Testimonials from a Writing Life

I never entered the writing profession for testimonials and endorsements. I chose to become a writer because that's who I am, what I identify most strongly about myself. I've always enjoyed putting words on paper and making stories come to life. I've written for as long as I can remember and can still recall the first poem I wrote in school in maybe second grade at Broken Arrow Elementary School on a piece of construction paper. As a child growing up in Lawrence, I used to write poetry to reflect my thoughts and what I was going through in life. I've always written my parents homemade greeting cards for birthdays and holidays, sharing my love with them through the written word. And now I cherish those cards more than ever since they have passed as I read the old cards and how much they meant to my life and my late parents' lives. 

I think I first realized the power my words had on other people when I wrote my dad a long, heartfelt letter as a teenager urging him to quit his longtime pipe smoking habit. After reading my letter, my dad was so moved by my words that he quit cold turkey and never smoked again. I first realized he had stopped when I was standing outside our house on the porch when my dear mom said dad read the letter that day and hadn't smoked all day. And he never smoked again. Dad always credited me for being the reason he stopped. 

I strongly believe words can move mountains, and that is such a definingexample. Realizing later, I basically saved my dad's life. While I used to enjoy writing letters to the editor in college at KU about Kansas basketball, I'll never forget my first byline on a story I wrote for my Reporting I class in 1990 in the University Daily Kansan, a long feature on non-traditional students. I was the first student (and I believe the only one) in that class to have an article published in the UDK that semester. It was such a thrill to see my name in print for a story I worked on so tirelessly. While I've always loved to write, I think from that moment I found my calling and was hooked on becoming a professional writer.

I'm also inspired to write by this wonderful quote by the late Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan: "Words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels." It is one of my all-time favorite quotes and says so much about the beauty of words and writing.

Now, after 29 years in the writing profession, I've written countless stories and interviewed people ranging from Hall of Famers and prominent sports figures like George Brett (Hall of Fame cover story), Larry Brown, Phil Jackson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Jerry Sloan,  LeBron James, Larry Brown, John Stockton, Warren Moon, Roy Williams,  Lynette Woodard, Dwayne Wade, Anna Kournikova, Bob Costas, Frank DeFord, Dolph Schayes (the best Jewish basketball player of all time), Tonya Knight (famous former bodybuilder who was featured on the TV show American Gladiator), and Bill Self to the common man/woman, including about 200 volunteers in the community in the Lawrence Journal-World. These inspiring people and my heroes included rape, incest and cancer survivors, former homeless people, recovering alcoholics, businessmen, attorneys, doctors, dentists, nurses, and idealist college students who wanted to change the world. It's been quite gratifying telling these stories and having people welcome me into their homes with open arms and hearts. I was so moved and humbled when I heard one of the volunteers cried when she read my story for the first time, believing I captured her sentiments so well.

In addition, I've interviewed people from all walks of life, including entreprenneurs, fitness competitors, inspiring KU graduates, Miss Kansas Annika Wooton, high school athletes, Voice of the Jayhawks Brian Hanni and so many more.  Annika and I both got emotional when I asked her in person at a library in Wichita how the arts saved her life. As she paused for about 10 seconds, wiping tears from her eyes and composed herself (I composed myself, too, from my emotions), she spoke quite openly and candidly about being bullied in high school, having suicide thoughts and finding sanctuary in the art room and theatre with like-minded people. That open-ended question and Annika's answer completely made that sidebar. We spoke for 80 minutes, and afterwards, she asked me if I had any more questions. She smiled and said I had her whole bio with me. I always do extensive research on my interview subjects, and this was especially the case with Annika, such a lovely, inspiring and genuine young woman. Thank you Annika from the bottom of my heart for sharing your story with me, and helping people relate to what you went through in high school and overcome their tremendous adversity.

Looking back, I knew I had a gift for asking life-searching questions and getting people to open up to me and share the most intimate details of their lives when I interviewed this non-traditional female student in my Reporting I class at KU, taught by my legendary and now sadly late professor Ted Frederickson ("Ted-Fred"). During the middle of my interview with this woman, she broke down and cried, telling me she had never told any of this information to a person in her life. I was grateful that she felt comfortable in confiding in me and letting me tell her story, just like countless people I've interviewed over the decades have done with me. 

My most inspirational story likely was about a KU graduate and Marysville, Kan., resident, Eric Swim, who traveled to Israel to donate his kidney to a 10-year-old boy named Moshiko. He saved Moshiko's life, and was hailed as a "big hero" in Israel, made front-page news, and met the Prime Minister and Holocaust survivors. This was about a 90-minute phone interview, as Eric kindly shared his fascinating story with me. While he wasn't Jewish like me, he and his wife closely observed Jewish customs. I was very humbled and flattered that Eric loved the story so much that he asked me to write a book about his story. While the timing wasn't right in my life at that time for this project, I'm forever grateful that Eric believed in me so much to write a book about his incredible and inspiring story.

