The Clyde Lovellette Interview
By: Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, September 15th, 2005
There is something sublimely unique about the athletes
of yesterday, the ones who captured the imaginations of young fans long
before their sport became the provincial domain of Corporate America.
They played the game, or they ran the race, or they shuffled into the
ring without the benefit of a guaranteed contract and without the myriad
of endorsement deals that, for the biggest names – Tiger Woods, Andre
Agassi, and Michael Jordan come to mind – generate far more income than
the salaries they earn through their chosen field of competition. There
were no agents back then, and no year-round training. The athletes of
yesterday didn't have the benefit of the latest medical innovations,
those non-invasive surgical procedures that can, for example, repair a
shredded knee and have said athlete performing again within a few short
months. (One can only wonder what Gale Sayers would have accomplished,
had the Kansas Comet been treated with the marvels of today's medical
technology.) There were no teams of lawyers, no player unions, and no
collective bargaining agreements. Free agency? Think again. The
athletes of yesterday simply played the game, or ran the race, or
shuffled into the ring for the love of competition, pushing their bodies
and minds to the limit without benefit of a twenty-four hour sports
channel to beam their exploits – via satellite, no less – to all points
on the globe.
This isn’t to say that money wasn't a factor with the athletes of
yesterday – there were pros back then, too, and they certainly enjoyed
pulling down a salary for doing what they loved. It's just that the
money back then was more in line with that of the average Joe, and that
the athletes of yesterday usually worked other jobs once their sporting
season had come to an end. (And back then, the seasons did indeed end –
unlike the 'round-the-clock, 'round-the-calendar leagues that seem to
permeate today.) They were more approachable, their egos not
overly-inflated by the hordes of sports agents and hangers-on that
clamor for the attention of the modern-day athlete. They were, for the
most part, gentlemen. (Or, as the case may have been, gentlewomen.)
They didn't have a rap sheet to dwarf the considerable statistics that
they put up, they didn't break records with the help of a steroid-laced
syringe, and they proved to be far quicker with the pen – autographs
didn't cost a mortgage payment back then; they could actually be had for
free – than they were with a gun.
Clyde Lovellette is one such man from yesteryear, an athlete largely
forgotten by a generation of Internet-connected fans so accustomed to
instant updates that cell phones and computers have replaced television
as the primary sources of sports-related information. Were Lovellette
playing today, there would be countless web sites devoted to his
considerable basketball exploits. SportsCenter would hype him.
Endorsement deals would roll in. He would be crowned as his sport's
Next Great Thing, a hoop messiah who could play the game with equal
parts skill and passion, all-the-while impressing America's youth with
unmatched dignity and grace.
To hoop historians and basketball aficionados, Lovellette is hardly a
forgotten man. He continues to tower over his sport in ways that other
athletes could only dream. He is the first player to win an NCAA
championship, an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA title – a feat that only
five other players in basketball history have duplicated. (Bill
Russell, KC Jones, Jerry Lucas, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.) He
has led the nation in scoring. He has been a collegiate player of the
year, an NBA All-Star, and a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame inductee. He has teamed with some of the greatest names in NBA
history, counting George Mikan and Bill Russell among those who have
helped him to the championship stage. He has been coached by legends,
men with unmistakable monikers such as "Phog" and "Red", and he has been
an integral component of the NBA's first great dynasties. In short,
Clyde Edward Lovellette is basketball royalty of the highest order.
Born on September 7th, 1929, Lovellette emerged from the Great
Depression largely unscathed. He grew into a gangly teenager,
head-and-shoulders above his classmates at Garfield High School in Terre
Haute, Indiana. He was shy for the most part, withdrawn from his peers
because of his height, and so mild-mannered that it would be hard to
characterize him as anything other than a 'gentle giant'. By his junior
year Lovellette was 6'8", and his coordination had, at long last, caught
up with his enormous frame. No longer the self-conscious introvert,
Lovellette blossomed on the basketball court, earning All-State honors
as a junior and a senior, and attracting the attention of more than
fifty major colleges in the process. It was generally assumed that
Lovellette would stay close to home, playing collegiate basketball in
hoop-crazed Indiana. But like Larry Bird decades later, Lovellette
would commit to Indiana University only to find the environment too
large and too intimidating for his taste. He chose Kansas instead,
thanks to the repeated overtures of head coach Forrest "Phog" Allen.
The chemistry between coach and player was immediate: Allen was the
mentor in whom Lovellette had been searching, and he convinced the young
center that Kansas lacked only a big man to win a national
championship. He also sold Lovellette on the Olympic Dream, a goal
that, up until their initial meeting in Terre Haute, had seemed as
attainable as a trip to the moon.
For Lovellette, Kansas turned out to be the absolute best place in
the basketball universe. He fit in almost from the beginning, growing
both as a person and as an athlete, in large part because freshmen
weren't eligible to participate in varsity sports. He used the time to
emerge even further from his shell, and to further hone his basketball
skills in pursuit of Phog's promise of a national championship. As a
sophomore, Lovellette proved to be everything that Allen had predicted;
the precocious big man finished the season fourth in the nation in
scoring, with a 21.8 points-per-game average, was named All-Big Seven,
and garnered the first of three All-America honors.
Lovellette's junior year was equally successful. His scoring average
improved to 22.8 points-per-game, once again placing him in the nation's
top five, as he and his Kansas teammates resumed their climb to
basketball's championship summit. He also found opposing defenses
keying on him – double-teams, collapsing pockets and rough play became
the norm – but he used the tactics to his advantage, developing the
deadly outside shot that would later become such an effective weapon in
the NBA.
