Jo Jo White received a once-in-a-lifetime honor when he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 11. While White told ESPN.com after his press conference the day prior to his induction that he "didn’t play the game for (individual honors)," he was still overwhelmed and thrilled to be enshrined after an extremely long wait after he last played in the NBA in 1981.
White, who had surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2010 and needed to learn how to talk and walk again, had his enshrinement speech pre-recorded on the video board.
Ted Owens, White’s former KU head coach, was in attendance at his enshrinement. I only wish Sam Miranda could have been there. Sam was Owens’ assistant at Kansas and the one who recruited White very hard to KU after accepting the Jayhawk coaching job in 1964. Miranda, who died in 2009, was close with White after all these years and always waited with anticipation each year when the Hall of Fame inductees were announced.
White said in his enshrinement speech that he loved both Owens and Miranda. Sam would have been proud of Jo Jo’s honor on Sept. 11, as would White’s late parents.
Before White became a seven-time NBA All-Star with the Celtics and one of the best players in C’s history, he was a two-time All-American at Kansas who lifted KU to great heights during his career. His jersey was retired in Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 27, 2003. I attended that game and wrote about the ceremony and White’s college and pro career in Jayhawk Insider Magazine.
In tribute of Jo Jo’s Hall of Fame induction, here is that story from 2003.
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It had been 35 years since Jo Jo White last created his hardwood magic in Allen Fieldhouse. But now, here he was at 56 years old, back home where he belonged in Lawrence at his jersey retirement ceremony during halftime of the nationally televised KU-Texas game on Jan. 27.
As Jayhawk announcer Max Falkenstien introduced White, he spoke of the great contributions this ex-Kansas star made in his illustrious college and pro career. With former KU head coach Ted Owens and assistant Sam Miranda standing by his side, White soon picked up the microphone and spoke from the heart.
“I am humbled by this recognition,” White said with fervor.
He went on to say he could not have accomplished this alone.
“I gave you everything I had,” White said. “And, in return, you gave me everything you had. That’s what I call a relationship, our relationship. That relationship I will cherish for the rest of my life. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!”
The sellout crowd of 16,300 roared in approval, even those students who were not yet born during White’s career at Kansas.
“As long as we got tape, roll the tape,” White told the media a few minutes after his speech. “We got to keep them abreast of our history. There is tremendous history here at the University of Kansas.”
Indeed, there is. And White has always been a major part of the great tradition of Kansas basketball. He was a three-time All-Big Eight selection and a two-time All-American. White led KU to two conference championships, one Elite Eight appearance, and a trip to the NIT finals. He was also a member of the U.S. Olympic gold medal winning team in 1968. White, who led KU in scoring his junior season (15.3 ppg) and tied with Dave Robisch for the team lead in scoring his senior year (18.1 ppg), currently ranks No. 21 on the KU career scoring charts.
But White’s game transcended raw numbers and statistics. No. 15 played with passion, pride and intensity matched by very few who have ever played the game. And that’s how he spoke at halftime on Jan. 27. White, whose dad was a minister, resembled a preacher himself speaking to a jam-packed and mesmerized congregation.
“It was very emotional,” White said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to say until I walked down on the floor. To be in a position for them to retire my number, it’s quite an honor.”
But, as White said in his speech, he had some help along the way.
“I recognize it is not because of my own energies,” he said. “I depended on a lot of people for my success. The old adage it takes an entire village for any one person to be successful, is true. I relied on all the fans, all the coaches, and they came through for me. I just hope that I came through for them.”
He sure did.
“He’s probably the best guard that ever played in the Big Eight,” Miranda said.
The former KU assistant coach had his eyes on the young star from McKinley High School in St. Louis, Mo., shortly after taking the Kansas job in 1964. Miranda fondly recalls White’s recruitment.
“His mom and dad right off the bat said, ‘Sam,we’re not all that knowledgeable on what a young person should be looking for. We’re going to rely a lot on Jodie Bailey (White’s high school coach).’ Jodie Bailey was the key guy, no question about it.”
During Miranda’s third or fourth visit with White, the KU aide went over his recruiting pitch again with the player during dinner. Bailey, who was sitting there, seemed quite impressed. Miranda said Bailey told White “’that sounds good to me.’ And that was it. That kind of sealed it.”
Miranda actually never saw White play, but worked tirelessly in recruiting the St. Louis native.