In addition, I've written Where are They Now? stories on former KU athletes. This was a dream come true for me when I did this for acclaimed Jayhawk Insider from 1999 through 2003.  I'll never forget how thrilled I was  when my editor told me to go ahead and write these profiles. After I hung up the phone that morning, I went outside my home and took some deeply peaceful breaths and exhaled the start of a great new adventure.

I interviewed KU legends to walk-on basketball player T.J. Whatley. Some former Jayhawks I interviewed included B.H. Born, Otto Schnellbacher, George Mrkonic, Walt Wesley, Darnell Valentine, Bruce Kallmeyer, Kurt Knoff, Terry Beeson, Emmett Edwards (my first KU football hero), Dallas Dobbs, Delvin Williams, Frank Pattee (member of KU's 1947 Orange Bowl team and father of Erin Brockovich, who graduated from Lawrence High School in 1978, right between my brother in 1977 and sister in 1979), national champions Al Kelley, Bill Lienhard, friendly childhood classmate Chris Piper (Stephenson was his last name back then), Kevin Pritchard, Mike Maddox,, childhood heroes like my all-time favorite Jayhawk Tony Guy, Roger Morningstar, Bruce Adams, John Crawford, Booty Neal and Dale Greenlee. 

Also, I've interviewed Dallas Dobbs (All-Big 7 under Phog Allen), Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Sherron Collins, Julian Wright, Marcus and Markieff Morris, Ryan Robertson, Rob Allen, Phog Allen's grandoson (cover story),Jerry Waugh, Terry Brown, Alonzo Jamison, Delvy Lewis, Riney Lochmann, Mark Randall (my hero since 1999, when he called me at home and said my story "might have been the best article ever written about me." That was one of the nicest compliments I've ever received and I'm forever grateful for Mark's kindness. As great a player as Mark was, he is even a better person.) I've also interviewed my Lawrence High School 1984 classmate Daniel Ricardo Manning, Chris "Boomer" Berman of ESPN fame and Tom Hedrick, former Voice of the Jayhawks who called the first Super Bowl and the Chiefs first Super Bowl victory.

I've written my articles over the years with the main motivation to do the best work possible and portray my subjects' true feelings. However, I'm only human so I can honestly say I've been overwhelmed and moved by the many endorsements and testimonials I've received. From the many thank-you calls from people like Randall and Rob Allen, Phog Allen's grandson, to the thank-you letters I've received and endorsements on LinkedIn, I owe these grand people many thanks and gratitude for their kindness, thoughtful words, and unwavering hearffelt compassion.

Here are some of the testimonials I've received during my writing career.

"That might have been the best article ever written about me."-- Mark Randall, former KU basketball star and NBA player, on my Where are they Now? story on him on Feb. 11, 2000.

"You have a gift." --Mark Randall, February 2000

"Thank you for your superior article you wrote about me for the Roger Hill Volunteer Center published in the Lawrence Journal-World recently. I believe your journalistic abilities were shown in the newspaper item to be with keen sensibility and emotional awareness in my voluntary services to persons attending the Douglas County Senior Center. Yours truly, Ailene Bocquin,"

"David Garfield did a very professional job conducting my interview and writing the story about me.  He is an accurate reporter and a most competent writer. You are quite fortunate to have his services! I would like to have four more copies of this particular issue if they are still available. My check in the amount of $15.00 is enclosed to cover the cost of these extra copies and their mailing. Your early response to this request will by greatly appreciated. Thank you! Very truly yours."  --Frank Pattee, former KU football standout, member of KU's first bowl team (Orange Bowl winner) and late father of Erin Brockovich, in a letter to my publisher of Jayhawk Insider, on Oct. 8, 1999

"Nice job David!!" Frank. (personalized note to me in Pattee's letter to my publisher.

"David, 1st (First), thanks for all your hard work! Don't ever think I don't know what a great job you are doing." --Amy Griggs, volunteer coordinator at Roger Hill Volunteer Center about my inspirational profiles on volunteers in the Lawrence community.

"Thank you for writing such a nice article and thanks for sending the two copies of the Jayhawk Insider. My phone interview with you and reading the article brought back a flood of great memories about KU and all of the fine people I have met. You’ve captured my feelings about my family well. I wish you good luck in your future endeavors."--Dale Greenlee, former KU basketball standout, on March 25, 2000

"Thank you very much for the two copies of Jayhawk Insider which I received last week. My compliments to you in the way the information was structured and presented. I thought it was handled in a very skillful way."

--Dallas Dobbs, two-time All-Big Seven selection under Phog Allen, on Jan. 21, 2002

"I was just giving you a call to thank you for really what I thought an outstanding article that you did on the Phog Allen story and my lower level memorabilia collection. I just wanted to call and let you know I appreciated all your good work. You really did an outstanding job. People actually thought it was far too articulate to be coming out of my mouth. I said, 'You're right. It's a young man named David Garfield, who did such a good job on that.'" --Rob Allen, Phog Allen's grandson, on Jan. 17, 2004

"I wanted to let you know that I thought you did a great job with the article. My wife even commented how nice a job of telling our story you did. Thank you for helping us spread the word out about TNT. Hopefully we will get some participants from the article. Thanks again for taking the time to put the article together. I hope our paths cross again. Warmest regards, Tom.”