Everything came together for Lovellette and the Kansas Jayhawks during
that magical senior season. Lovellette led the nation in scoring at
28.4 points-per-game, and, true to the prophetic words of his head
coach, Lovellette led his team to the 1952 NCAA Championship. He was
also named NCAA Player of the Year by the Helms Foundation. "It seemed
like from the first time we stepped on the court that year against
Creighton, good things were going to happen," Lovellette told the Kansas
City Star in 1988. "We had been up and down in two years, but we all
still liked each other and got along. Phog was still a ball of fire
then. It just all came together. It was a great experience."
Lovellette was a dominating force during the Jayhawks' drive to that
1952 title. He scored a record 141 during the tournament, averaging 35
points-per-game in the process. His 44 points in the second round
against St. Louis set an NCAA tournament record, and his 33 points
against St. John's in the final game paved the way for an easy 80-63
championship victory.
The storybook ride didn't end there. True to Allen's word, Lovellette
was selected to represent the United States in the 1952 Olympic Games in
Helsinki, Finland. As an added bonus, Allen was selected to join the
coaching staff as an assistant coach, while six of Lovellette's
teammates – Charles Hoag, William Hougland, John Keller, Melvin Kelley,
Robert Kenney and William Lienhard – were chosen to fill out the roster.
The Americans opened with big wins over Hungary and Czechoslovakia,
before struggling to dispose Uruguay, 57-44. Next up was a grudge match
with the Soviet Union; it was a highly aggressive and physical battle
that saw six Americans and four Soviet players foul out, while the U.S.
crushed the Soviets 86-58 behind 14 points each from Lovellette and
Kenney. Lovellette then scored 25 and 27-points in wins over Chile and
Brazil, respectively, and helped propel the U.S. over Argentina 85-76
and earn a trip to the Olympic finals. Waiting for them were the
Soviets, who still had only one loss. This time it was a
winner-take-all gold medal game. The USSR, learning from its earlier
loss, stuck to a strategy of tight defense and a full court stall.
After 10, minutes the U.S. led 4-3. Just prior to halftime, the U.S.
managed a basket and grabbed a 17-15 halftime lead. The Soviets stayed
with their tight defense and actually regained the lead early in the
second half. But the U.S. foiled the Soviet Union's upset attempt by
shooting well from the outside. After pulling ahead by nine, the U.S.
began its own stall causing one distraught Soviet player to stage a
temporary sit-down strike at midcourt. The Americans eventually went on
to win, 36-25. Lovellette led the USA offense with nine points, while
Kurland added eight points.
"Going to the Olympics and representing the United States [had] to be
the biggest thrill of my entire basketball career," Lovellette said in
1979. "Winning the gold medal was icing on the cake."
After a season playing AAU basketball for Phillips Petroleum, Lovellette
decided that the timing was right to give the NBA a try. Wooed by the
Milwaukee Hawks, Lovellette instead signed to play with the Minneapolis
Lakers, arriving at the end of the George Mikan Dynasty. Playing behind
Mikan as a rookie, Lovellette won an NBA title – the Lakers' fourth in
five seasons – and became the first player to win a championship at all
three levels.
Lovellette played solidly as a rookie, posting averages of 8.2 points
and 5.8 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game. The numbers jumped
to 10.5 points and 9.7 rebounds during the playoffs. And while he was
primarily used as a backup to Mikan (who, at the age of 29, was
suffering from creaky knees and was a season away from retirement),
there were times when the two big men were used in tandem. The
dual-post strategy gave opponents fits. "For six years, [opposing
teams] have been running up against George Mikan at the pivot," one
Minneapolis reporter wrote. "Now they've got Mikan one minute, and
Lovellette the next-and then maybe both of them together."
Had Mikan remained healthy, perhaps the Lakers would have strung
together a series of championships to rival Bill Russell's Boston
Celtics. Instead, Mikan retired. Lovellette stepped into the starting
lineup and proved that he was up to the challenge of filling Mikan's
shoes. He finished in the NBA's top 10 in scoring (18.7 ppg),
rebounding (11.5 rpg), and field-goal percentage (43.5%). The Lakers
posted a 40-32 record, good enough for a second-place finish behind the
Fort Wayne Pistons. They then fell to Fort Wayne in the playoffs in
four games.
After four seasons in Minneapolis, Lovellette was dealt to the Rochester
Royals. The franchise moved to Cincinnati two months later, and
Lovellette spent one season toiling in a Royal uniform. The agile big
man averaged a career-high 23.4 points-per-game (fourth in the NBA), and
finished fifth in the league in field-goal percentage (44.1%). Asked to
take a pay cut at season's end, Lovellette instead requested a trade and
ended up in St. Louis.
Teaming with future hall-of-famers Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagan,
Lovellette registered two All-Star appearances over the next four
seasons. Still, the Hawks could not get over the hump; Bill Russell and
the Celtics were churning out titles on an annual basis, resigning
Lovellette – now battling age and injury – to the thought that he might
never win another NBA crown.
All of that changed when Red Auerbach picked up Lovellette for the
1962-63 season to provide experienced relief for Russell at center.
(With back trouble taking its toll on Lovellette, the Hawks decided to
part ways with the 33-year-old veteran.) A rejuvenated Lovellette
played solid basketball for Auerbach over the next two seasons, winning
two championships and securing his place as one of the most prominent
players of his generation.
