame.” 

George fully realized at this moment the impact he had on other people, and making the Hall of Fame for his father became a central driving force in his life. He wanted him to be proud. 

A reporter now asks Brett about the time four years later when he visited his dad on his death bed. Brett, who had struck out twice the previous night, recalls the scene. “He asked me how I did. I said, ‘I went 0 for 4.’ He said, ‘Did you hit the ball good?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I just didn’t get any hits.’”

Jack Brett died the next morning. George, who no doubt remembered that day as a child when his father kicked him in the butt for striking out twice in one game, didn’t want to see his dad pass away knowing that his youngest son had failed the night before.

“I knew I would have pissed him off if I would have told him I struck out twice,” George said. “I kind of told a little white lie, because I didn’t want him to die right there. He was going to die any minute, and I didn’t want to be the one to put him over the edge.”

While his dad inspired George to greatness, the late Charley Lau transformed him from a .200 hitter into a Hall of Famer. The former Royals batting instructor believed in this blond surfer from California, and “put his arm around me.” Brett has fond memories of going out to bars after games and having a few drinks with his mentor and dear friend. The star pupil now gestures more animatedly with his hands as he mentions Lau’s gift for stealing beer glasses. 

“He’d say, ‘Hey give him (Brett) another B and B.’ ‘Charley, I didn’t finish the first one.’ ‘I (Lau) will, give us two more.’ And then we’d get up, he’d stick his glasses in his socks and we’d go home.” 

Brett laughs, and so do the reporters. Brett laughs some more. It’s a hearty laugh, one which he’s engaged people with his whole life. He’s in the mood for a beer himself tonight, and pops open a can of Miller Lite. With his right hand holding his beer, Brett takes a sip, stretches his legs, and affectionately slaps a reporter on the leg. He’s always been a people person and had fun. Brett was the guy you’d see at Westport every night after games during his career connecting with the community.  

He’s also been a caring person who cheerfully went on Royals caravans before the season and brightened children’s lives. Brett was the biggest clubhouse tipper, and helped with the laundry.  When the Royals visited Milwaukee, Brett would shuck corn with the clubhouse kids. But exactly where did these giving roots come from?

“Maybe being the low man on the totem pole growing up, being the youngest of four boys,” Brett said. “I had chores as a child. I knew what it was like to wash clothes and hang them. We didn’t have a dryer. We didn’t have any dishwasher. ... That was my job. All of a sudden you get to the major leagues, and you don’t have jobs anymore? No, I don’t agree with that.” 

However, it wasn’t until Brett met Keith Worthington and watched his friend slowly die from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) that giving to others took on richer meaning. Worthington died in 1984 after living with ALS for 12 years. Brett has raised millions of dollars for ALS since 1981, and dedicated all of the events surrounding his Hall of Fame induction to increase ALS awareness and funding.  

Worthington taught Brett about the responsibility of “giving back to communities and working for a cause that was very special. I saw what it (ALS) did to him. I gave him my word, and I’ve kept my word.”  

Brett, who fervently hopes that researchers will find a cure for the disease in the next year— “Wouldn’t that be something?”— continues mesmerizing the media with words of purpose and passion.

“I don’t know any of my friends that I grew up with in Southern California that still live there or live anywhere else in the country that are involved in any charitable work at all,” he said. “And yet, I don’t have one friend in Kansas City that’s not involved in a charity. So what does that tell you about our city, people? Is this a good place to live or what?”

Yes indeed. It is a city that loves Brett—not just for being a baseball legend, but for being a good person and humanitarian. Of course, his greatest fans are his wife, Leslie, and three boys—Jackson, 6, Dylan, 4, and Robin, 3. With marriage (Brett and Leslie Davenport tied the knot in February 1992) and fatherhood have come new responsibilities. Brett has changed, and yet, he’s still the same “kid” at heart as he was on the diamond. Instead of playing baseball, he’s now playing children’s games with his family. 

Brett has always loved kids. He could identify with them, as they reminded him of himself. Countless parents have even named their children after him, which Brett once said was “about as high a compliment a man can pay another man.”

