Former Jayhawk standout Booty Neal was a long-range bomber

Booty Neal was one of the most popular Jayhawks of his era. With his lethal long-range jump shots off the bench, he even had a fan club called the “Booty Bombers.” When Booty was lighting up the nets from distance, Allen Fieldhouse was rocking as loud as ever.

I had a wonderful Where Are They Now? interview with Booty in 2001 for Jayhawk Insider, where he talked to me about developing his deep shot in Boys Club and how he idolized sharpshooters Pete Maravich and Rick Mount. He also talked so fondly of his KU sponsor family Kurt and Sue Watson and what they meant to him.

Booty, who worked in special education after leaving KU, averaged a career-high 7.4 points his senior year as KU’s sixth man in 1980-81, helping lead KU to the Sweet 16. In limited playing time (12.0 minutes per game), Booty posted career averages of 5.8 points and 1.3 rebounds, while shooting 44 percent from the field and 67.9 percent at the charity stripe. He scored 582 career points, which would have been much higher had there been a three-point line back then.

A die-hard Kansas City Chiefs fan growing up, Booty was sold on KU once assistant Lafayette Norwood began recruiting him after his performance in the preliminary game of the Capital Classic in Washington, D.C., his senior year.

And Booty and all Jayhawk fans have great memories of his time at Mount Oread.

Here, Booty talks about his recruitment to KU and playing hoops in Boys Club, junior high and high school. I also included that memorable Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him for Jayhawk Insider in 2001. Booty was so fun to talk with, very personable and upbeat.

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“Back then, what happened is I had an opportunity to play in the Capital Classic (All-Star game in Washington, D.C.)  I played in the prelim game of the Capital Classic, and that’s the game before the big game. I had a pretty good game. Somehow or another, I had gotten a call from the University of Kansas. Coach (Lafayette, assistant) Norwood flew down, and they started the recruiting process. The next thing I know, I went out to visit Kansas, and I liked it. I was ready to go. I signed in the summertime and I was in Kansas. I looked at University of West Virginia, Georgetown University, Howard University in Washington, DC., Roanoke College in Virginia, University of Arkansas.

“You won’t even believe this. Check this out. Ever since I was a little boy, I loved the Kansas City Chiefs. When I heard Kansas, I didn’t even know anything about the tradition. I just wanted to go there because I thought maybe I’d get a chance to see the Chiefs a little bit. So when the University of Kansas came knocking on the door, I just though it was an opportunity for me to go. Then when I got to Lawrence and visited, I found out that Jo Jo White and all these people had graduated from there. I was like, Holy Cow. Bud Stallworth and all these famous people. Wow. I felt honored. To have people tell you about tradition and everything,  I just thought it was incredible. I was like, How did I get myself into this. That sold me even more. Being one of the top academic schools in the nation, I felt good about it. I was sort of sold on going to Kansas anyway. Coach (Ted) Owens sent coach Norwood down to do the recruiting. Jo Jo White was very instrumental, and then all the current players  that were there. I had a chance to meet all of them. They made me feel at home. Donnie Von Moore, John Douglas, (they were) very instrumental. I was All-Metropolitan second team. I was averaging 28 per game. I was second-leading scorer in Washington, D.C.-Virginia area behind only Tracy Jackson, who played at Notre Dame.

“...I remember playing on my junior high team when I was in eighth grade. I went out for the team.  Should have went out my seventh grade year, but I played Boys Cub. We were very successful Boys Club, so the basketball coach said, ‘I got to have you.  You got to play this year.’ I started trying out with the eighth graders. It was like a perfect fit from day one. It was sort of  like, if you got it, you got it. Coach was happy to have me on the junior high team, after successful stint with Boys Club team. I had the deep shot in Boys Club at 12 (years old). I just kept shooting. You just keep putting it up. I don’t know if it was how many shots a day, it was just that constantly in practice, you just do do the same things. You take the same shot. You take your favorite shot.  My favorite shot was shooting from the outside.”

“I loved the wings, but when I was in Boys Club, I was able to kind of shoot in from anywhere-top of the key, off the side, deep corner. Then when I got to  junior high school, it got ridiculous. Then when I got to high school, it got totally ridiculous. I had 50 points in one game game, I had  0 at halftime.  The freedom to know you’re going out to play and you’re that team leader, that puts a lot to sit on your shoulders. Michael Sweetney, who plays for Georgetown, graduated from my high school. He came along and broke a lot of my scoring records. He came in and broke a lot of records. Whatever was standing just about fell now. They still in the neighborhood, they still talk about who was the best player. They tend to get my name out there sometimes.”

And then there were his childhood heroes.

“You wouldn’t believe it. Rick Mount, Pete Maravich, were sort of the two guys I’d sit at home and watch when I was in junior high school. I used to love watching them. They shot the jump shot. They said I needed to work on my ball handling. I think along with everything else, you have to use your players for what they do best. My ball-handling skills were adequate.”

By David Garfield (Jayhawk Insider)

Booty Neal grew up in Oxon Hill, Md., idolizing the likes of Pistol Pete Maravich and Rick Mount on television. When he wasn’t watching them swish jump shots at home, Neal would be at the local Boys Club pretending to be his heroes and practicing his craft. At age 12, he already found his niche on the playground.

“I had the deep shot in Boys Club,” Neal said. “You just keep putting it up. I don’t know if it was how many shots a day, it was just that constantly in practice, you do the same thing. You take your favorite shot. My favorite shot was shooting from the outside.”