Lovellette retired
after
the 1964 NBA Finals and finished his 11-year career with 11,947 points,
an average of 17.0 points-per-game. He exited basketball's grandest
stage long before technology could trumpet his accomplishments to
millions of people worldwide, and yet to those who know basketball
history, he remains one of the game's true icons. Better yet,
Lovellette is far more engaging as a person than he was as a basketball
player. He is kind and courteous, a true throwback to the days before
text messages and Internet web casts. He respects the game that made
him a household name, and yet he respects life eternal far more than the
temporary glory found in awards and accolades. He doesn’t begrudge
today's athlete for making a ton more money than he ever saw. He simply
warns them that fame and fortune are fleeting possessions, and that the
grace of God will stay with them long after the other stuff fades.
Grace, in a word, sums up Clyde Edward Lovellette. He is simply amazing
CELTIC-NATION
You
were born on September 7th, 1929 in Petersburg, Indiana, the son of a
locomotive engineer. Your birthday was a little more than a month
before the Black Monday stock market crash. Please take me back to your
childhood – what was it like, and in what ways was it shaped by the
Great Depression?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Dad
always had a job – as you've just said, he was an engineer who worked on
the railroad – which was one thing that our family had to be thankful
about as far as the Great Depression was concerned. We were fortunate
in that we had everything that we needed. He had a good job, and he
brought home a good paycheck. I had two brothers, one of whom also
worked on the railroad, and I had two sisters. And as far as I can
remember, we had everything that we ever needed. There were other
families around our neighborhood and in other surrounding areas that
weren't as fortunate. I remember that Mom tried to help as many of them
as possible by giving them the things we had in excess – produce,
clothing, whatever the case may be. At that time there were a lot of
homeless people – we called the hobos back then – and Mom would always
give them a sandwich whenever they came by. These folks knew that they
had a place to come, a place where they could have a cold drink and a
sandwich. Mom never turned any of them down. But as far as our
household, I thought we came through the Depression in pretty good
shape.
CELTIC-NATION
You
were a four-year letter winner at Garfield High School, earning
All-State honors as a junior and senior and leading your team to the
finals of the 1947 state tournament. Please tell me a little about your
high school basketball career.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
High
school
basketball back in those days was a lot different that it is today. You
just played the game from year-to-year, and you didn't think too much
about going on to play in college. Your high school years were your
glory years – you just played the game and had a lot of fun, and you
didn't think about going off somewhere to play college basketball. As
you entered your senior year, you thought about getting a job, usually
following in your father's footsteps – in my case, a railroad engineer –
or some other occupation that didn't require college. And you usually
stayed close to the area or the town that you grew up in, because all of
your friends, family and acquaintances were there. You just had no
reason to go any further. In my case, I could have gone on to work on
the railroad – I could have started as a brakemen, or a fireman, and
then moved on up become an engineer like my Dad. But he never wanted me
to work on the railroad, even though that's where my brother ended up
working. I think he saw the athletic potential that I had, and that
perhaps there was a chance that I could do something with it.
So, high school basketball was a lot of fun. It developed a gangly,
awkward kid such as myself, turning him into someone who could dance,
skip rope, and play a pretty decent game of basketball. I was also able
to win a lot of honors and awards, so several colleges came calling by
the time my senior year came around, wanting me to play basketball for
them.
CELTIC-NATION
Following a stellar high school career in Terra Haute, you accepted a
scholarship to play for Kansas University and the legendary Phog Allen.
Please tell me what it was like to play for one of the greatest coaches
the game has ever known.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
You
have to remember that there wasn't a lot of television back in '47 and
'48. There wasn't any at all for awhile, and then it was all just
regional coverage. It was all in black-and-white, and on a 9-inch
screen. You got very little news on basketball outside of Indiana. And
with Indiana being the hotbed of basketball, you had coverage from
Bloomington, where Branch McCracken was the coach at Indiana University,
and you had coverage of Johnny Wooden's team at Indiana State. Notre
Dame had Moose Kraus. Purdue had Ward "Piggy" Lambert. Those were the
big programs, and the ones who received the most coverage. So you
figured that all the talent coming out of high school would go to one of
those four schools, or to another school in Indiana – be it a Division
I, II or III school – so that you could be close to home, and so that
the family could come and see you play.
I went to Bloomington to visit the IU campus, which is where all three
of my high school coaches had graduated from. Back then you didn't give
letters of intent to the college. You gave a verbal commitment. Well,
I went down to Bloomington after giving a verbal commitment to play for
Indiana University. But after getting down there and visiting the
school, I learned quickly that it was a huge campus with a very large
student body population. Honestly, I was a little bit intimidated by it
all. Ultimately I decided that I was going to honor my commitment,
except that an assistant coach from Kansas had come into the state to
talk to me – this was prior to me meeting Phog, and prior to my visit to
Bloomington. So I knew that Kansas was wanting me. I just thought that
that was a far piece to travel at the time, and I didn't really give it
a lot of serious thought.
Kansas didn't give up. Phog was going to make a speech in St. Louis,
and I agreed to meet him there to discuss what his school had to offer.