And on July 25, baseball will give George Brett the highest compliment when he is enshrined into the Hall of Fame. As he walks up to the podium in Cooperstown this memorable day, he’ll glance at his bullet outline, maybe shed a few tears, and speak from the heart. The man, who inspired a generation of youngsters to believe in themselves with his grit and determination on the field, could do it no other way.

“It’s going to be the most important one (speech) I’ve ever made in my life,” Brett said.

His father would be proud.

Recalling the 1998 NBA Draft as former Jayhawks Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins await their draft fate Thursday night: Embiid and Wiggins have a great chance of becoming just the second pair of Jayhawks to be selected within the top-10 picks of the same draft since Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz in '98

Andrew Wiggins has a great chance of being selected No. 1 overall on Thursday night during the NBA Draft in Brooklyn. If so, he’ll become just the second Jayhawk ever picked No. 1 when Danny Manning held that honor in 1988 with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Also, if Joel Embiid gets picked in the top-10, it will mark just the second time in KU history that two former Jayhawks were selected within the top-10 picks in the same draft. That happened in 1998 in Vancouver when Raef LaFrentz went No. 3 to the Denver Nuggets, while Paul Pierce slipped to No. 10 to the Boston Celtics.

(If Embiid does slip past the top five, this reporter expects Boston to gobble him up at No. 6 assuming the Celtics indeed keep the pick).

Phog.net takes a historical look at the 1998 Draft and how the careers of Pierce and LaFrentz turned out.

PAUL PIERCE

Pierce waited anxiously on a rainy night in Vancouver on June 24, 1998 in the Green Room at General Motors Place as pick after pick was announced by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Pierce, who was thought by some observers to go in the top three, eventually was selected by the Boston Celtics at No. 10.

“I am a little disappointed, but it is a situation I had no control over,” Pierce told the media that night. “I guess teams figured they couldn’t use me, or that someone else fit their needs better. We (agent) never had a chance to talk with, or mentioned the Celtics. It’s a big surprise to me to be wearing this hat. If you would have told me a week ago, I would have not believed a word of it, but I am here, this is my situation and I will make the most of it.

“I am going to use this as motivation and show these teams that they passed on a quality player. I just want to go out there next year to let them know that they should have picked me, but I am happy that Pitino (Rick, Celtics coach) felt confident in my ability and gave me a chance.”

Then-Celtics general manager Chris Wallace told ESPN The Magazine in 2002 how Boston got its man.

“There was a chain of events, and if any one of them doesn’t occur, we’re screwed,” Wallace said. “First, Kansas lost to URI in the second round of the NCAAs when Paul didn’t play very well. Then he had so-so workouts. And then the new guys in town showed up — Jason Williams, Robert Traylor and Dirk Nowitzki — and pole-vaulted in the top 10. We had Paul in the top four. The great thing was we had no time to outsmart ourselves. When it was our turn, there wasn’t a decision to make.”

Wallace, who is now the GM of the Memphis Grizzlies and actually a former student at KU in the late 1970s, also spoke to this reporter in 2009 about that draft night. While Wallace thought Pierce could drop, he was still surprised he was there at No. 10.

“It was like we had this lottery ticket lying on the floor," Wallace said. "It was really astounding as the picks started getting closer to 10. I remember telling Rick Pitino after seven that we might get Paul Pierce.  ... Then it just started hitting us (after Milwaukee picked Nowitzki at No. 9), we’re going to get Paul Pierce. Like how was I lucky to pull that off? You don’t ask questions, you take him.”

This set the course for a magical career Pierce had in Beantown for 15 years before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets last season while firmly establishing himself as a future Hall of Famer. He holds numerous Celtics’ records and ranks as the No. 18 scorer in NBA history with 25,031 points.

Pierce led Boston to the 2008 title, where he was named Finals MVP. He is a 10-time NBA All-Star, a member of the All-NBA Second Team in 2009 and a three-time All-NBA Third Team selection (2002, 2003 and 2008). Pierce was also named to the NBAAll-Rookie First Team in 1999 and was the league’s three-point contest winner at the 2010 All-Star game.