And few Kansas basketball players have ever shot the deep ball better than the man they called Booty. Neal brought his jump shot to KU in 1977 and soon established himself as a lethal long range shooting artist off the bench. He had unlimited range, with many of his shots coming from 25 feet. Neal, who became a folk hero of sorts in Allen Fieldhouse, even had a fan club called the “Booty Bombers.”

“They got the crowd roaring when I got up and then the whole place just started yelling my name: ‘Booty, Booty,’” Neal said. “Of course, everyone was under the implication that I was coming in to to put some up. They were right.”

A 6-5 shooting guard, Neal never really saw a shot he didn’t like. He credits the fan support for helping him gradually accept his role off the bench.

“It sort of cleared the fact that I didn’t have to be a starter to be appreciated,” Neal said. “I sort of get teary-eyed when I think about those times because there was so many memorable and special times.”

While he loved his teammates and has no regrets, Neal can’t help but envision what his career would have been like had there been a 3-point line back in his day.

“Of course, I was born way too soon,” Neal said. “A lot of these kids are experiencing this shot in junior high school. I’ve never had the opportunity to do it until I left college and got old. ... If I had the opportunity to play with that mess, I don’t know what I would have done. I probably would have given my coach a heart attack. If I had to wish upon something, it just would have been the opportunity to experience that. See the man (official) throw his hands up, hear the crowd go crazy, and then do it about four or five times in a row. The place would have shut down.”

And how did Neal’s coach at Kansas (Ted Owens) react to Neal’s affinity for shooting the “bomb?”

“It got to one point, ‘Well, Booty, whatever. If you catch fire, you got about five minutes to do it,’” Neal said.

And when Neal caught fire, there was nothing hotter in Allen Fieldhouse. In four years at KU, Neal’s teams went 81-38. After his freshman season (KU finished 24-5), Kansas struggled the next two years going 18-11 and 15-14. The pieces finally fit together Neal’s senior year in 1980-81, as the Darnell Valentine-led Jayhawks went 24-8 and advanced to the Sweet 16. Neal was primarily the sixth man that season and averaged a career-best 7.4 points in 15 minutes per game.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Neal said. “We had to fight our way out of the old doldrums of not living up to expectations, and finally, we caught another gear and we were on our way  We were one shot away from getting to the final eight. ...It was a fantastic team. We may have only went seven deep, but all 15 of those players played a very important role that year. Without them, I don’t know where we could have been.”

After KU lost to Wichita State in the Sweet 16, Neal’s collegiate career officially ended. He received a bachelor’s degree the summer of 1981, and then spent the following season as a graduate assistant at Kansas. Next, Neal returned home to native Maryland and embarked on a new profession helping others less fortunate. He’s been teaching special education at various levels (elementary, middle school, and high school) ever since in Maryland and nearby Washington, D.C. Neal, who became recertified as a special education teacher in 1994, has also served as basketball coach at Shaw Junior High in D.C. for the past nine years. He’s currently the boys and girls coach.

Neal, 42, said he became interested in teaching special education because his brother, Ortiz, is mentally retarded. For the past year, Neal’s taught at Edison Friendship charter school in D.C.

“I thought that would be an interesting field, and I also wanted to know just how my brother functions,” Neal said. “I love it. It’s not that I think about my brother when I’m teaching, it’s just the mere fact that once I came across with those kids, I found out how special it was for me to be able to help them and for them to share their love with me. Their love is so much different than you would get from a normal person. It’s more sincere.”

When he’s not teaching and coaching, Neal still finds time to lace up the sneakers and play basketball once a week. He realizes how far he’s come as a person since breaking records at Oxon Hill High School and finishing his career as the second-leading scorer in the Washington, D.C.-Virginia area. 

Neal, who averaged 28 points his senior season, once erupted for 50 points in a game.

“In the neighborhood, they still talk about who was the best player,” Neal said. “They tend to get my name out there sometimes.”

A Closer Look at Booty Neal:

Years at KU: 1977-81

Career Notables: Member of 1980-81 Sweet 16 team...averaged 7.4 points in 15 minutes per game in ‘81...Career-high 22 points in 22 minutes against Oklahoma on Jan. 17, 1981.

Family: Wife, Tamara. “She’s probably by far one of my dear supporters. I don’t know what my life would be without her.”

Education: 1981, B.G.S. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Since Leaving KU: Neal served as a graduate assistant coach at KU before returning home to native Maryland and working in the helping profession. He’s taught special education at various school levels in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Neal has also served as basketball coach at Shaw Junior High in D.C. since 1992.

Currently: Neal lives in Clinton, Md., and teaches special education at Edison Friendship charter school in Washington, D.C. He’s also boys and girls basketball coach at Shaw Junior High.

Hobbies: Watching sports and KU basketball.

Favorite Memories: Neal’s lifetime friendship with his sponsor family at KU, Kurt and Sue Watson, and their children, Brett and Kelly. “I don’t think anyone will ever know the importance they played in my life at Kansas through the days when I didn’t get a chance to play when I thought I should have played, and the days I played and they were there to support me when my parents couldn’t be there. They are very special people. I just want to tell them that I love them and that I think about them all the time.”...Game-winning layup at K-State on Feb. 16, 1980. “The thing that was so amazing about that is you just never know that you’re going to be the one to do it, and to be able to do it is like a landmark. You place a landmark in that gymnasium. I don’t think those folks will forget me for a while. I don’t think I’m one of their favorites.”

On the Jayhawks Today: “It’s a wonderful team. ...A lot of people think you got to win championships to represent Kansas. We all would like to see that, but there’s a lot of other things they do as far as character is concerned that the University of Kansas should be proud of.  Coach Williams offers a lot of class and he’s a special person.”