Hundley Saturday Event Prompts Memories for Charleston Native
By Rene A. Henry
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Morgantown, WV (HNN) -– More than a half century after he played his last game for the Mountaineers, West Virginia University will retire Hot Rod Hundley’s #33 during Saturday afternoon’s nationally-televised basketball game against Ohio State.
This will be another tribute for one of basketball’s most colorful players and one of West Virginia’s greatest athletes. Had it not been for basketball and friends at the Charleston YMCA, who knows where Hundley’s life would have led?
While his achievements on the basketball court and behind a microphone are well known, few know what Rod Hundley had to endure to get where he is today. Born during the Great Depression in 1934 in Charleston, he was raised by strangers, had no family or friends, was handed from one family to another, and abused and mistreated. When he was a baby, his unemployed mother needed work and left for Washington, D.C. and his father, who worked at The Strand pool hall, deserted him.
Few people know that the man who returned to West Virginia University when he was 65 years old to finish his bachelor’s degree and graduate with the class of 2000, even flunked the first grade. His life changed when he was 10 years old and first picked up a basketball. At the time he lived with a poor, elderly couple who gave him the basic essentials and a place to sleep - under a stairway with a sheet as a privacy screen.
The Importance of the YMCA
Friends let him sneak in the Y where he developed his basketball skills. By the time he was in the ninth grade at Thomas Jefferson Junior High School he was on his way to being a superstar. His team went undefeated in 22 games and in the state championship game, Hundley single-handedly outscored the opposing team.
He was treated as an equal at the Y where he played pickup games with three Charleston All-Americans who already were in college – Mark Workman (West Virginia), Nemo Nearman (North Carolina) and George King, who led the nation in scoring at Morris Harvey. “George King was my idol growing up,” Hundley said. “He used to take me to a handball court at the Y to teach me ball handling techniques.” In his senior year at Charleston High School, Hundley was the most recruited player in the country. His 45 points in the 1953 West Virginia-Kentucky High School All-Star Game is still a record.
He chose WVU, became an All-American and still holds numerous school records. Hundley is only the fourth player in NCAA history to score more than 2,000 points during his career, which he did in three years because freshmen could not play varsity basketball. In three years at WVU he averaged 24.5 points and 10.6 rebounds a game and finished with 2,180 points.
Friends Since 1954
I first met Rod in 1954 during the Southern Conference basketball tournament in Morgantown. I was the sports information director at William & Mary and also covering the tournament for a couple of Virginia newspapers. He sat next to me at press row and little did I know at the time that I would soon be the sports information director at West Virginia University and promoting his talents for various honors. We have been close friends since.
Hundley’s ball handling skills, dribbling and passing behind his back were comparable to anyone playing in the NBA. Well known for his on-court antics, someone in frustration on the William & Mary bench threw a towel at him during a game in Norfolk. When W&M came to Morgantown later that season, after scoring a basket and WVU having a comfortable lead, Hundley sat down at the end of the W&M bench, rolled up a towel like a microphone, and pretended to be announcing the game. Coach Boydson Baird was almost hysterical when he realized what was happening. Fred Schaus also was not at all amused.
As a sophomore in his first game in New York City, he scored 38 points against NYU and set a Madison Square Garden scoring record. Steve Allen, a basketball fan, stopped by the dressing room after the game to congratulate him before going to the NBC studio to host the “Tonight Show.”
I saw Rod put on one of the great exhibitions of shooting when he scored 47 points against Wake Forest in the Dixie Classic in Raleigh, N.C. If there were three-point goals then, his total would have been higher. He scored 35 points in the second half on every type of shot imaginable from jump shots at the top of the key to hook shots in the baseline corner.
The First Championship
That same season he led WVU to the Southern Conference championship, beating nationally-ranked George Washington for the second time in less than a month. With less than a minute left and the game won, he was fouled and had two free throws. Needing only one point to tie the tournament scoring record, his first shot was behind his back and the second a hook shot from the foul line. He missed both and told me after the game, “I didn’t want to break the record. I need something to shoot for next year.”
The next year, 1955-56, after leading WVU to its second straight conference championship, with only two days rest, the team had an opening round NCAA game against Dartmouth in Madison Square Garden. The second round was scheduled for The Palestra in Philadelphia. I convinced my good friend and colleague at Penn, Bob Paul, to put Rod’s picture on the program cover, which he did. The covers were printed before Dartmouth upset WVU 61-59.
In 1957 he was the first player selected in the NBA draft and is the only Mountaineer to have that honor. He played six years with the Lakers, first in Minneapolis, and then in Los Angeles where he reunited with coach Fred Schaus, Jerry West, and later Bobby Joe Smith. Twice he was named to play in the NBA All-Star Game and twice called back to play in “legends” All-Star Games.