He was the NBA regular-season leader in total points in 2002 (2,144) and the regular-season leader in free throws made in 2003 (604).

Pierce continued to amaze at age 35 during his last season in Boston. He became the oldest player in Celtics history to score 40 points in a regulation game when he did so against Cleveland on Dec. 19, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston’s victory. He scored 25 points in the second half and made all seven of his field goals in the final quarter. Pierce shot 13 of 16 from the field, 6 of 8 from beyond the arc, and 10 of 11 at the free throw line.

''When I first came into the league I always asked myself, 'Do I want to be good or do I want to be great?'” Pierce told the Associated Press afterwards. ''Every time I stepped out and worked on my game, that's what I asked myself. I always got here early and worked on my craft as hard as I could because I wanted to be one of the great players.”

While he can still be a force, Pierce had his worst statistical season last year in Brooklyn, averaging 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 75 games (68 starts). He has career averages of 21.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while shooting 44.7 percent from the field, 37.0 percent from three-point range, and 82.7 percent at the charity stripe in 36.1 minutes per game.

A consensus first-team All-American at KU after his junior year in 1997-98, Pierce was also the Big Eight Freshman of the Year in 1995-96. The No. 7 all-time leading scorer in Kansas history, Pierce is one of just seven Jayhawks to score more than 700 points in a season.

RAEF LAFRENTZ

As LaFrentz was putting up All-American numbers during his senior season at Kansas, the Denver Post wrote that he could be the No. 1 overall pick months before the June draft.

Celtics’ GM Wallace was also impressed with the 6-11 mobile big man as the draft neared.

“He will be the first or second senior selected in the draft, and he’s the No. 1 power forward prospect,” Wallace said in the 1998 NBA Draft media guide. 

“He can run the court, he can score and he rebounds and blocks shots. He has to get stronger to meet the rigors of the NBA game. While I think he will do quite well in the NBA, I don’t think you’ll see his best basketball at center."

After Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi (big bust) went No. 1 to the Clippers and Arizona point guard Mike Bibby was selected No. 2 by Vancouver, LaFrentz was drafted with great promise as the No. 3 pick by the Denver Nuggets, seven picks ahead of former KU teammate Pierce.

After tearing his ACL 12 games into his rookie season, many observers believed he was still destined for greatness.

“Raef is going to be an All-Star soon,” Nuggets strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess told the Denver Post in August 1999. “He’s never going to have another problem. That’s my belief. Raef is a potential superstar. So he can’t come back and be OK. He has to come back and be unbelievable. There’s a lot of pressure on him. It’s not like any guy coming back from a surgery and if he does good, you’re like, ‘Wow.’

“Raef has to come back and blow everyone’s socks off, so can you imagine going to bed every night and thinking about that? Not only do you have to come back from this rehab, but you have to be unbelievable — and he will be.”

LaFrentz never became a superstar, but did make his mark with Denver with his multidimensional skills as a big man who could shoot three-pointers and block shots with the best in the NBA.

He averaged at least 12.4 points his first three full years in the league, while blocking at least 180 shots per season during that span. In his third full season in 2001-02 playing for both Denver and the Dallas Mavericks, LaFrentz became just the third player in NBA history to record 100 three-pointers (104) and 100 blocks (213) in the same season.

However, the former KU All-American’s production declined after that with injuries. LaFrentz, though, showed signs of his old form with the Boston Celtics for two years from 2004-06, where he averaged 11.1 points and 6.9 rebounds in 2004-05 before playing in all 82 games the following season for the first time in his career and making a career-best 112 threes.

He finished his career with two injury shortened seasons in Portland, retiring at age 31 in 2007-08.

LaFrentz, who played 10 years in the NBA, posted career averages of 10.1 points (5,690), 6.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.

A two-time consensus All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year, LaFrentz is the third all-time leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in KU history.

Recruiting prep phenom and future Jayhawk All-American Paul Pierce

Roy Williams had already established a California recruiting pipeline in his beginnings as KU head coach, landing such stars as Adonis Jordan, Jacque Vaughn, Jerod Haase and Scot Pollard.