--Tom Coones, participant in the Lymphoma & Leukemia Society Team in Training, on June 15, 2005  

"Thanks to David Garfield for the great feature article on my life and fitness career."

  Myra Michaels on the front page of her website in 2004 on my cover story in June 2004. Myra, a world-class fitness competitor, was named Ms. Internet World 2003,.

'David requested an interview with me and wrote an article about my life and career as a fitness competitor for the Kansas City Sports and Fitness magazine. Our interview was very comprehensive and David did a great job of choosing the most interesting highlights and weaving them together into a great article. I was on the cover of Kansas City Sports and Fitness magazine that month and I credit David's great article to helping me get there." --Myra Schulze on Jan. 17, 2008

"It has been my privilege to work with David Garfield on multiple occasions in the past. The detailed research he conducts related to the subjects of his articles, his strong command of the English language, and ability to craft uncommon but interesting questions for interviews set him apart in the writing profession." --Gregory Kovsky, longtime president and CEO of IBA business brokerage firm, on June 29, 2009

"David and I write for the same monthly publication. I always make sure to read what he writes, even though I don't like the team he covers because he's knowledgeable about his subject and does a good job communicating it in an entertaining way." --David Smale on Sept. 15, 2011

"I have been interviewed by David on a couple of occasions and found him to be a professional in every sense of the word. As a writer, he has the ability to make the interview feel like a normal conversation and then portray it perfectly into a story that grabs people's interest. In my experience working with David, he always uses the quotes in the perfect context and always made me feel good about how I was portrayed. I would absolutely work with David again if the opportunity ever presented itself."--Brian Martin, former KU basketball standout and NBA player, on Aug. 27, 2014

"I had the privilege to be interviewed by David for a story he wrote on me as a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader for the Kansas City Sports & Fitness magazine. David did a great job interviewing me and made the conversation flow easily. He was very professional, asked great questions that were portrayed well in the article, and had a nice, easy-going personality which (makes) people feel very comfortable. I enjoyed reading the article and felt that it was an excellent representation of myself and the Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleading organization. I highly recommend David for his professionalism, creative writing talents, and his strong work ethic." 

--Michelle Reiter on Jan. 28, 2016

"You are an inspiration, David. Thank you for sharing your talents." --Michelle Reiter on July 31, 2018

"Congratulations on a very fine profile of the legendary career of Tom Hedrick. Those of us who were fortunate enough to have Tom as an instructor and/or mentor can only echo your conclusion that he deservedly made it big." --John Nance, former staff writer of the National Broadcasting Company who later created the role of Judge Harrison Prescott for the Perry Mason TV series, on May 25, 2019

"You did a terrific job! I’m so glad they chose you to write the article and I’m really thrilled with how it came out. You’re a tremendous writer.  Hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season." Brian Hanni, Voice of the Jayhawks, on Dec. 23, 2019

"How awesome! Thank you so much for your time and hard work putting together the article. It was so great to meet you - please let me know if I can ever do anything for you in the future!" --Paige Albert, owner of Something White Bridal Boutique (voted Kansas City's best bridal shop in 2020) on Feb. 28, 2020

"Wow. Took a lot of guts to write/publish this view into your soul. Much respect and admiration to you and for doing what you did. Again, wow!!! Great personal insight and self-reflections." --Phillip Hart, criminal justice advocate, on June 12, 2020 on my essay in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle about my lifetime of anti-Semitism and my journey toward embracing Judaism.

"This is extraordinary - you can weave the words." --Patrick Wilbur, technical business analyst and activist, on June 12, 2020 about my essay in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.

"Thank you so much for the copies of the magazine and for the incredibly thoughtful note. The article was amazing, thank you so much. We are very much looking forward to sharing it with all our friends and family. I really appreciate the way you captured our story and made it into a beautiful article! Thanks again!" --Tatum Clopton, pitching phenom from Free State High School in Lawrence KS, two-time Gatorade Kansas Softball Player of the Year in 2018-19 and 2019-2020, and No. 7 ranked player in the 2021 class by FloSoftball on March 15, 2021

"Beautiful. You are an artist painting with words." --Gregory Kovsky regarding my speech about my dad's Celebration of Life on April 23, 2021

"Very excited to be working on a project as professionals. I can't think of anyone I would rather have as the author of my American Dream Achieved profile series of entrepreneurs who IBA has successfully represented in the sale of their businesses." Gregory Kovsky on June 27, 2021

"Ideas circulating in the office for your next four articles after Jason Abboud. People are loving your stuff. I have the best staff writer in the world. You will get a per article raise for your next six. Compensation on performance is a business model I embrace. You are exceeding my high expectations and I was high on you at the start." Gregory Kovsky on Sept. 1, 2021.

