A thematic seam running through these Crawford Gym remembrances is how careers and teams and teamwork and lifelong friendships were there catalyzed.
Through the sweat of shirts v. skins on sweltering summer nights.
Through practice and repetition and instruction from Hall of Fame coaches and under-lauded assistants. The impact of ballers helping ballers.
Then there’s this. How life can turn in a nanosecond for a b-ball junkie from the South End, who happened to be killing time at noon between classes on the Belknap Campus.
For all the moments when college and pro superstars held court at Crawford, infatuated Scott Davenport advises, it was at the time faculty, administrators and staff only during noon lunch.
One day, there were but ten on the court while the future national championship coach at Bellarmine hung out watching in high top Chucks, jeans and a sweatshirt.
A faculty guy had to leave. One of the fellows on the court asked Scotty if he played? The former Al Pfeffer-coached Iroquois baller nodded. Then impressed the guy who changed his course.
Bill Olsen.
Who told him the steps he needed to take to join Coach Jerry Jones JV team.
“I was going to be a pharmacist.
“That moment changed the next 50 years of my life.
“The following summer I was a counselor at U of L’s summer camps.”
* * * * *
Davenport talks of the thousands of hours he talked ball with coaches and mentors.
“When the JV team played road games, we’d travel in an 8 passenger van and Coach Jones’ car.
“The first trip I noticed the front seat with Coach was vacant I jumped in. Quickly learned why. Like Schnellenberger, Jones smoked a pipe. The whole way.
“But we talked basketball every moment, every trip.”
Later, after he’d gone off to be an assistant at VCU, coached Ballard to a state crown and spent time on Denny Crum’s staff, he made the cut to become the only assistant Rick Pitino ever retained from a replaced coach’s staff.
“I’d leave my house at 5:40 in the morning. Stop to get a paper. Sit with the other assistants and pass the sections around until Pitino called us in.
“Mick Cronin, whom I knew from Cincinnati Woodward. Kevin Willard.
“Those days, every day I’d talk basketball with the current head coach at UCLA and the now head coach of Villanova.”
* * * * *
There’s another interlude with a coach of some note.
Davenport was at a coaching clinic in town. He found himself in the lobby having a conversation with a legend.
When the fellow found out Scott knew Denny Crum, he leaned in and instructed Scott to do this.
“Go to him, tell him you met a friend of his. Then say I heard you’re the best cribbage player from the tip of your nose to the tip of your chin.”
When Davenport did as told, Crum exclaimed, “You met Coach Wooden.”
“I was a JV coach at Ahrens Trade High School, and I was sitting in the lobby of the Fern Valley Holiday Inn talking basketball one on one with John Wooden.”
* * * * *
Memories of Crawford specifically?
He tells of the day, probably before Grif’s junior year, when Olsen offered up the star’s jump shot lacked arch, was too flat.
“A bunch of sports used Crawford for practice. Gymnastics. Volleyball.
“We got one of those eight foot standards that hold up volleyball nets. Grif started shooting over it. Hour after hour after hour. He was the most coachable player ever. Ended up leading the NBA in threes.”
Then there’s the moment with a 7 year old at summer camp. His dad standing, observing along the sideline.
“The kids were scrimmaging. He wasn’t being guarded because he hadn’t scored. He finally maee his first basket. And he’s all puffed up. Now the others are on him. The next time he gets the ball, the defenders are so close, the kid drops the ball and just pushes them out of the way.
“Allan Houston.
“I coached him later when we won State at Ballard.”
* * * * *
Davenport on the difference between Denny Crum and Rick Pitino.
“They both taught how to play the game the same way. Strong fundamentals. Shoot in balance. Play off two feet.”
“Denny was analytical. 45 degree bank shot. He was Cool Hand Luke. From the Wooden school. If we do what we do right, we’ll prevail.”
“Pitino went 800 miles an hour. His goal was to stop what the other team did. From the Hubie school.”
* * * * *
Last words on Crawford Gym from a guy who started keeping a daily practice journal in the 9th grade?
“It was the heart of it all.
“Summer time, no coaches, no parents, no trainers. Just each other.
“Making the most of your opportunity.
“That’s Crawford.”
— c d kaplan
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