But now he was going after his big prize, an extremely gifted 6-7 small forward from Inglewood High School in Los Angeles named Paul Anthony Pierce who was being recruited by every big-time program in the land.

Pierce, who admired Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan growing up, had come a long way on the prep scene since being cut from the varsity team his freshman year. He barely made the team as a 5-8 sophomore before eventually growing and becoming a McDonald’s All-American and California Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior, when he averaged 24.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game.

Williams dearly wanted Pierce to join a quality team returning for the 1995-96 season, which included Vaughn, Haase, Pollard and Raef LaFrentz. The former KU coach talked about his recruiting pitch in his autobiography: “Hard Work: A Life on and off the Court.”

“Recruiting is like putting together a puzzle, and I mean that literally,” Williams wrote. “When we recruited Paul Pierce at Kansas, we had four starters coming back, but we had no small forward. I asked my assistant Steve Robinson to make a little puzzle. He cut pieces out of a cardboard box; there were four corner pieces that represented our four starters and he left the centerpiece missing. We sent Paul the four corner pieces and then two days later, we sent the centerpiece in the shape of a star with Paul’s picture on it and a message that read, You are the missing piece to the puzzle. That’s what Paul turned out to be when we got him. Recruiting is about convincing kids that they are the missing piece that we need to be complete.”

Pierce, who scored 28 points in the McDonald’s All-American game, just two points shy of tying Jordan’s record, was convinced he could be that missing piece. He also told his website (www.paulpierce.net) what sold him on the Jayhawks and coach Williams.

 

"He didn't promise me anything,” Pierce said. "He said, 'You're going to go here, you're going to work just like everybody else, and I'm going to stay on you.’ That was enough for me."

Pierce elaborated on his decision to attend KU in an interview with The Sporting News in 1998.

“I wanted to go somewhere where someone would push me,” he said. “If I went to a team where everything was built around me, I’d probably get lazy and spoiled. I wanted to go to a team that also had a chance to win a national championship, where I’d get good exposure and have a good head coach — somewhere I could learn.”

Pierce averaged 11.9 points per game and claimed Big Eight Freshman of the Year honors in 1996. KU went 29-5 that season, won the Big Eight Championship, and advanced to the Elite Eight.

He improved dramatically his sophomore season (16.3 ppg) before becoming an All-American as a junior (20.4 ppg), when he became the first KU player since Danny Manning to average over 20 points per game. Pierce truly came the go-to player once LaFrentz went down with a broken bone in his right hand in December 1997 and missed six weeks. Pierce averaged 22.5 points and shot 50.8 percent from the field in eight of the nine games without LaFrentz.

Pierce, who received back-to-back Big 12 Tournament MVP awards his sophomore and junior seasons, always came up big in crunch time.

"The bigger the game, the bigger he played," Williams said.

Ryan Robertson, who played with Pierce in the McDonald’s All-American game in 1995 before joining him at KU for three seasons, marveled at Pierce’s skills. 

“Best player I ever played with,” Robertson said in a 2007 interview. “My freshman roommate. Just an absolute hunger for basketball.”

Despite playing just three years, Pierce is the eighth-leading scorer in KU history with 1,768 points (16.4 ppg). He’s gone on to become one of the top scorers in NBA annals with the Boston Celtics and now Brooklyn Nets, and will one day be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Recruiting Illinois high school legend and Jayhawk great Rick Suttle

I wrote about my childhood hero Rick Suttle in a previous blog, but now include some candid and interesting information about his recruitment to Kansas. Many thanks to Sam Miranda, the late KU assistant, for sharing these great memories with me during our wonderful interview in 2000.

By David Garfield
Phog.net Senior Writer

Kansas basketball is one of the most storied programs in college basketball history blessed with great players who have displayed their magic in Allen Fieldhouse. But why did some of these former standouts choose Kansas? Who were some of the other schools involved? Who was the key person in their recruitment? All Jayhawk fans love recruiting stories, and so Phog.net will go down memory lane in this series and look at some former KU stars and how they wound up at Mount Oread.