"Oh David. What a wonderful piece. It just conveys so much-the love for AFH (Allen Fieldhouse) that so many readers can identify with, and a little (then bigger!) boy bonding with his dad over a shared love of basketball. I know that Goody (my dad) wouldn't have been such an aficionado of the game if you had not been so enthusiastic, so you both gave each other something. I just think that, whether the reader knows Goody and David or not, there is something for every reader in this piece. It was just great." Alice Lieberman, former professor of Social Welfare at KU and 1998 HOPE winner (Honor for the Outstanding Progressive Educator) Award, the only teaching excellence award given exclusively by students, on Dec. 11, 2021.

David, Thank you for the 2 copies of KU Today & Tomorrow, and thank you for the wonderful article that captured the comaradarie of our team. The closeness we have and the joy to excel is a rare and beautiful combination. You were too kind with the the many quotes from me. My daughter loved the article. Hope all is well - Dale."  Dale Greenlee, former standout guard at KU, in a thank-you letter to me about my 50-year anniversary of the magical and miracle Kansas basketball 1973-74 team. August 2024

Emotional team meeting propelled KU to the 1986 Final Four

I'd like to thank Calvin Thompson, one of the best players and shooters in KU history, for this extremely candid interview in 1999 at his home. We talked for 90 minutes in one of the most candid interviews I've done in my 23-year writing career. This is a look back at how KU's run to the 1986 Final Four was all possible after an emotional team meeting in the spring of 1985, when head coach Larry Brown apologized to his players for the way he mistreated them during the 1984-85 season.

…

Kansas basketball's road to the 1986 Final Four 32 years ago all began when Calvin Thompson walked by Danny Manning on campus shortly after the Jayhawks lost to Auburn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 1985.

“We started crying at the same time,” Thompson told me during an exclusive 90-minute interview in 1999 for Jayhawk Insider.

These were tears of frustration and heartache from handling coach Larry Brown’s verbal abuse during the season. Brown, who blamed a few losses on Thompson, Manning and Ron Kellogg, was so overcome with emotion that he actually told his three star players “not to come back — to transfer.” 

The team leader, Thompson knew something had to change that day he saw Manning on campus. After immediately holding a players’ meeting in the locker room, Thompson called the basketball office and asked Brown to come down. 

“He said he wasn’t coming,” recalled Thompson, “and I told him we weren’t leaving.”

So Brown reluctantly walked down to the locker room. Thompson described what transpired.

“’We’re here for you,’” he told his coach, who had been experiencing marital problems and taking “it out on us.”

“’We want you to be here for us. We need to get on the same page.’ We didn’t leave the locker room until he apologized to everybody.”

Brown did so and the Jayhawks got “on the same page.”

“He realized he needed to make some adjustment. You see the results in ‘86,” Thompson said about the 35-4 Final Four squad. “We’re one of the better teams in Kansas history.”

Indeed, they were.

Kansas won the most games in school annals at the time and still holds KU’s single-season field goal percentage record (55.6) while advancing to the national semifinals for the first time in 12 years. With Greg Dreiling (11.6 ppg) at center, Manning (16.7 ppg) and Kellogg (15.9 ppg) at forward, and Thompson (13.4 ppg) and point guard Cedric Hunter (9.1 ppg) in the backcourt, this was an extremely potent offensive team that shared the ball very well.

The Jayhawks, who boasted four career 1,000-plus point scorers (Manning, Dreiling, Kellogg and Thompson) for the first time in school history, went eight deep with post player and defensive presence Chris Piper, sweet shooter/swingman Archie Marshall, and fiery point guard Mark Turgeon coming off the bench.

And each player knew their role, including the last man on the team.

“Jeff Johnson (sophomore walk-on) or whoever was the last one on the bench ... but they were so important to our team because they made us practice,” Thompson said. “People don’t realize that. It’s not an individual game. Practice players and bench players are just as important. We wouldn’t have had the great success we had if we weren’t a team.” 

This was, indeed, a close-knit family who endured some rough times the first few years when Brown took over the head-coaching job in 1983 from the fired Ted Owens.

”I didn’t like the way he treated us when he first came,” Thompson said. “He said we were his stepkids and were going to be really good when his kids came in. So how does that look on us. Not going to sit back and agree with him. I was still a little smart-mouth kid ... It was just like a marriage; you already got a family established and here comes a new daddy. ‘Why should I do what you say when you’re not my daddy, you’re not my kid?’ It was the same thing. There were some growing pains initially.”

After a “year and a half, two years, team meeting after team meeting, things clicked.”

“The adversity we had to get through just to get adjusted to coach Brown, it brought a lot of us closer together,” Thompson said. “It helped us to grow. When we became close -- (we’d go to) movies, study hall (together). We could depend on each other on the court.”

That was certainly the case during the 1985-86 season. KU stormed to a 12-1 start with its only loss to Duke in the Big Apple NIT in Madison Square Garden on Dec. 1, 1985. After losing a heartbreaking 83-80 overtime game at Memphis on Jan. 4, the Jayhawks took their play to a higher gear, winning 23 of 24 games and capturing the Big Eight Championship and conference tournament title before advancing to the program’s first Final Four since 1974.