“He was a mid-year graduate,” Miranda said. “He graduated in December. I was going back to see him play, but there was a tremendous snowstorm and the plane couldn’t go out into St. Louis. That was early in December, and I just didn’t get back. He graduated, and we got him.”
“I bet I called him three or four times a week, at least,” Miranda added. “Just constantly calling him and talking to him. ...We had him out for a visit. The weekend he was out there was the Oklahoma football game (Oct. 17, 1964). The kickoff, Gale Sayers goes 96 yards for a touchdown, and the students went wild. The students after the game came out on the field. I think Kansas won 15-14. Jo Jo was really impressed with that, the enthusiasm of the crowd.”
It didn’t take long for White to make an impact at Kansas after becoming eligible at semester break. Starting his first game against Oklahoma State at home on Feb. 12, 1966, White caught the opening tip and went down and swished a 20-footer.
A star was born.
And then eight games later, White took his act onto the national stage against Texas Western in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional. With the score tied in overtime, KU called a timeout with seven seconds left.
“In that huddle, he kept saying, ‘Let me take it, let me take it. Coach, let me take it. I can make it. Let me take it,’ over and over again,” Miranda said. “All the other players didn’t say anything so we set it up for him. We threw it into him and set some screens down the left sideline. He went down and took the shot and made it, and we thought we won it in the first overtime. They ruled it out of bounds. The interesting part is he just insisted he wanted to take the shot, the youngest player that we had. He had great confidence in himself.”
KU, of course, lost that game, 81-80, in double overtime to the eventual national champions who revolutionized basketball with five black starters against all-white Kentucky in the title game. But White had certainly arrived as a player. His overall athleticism was a revelation to Kansas basketball.
“He probably started the thing to get the quick guard,” said former teammate Ron Franz. “He added a dimension that they hadn’t had in a while.”
While White had great athletic ability,” Franz said the 6-3 guard did have one weakness.
“He couldn’t dunk,” Franz said with a laugh. “We always made fun. We used to have a dunk line before we’d went in right before the game, and the only guy that didn’t dunk was Jo Jo. Everybody else dunked, but he never could dunk.”
After concluding his career as the No. 4 all-time leading scorer at Kansas, White became the ninth overall selection by Boston in the 1969 NBA Draft. A multidimensional athlete, White also had offers in professional baseball and football. He was drafted by both the Cincinnati Reds and Dallas Cowboys. But that was never a viable option for White, who followed his childhood dream and first love.
"Pro basketball was something I wanted to play since I was a little guy back in St. Louis," White told Celtics.com. "I thought a lot about it my senior year in college and remember figuring that if I ever earned $20,000 a year I'd really be doing something. I expected the NBA to be very demanding, a very tough league, and it was everything I expected."
White had a fabulous career, most notably with the tradition-rich Celtics. He made the All-Rookie team, and then became a seven-time All-Star (1971-77). He was All-NBA second team in 1975 and 1977, and won the NBA championship twice (1974 and ‘76). White was the consummate ironman, playing in all 82 regular-season games for five consecutive years (1972-77).
He reached the pinnacle during the 1976 NBA Finals versus the Phoenix Suns, when White was named MVP of the series. In what many basketball observers hail as “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” White put on a show for the ages in leading Boston to a 128-126 triple overtime victory in Game 5. He scored a game-high 33 points and dished out nine assists in a whopping 60 minutes.
White calls the game his “greatest moment.”
"I would say it’s frozen in time,” he said. “I vividly remember just about every play made during that game. You know that saying about when it's your day, everything goes right. Well, that was my day. Everything I put up went in, everything I did was right."
White wound up playing 10 seasons for the Celtics before being traded to Golden State. He ended his storied career with Kansas City in 1981. For the record, White scored 14,399 career points (17.2 ppg) in 837 regular-season games. White, who was an assistant coach at KU from 1981-83, actually made a comeback of sorts with the CBA’s Topeka Sizzlers in 1987-88 (he played five games).
He’s worked with the Celtics as director of special projects and community relations representative since 2000. While Boston is home for White, he feels a deep loyalty and connection to KU and his former coaches. His daughter, Meka, is actually a student at Kansas.
“Ted is like a second father to me, he and coach Miranda,” White said. “They were more than just coaches. They were friends to us, they were our confidant. Our relationship continues on, far beyond the KU days.”
And now White is forever etched in KU history with his jersey retired from the Allen Fieldhouse rafters.
“It’s a fantastic thrill for me,” White said. “It’s awesome.”
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