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Jerry Lucas may get his own street; jersey to be retired during Middie-Big Blue game
Councilman wants Bellemonte Street renamed after Middletown High, OSU and NBA great
By Ed Richter
Staff Writer
Thursday, February 12, 2009
MIDDLETOWN ? Middletown City Council will present former NBA star and Middies standout Jerry Lucas with a proclamation and key to the city at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 17.
But one city leader doesn't think Middletown should stop there in honoring one of its all-time greats.
Vice Mayor Jim Armbruster says City Council should consider renaming a street after Lucas, who played on championship teams with the Middies, Ohio State, the U.S. Olympic team and the NBA's New York Knicks.
Lucas will be at Wade E. Miller Gym on Tuesday for the Middies game against Hamilton Big Blue, where his No. 13 jersey will be officially retired.
Armbruster said Wednesday, Feb. 11, that he doesn't understand why the city hasn't acknowledged Lucas, one of its most famous residents, before now.
"It's time to step up, and I'll start the initiative," Armbruster said.
Armbruster played a key role in getting a portion of South Verity Parkway named after Todd Bell, a former Middies football and NFL star. Now, he's proposing that Bellemonte Street, where Lucas lived during his youth, be renamed "Jerry Lucas Way."
"He deserves something more permanent in our city," said Elmon Prier, a local educator and writer. "Our children need to know his legacy. There is a whole generation of kids who don't know who he is."
Lucas' name and image are virtually nonexistent in a town he helped put on the map with his basketball prowess.
Others, like Prier, have suggested acknowledgements in the past, such as a statue of Lucas, but their ideas never gained much steam or support.
Armbruster said that resistance may have been due to bad business dealings Lucas had in the past with some in the community.
Cont...
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Oh8ch;1401912; said:
Small town petty jealousies may have played a role. Maybe people expected Lucas to come back and settle there and feel a bit rejected?
I find that it is very hard for some people, who stay behind and live their lives in one place, to understand why people leave. There's a lot to be said for growing up some place, putting down roots, knowing folks around you and growing older with them. There's also a lot to be said for getting out and seeing the world. Neither is better in my opinion, but it's pretty obvious which route I chose.
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Kinda like how some people in here feel about Herbie moving on, so I guess we can compare this to Lucas.
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Buckskin86
Moderator
Youth Basketball Roundup/Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas becomes D.A.D. for area kids
By MATT STRAYER
T-G Sports Writer
Photo By Times-Gazette photo/Tom E. Puskar
Former NBA star Jerry Lucas talks with basketball players at Ashland Middle School on Thursday.
NBA Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medal winner Jerry Lucas hadn't shot a basketball in 30 years, but he made an exception Thursday night at Ashland Middle School.
The 68-year-old Lucas proved he hadn't lost his touch as he drained three shots in succession from near half-court, said head coach and former Ashland University player Tim Brafford. Lucas was teaching shooting technique to the Ohio Gold eighth-grade Amateur Athletic Union boys basketball team.
Outside of Lucas' own kids, the 1973 NBA Championship winner with the New York Knicks said he normally doesn't teach shooting -- or anything basketball, for that matter -- instead reserving his educational skills for memory curriculum.
"I told them today I was their dad, their shooting dad," Lucas said. "D.A.D. -- direction, arc and distance. Direction, you have to shoot it straight. Arc, it's got to be coming down at the hoop, not flat and at it. And distance, you've got to get it over public enemy No. 1, which is the front of the rim."
"Most kids don't get the right instruction when they start. They don't really know what they're doing, and so they practice error," he said.
Times-Gazette.com - Youth Basketball Roundup/Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas becomes D.A.D. for area kids
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He's still got the touch.
Buckskin86
Moderator
Legend Jerry Lucas speaks on memory work
By Steve King
The Suburbanite
Wed Jun 10, 2009
By Andrew Adam
Jerry Lucas signed autographs to all who asked him after his speech.
Green, Ohio -
If you could build a Mount Rushmore for Ohio boys high school basketball, who would be on it?
You would have to include, of course, LeBron James, who led Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary to three state titles earlier this decade and then went straight to stardom with the Cavaliers. He may turn out to be the best player in the history of the game.
There would also be Clark Kellogg. In the late 1970s at Cleveland St. Joseph, ?Special K,? as he was called, really was special, scoring 51 points in the state title game in his senior year. Because of the media frenzy, he became the first player in Ohio high school history to have to call a press conference to announce his college choice: Ohio State.