Rick Suttle was turning heads and drawing rave reviews as a 6-10 scoring and rebounding machine at Assumption High School in East St. Louis, Ill., during his senior season in 1971. He averaged a whopping 26.6 points and 15 rebounds per game while dominating competition as a prep All-American.

Mike Kelly, a 6-4 center from Suttle’s rival school at Cahokia High, remembers the impossible task of guarding the big man.

“He ate my lunch and scored 29 against us and left a lasting impression on me,” Kelly wrote in an email. “To us in the St. Louis area, Rick was a giant in stature.”

Roger Morningstar, a native of Dundee, Ill., and future teammate of Suttle at Kansas, heard this “giant” was indeed something special.

“(He was a) legendary Illinois basketball player,” Morningstar said. “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.”

Sam Miranda, one of the best assistant coaches in KU history who was instrumental in recruiting many key players from the Illinois area during his tenure at Kansas, had certainly watched Suttle play in high school many times.

Miranda, who died in 2009 at age 78, was instrumental in convincing Suttle to choose KU after Suttle had his heart set on Jacksonville, which had just been to the national championship game in 1970.

“The key thing was his mother,” Miranda said in a November 2000 interview. “I went in and started talking to him and his mom when he was a sophomore and was able to gain the confidence of his mother. Finally, in the end, she said, ‘Hey, you’re going to go with Sam. That’s it.’ I recruited him hard for three years. I went to see him over and over.”

The eccentric Suttle, though, wanted to play up the recruiting game even though he had decided to attend KU.

“At the very end in recruiting Rick Suttle, it came down to the last night,” Miranda said. “It was either going to be Kansas, Saint Louis University or Jacksonville. He said, ‘Coach, here is want I want to do. I want you to come in. I’m going to get the Saint Louis coach and I’m going to get the Jacksonville coach, and I want you all to sit in the living room. We’re going to talk and then I’m going to go to the bedroom and I’m going to come out and decide where I’m going to come to school.’

“I said, ‘Rick, that’s fine with me because I know you’re going to come to Kansas, but I’ll be here. But I think you’re going to embarrass some coaches because you’re going to have the Jacksonville coach come all the way from Jacksonville and the Saint Louis coach is going to be there, and I know you’re going to come to Kansas, so it’s going to be a little embarrassing for them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, that’s what I’m going to do.’”

Miranda immediately told Suttle’s mother, Maddie, about his son’s plan.

“She said, ‘He’s not going to do that,’” Miranda recalled. “She kind of put the squelch on that, but that’s what he wanted to do.”

That was just Rick Suttle being Rick Suttle.

 

“He was a good kid down deep, just a little different, but a good person,” Miranda said.

Suttle had a great career and was a “Super Sub” on the 1974 Final Four team. He concluded his last year in 1974-75 as KU went 19-8 and won the Big Eight Championship before falling to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Suttle, who paced the Jayhawks with 16.3 points as a sophomore, became a starter again that senior season, leading the squad with 14.6 points per game and earning first-team All-Big Eight honors. He ranks No. 38 in school history in career points (1,156), and is tied for fourth on the single-game blocked shots chart (eight against K-State in 1975). Suttle is also tied for No. 21 on the school’s all-time double-doubles chart with 11.

On and off the court, Suttle kept everybody loose.

“I roomed with Rick. He was funny,” former teammate Dale Greenlee once said. “I can still see Rick. He was late for a practice. To punish him, we had a pregame 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.” 

Donnie Von Moore agrees. He loved being around his former roommate.

“Rick Suttle was a character. He used to do crazy stuff,” Von Moore once told Rock Chalk Sports Talk. “The things he used to do that had me laughing so hard was the coaches used to come in and check your room for bed checks. Coach Miranda came to the door and said, ‘Where’s Rick?’ I’d say, ‘He’s in the back.’ He would have to go see him. So Rick being Rick, said, ‘Watch this.’ He took off all his clothes and was sitting in the bathroom (by) the mirror. He had all this hair, so he was playing with his hair. Coach comes back and says, ‘Rick, why whenever I come and see you, you never have any clothes on?’ That was just the funniest thing I’d ever seen in my life.”