I chickened out, and sent my brother-in-law to meet with Phog and tell
him that I was going to Indiana, and that there was no use in coming to
Terra Haute to try and convince me to change my mind. Phog came anyway;
after the speech he came to Indiana instead of going back to Lawrence
[Kansas], and I really didn't want to meet with him. But I finally
decided to meet him and that's when we had a long talk, and that's also
when he made the one statement that no other coach had ever made – he
said that if I came to KU and played the pivot, then the team would be
good enough to win a national championship. All of the other pieces
were in place. He also predicted that we would go to the Olympics
together, and that we would win a gold medal in Helsinki, Finland. That
had a huge impact on me.
Being from Indiana, with very little television, you just didn't get
much in the way of Olympic coverage. You didn't hear a lot about
basketball and some of the other sports; what you heard about was track,
because back then that was the big thing in the Olympics. That was what
you saw on TV, or heard on the radio, or read about in the newspaper.
Jesse Owens was a national sensation – his exploits made you dream about
representing your country. So when Phog talked about the Olympics, that
was the thing that made me the most excited. I changed my mind because
of that talk, and I spent three years playing ball at KU – and we did
the things that he said that we were going to do: We won the national
championship, and we won the gold medal in Helsinki, Finland.
CELTIC-NATION
Your
transition from high school to college was nothing short of incredible –
you finished your first collegiate basketball season by leading the Big
Seven in scoring (21.8 ppg), by being named All-Big Seven, and by being
honored as an All-American. Please tell me about your first season in a
Jayhawk uniform - did you expect success and national recognition to
come so quickly?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
You
have to remember that the first year was my freshman year, and back then
freshmen couldn't play varsity sports. But that first year was really
my springboard, because we played against other freshmen at the Big
Seven schools, as well as against our own varsity on a nightly basis.
It made us realize that we weren't playing high school competition
anymore, and that we were going to be playing against young men who were
big, strong and athletic. We worked very hard during our freshman year,
and then we stayed there during the summer and worked on various skills
that would help us when we played varsity ball the following fall. So
once we took to the court during our sophomore year, we felt that we
were ready to play college basketball.
High school players today are eligible to play four years, but I still
believe that they could benefit from the adjustment of sitting out of
varsity ball that first year. There is so much they could do in the way
of settling into campus life, such as developing good study habits and
learning to live away from home.
CELTIC-NATION
As a
sophomore you were fourth in the nation in scoring, and you finished
fifth as a junior – earning All-Big Seven and All-America honors both
years. What tactics did opposing coaches employ in an effort to slow
you down?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
I
guess there were a lot of double-teams, and a lot of sagging off. They
also tried to push me out from my normal shooting range – keeping me
away from the basket was a big strategy on both ends of the court,
actually. Putting a guy in front of me, and a guy behind me, that was
the most common defense that I had to deal with. But if you've got a
good ball club, and they're working with you, and I'm working with them,
then it gets to the place where a defense can do that for a little bit –
but pretty soon it's going to break down and we're going to run our
offense. They can stymie you for awhile. But if you've good a good
nucleus of players who can shoot from outside and drive to the basket
–and good passers – then the cream will come to the top, and that's what
we had. We had a great bunch of guys that just loved to play basketball
and loved to win. If we won, great, and if we lost, then we'd go back
to the practice court, figure out what we'd done wrong and correct it
for the next game.
CELTIC-NATION
Everything came together for you as a senior – you led the nation in
scoring, and you led the Jayhawks to the 1952 NCAA Championship. You
were All-Big Seven, All-America, and the Helms Foundation NCAA Player of
the Year. Take me back to that senior season – what memories stand out
after all these years, and did you expect to finish your collegiate
career in such storybook fashion?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
I
think you have to go all the way back to when Phog recruited me to come
to Kansas, and when he recruited all of those guys out of Kansas. We
had a plan, even though there were times during the course of our
sophomore and junior years when that plan would go awry; we'd lose a
game here and there, and we weren't doing as well as Phog was wanting us
to, but the important thing was that we kept our focus on improving as a
unit. I can't speak for the other guys on the team – Glenn Hart, Robert
Kenney, the Kelley brothers and the rest – but I think we had a mindset
that we were going to go out and play hard every game, do the best that
we could, and do what Phog wanted us to do. I think we were convinced
that if we did these things we'd have good success in every game, win or
lose. So I think that mindset carried us the entire year.
Fortunately, we had a great nucleus of ball players. We had a range of
guys that could play the game, and bring their own unique skills to the
team – whether it was passing, rebounding, defense, or scoring. We
started off winning , and kept winning until we hit a snag and lost two
games in a row. Phog was upset. We worked very hard in practice after
that second loss, because he knew – and we knew – that we couldn't lose
any more or we weren't going to win the Big Seven and have a chance to
win the national championship. Well, we didn't lose any other games
after that. Every game we played, we played the game hard and we played
it to have fun…and we played it to the best of our ability – both
individually, and as a team. And, as it turned out, we won the Big
Seven and went on to become national champions.
CELTIC-NATION
You
were unstoppable during the postseason, scoring 141 points on your way
to earning tournament MVP honors. How were you able to dominate the
best teams in the nation?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
I
don’t know if you can call it providence, but we were determined to
fulfill the prophecy that Phog had given to us as freshmen. We came
together, and the team as a whole was unstoppable. And I think I just
came to the point in my career where I understood what was expected of
me if we were going to win the national championship. I knew that I
needed to raise the level of my game. It had to be better than what I'd
produced during the regular season, although I had a great regular
season my senior year. It had to be better because one loss in a
tournament means that your season is over – and, in the case of the
seniors, that meant the end of a college career.