A decade later came Jim Jackson of Toledo Macomber. Like Kellogg and James, he was a big player who was versatile enough to play any position on the floor. He, too, became a Buckeye.
The fourth face on that Mount Rushmore? You have to turn the clock back 50 years to find him. His name is Jerry Lucas.
During his time at Middletown in the mid- to late 1950s, he was the biggest figure in the state in not just basketball, but all of amateur sports -- maybe all of sports, period -- as well.
Lucas became the career scoring king in Ohio high school history en route to leading the Middletown Middies to win after win, and two big-school state championships. His mark of 2,460 points stood for a decade and a half, in fact, until Mike Phillips of Manchester -- yes, that Manchester -- broke it by finishing with 2,573, a record that has since been bettered a number of times.
Teaming with John Havlicek, Larry Seigfried, Mel Nowell and a scrappy substitute guard from Orrville named Bobby Knight, Lucas went on to lead Ohio State in 1960 to its first -- and still only -- national championship in men?s basketball. He finished his career by becoming the first -- and still only, again -- player in collegiate history to lead the nation in both field-goal percentage and rebounding for three straight years, and is the only three-time recipient of the Big Ten Conference Player of the Year Award.
Lucas, who is a member of the national Basketball Hall of Fame and was selected by Sports Illustrated a decade ago as one of the five best players in college basketball history, made such an impact on Ohio youth during his days at Middletown and with the Buckeyes that sporting goods and hardware stores across the state couldn?t keep basketball hoop and backboard sets in stock. Many a dad had to install one on the side of the garage or the barn to satisfy his son?s begging.
Though it may be hard to believe for those who may have never heard of him, or simply maybe never saw him play, Lucas was as dominant a figure in the state then as LeBron is now.
Legend Jerry Lucas speaks on memory work - Akron, OH - The Suburbanite
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Buckskin86
Moderator
Lucas a champion at every level of play
By DENNY McPHERSON ? The Marion Star ? June 18, 2009
Former Ohio State and NBA basketball star Jerry Lucas follows his drive during the 2009 Charity-Celebrity Golf Outing held at the Marion Country Club on Wednesday. (The Marion Star/James Miller)
MARION - Jerry Lucas' fondest memory of his efforts in the athletic arena is all-inclusive.
Lucas, the featured guest on Wednesday at the 27th Marion County Youth Foundation Charity-Celebrity golf outing and dinner at the Marion Country Club, was a member of basketball teams which won championships at the high school, college, professional and Olympic levels.
Lucas became ill near the end of his round on Wednesday and was unable to attend the banquet on Wednesday following golf.
Asked about his proudest moment in any of those campaigns, Lucas would not single one out.
"It was winning at every level," the 6-foot-9 Lucas said on Tuesday following a round of golf at the local country club. "I was the first to do that and I am one of only three to do it (Quinn Buckner and Magic Johnson were the others). That's why you do that."
Lucas, 69, won state championships at Middletown High School in 1957 and 1958; a collegiate title with Ohio State in 1960; an Olympic championship in 1960; and a National Basketball Association crown with the New York Knicks in 1973.
The individual numbers put up by Lucas still stand among the best in Ohio High School Athletic Association annals where he is ranked eighth for most points in a season at 930 and 10th for career scoring with 2,460. His Middletown team holds the state record for most consecutive wins with 76 from 1956-1958.
"That team may have been the best in the history of Ohio high school basketball," Lucas said.
Lucas went on to Ohio State, where he claimed three conference player-of-the-year awards.
"It was a great time there with great people. Lasting relationships were formed," Lucas said. "It was the best basketball team in Ohio State history."
Lucas a champion at every level of play | marionstar.com | The Marion Star
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BTN has a series called "Conversations with Dave Revsine" - a half hour interview show. They have been running his interview with Lucas - I think the next showing is around the 25th. Excellent interview with great clips and pix.
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I know I have mentioned it in this thread before, but it is his rebound numbers that were simply remarkable. He averaged over 17 per game during his college career.
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Oh8ch;1485780; said:
In the Revsine interview Lucas talks about shooting at the inside of the rim repeatedly, to make the ball bounce off the opposite side, and also about making it hit the outside of the rim, so the ball would bounce to the outside. He then remarks that that helped him in his rebounding, because he knew where the ball was going to go.
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