Calvin Thompson’s childhood hoop dreams and his recruitment to KU

In my last blog post, I wrote about the KU basketball legacy of Calvin Thompson, Greg Dreiling and Ron Kellogg. Now, I write more about Thompson and his early childhood hoop dreams and how he always wanted to become a Jayhawk. I got great mileage from Pony during our 90- minute interview at his home in 1999, some great candid information he shared with me.

The 6-6 high-flying guard was named a high school All-American by Basketball Times and Basketball Weekly, and was the most sought after player in Kansas in 1982 during his senior year when he averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per game. Thompson led Wyandotte to a 22-1 record and third place in the Kansas state tournament. He shot better than 59 percent from field during his career and dished out four assists per game.

Here is Thompson’s recollections of his basketball life growing up in Kansas City and what brought him to Kansas. In his own words:

“Growing up, I was a little fat kid that wanted to be accepted by his peers so everybody was playing sports. I started shooting; I couldn’t run so I just started shooting. I would put marks on the ground and mark it good and just shoot, shoot, shoot it. Everybody wanted me on their team because I could score. I was in the fifth grade and I just started playing. And then eventually I got to running and losing weight and this and that. All my friends started to play Biddy Ball at a very early age, and I had some catching up to do. I started out late. But like I said, I would used to spend time shooting, and back then, I had to shoot well enough to be picked on somebody’s team to be accepted. Guys, now, they don’t practice on their shooting. I go out there 50 pounds overweight and I’m still going to shoot the ball.

“I always considered Nate Thurmond (a hero and 6-foot-11 NBA Hall of Famer). A lot of people didn’t know who Nate Thurmond is. My friend, whom I grew up with, he had given me Nate Thurmond’s nickname. I didn’t have any college heroes. My deal was I wanted to be the first to go to college in my family. I knew my family couldn’t afford to send me, so my deal was picking up a basketball and trying to earn a scholarship. My mother laughed at me, and that sort of hurt me. I wanted to get the last laugh. (My Mom said), ‘What do you know about a scholarship?' I was in the fifth grade and in my neighborhood, we didn’t talk about college. But I wanted to go to college. I didn’t have the desire to play professional ball afterwards or none of that. I just wanted to go to college. Looking back, she could have patted me on the back and said, ‘Yeah, baby.” But no, she laughed because growing up, they thought I was a comedian anyway, so she thought it was funny. You know, a little fat kid who had never played basketball in his life, here I’m telling her I’m going to go to college and play basketball and get a scholarship. 

“As a ninth grader, Cotton Fitzimmons (Kansas City Kings head coach), he invited me down to practice with the Kings. I started playing with those guys like Kevin Loder, who was a helluva jumper. I used to go at him, and dunk on him and Scott Wedman. They’re like, ‘Who is this kid?’  When I got their attention down there, Reggie King —I talk to him every day, he’s a good friend of  mine, Joe C. Merriweather, and Sam Lacey —they’re like, ‘You can play.’ Sam was funny.  He used to always tell me I was “child abusing Scottie Wedman.” I was like, ‘if I could do it to these guys, of course I can play in college.’

“Back then, all you’d hear in the news was Jayhawks.‘What’s a Jayhawk? I want to be a Jayhawk.’ So it was just seeing a Jayhawk everywhere and knowing it was close to home, I just wanted to be a part of it. Later on, I learned about the history. I committed when I was a ninth grader. Back then it was legal. I verbally committed as a ninth grader, and then again as a sophomore in high school. I said if KU wanted me, then I was going to go there from the very beginning. They sent me a  letter as a ninth grader. I said, ‘I’m going,’ so they didn’t have to recruit me anymore. As a 10th grader and 11th grader, Missouri’s coach Norm Stewart  and a couple of other coaches around the country had called my principal and said it wasn’t fair —the recruiting process — if I’m going to commit early. So why not deny my commitment and let some other players get seen and this and that. So he (principal) explained to me that although I thought personally that KU was my team — I didn’t want to waste anybody else’s time or my time and their money trying to get me to come on visits — I said, ‘I’ll deny my commitment but I’m going to KU, just so other players could get seen and coaches could still come in and visit and they could look at the other players.’ I had to go on record denying that I was going to KU, but they knew all along I was still coming.  

“They (other schools) still recruited me, but I never took a visit. A lot of my letters went unopened, and after they started sending money to all these recruits, I went back and started looking for money. I just never opened my letters. My mother had fun with all that stuff. She had trash bags full of letters and boxes full of letters from other schools. There were over 250 different schools. My deal was why go on a visit and waste somebody’s time and money if I know where I’m going. It was KU all the way.