I remember coming out the locker room for those tournament games,
buckling down and then taking care of business on the court. The other
guys on the team had the same attitude. We might be behind or tied at
halftime, but we'd come out with a big spurt at the start of the second
half and dominate every team that we played.
CELTIC-NATION
While
at Kansas, you developed into something of an extrovert, even hosting a
radio show at WIBW in Topeka called "Hill Billy Clyde and his Hound Dog
Lester." Please tell me about this part of your life.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
You're
right – in high school I was 6'-8" and head-and-shoulders above
everybody else. It got to the point that I became very shy. I didn't
go out very much. I didn't want to be looked at or stared at. But by
my junior and senior years I had blossomed as an athlete, becoming an
All-State basketball player and gaining recognition for what I could do
on the court. I started dating, and I found a good core of friends to
bum around with together – I was very careful in that regard, because
sometimes I think my popularity as a basketball player made me popular
with a lot of the guys and girls at school. I never let them get to the
point to where they were using me. I kept my distance from the ones who
wanted to be associated with me simply so that they could say 'Look who
I know'.
When I first got into college it was a completely different atmosphere.
In college they don't know who you are and they don't really care.
They're interested in getting an education. But once I started playing
basketball I found myself in the same situation, with people wanting to
latch onto me because I was a high-profile athlete. They were more
interested in who I was, and it made them look good to be seen with
someone who was doing well in that regard. So even though I was more of
an extrovert in college, I still chose my friends very carefully. I
wanted people to associate themselves with me because of who I was, and
not what I did as an athlete. And when we went out, we didn't talk
about basketball. We didn't talk about the big game the team had just
played, or the big game that was coming up. We talked about other
things – what was going on in the State of Kansas, or what was going on
in the world.
It was like that in other parts of the country as well – pretty much
wherever we played. There were always people – hangers-on, I called
them – who loved to come around the locker room, get an autograph and
hang out with you for a little bit. And then other people would see
them hanging around the athletes, and it would give them a bloated ego.
So we as players just had to be careful about who we associated with.
CELTIC-NATION
Following college, the Olympics beckoned. You, along with six of your
Kansas teammates and coach Allen, were selected to represent the United
States in Helsinki, Finland. What was this experience like for you, and
where does it rank in terms of your athletic achievements?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
I
think the Olympics ranks number one with me, because it was so much
bigger than anything else I'd ever accomplished as an athlete. And I
think that that's only natural, because if you win an award for Kansas,
playing Kansas basketball, you win it for two groups of people other
than yourself – you win it for Kansas University, and you win it for the
State of Kansas. So when I was named All-American, the award meant
something to me, Phog, KU and the people in Kansas who I represented.
But when I won a gold medal, it was much higher honor because I was
representing the United States in the Olympics. No longer was I
representing a single state. I was representing millions of Americans
with my behavior, my ability, and my performance on the basketball
court. That meant a whole lot to me. Much more than just representing
the state and the university. There were only five-hundred athletes in
the world who were selected to compete in the Olympics. So that in
itself was a great honor. And to be able to win a gold medal is almost
beyond words, because I won it first for the American people, then the
State of Kansas, then Kansas University, then Phog, and finally myself.
That's the order in which it mattered to me. If you watch the Olympics
today, most of the athletes are concerned only with themselves – not all
of them, of course, but the vast majority. And with basketball you have
pro players on the roster. When I played it was all amateur athletes,
and I think that it meant more because of that. So you find that most
of the athletes today just go to the Games with the USA logo on their
back. They don't place representing their country at the top of their
priority list.
CELTIC-NATION
After
the Olympics, you spent a year playing amateur basketball, winning the
National AAU title with Phillips Petroleum (1953). Please take me back
to this period on your life.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
After
graduation, a lot of ballplayers went on to play in the Industrial
League, which was comprised of approximately twenty-eight teams located
all over the country. And the teams represented big corporations in
various industries such as banking and petroleum. There were teams
sponsored by Phillips, Goodyear, Caterpillar, and so forth. Players
would graduate from college and go to work for these companies – and by
work, I mean taking real, nine-to-five jobs that paid a salary and
included benefits such as vacation and sick leave – and, in the process,
get a jump on a business career.
When I went to interview with Phillips, I learned that eighty percent of
the ballplayers were still on the payroll – and this was from the
inception of the Industrial League. So I was impressed by that, and I
decided to go to work for Phillips. I was in chemical sales. I was
behind a desk, which I didn't like much, but every once in awhile I
would get out. But during basketball season I'd get to practice every
day, and then I'd get to travel with the team to the games. Phillips
had a private plane for the team, and we traveled first class; in many
respects, I think it was much better than when I started playing in the
pros. In the pros we had eight teams, four in the East and four in the
West, and the travel and accommodations weren't as good as what we had
with Phillips.
I remember making a remark that I was happy to be playing with Phillips
in the amateurs, and that I never really considered going pro. Shortly
after that, I read a comment by "Easy" Ed Macauley, which quoted him as
saying that the amateurs was the best place for me. He told the
reporter that he didn't think that I could make it in the NBA. He later
said that he didn't make the comment, and that it was written out of
context, but I used that as a source of tremendous motivation. I took
that as a challenge. I played one year with Phillips and then told the
company president that I wanted to try the NBA. He said that he was
sorry to see me go, but he understood and wished me luck. The next year
I was playing center with the Minneapolis Lakers, behind the great
George Mikan.
CELTIC-NATION
You
signed your first professional contract in 1953, joining –as you have
just said – George Mikan and the defending-champion Minneapolis Lakers.