A PR Man’s Dream
During my two years as WVU’s sports information director, I had a public relations man’s dream. Rod, his teammates, Fred Schaus, and also the greatest football teams in Mountaineer history coached by Art “Pappy” Lewis with Sam Huff, Fred Wyant, Bruce Bosley, Joe Marconi, Bobby Moss and Chuck Howley, helped establish my success in the public relations business. In two years there were major stories in Sports Illustrated, Life, Time, Look, Collier’s and even a two-page feature story on Hundley in the national Sunday edition of the New York Daily News which had the largest circulation in the U.S. at the time.
An incident that happened in December 1955 during the Orange Bowl Classic in Miami is good reason why locker rooms should be closed to the media for a brief time after a game. In the opening round WVU beat Florida State 78-69 in a sluggish game filled with controversial officiating and many technical fouls. On the very first Mountaineer fast break, the referees missed seeing how Rod took the ball around his body before passing and called traveling. The very next time down court he again showed the referees his ball handling skills with the same results - two baskets negated and a technical foul.
Things didn’t get any better and later in the dressing room Rod was quick to give a Miami Herald reporter several very quotable quotes. The next morning an eight-column headline across the sports page read, “Hundley Calls Officiating Worst In U.S.” And he added, in the story, “… They aren’t even qualified to referee an alligator wrestling match.” The next night as WVU warmed up for its game against Columbia, the same two officials walked on the court. The Mountaineers won 70-60 and beat Miami the following night 83-78 for the championship.
I left WVU in June 1956 when Eddie Barrett returned from active military service to resume his job as sports information director. Rod and I reconnected in May 1957 when we both were in the U.S. Army. I was assistant coach of the Second Army track team and the All-Army meet was at Ft. Hood, Texas, where Rod was in basic training. By December, he had joined the Lakers and I was then assigned to the athletic department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Following a New Year’s Eve double header at the Garden, along with coach George Mikan, we stood in the heart of Times Square as the ball fell from Times Tower to bring in 1958.
A New Career in Los Angeles
Our friendship continued when we both lived in California. In 1963, bad knees forced his early retirement from professional basketball. Both knees required surgery while he was in college. After several years of selling Converse athletic shoes, Fred Schaus, who moved up to general manager, hired him to assist Chick Hearn, the Lakers legendary broadcaster. It was the beginning of a new career for him. After two years Rod was announcing the games of the Phoenix Suns for five years and then moved to New Orleans when the Jazz were added as an NBA expansion team.
During the next 35 years, he broadcast more than 3,000 Jazz games before retiring. The Jazz will honor him next month in Salt Lake City when it hangs a banner from the rafters of the arena with his name and a microphone and dedicates the press room in his honor.
Hundley’s awards and honors are numerous. WVU President David Hardesty singled him out at his 2000 graduation ceremony. He is a “Distinguished Alumnus.” He has been inducted into WVU, West Virginia state and Basketball Halls of Fame. He was named to the NCAA Silver Anniversary All-America Team and has been honored with the Curt Gowdy Media Award, by the NBA with its “Distinguished Broadcaster Award,” and in 2006 the Salt Lake city YMCA named him their “Man of the Year.”
The one honor that eluded him during his career was an NBA championship ring. The Lakers were in the seventh game of the 1962 series against the Celtics in Boston and with five second left, the score tied at 100, Schaus sent him into the game to execute a play. Frank Selvy passed to Rod who drove to the top of the key. Jerry West cut off of a screen by Elgin Baylor but was covered. Rod, who was guarded by Frank Ramsey, saw Selvy open after cutting off a Rudy Larusso screen. He passed to Selvy on the baseline whose shot rimmed the basket and fell out. The Celts won 110-107 in overtime.
Basketball fans today still ask why Rod didn’t take his favorite jump shot 20 feet in front of the basket. “Coach Schaus put me in the game to make a set play. I did my job,” he says. “If I had not passed, taken the shot and made it, I could have been the mayor of Los Angeles. If I missed, they wouldn’t have let me on the plane to get home.”
Feature Motion Picture In Development
Rod Hundley has a great story to tell. He is a modern day Horatio Alger. That’s why I teamed with Gabor Nagy to co-produce a movie about his life, “West Virginia Kid.” Much of the filming is planned for Charleston and the surrounding area. People who have read the screenplay, which is registered with the Writers Guild of America, say it will be even more inspirational, motivational and entertaining than the recent movie hit “The Blind Side.” The producers are presently seeking funding.
Recognition given him by WVU this weekend is yet another milestone of achievement in his life. Saturday he will be joined by his family and dearest friends, former teammates and many others no longer living, whose spirits will be smiling and applauding over the basketball court.
Hot Rod Hundley is an inspiration for any young man or woman and has proved that with determination, perseverance, dedication and desire, you can overcome any challenge and accomplish whatever you want.
Rene A. Henry was born and raised in Charleston and while growing up also spent a lot of time at the YMCA but never developed superstar basketball skills. He was the WVU Sports Information Director from 1954-1956. He and Hundley have been friends since 1954. He collaborated with Gabor Nagy on the movie screenplay, has authored seven books and many of his widely published articles and commentaries are posted on his website at www.renehenry.com.