“Now, I’m friends with a lot of the older players. But before then, I had to go there to learn the tradition  — the Jo Jos, and the Wilts, and the Morningstars, and Clyde Lovellettes and Black.  Growing up, I didn’t know about any of that. Darnell (Valentine) was locally from Wichita and Lynette Woodard was big back then. Darnell, they were our nemesis in high school, those Wichita schools. We ended up getting beat by Wichita West my senior year in the state tournament. I was familiar with Darnell and Aubrey Sherrod, and Xavier McDaniel, Cliff Levingston, Antoine Carr. Especially the Carrs, they were big in Kansas. I was familiar with them. I wanted to stay close to home. After becoming good in high school and becoming an All-American, I realized it was something special going on and I wanted my family to be able to come and watch me play. 

“I broke my ankle in the state high school tournament (my senior year). I was invited to a couple of (all-star) games, but I wasn’t able to play. I couldn’t even finish the state championship game. ...We couldn’t afford to go to camp.  The only camp I went to was KU’s camp, and that was because they were recruiting me. That was the only camp I ever went to. That was the only I visited I’ve taken. I was an easy recruit.”

More about Calvin “Pony” Thompson

Thompson will never forget what a KU alumnus told him when the Jayhawks were recruiting the hoops sensation from Wyandotte High School in Kansas City.

“’You’ll be a Jayhawk for life,’” Thompson recalled. “That meant a lot to me, and it still stands.”

He never looked back on his decision to attend KU.

After all, Thompson helped lead Kansas to the 1986 Final Four, where he was named to the All-NCAA Midwest Regional Team and concluded his career as the fourth-leading scorer in school history (now No. 20 with 1,548 points). With most of his shots coming from long range before the three-point shot, Thompson was one of the best shooters in KU history and shot a blistering 53.4 percent from the field for his career, including 56.6 percent as a senior.

He also brought the alley-oop dunk to KU. Watching Pony catch a lob pass by point guards Cedric Hunter and Mark Turgeon and throw it down was an electrifying sight to behold.

Moreover, he set a school record with 33 consecutive free throws, which stood for 21 years.

Thompson’s road to greatness got off to a tragic start when his dad, Horace Young, died of a heart attack in Allen Fieldhouse during his first college game. While it was a heartbreaking loss, Thompson was at peace knowing his dad was able to “come watch me” fulfill a childhood dream of playing college basketball.

Thompson rebounded from adversity and was selected to the All-Big Eight Second Team his freshman season in 1982-83, which he earned again as a sophomore. He ended his career fifth all time at KU in assists, ninth in steals, 19th in rebounds, third in minutes, and 13th in blocks. 

He ranks No. 5 in school history in career free throw percentage (82.1) and No. 7 for single-season free throw percentage (85.9 in 1984).

Despite taking a backseat his last two seasons behind stars Danny Manning and Ron Kellogg, Thompson wouldn’t have had it any other way. He was the consummate team player who didn’t care about individual statistics.

“All I cared about was winning,” Thompson said. “If I go back in college and change, then Kansas is not Kansas now. We’re not 35-4 (in 1985-86). If I listen to all of my friends and say, ‘You got to be selfish if you want to go pro. You got to quit passing the ball so much.’ I got the ‘most unselfish’ trophy award. But if I’m not that Calvin, then we’re not Kansas. I rather win as a team. If I wasn’t the Calvin I was in college, then we wouldn’t be the Kansas we were then and we wouldn’t have put Kansas back on the map.”

Thompson played his freshman season for coach Ted Owens and his last three years for Larry Brown. Among his highlights and career accomplishments were scoring 26 points against Michigan State in the 1986 Sweet 16 and career-high 30 points (15-20 FG) in an upset win over Oklahoma in the first round of the Big Eight Tournament in 1983.

Thompson loved playing for Brown, although they had some rocky times together, especially when Brown took the head coaching job in 1983 after Owens was fired.

 

“He came in and wanted to know who the (big man) was running things,” Thompson said. Thompson, who described himself as a “cocky, arrogant freshman,” spoke up.

“’Me,’” Thompson told Brown. “We needed a leader. I thought it was a good thing.”

Brown apparently felt otherwise.

“We got off on the wrong foot. (Things) weren’t very good at the beginning,” Thompson said with a chuckle.

“He said we were his stepkids and we were going to be really good when his kids came in,” he said. “So how does that look on us. ... (I’m) not going to sit back and agree with him.”

But Brown, Thompson, and the Jayhawks eventually saw eye to eye. 

“You see how good it got in 1986,” Thompson said.

Thompson said Brown wound up being a great influence on his life.

“He opened my eyes and prepared me for life after ball,” Thompson said.