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He arrived at Louisville the same year as Denny Crum.
Planning to try out for the Cardinals’ freshman team. A New Yorker he was aware of but not fully immersed in local hoops culture.
Needing to ball, Rich Shay meandered over to Crawford Gym one afternoon before classes started for the semester.
The gym was empty but for one guy shooting around by himself. Soon enough, they started playing one on one. First half court, then full court.
Shay advises he held his own, could get to the hoop. But was dazzled by the fellow’s long range shooting.
“Louie Dampier.”
Welcome to the epicenter of hoops, my man.
Shay’s next significant encounter in Crawford was with the answer to the great Louisville hoops trivia question, who was Wes Unseld’s backup?
Bill Windchy and Shay became lasting friends.
Like a couple other New Yorkers a score of years before, Shay came to U of L because of its excellent dental school. His father ran a dental lab, knew how talented dentists schooled here were, and had directed Rich’s older brother Jeff here. Rich followed.
Those similarly disposed ballers who preceded him: From Erasmus Hall, Don Goldstein, star of the ’59 Final Four squad and Alex Mantel.
Shay, a talent for the McArthur HS Generals in Seaford, NY, made that Bridgeman/ Murphy frosh squad, after his talent caught the eye of Coach Bill Olsen.
Other than the stars of the ’75 FF participant, there was a real coulda woulda shoulda on that ’71-’72 freshman squad. Willie Solomon, from Detroit. Never made it past that rookie team. Grades?
Shay advises their team was ranked #3 in the land among freshman contingents. That school up the road with the Jimmy Dan Connor/ Kevin Grevey crew was #1.
As Shay recalls, and he rang up Coach Bill Olsen during our meeting to confirm, somebody offered $1 million for the teams to play.
Bill Olsen said Yes.
Denny Crum said Yes.
Joe B. Hall said No.
Adolph Rupp said Hell No!
* * * * *
His impression of Crawford Gym?
“Remarkably underwhelming.
“There’d be gym classes going on during practice.”
But soon enough he was amazed. At what?
“Unseld and Beard.”
“Those were as good as games anywhere,” says a guy familiar with the big NY basketball scene.
Who are among the players he remembers from those iconic summer pick up games? Which for Shay started after his freshman year.
Pros from the then Cincinnati Royals.
ABA Guys. Goose. Artis. Walt Simon.
Dallas Thornton.
Jim Price. Phil Bond.
And a couple of kids still in HS. Darrell and Bobby.
* * * * *
Shay offered some perspective on the protocols of those summer games.
“You’d yell ‘I got next’ as soon as you walked through the door. Then you’d ask around to find out how many were ahead of you.
“I could wait an hour to get to play. Then your team had to keep winning to stay on the court.
“Unless you were tall. Like Artis. Then you’d get picked for every game. And Junior.”
* * * * *
A seam running through these interview is how tough Bill Olsen was when freshman coach and Denny’s assistant.
“On the freshman team, we’d scrimmage high school teams on Saturdays in Crawford.
“One was that Ballard team with Jeff Lamp and Lee Raker.
“We played twelve quarters. We won every one.
“Then Olsen had us practice for a long time afterward.”
* * * * *
Shay was present when Olsen wanted to teach Wes Cox how to hurl an outlet pass to Jim Ellis like Unseld’s iconic throws to Butch. With zip.
So he had Wes (Unseld) show Wes (Cox) how to do it.
Unseld grabbed a board, turned in mid air, and fired the ball to the other end of the court, hitting the backboard.
* * * * *
Shay was a lifelong bestie with Junior Bridgeman. He showed me photos of him along with the Bridgeman family together in Israel. And elsewhere.
At the ’13 FF in Atlanta, Junior asked him along to breakfast with Shaq, who was seeking business advice from Bridgeman.
O’Neill ordered several platters each of breakfast items. Bacon, eggs, toast, etc. Rich and Junior thought he was ordering for the table. Until Shaq inquired, “You all going to order something?”
I asked Shay if there was anything besides playing freshman ball with Bridgeman that fostered the deep forever friendship?
“There would be times when Jr. would hang out in my room at the dorm while his roommate* would be entertaining a coed.”
*Shay requested, in no uncertain terms, that I not name the roommate. Which I would be inclined to do anyway as a writer’s prerogative, except for this. Shay is my dentist. I have a couple of significant procedures coming up. I’d rather not have him as revenge perform them without anesthesia. You know like Steve Martin’s Orin Scrivello D.D.S. in “Little Shop of Horrors.” Discretion is thus imperative.
— c d kaplan
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