Mikan represented the NBA's first great center, while the Lakers were
the league's first true dynasty. Please tell me a little about Mr.
Mikan, and also about the experience of winning the NBA championship as
a rookie with Lakers.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
You
don't have enough time for me to tell you about Mikan [laughs]. I
didn't follow the pros at that time – I didn't know too many players in
the pros, so when I signed the contract to go to Minneapolis and they
told me about George Mikan…well, I had to read about George Mikan to
find out what everyone was talking about. He was the biggest guy in the
NBA, an All-Star, the leading scorer and rebounder…everything that I
read about him seemed larger than life. And then meeting him at that
first practice was an awesome sight, because George was a full inch
taller than me and outweighed me by at least twenty-five pounds. He had
square shoulders, and he was very powerful – he was all man.
I was twenty-one at the time, and George was in his thirties – he had
already been in the league a number of years, because he retired the
year after I got there. He was a truly dominating player. I don't mean
this in a bad way, but George was also a mean, aggressive ballplayer.
When he got the ball he wanted to put the ball in the hole, and you'd
better be out of the way – if not, he'd want to take you, the ball and
everything else and try very hard to put it all in the basket [laughs].
I learned from George very early on that if I was going to stay in the
league any length of time – and I planned on staying in the pros a
number of years, and not getting booted out as a rookie and having
nothing to do – then playing the physical part of the game was a must.
George also taught me that if I was going to be squeamish, then I wasn't
going to make it in the league. I learned very quickly that I had to
take it, that I had to dish it out, and that I had to be prepared to
take it again, because they were going to come right back at me and try
to do the very same thing. So I learned a lot from George that first
year. I played behind him. I played some when he was injured. We got
in together in a dual post attack. And we had a great supporting cast –
we had Vern Mikkelson on one side, we had Jim Pollard on the other. We
had Slater Martin and Whitey Skoog, and George in the middle. We had
All-Americans sitting on the bench. It was just a great, great
experience to be a part of that, and to win an NBA title that first
year.
CELTIC-NATION
You
finished in the NBA's top 10 in scoring, rebounding, and field-goal
percentage in your first season as a starter. A year later you ranked
fourth in the NBA in scoring (22.1 ppg), third in rebounds (14.0 rpg),
and sixth in field-goal percentage (434 percent). Were you surprised at
how quickly you became one of the leagues' most dominant players?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Yeah,
because when I first came into the league George was the biggest player
in the NBA. But by my second season they started getting bigger players
in the league – there was suddenly a bunch of guys 6'10" and 6'11", so I
had to adapt to playing inside and outside. I had to learn more about
team play, because I had to really work the ball to score. I had to be
patient, and trust that I'd get the ball back if I gave it up. And I
worked hard in the offseason to get better. Coming out of college, I
thought that everything was going to be as easy as it was for me at
Kansas. I found out very quickly that that wasn't the case. Every NBA
roster was stocked with guys who had been All-Conference, or
All-American. They were the top players at their schools. They might
not have been the leading scorers in the nation, but they were pretty
close. So I had to adjust. I learned that you just can't put your
sneakers out on the court and not be able to fill them. I had to be
ready to play.
CELTIC-NATION
The
Minneapolis Lakers and the Boston Celtics conducted annual preseason
barnstorming tours throughout New England, often playing up to 17 games
in twenty-one days. What memories to you have of these exhibitions, and
what was your first impression of the Celtics' brash young coach, Arnold
"Red" Auerbach?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
When
you play that many games on that many nights, and you ride the bus with
the other team…well, the first night and the first game is pretty nice.
Everybody got along and everyone sat with one another and talked about a
lot of things. And no one was really interested in whether you won or
lost. But all of that changed after the second or third game that you
played. Tempers got raw. Sometimes you wouldn't be sitting with a
Boston Celtic. You'd be sitting with a Minneapolis Laker. Or you'd be
sitting on one side of the bus and they'd be sitting on the other. And
sometimes it got kind of hairy [laughs]. But overall, it was a good
experience. You got your training, you got your workout, you got in
shape…all of those things…but sometimes it got a little tight with the
players you were competing against. It might be someone you had just
finished hitting in a game, or someone you might have outscored, or
someone that you fouled hard – and then you had to get on the bus and
sit near him…or even right beside him. Of course they don't do that
now, but it was an experience that every ballplayer should go through
once.
CELTIC-NATION
After
the 1957 NBA Playoffs, you were dealt to the Rochester Royals along with
Jim Paxson for Ed Fleming, Bob Burrow, Art Spoelstra, and a first-round
draft pick (which the Lakers used to select Rod Hundley). Please tell
me about your time spent Cincinnati.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Rochester
at one time was a great franchise. When they moved to Cincinnati, I
guess [Royals owner] Les Harrison got some tax breaks or something, or
maybe a break on the rent. I'm not really sure why Harrison decided to
move, but I thought he was a nice guy, and we had some good talent the
year that I was there. Jack Twyman was there, and Maurice Stokes.
Stokes got sick the year that I got there. He would have been a
superstar in the NBA. We had George King and myself. We had some good
ballplayers, but I wasn't happy in Cincinnati. So it was sort of a
stop-off place. I wanted to go straight from Minneapolis to St. Louis,
because Ben Kerner had drafted me to come to Milwaukee and I then didn't
go there. I think he'd been a little bit disappointed that I didn't end
up with him in the first place, because I would have played in Milwaukee
and probably would have been part of the move to St. Louis.
