Originally Posted by
redietz
Man, I can't believe he died when they were retiring his jersey and celebrating The Immaculate Reception this week.
I blather on sometimes about famous people I played hoops with and against, like The Blaze and Cindy Haugejorde and John Amaechi and the Parkhill boys. But I never got to play against Franco Harris. When Harris visited Penn State's Rec Hall after he retired to play pickup, he was always on Court One, which was for Division 1 type players, while I was almost always on Court Two or Three (there were four courts). The man could hoop pretty good for a football player with stubby legs. We'd sit in the bleachers and watch him play.
Time passes quickly. Stunning, really.
I played college basketball - wanted to play for a major college but wasn't good enough
I was raised in the DC area and lived on DC playgrounds
I can't brag about myself as a player - so many were better than me
but I can brag about some of the players I got to get out on the same court with:
Elgin Baylor, Austin Carr, John Thompson, James Brown the CBS Sports talking head who starred at Dematha and then Harvard - and several others not quite at that level
my small college - 2,700 students - ridiculously scheduled Pitt - 35,000 students there and Penn State also - I guess Pitt and Penn State saw it as a practice game - just a workout
my claim to fame:
I had a 3 point play on Billy Knight - an All American at Pitt and an NBA and ABA All Star
maybe some won't believe it - I don't have video - it was pretty far back in the day - but even if people don't believe it - it's okay - I know it happened
the funny thing about the play - he didn't foul me - he didn't even touch me - just came close - but the ref called it
.