While the Final Four seemed KU’s destiny since the season kicked off with Late Night with Larry Brown in October, the players weren’t just satisfied with being one of the last four teams standing at Reunion Arena in Dallas.

“We’ve wanted to win it all from day one,” Marshall told the Lawrence Journal-World at the time.

Standing in KU’s way of a date in the national title game was No. 1 Duke, the team which had given the Jayhawks just one of their three losses during this magical season. Plagued with foul trouble (Manning, who scored a career-low four points, fouled out, along with Hunter and Dreiling), KU still found itself tied with the Blue Devils 67-all when Duke forward Mark Alarie missed a shot in the final minute. However, Kansas missed a box out and Danny Ferry grabbed the offensive rebound and scored a layup to give Duke a 69-67 lead with 22 seconds left.

Kansas had a final chance to tie the game with four seconds left when Kellogg pulled up from 25 feet and released a jumper that all Jayhawks prayed would hit nothing but net.

The shot bounced harmlessly off the rim, and KU’s national championship dreams were over.

Thompson called the setback a “devastating loss.” And he still can picture Ferry grab that critical offensive rebound and putback.

“How many times have I seen that over and over?” Thompson lamented.

Louisville went on to beat Duke in the national championship game. KU had beaten the Cardinals earlier that season, 71-69, on Jan. 25 in Allen Fieldhouse.

“We knew we were the best, but the best team really seldom wins it,” Thompson said of falling short of a national title.

While Thompson and the Jayhawks were devastated, Turgeon took the loss especially hard. A diehard KU fan growing up in Topeka, the 5-10 point guard was the only KU player seen crying in the locker room afterwards.

“I’ve been a KU fan all my life,” Turgeon told the Wichita Eagle at the time. “I guess I took it like a fan would.”

The Jayhawks’ spirits would be lifted soon afterwards as fans turned out to fete the team during a parade on campus along Jayhawk Boulevard. KU could also be consoled knowing it was one of the best teams in school history.

Brown, who led UCLA to the national title game in 1980 and guided Kansas to a national championship in 1988, has said time and again that 1985-86 team was the best squad he ever coached in college.

“From top to bottom, it was as talented as any team I’ve ever been around,” Brown told ESPN Regional Television’s “Kansas Basketball: A Century Of Tradition” in 1998. “Night in and night out, I think that team played up to its potential as much as any team I’ve ever been associated with.

               

“I think if any team deserved to win a national championship, that team probably deserved it as much as any.”

                

While the ‘Hawks fell short at Reunion Arena, that dream team put Kansas back on the national map to stay. KU’s continued to build off that squad’s success and reached eight more Final Fours since then, including winning the 1988 and 2008 national championships.

                

The 1985-86 team’s legacy lives on over 30 years later.

               

 “That’s where we are where we are now,” Thompson said.

But to get to that Final Four in ‘86, the Jayhawks and Brown first had to resolve their issues after that turbulent 1984-85 season. Kellogg cried when Brown told him, Thompson and Manning to transfer. 

“’This is my home, (Brown) will leave before me. Danny’s not going anywhere,’” Thompson told Kellogg. "(Kellogg asked), ‘But what about me?’"

Although Thompson said “we’d laugh about it,” the Jayhawks were hurting inside. Thompson stressed that he wasn’t going to sit back and let Brown “walk over us and treat us like crap.”

The KU players weren’t the only ones upset with Brown. Some alumni told Thompson that “until he apologizes, they wouldn’t be affiliated with the school anymore.” 

Thompson said Brown “got caught up in his emotions. ... Maybe that was his way to get the fire lit under us.”

In any event, Brown apologized to his players during that emotional team meeting in the spring of 1985. That was, indeed, the defining moment which made the journey to Dallas and the Final Four all possible.

“You can ask anyone who played for Larry, and everybody thanks him for that,” said Thompson, who has since become good friends with Brown and laugh with each other about their old conflicts.

“We all learned from it and grew. Larry grew from it, and not only made us better players, but better people. We were blessed to have him.”

A tribute to former Jayhawk great Norm Cook

A heartfelt tribute to my childhood hero Norm Cook. A high school All-American from Lincoln, Illinois, Cook starred at KU from 1973-76 and later was a first-round draft pick by the Boston Celtics after going pro after his junior season. Cook played in 27 games for the Celtics and Denver Nuggets from 1976-78. After battling paranoid schizophrenia for most of his adult life, Cook died at age 53 on Dec. 22, 2008.

...

It was a night to remember for Norm Cook, and one that is indelibly etched in Jayhawk lore. Playing his first game at KU against Murray State on Dec. 1, 1973 in Allen Fieldhouse, all the bright-eyed 6-9 freshman forward did was go 10 for 10 from the field for 21 points while also grabbing nine rebounds.