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

At last check, Suttle is now the assistant coach at East St. Louis High School.

Jayhawk legend Danny Manning the center of attention as he drives Lawrence High School to state championship game 30 years ago

Part II of Danny Manning's magical season at Lawrence High School.

Danny Manning was drawing rave reviews before he even arrived at Lawrence High School for his senior year in 1983. He was considered one of the top three high school players in the land, along with Chris Washburn and John Williams, while Mac Morris, Manning’s coach at Page High in Greensboro, N.C., compared him to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Prep superscout Howard Garfinkel even told Sports Illustrated that Manning was the “best swingman since Benny Goodman.”

And Will Browning of the Greensboro Daily News wrote this foretelling statement: “He is a player, if surrounded by the proper supporting cast, could take a college team all the way to the NCAA finals.” 

Manning, though, never got caught up in all the hosannas. Off the court at LHS, the 17-year-old senior was just enjoying being one of the guys and forming great friendships with classmates like best friend Jeff Johnson, Tom Whitenight, and basketball/volleyball standout Amy Lienhard, the daughter of Bill Lienhard, a member of KU’s 1952 NCAA championship team.

Manning was a typical teenager who liked to socialize and have fun. He’d go to movies, parties, and take road trips to Kansas City to watch the LHS football team play. Manning was even named Sweetheart King at the school’s Valentine’s Day dance.

He’s always been known to the public as a shy, introverted person. But to his friends and people who know him well, Manning’s a very fun, popular and engaging person. Just ask Johnson, who bonded closely with Manning and took him under his wing at Lawrence High.

Johnson actually called Manning in the summer of 1983 before he moved to Lawrence to introduce himself and talk about the Lions’ basketball team.

“He’s very humble and initially he’s very soft spoken. Once you get to know him, (he) can’t hardly (stop talking),” Johnson said, laughing.

Howard Fulton also has fond recollections of his former teammate. He remembers Manning inviting him over to his house for his mom’s home-cooked spaghetti dinner with his sister Dawn and starting forward Melvin Hunter.

“We had a pretty good relationship,” Fulton said. “We didn’t hang out that much, but when we did, we talked quite a bit.”

One of Johnson’s favorite memories of Manning involved his pre-game routine. Four hours before the game, the team would have a huge meal of pasta, steak and pancakes. Then 90 minutes before game time, Johnson would pick up Manning at his home in his blue cutlass.

The skinny phenom always had one request.

“He’d invariably have me stop at Kwik Shop on 23rd Street,” Johnson said, where Manning would buy “hot dogs, popcorn, doughnuts, all kinds of stuff.”

 “I’d just marvel at how in the world he could run up and down the court eating that stuff. I’d just shake my head thinking, ‘You are going to throw all that stuff up,’ and he never did,” Johnson added with a laugh.

“He was an eater, that’s for sure.”

Manning loved every bite.

“At that time, I could eat a lot,” Manning said. “I could use it, I was pencil thin. Not anymore. That was part of my routine at that time, get a little junk food in me.”

Manning kept on eating and hooping that magical season. His play was seemingly effortless and so smooth that Johnson said “you always wondered if he had a different speed. What may have seemed like he was pacing himself was probably just a guy who was going his speed, which was faster than anyone else.”

Johnson admired Manning’s work ethic and motivation. He said Manning won every wind sprint in practice.

“He got it done,” Johnson said.

And so did the Lions. With every win, the pressure and expectations mounted. Coach Ted Juneau said the team was still “feeling our way around all this” early in the season when they played Shawnee Mission West nine days before Christmas. 

A defining moment in the season happened after the Lions trapped at midcourt when Manning stole the ball and raced in for a thunder dunk.

“It really ignited the crowd,” Juneau said. “I really felt from that point on, some of the pressure was off. The kids were a lot more comfortable. That started I thought to turn our season around.”