It was contract time, and Harrison met with me and said that he was
going to cut salaries. I said 'No thanks', and asked to be traded. I
had no idea where I was going, but I was happy to end up in St. Louis.
Bob Pettit was there, and Cliff Hagan. Slater Martin came out of
Minneapolis and he was there. Jack Mcmahon. Sihugo Green. So there
was a good nucleus of ballplayers, and they had just won the
championship the year before. I thought I could fit right in. Charlie
Share was the center. I had to beat him out – we split time the first
half of my first season in St. Louis, and then he was traded to
Minneapolis.
But back to your question – Cincinnati was just a blur. If I'd have
stayed there long enough I would have gotten to play with Oscar
Robertson. Who knows, maybe we would have won a championship.
CELTIC-NATION
You've just touched on my next question: A season later, you were
traded to the reigning NBA-champion St. Louis Hawks. Former Celtic
"Easy" Ed Macauley was a teammate, as were players such as Bob Pettit
and Cliff Hagen. Please tell me about each of these gentlemen.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
"Easy"
was a very good ballplayer when he played for the Boston Celtics. I ran
into him a lot of times when I was with Minneapolis and Cincinnati. We
had great battles. Then he went to St. Louis, where he played and
became the team's head coach. But you have to remember that when I got
to St. Louis, "Easy" was in the twilight of his career. He was a fine
man.
The two players that I like to talk about the most are Pettit and
Hagan. When I played with Cliff and Bob, it was like a trio made in
heaven. I don't know what it was. The three of us just jelled
together, we had our own roles to play, and we knew how to move in each
other's space on the court. I could be inside, I could go outside. I
developed the one-handed outside shot – it would be a three-pointer
today. Cliff could move inside. We could switch the defense – if we
had a big guy on me, like Wilt Chamberlain, I could move him out and
then Pettit and Hagan could have free reign inside. For the four years
that I played as a starter for St. Louis, we were the top scoring
frontline in the NBA. So we had a really good nucleus until I got
hurt. I tore my Achilles tendon, and that's when Boston picked me up
for the final two years.
CELTIC-NATION
St.
Louis won 49 contests during the 1958-59 season, but the team was
shocked in the division finals by Minneapolis and its exciting rookie,
Elgin Baylor. After all of those years in a Laker uniform, what was it
like for you to play this series from the other side?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
It
was terrible because I would have liked to have won it against the
Lakers. You always get up when you play your old team. We just didn't
get up high enough. It was disappointing because we felt we could go
all the way. We flubbed up and didn't do what we were supposed to do.
CELTIC-NATION
The
Hawks reached the NBA Finals a year later, falling to the Boston Celtics
in an exciting seven game series. What was it like to compete against
Bill Russell arguably to be greatest defensive player – and greatest
winner – in NBA history?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
I've
always said that if I were going to start an NBA franchise, I'd want to
have a Bill Russell. Then I would fill in around him. I played against
Russell for many years when I was with Minneapolis and St. Louis. He
was by far the most difficult player I'd ever played against, because he
was so quick. Defensively, he was the best player in NBA history.
Offensively, he wasn’t the most overpowering. He could score, but his
main prowess was rebounding, kicking the ball out, and running the
court. To me, Russell is the greatest ever. They talk about
Chamberlain, and they talk about Russell, and I really believe that
Russell had the heart to be a champion. Not to disparage Chamberlain,
but he just didn't have the same kind of heart. You could see the spurt
every once in awhile. He would have that determination and killer
instinct, but he just didn't have it consistently. He could always
score, but guys could score on him as well. The Celtics were the
Celtics, but they became champions when they got Russell.
If Auerbach and the Celtics hadn't traded for the rights to Russell,
then Russell would have been a Hawk. And I'm sure that he would have
done the same for that franchise. But Auerbach traded "Easy" and Hagan
to Kerner for the right to draft Russell.
CELTIC-NATION
You
scored your 10,000th NBA point one year later, during a game at Madison
Square Garden. Hawks coach Paul Seymour presented you with a trophy to
commemorate the event, and then followed with a good-natured ribbing.
He said: "Here is a well-earned memento for you, Clyde, a fitting
souvenir to mark the 25,000 points you've accounted for," Seymour said.
Then he added, "That's right, 25,000 points-10,000 that you scored and
the 15,000 that you gave to your opponents." What did this milestone
mean to you and, more importantly, did you ever get even with coach
Seymour for his comment?
CLYDE
LOVELLETTE
No,
I didn't get even with Paul – even though I probably should have
[laughs]. He was a good coach for us. Every once in awhile I'd have a
tendency not to get back fully on a defensive play, and he would fine me
$25 for not getting back. As far as the 10,000 points are concerned, it
was definitely a milestone and an honor. But I didn't give up 15,000
points [laughs].
CELTIC-NATION
The
Hawks outlasted a Laker club lead by Elgin Baylor and Jerry West to earn
a rematch with the Celtics. The Celtics, however, were beginning to
look like a dynasty themselves. Just how good were the Celtics in this
series?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
St.