A star was born.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was a little nervous before the game, but I forgot about it,” Cook told the Lawrence Journal-World afterwards.

His dazzling and commanding performance left fans, teammates and the media all gushing.

“Cook is the quick, big talented forward with finesse who can shoot, rebound, assist, block shots, can do it all, to be brief. He has all it takes to be a superstar by the time his four KU seasons are wrapped up,” Journal-World columnist Bill Mayer wrote.

Cook’s 10 shots without a miss in a game is still a KU record (tied with Danny Manning), and his 21 points were the most by a Kansas freshman in his debut game since Xavier Henry broke the mark with 27 points in his first contest as a Jayhawk in 2009.

Cook was an instrumental reason why KU made the Final Four that 1973-74 dream season; the Jayhawks finished with a 23-7 record, a dramatic turnaround from the previous season’s 8-18 mark. With Cook starting from day one, he earned Big Eight Freshman of the Year honors, averaging 11.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He led KU in scoring three games and tied for team lead in another, while pacing the ‘Hawks in rebounding seven contests and tying for team high in an eighth game.

Cook had 11 points and seven rebounds in KU’s 55-54 victory over Creighton in the NCAA Tournament opening round while posting 10 points and seven rebounds in KU’s 93-90 overtime win against Oral Roberts in the Midwest Regional Finals.

While his scoring average dipped to 10.3 points as a sophomore and field goal percentage slipped from 49.5 percent his freshman season to 44.4 percent, Cook averaged a team-high 8.2 rebounds while blocking 35 shots (No. 2 on team) and helping lead KU to its second-straight NCAA Tournament in 1975, where the Jayhawks lost to Notre Dame and star player Adrian Dantley in the first round.

Cook was rewarded for his efforts by being named to the U.S. Pan Am Games team that summer in Mexico City, where he shined under Washington head coach Marv Harshman. Playing with future NBA Hall of Famer Robert Parish and All-Star Otis Birdsong, Cook was USA’s gold-medal winning team’s (9-0) fourth-leading scorer at 10.8 points per game, ranked third in rebounding, tied for second in assists, and ranked second in free throws made. He exploded for 24 points in the United States’ opening-game 102-63 blowout over Argentina.

While Cook was creating a buzz with his game in Mexico, he was also toying with the idea of turning pro. The Utah Stars and one other ABA team wooed him with offers to jump to the league and forgo his final two years at Kansas. In the Oct. 28, 1975 issue of The Spokesman-Review, it was reported that Cook had a four-year contract offer worth $150,000.

Cook spoke to Harshman about his situation during the Pan Am Games.

“Norm is one of nine kids. He talked it over with me for quite awhile,” Harshman told The Spokesman-Review. “I couldn’t advise him not to take the money. Finally, he said, ‘I’m gonna go back to Kansas and then I’m gonna play in the 1976 Olympics.’”

Cook had a career year as a junior, averaging a team-best 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds as a co-captain while earning first-team All-Big Eight honors. He, though, could not carry KU alone as the Jayhawks stumbled to a 13-13 record.

After three marvelous years, Cook declared as a hardship case for the NBA Draft. He concluded his career with 1,004 points and 624 rebounds in 83 games. Cook, who wasn’t selected for the Olympics, currently ranks No. 60 all time at KU in career scoring and No. 25 in career rebounding.

The NBA champion Boston Celtics, who coveted Cook since seeing him star at the Pan Am Games, selected the former KU standout with the No. 16 overall pick in the first round in the 1976 NBA Draft, seven spots higher than future Hall of Famer Alex English of South Carolina.

Celtics head coach Tommy Heinsohn was thrilled to get his man.

‘‘He’s a shooter, a scorer,” Heinsohn told the Associated Press on June 9, 1976. “He's a good, quick forward, and a pure forward. We had a chance at the same time to draft Earl Tatum of Marquette, who is also a scorer. But Cook is bigger and more fundamental. He played at a school that uses a slowdown offense, but Jo Jo White learned under the same coach and he adjusted quite well.”

Indeed, White did. White, Boston’s first-round draft pick in 1969, was an All-Star and had just earned MVP of the NBA Finals.

The AP story reported that “assistant Coach John Killilea said Cook was wooed last summer by two American Basketball Association clubs, but the Celtics apparently convinced the 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward to stay in school another year.”

“I don’t say we were the ones who convinced him not to sign," Killilea said. “But both Jo Jo and I urged him to stay in school another year, to better prepare himself, to mature a little more. We kept telling him that if he didn't sign, he stood a good chance of being drafted high in the NBA this year.”

That chance had now become reality.

“What we wanted was somebody who could put the ball in the hole,” Heinsohn said. “With (Don) Nelson retiring and not knowing what to expect at this point out of (John) Havlicek, he's the kind of player we need.”