And then during Christmas break, Juneau received a surprising phone call at 2 a.m. On the other end was Manning and point guard Kirk Joy. It was 20 degrees below zero and their car wouldn’t start. The two friends were afraid to call anybody but their trusted coach.

“They said, ‘You told us to call you if we ever needed you,’” Juneau recalled.

Even though the Lions ran “a little extra” during the next morning’s practice, Juneau said “from that point on, I knew we were going to have a special relationship. ... I really felt after Christmas, after the first five games, we really started to jell a little bit. 

“But I think throughout the year, the kids felt lots of pressure. If you win, you were expected to. If you lost, ‘Oh my God, how can you do that?’ They knew that.”

Lawrence High won 21 straight games following the loss to Wyandotte in the second game of the year and reached the Class 6A state finals at Allen Fieldhouse on March 10, 1984, where they met Wyandotte again for the highest stakes. 

LHS was up 41-35 entering the fourth quarter before Wyandotte rallied and took a 50-49 lead when the unlikely William Davis banked in a shot from the top of the key with four seconds left. 

After a Lions’ timeout, Manning received the inbounds pass and dribbled furiously up the right side of the floor. With the partisan Lawrence High crowd of nearly 7,000 watching and praying with bated breath, Manning let a bomb fly from just inside halfcourt.

“I thought it was going in,” Juneau said.

The ball, though, “rattled out” as Wyandotte won the state title.

“There were some things I wish I would have done different, a couple of shots I would’ve made,” Manning told the Lawrence High School Budget newspaper at the time.

“But we played our best.”

For Lawrence High, it was a devastating loss. Fulton, who played junior college basketball at Neosho (Kan.) Community College, admitted in an interview in 1998 that he stayed up many nights afterwards replaying the game in his mind.

“I figured life goes on, you gotta move on,” said Fulton, who added Davis’ game-winning shot still haunts him.

“I switched (defensively) from top of the key to play the ball coming inbounds,” Fulton said. “If I wouldn’t have switched places, I would have probably stole the ball.”

Juneau said his kids played hard but tentative, while Fulton added that “when it came down to crunch time at the end of the game, we probably started playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”

The consummate team player, Johnson felt most sorry for Manning, who ended his Lions’ career with 20 points yet was unable to win back-to-back state titles.

“It was really frustrating playing at Allen Fieldhouse where Danny was set to play the next four years,” Johnson said. “We should have won, we were a better team. We really wanted that one. ... One of my first thoughts, ‘Doggone it, you move to Lawrence High and we couldn’t get it done for you.’ (I felt like we) kind of let Danny down. It was really too bad.”

Interestingly, on that same night, KU beat Oklahoma, 79-78, in the Big Eight Tournament championship in Kansas City. The Jayhawks were back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years, and with Manning’s arrival at KU in the fall, you could sense greatness to come for KU basketball.

Despite the loss to Wyandotte, Juneau called the 1984 season very successful. LHS went undefeated in the Sunflower League and won the Topeka Invitational Tournament for the first time since 1967.

“We achieved really the goals that we set out to do, which was win the tournament and the league, and then obviously, also the opportunity to play for the state championship so we were close,” Juneau said.

“This was one of my most satisfying seasons as a coach, especially to see them grow as a team throughout the season,” Juneau told the 1984 LHS Red and Black yearbook. “This was the most exciting season in terms of spirit and enthusiasm.”

The superlative Manning averaged 22.7 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.2 blocks, 5.0 steals and 2.2 assists per game for the 22-2 Lions. In three years of high school, Manning’s teams at Page High and LHS went an astounding 71-5.

...

In the two months following Lawrence High’s heartbreaking loss, Manning played in the Capital All-Star Classic in Washington, D.C., and the McDonald’s All-American game, while I played my final season on the Lions’ tennis team and anxiously awaited graduation day and beginning my college studies at KU.

Finally, on May 23, 1984 at Memorial Stadium, myself, Manning and over 500 of my Lawrence High senior classmates received their diplomas at commencement. 