Louis felt like a family ball club, and Boston was the same way. They
were a group of individuals that didn't want to get beat, and they had
the nucleus to back it up. People talk about the coaching ability of
Red Auerbach, but I think Red Auerbach was a great psychologist because
he kept the egos on that team to where he could manage them, and to
where the players could play to the best of their ability. To me, the
Celtics weren't a group of individuals. They were a collection of
individual stars that could play together for a common goal – winning
championships. You had All-Stars in five areas – Bill Russell, Bob
Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn, and either of the Jones Boys [Sam or
KC]. So when the team took the court you could have five All-Stars
playing at the same time; and yet, when they played together they
weren't playing as five individual All-Stars. They worked together as a
unit, and nobody on that team cared about getting the most points, or
the most assists, or whatever the case may have been. If a Sam Jones
stepped up and had a big night, the other four players were happy to do
the other things to help the team win. There wasn't a jealous bone on
the floor. They were truly a family, a group of guys that really
enjoyed one another.
When I joined the team, I had to be invited into the family. I wasn't
brought in immediately. They had to find out what kind of individual
that I was, and how I could get along with the other players on the team
– or couldn't get along, if that happened to be the case. They knew
that I'd been an All-Star prior to coming to Boston, but that really
didn't matter to them. They were looking for how well I fit into the
family framework that was in place. They didn't want anybody in there
that was going to stir the pot, so to speak.
CELTIC-NATION
Your
back caused you to miss half of the next season. Then, when it looked
as if you'd reached the NBA Finals for the last time, Red Auerbach and
the Boston Celtics came calling. What made Auerbach such a great coach,
and how did he compare to Phog Allen at Kansas?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Like
Red, Phog was a great psychologist. He had a great assistant coach in
Dick Harp, who helped take care of the X's and O's. But Phog kept us
all in line. If you got out of line, or got to thinking that you were
bigger than you really were, then Phog would bring you back down. Red
was the same way. Now as far as X's and O's, I think Red had a group of
guys who wanted to play and wanted to win, and he gave them the tools as
far as plays, to accomplish that feat. And then he let the guys go out
and play. Red let Cousy and Bill go out and play ball – he knew what
they could do. He just got his point across in practices, pointing out
mechanics and technique, and come game time he trusted that his players
would execute on both ends of the court. And then he kept them together
psychologically. I think that Phog was the same way – in many respects
they were very similar in their approach to the game…of course, Phog
didn't smoke cigars – but Red sure did [laughs
CELTIC-NATION
You
began your NBA career by winning a championship as a backup to the great
George Mikan, and finished it by winning two as a backup to the
incomparable Bill Russell. What was it like to play with Russell, and
what was it like to win those titles in Boston?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Well,
it was definitely better playing with him than against him [laughs].
Once you got to know him, Bill was a great guy. Just to sit on the
bench and watch him play, it didn’t seem as though he ever got older.
It seemed like he could go on and on forever, even though age catches up
with everybody. But there were nights when he'd play the whole game –
forty-eight minutes – and you could only sit back and marvel and how he
could do that after playing in the league for ten-plus years. Of
course, it was my job to be his backup, so there were nights when I
didn't step foot on the floor.
Every once in awhile I'd get to go in and play. I remember one time,
Bill got poked in the eye and had to come out. I went in against Walt
Bellamy and had one heck of a night. I scored over twenty points that
night. So every once in a while I could still have spurts [laughs].
But I was there in the twilight of my career, enjoying playing when I
did, and enjoying watching guys like John Havlicek play ball. He was
rookie during my first year with the team. He was really something
special. And, as you've mentioned, I was able to win a couple of
championships before I retired from basketball. It was really special
to be a part of the Boston Celtics.
CELTIC-NATION
On
May 3, 1988 you received basketball's highest honor – enshrinement in
the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Please take me back to
that special day.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Anytime
you get honored by your peers, it has to be considered a great honor.
You have to be voted in – I think there are eighteen people on the panel
who have to endorse you, so it's very special to be selected. You look
at the players in there – guys like George Mikan, and even guys farther
back than that…guys like Bob Kurland, who I'd heard about but had never
seen play – and you realize how great a thrill it is to be selected.
It's something that I'll cherish for the rest of my life.
CELTIC-NATION
You
were the first player to play on an NCAA, Olympic and NBA championship
team – a feat that has been duplicated only three times since. What
does this mean to you?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
Either
I was awfully lucky, or the teams that I played on – and I give credit
to my teammates for this distinction – were awfully talented. Because
without the other players you can't win. The kids that I played with at
Kansas and in the pros, and in the Olympics…they were the reason that I
won at those levels. I just wish that I could have won the state
championship in 1947, because then I would have had a title at all
levels. We came ten points shy [laughs].
CELTIC-NATION
Final
Question: You’ve achieved great success in your life. You are
universally respected and admired by many people, both inside and
outside of the NBA. If you could offer one piece of advice on life to
others, what would that be?
CLYDE LOVELLETTE
In
1980, I was fifty years old. I'd played a lot of ball, and I'd won a
lot of awards, and I was generally looked upon as a great success in the
world of athletics. But it seemed as if I were still searching – I
wasn't complete, I wasn't fulfilled, and I was still searching for
something. That year I gave my life to Christ, and my life from that
time forth has been the best years of my life. I don't get noticed as
much for basketball. I'm still known, but I don't search out the
spotlight. I enjoy being a child of Christ, and I enjoy my relationship
with Him a lot more than anything I ever accomplished on the basketball
court. That might be hard to understand, but even when I was young and
playing and in control, I knew that something was missing. I knew that
I was going to find Him and the He could fill the emptiness that was in
my heart.
Athletes today need to realize that all the money that they make, all
the accolades that they receive…those things will fade. Their
popularity will fade. My advice is to look for something permanent, and
for something that is going to be eternal. Jesus Christ is the answer.
|