Two months later as the Celtics were preparing to open rookie camp, Heinsohn was still excited about his top draft pick. In an Aug. 18th UPI story, the wire service reported that “the enigma is Tom Boswell, last year’s top draft choice. Heinsohn swears Boswell is not another Steve Downing, that he does have special talent and that he will round into a tough cornerman. However, the Celtics picked up many of the same qualities in 1976 top choice Norm Cook of Kansas. He comes recommended by White, a former star at Kansas who has seen him several times, and by Providence coach Dave Gavitt, who called Cook the best player in the 1975 Pan American Games. Heinsohn also has seen Cook twice and likes him very much.”

Cook seemed poised to have an impressive rookie season. However, dreams die hard as Cook barely played in 1976-77, averaging just 2.5 points and 5.5 minutes in 25 games. In the 1978 edition of The Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball, here’s how one writer labeled Cook’s performance that season:

“Still another first-round pick that’s fizzled. Played pattern ball at Kansas where his career average was only 12.1 and never caught onto the running game at Boston. Loves to shoot, but never knew when to pass. A member of the All-Bench team after logging exactly 125 minutes in an injury-free season. Impressed Celtic scout John Killilea when he was named MVP in Pan Am Games. Has a reputation as a shooter, but made only 37 percent. Also, his attitude was not the best. Will never make All-Practice team and sometimes loses track of time. Doesn’t seem to have the desire to succeed.”

I was devastated when I first read those words about 40 years ago. Norm was my childhood hero; I put him on a pedestal, and he could do no wrong. I thought he was destined for great success in the NBA. Instead, he was labeled as a bust who would go down as one of the worst first-round picks in Celtics history.

Cook, who scored four points (2-2 FG) in three minutes in his lone playoff game with Boston, was cut by the Celtics after his rookie season. He was then signed by the Denver Nuggets and head coach Larry Brown on April 7 the following season in 1978, playing just two games before being released four days later.

And that was it. His NBA career was suddenly over. In 27 games with Boston and Denver, Cook averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds in 5.5 minutes per contest, while shooting 37.3 percent from the field and 52.9 percent at the free throw line. He totaled 65 points, 30 rebounds, 10 steals, six assists and 148 minutes.

Cook next played briefly overseas and then settled back in his hometown of Lincoln, Illinois, where he married and had children, including a son named Brian, who would become a standout 6-10 forward at Illinois and first-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2003 and nine-year NBA player.

When I think of Norm Cook these days --- and I do pretty much every day -- it is with a mixture of sadness and joy. I am saddened that he died too soon at age 53 and pained that his life was destroyed by mental illness; he battled paranoid schizophrenia most of his adult years and suffered alone until his death after slipping into a diabetic coma. Perhaps the first signs of his mental illness came when he played for Denver, telling his teammates that he thought someone was following him.

I cried that December night in 2008 when I read about Norm’s death. It was tears of a life cut much too short, tears of what my childhood hero had meant to me growing up as an impressional boy in Lawrence, and tears of all the years Norm battled with his devastating illness.

While I’m sad about what happened to Norm shortly after leaving KU, I try to choose to remember the joy and great times I had watching him play in Allen Fieldhouse as a kid and living out my childhood dreams while I attended games with my dad. I can still close my eyes and see him swish his patented 18-foot jump shot from the baseline by the KU bench, sweet memories that I’ll hold on forever.

I’d like to think, after so much pain, he’s finally at peace, free at last. As his Final Four teammate Roger Morningstar told me after Norm died, his old friend no longer has to fight his demons.

“This is God’s way of helping him,” Brian Cook told the Orlando Sentinel on Dec. 31, 2008 after his dad’s funeral. “He doesn’t have any worries anymore. He doesn’t have any schizophrenic episodes or paranoia.”

“I’m not saying I don’t want him here now ... but he’s in a better place,” Brian added. “He’s in his right mind now.”

...

I interviewed Morningstar in 2001 and Cook’s former KU teammate Dale Greenlee in 2009 about their thoughts and memories of Norm. Here is what they told me.

“We just saw about every day in the papers around the town of Olney (Illinois, where Morningstar starred in junior college) what Norman Cook and what Lincoln (Community High School) had done,” Morningstar said. “They had a great team (30-1 in 1972-73, one of the best squads in Illinois prep history). He was just killing people (22.8 ppg, 11.8 rpg, high school All-American, one of top 15 players in the country by Street and Smith Magazine). He was extremely talented, very quiet and aloof, Norman. Very soft spoken. Never got jacked up too much emotionally, just kind of showed up and played. I’d say he was more sensitive than not. Any time you’re out on the floor swinging elbows and trying to compete, you can’t be too sensitive to do that kind of thing. Norman again was very quiet. He was close to his mom. He dad was actually murdered when he was young -- when he lived up in Chicago. He was a good, kind, good kid. Great player.