After the final speech that evening, and after we were officially high school graduates, I turned over my right shoulder and the first person I saw was Daniel Ricardo Manning (at 6-10, he was hard to miss). He stood up from the bleachers and gave the 6-5 Whitenight a high-five, and no doubt reveled with anticipation and wonder at the bright future and endless possibilities ahead.

I certainly didn’t think that May evening— and I doubt Manning did either— that four years later he would be back at Memorial Stadium on April 5, 1988 celebrating with thousands of Jayhawks, including myself, the national championship KU had won the previous night in Kansas City.

He had grown from a skinny, unassuming teenager to a man who led KU to a national title over Oklahoma in one of the most dominating performances in years (31 points and a career-high 18 rebounds). Manning was famous and would soon play for the U.S. men’s basketball team in the Olympic Games and become the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft while eventually being a two-time All-Star and carving out a 15-year pro career, despite undergoing three ACL surgeries.

But to people like Johnson and Juneau, he was no different than the genuine high school senior who humbly greeted them that August day at the Holidome in 1983 when Manning first arrived in Lawrence. 

He always “just wanted to be one of the guys.”

Juneau and Manning developed an especially close friendship over the years. That was never more evident when Manning became Tulsa head coach in April 2012 and hired Juneau on his staff as director of basketball services.

“I think our relationship was built on the fact, to me, he was a 17-year-old kid coming in from another high school, probably homesick at times for where he was,” Juneau said. “I’m (not) thinking, ‘Boy, here’s a college player of the year. Here’s a first-round NBA player.’ This is just a 17-year-old kid that I want to make comfortable his senior year. He was just one of my players, and I wanted to do the best for him as I would everyone else.

“That’s how our relationship started, and that’s how it’s always been.”

After the College Basketball Hall of Fame press conference concluded during the early evening on Nov. 23, 2008, and just 90 minutes before the 8 p.m. induction ceremony at Sprint Center in Kansas City, where Manning would achieve one of his greatest honors and enter the Hall, he graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans. I walked up to the dais and asked my former high school classmate about his relationship with Juneau.

Manning smiled as his mind suddenly raced back to his senior year at LHS. He certainly appreciated Juneau for not treating him any differently than a seldom-used reserve point guard like Mike McCubbin.

“He didn’t play any favorites,” Manning said. “That’s definitely something you respect and like in your coach.”

“We were both in a tough spot,” Manning added. “He won a state championship the year before I got there. The following year, we were supposed to win a state championship. We lost in the state championship game. We were both under a little duress.”

Their relationship only grew stronger after that loss to Wyandotte and especially after Manning graduated from KU. Juneau and his wife, Judy, played a mentoring role to Manning and his wife, Julie, as they raised their two kids as young parents.

“Coach Juneau is a godfather to one of my children (Evan, now a sophomore walk-on guard at KU) and one of my best friends,” Manning said. “He’s a wonderful person. He has a great wife and a lovely daughter. His friendship to me is something I definitely cherish. His thought processes and his mentality, I always bounce things off him. He’s definitely a mentor and obviously a great friend.”

Juneau was at the press conference and induction ceremony that night with his wife, looking on with great pride at one of the greatest players in college basketball history.

“It’s obviously a thrill to see Danny go into a great Hall of Fame where he deservedly belongs,” Juneau said. “We enjoyed the moment with him then (at LHS) and I’m enjoying the moment with him now.”

Johnson, who teamed with Manning at KU for two years as a Jayhawk walk-on, also remains buddies with his former Lions’ teammate. He’ll never forget that 1983-84 season when he made a new best friend and got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with such a versatile and transcending player.

“He was kind of a point guard in a big man’s body,” Johnson said. “It was exciting. I remember just the thrill of walking into the gym and having everyone’s attention on him. You could throw the ball anywhere near the basket and look like a hero. He’d turn average plays into great plays.”

While Manning said the loss to Wyandotte in the state championship game “was a disappointment,” his fond memories during that lone season at Lawrence High 30 years ago will last forever.

“Coming in and meeting new friends and having those guys accept me with open arms was a lot of fun,” Manning said. “I definitely enjoyed my senior year.”

So did the LHS Class of ‘84. Danny, thanks for the memories.