 

“He’s had more problems on the mental illness side that’s caused him to do the things that would put him in jail from time to time. Never been a hard-core criminal. He’s got a terrible case of schizophrenia. He’s never been the same. Norman had a brother who played at Duke. There’s some athletic talent in his family. It’s heartbreaking to see what has happened to him. I don’t think it’s getting any better actually. I think it’s getting a little bit worse. It’s impossible to communicate with him. We all feel bad about the circumstances, but that’s kind of the way it is. The last time I spoke to him was the 100-year anniversary that Roy (Williams) did here (in 1998). I was in charge of getting our team back here since I’m local and around. I sent off a bunch of stuff and called him. I got a return call. It was a little mysterious. It was after the event had happened, and it was Norman. It was a little bizarre, but he at least was talking and kind of knew what was up. He was actually out--he’s been in and out--in Illinois, they call it the state hospital. I guess it would be something similar to Menninger over here in Topeka. This was during the time period when he was actually out. To be real honest, I haven’t heard over the last eight or nine months, whether Norm’s in and out or how he’s doing.”

And then there were Greenlee’s recollections.

“Norman was probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet,” Greenlee said. “Norman was a quiet, when you first meet him, he was a very quiet unassuming person. And for him to have that tremendous talent and be so unassuming was really amazing. It would be amazing now, but really even amazing back then. No bravado with Norm, no I’m the best. Six-nine, could shoot from 20-feet out, obviously first-round draft choice of the Boston Celtics. A lot of us would be kind of full of themselves if they had that kind of ability, but Norman really wasn’t. He was a very, very regular guy; he had kind of a quiet, unassuming person for having that kind of God-given talent.”

Greenlee said Cook and the Jayhawk players were quite close.

“We all lived in Jayhawk Towers. We lived together, we practiced together, the lives were really closely intertwined,” Greenlee said. “He played bass, he had a bass guitar. To the consternation of some of his roommates, he played maybe later at night than we wanted. Again, a good person. He was not when many people went pro early, Norman left after his junior year. Kind of the tragedy of that, he may have needed one more year of maturity. If he stayed at Kansas one more year, he needed that kind of big brother, someone to guide him and did not have that at that point of time. That’s why the unfortunate things happen, but just a tremendous talent. We were blessed to know Norman.”

Greenlee related that mourners at Cook’s funeral shared “similar stories” about what a good, quality, genuine and humble person he was.

“Guys that he had grown up with, they would talk about going fishing with Norm, playing ball with Norm, and just kind of hanging out,” Greenlee said. “Again, their comments were very similar in that he was not looking to be the spotlight, he wasn’t looking to be the focal point. Would help you if you needed some help to do whatever, but he really wasn’t full of himself, and that’s a quality, boy we all should take every day.”

Greenlee said people at the funeral also talked about Cook’s mental illness.

“Unfortunately Norman had some mental challenges and had tried to work through some of those. We all have demons in our lives, and unfortunately some are greater than others, and some are attacked in different ways,” Greenlee said. “Every person who got up and spoke, he had some relatives and friends, coach (Duncan, Cook’s high school coach and then his assistant coach at Kansas) Reid got up and gave a wonderful, wonderful talk at the funeral. He talked about Norman as a high school player. Duncan would take him to the gym, and he would work for hours on footwork. He was talented, but there were things he needed to develop, and Norman would do whatever he said. Coach Reid came to Kansas with Norman, he knew him probably the best of those with us during the Kansas years. Norman was a people pleaser, a good person and he expressed the sadness that obviously Norman had passed at such an early age. When you pass away in your 50s, that’s certainly very short in today’s life span.”

Cook’s fabulous debut KU game was a also a topic of conversation at the funeral.

“(We) talked about that. Here he is, first college game, goes 10 for 10 and scores 20 (21) points,” Greenlee said. “None of the rest of us ever had a game like that in our lives at any level. Unless you go 2 for 2, I had some games when I didn’t miss but I didn’t shoot much. To have such an impact as a freshman and to step in at the University of Kansas was tremendous. After the game as I recall, it was a ball game, he wasn’t crowing about what a wonderful game. I had 11 rebounds I think against Kansas State one year and I was telling everybody about it. I said, ‘Man did you look? I’m a guard, I had 11 rebounds.’ I was calling people at home, ‘Did you look at that box score?’ Norman goes 10 for 10 and he really wasn’t trying to make a big deal out of it.

“I remember just Norman having such a great first game,” Greenlee added. “But he had a lot of good games. He’d get 18 points and 12 rebounds. Back then, people didn’t really talk about double-doubles like they talk about them now. You could count on Norman to go out and play hard every night. I remember he had a great first step, first dribble. I can almost picture it now, catching the ball on the wing, giving a little look and then just one dribble and either pulling up and shoot a jumper or potentially go all the way to the basket. He was so long at 6-8 or 6-9.”

Greenlee, Morningstar, and all those people who knew and loved Cook can remain comforted in the fond memories they shared with him. For me, I know my childhood hero will always be a part of me.

To Norman Cook: It’s been 10 years since you passed and 45 years since I first saw you shoot a jumper in the Phog as a wonder-eyed 7-year-old. Thanks for the memories you gave me growing up in Lawrence and watching you play. You gave me so much happiness and helped make my childhood brighter. I will never forget you!

RIP.