Posted on

PART 3: “BLACK” JACK PART OF 10 HALLS OF FAME

A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to Major League Baseball, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more top-flight tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. In this story, perhaps Redlands is getting its biggest headline off this brilliant basketball connection. – Obrey Brown.

“Black” Jack Gardner’s Kansas State record, 147-81 (.645) was largely built over his final seven seasons when his mark improved greatly to 127-47 (.730). There were a pair of 20-win seasons and two Final Four appearances, including a championship game. 

After helping that squad to back-to-back second-place conference finishes in 1952 and 1953, he handed reins of that program to his assistant coach, Tex Winter, in 1953.

It’s curious. In that 1953 season, “Black” Jack had Kansas State ranked No. 1 to start that season, his finale in Manhattan. No discussion on his part came from him off that jump, just this: “It was a nice move for me.”

Yes. Winter, who eventually served as Phil Jackson’s assistant coach on NBA championship teams in both Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles basketball, pioneered that eventually well-known, triple-post attack.

Tex_Winter
Long before he became a fixture in developing the Triple Post offense for Phil Jackson in 11 NBA championship seasons in both Chicago and Los Angeles, Tex Winter was an assistant coach for Redlands’ Jack Gardner at Kansas State, taking over when Gardner left for Utah (Photo by Commons).

Yes, that ex-Redlands High star from the 1920s, Gardner, coached against the greats. His Utah team, 23-3 in 1961-62, beat John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins, 88-79, at L.A.’s Sports Arena. Those were UCLA’s pre-dynasty days, in fact. In that same building a few years later, eventual NCAA champion Bruins, 28-2, posted a 30-point win over Gardner’s 17-9 Utes.

Times were changing.

Gardner had departed Manhattan, Kansas in 1953 for Salt Lake City. Over those 18 seasons, “The Fox” or “Black” Jack, led his Utes to six NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching Final Four twice. Remember, this was an era when only 23 teams reached that NCAA field – not this current 68-team tournament.

“The Fox” concluded his Utah career at 339-154, leading Utah to seven conference titles. Between 1959 and 1962, his teams won 51 out of 56 at home. Like his days in Manhattan, where Gardner’s influence helped create those Ahearn Field House vibrations, Gardner’s Salt Lake City presence led to construction of Utah’s new basketball facility.

Against intra-state rival Brigham Young University, coached by Stan Watts, Gardner’s Utes held a narrow 19-17 mark against the Cougars in what was considered a highly intense rivalry.

Gardner, whose overall lifetime coaching mark, 486-285, was inducted into 10 separate Halls of Fame throughout his years. 

  • Southern Utah Hall of Fame
  • Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
  • Utah All-Sports Hall of Fame
  • State of Utah Basketball Hall of Fame
  • Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
  • Helms Foundation Hall of Fame
  • Kansas State University Hall of Fame
  • Crimson Club (University of Utah)
  • Modesto (Calif.) Junior College Hall of Fame
  • College Basketball Hall of Fame, also a recipient of the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Golden Anniversary Award.

“Black” Jack moved on. He was a consultant for NBA’s Jazz from 1979, a year that team moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake City. Gardner is credited with discovering Stockton while working for that Jazz organization.

That part of the story? Gardner wintered in Malibu in California, near Pepperdine University campus. When Gonzaga (Wash.) University came to Pepperdine for a Big West Conference game, Gardner was watching. Stockton was a Zag.

498px-John_Stockton
Utah Jazz scout Jack Gardner, whose basketball life began a half-century earlier while in Redlands, was the man that recommended John Stockton by drafted by the Jazz in 1984. An eventual Hall of Famer, Stockton was part of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team (Photo by Commons).

In 1984, Stockton’s selection as NBA’s 16th drafted player – same as Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, among others – it was Gardner’s strong recommendation that left Utah with its own eventual Hall of Famer.

That same year, 1984, is when Gardner himself was inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame. At that point, he was in the midst of a record-setting attendance performance. Between 1939 and 1997, Gardner never missed a Final Four – whether it was coaching or attending.

Part 4 coming.

Posted on

CAZZIE RUSSELL: FORMER NO. 1 NBA PICK BROUGHT SCAD TO REDLANDS

This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is a portion about a series of visitors at Redlands, Quick Visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of a Convocation Series. A piece on Tom Flores was another one. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, former NBA player John Block, legendary high school coach Willie West showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966. 

Truth is, there aren’t many NBA No. 1 draft choices that pass through Redlands. Not just a No. 1 draft pick. We’re talking No. 1 overall.

Cazzie Russell comes to mind. That Chicago native was a three-time All-American at Michigan in the mid-1960s. At 54 years of age, Russell was coaching Savannah (Ga.) College of Arts & Design (SCAD).

In December 1998, SCAD came out west for a three-game trip to play Westmont College, near Santa Barbara, University of La Verne and, finally, University of Redlands.

“This school,” Russell told me, referring to SCAD, “was founded in 1979 with 71 students … and a credit card.”

By 1998, that campus had grown to 4,000 students.

Russell said he wasn’t SCAD’s only ex-pro. Upon getting hired, SCAD’s Chairman of the Board was none other than Dr. Bernie Casey, who had been an NFL All-Pro receiver. One time major league pitching hero Luis Tiant was that school’s baseball coach.

Imagine.

As for Russell, hoops fans might recall that 6-foot-5 pure shooter who helped lead the Wolverines to that 1964 and 1965 Final Four, losing in the 1966 Regionals to eventual finalist Kentucky. A short time later, the New York Knicks made Russell their No. 1 pick.

Cazzie Russell

Cazzie Russell, a No. 1 overall draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966, coached a small college team from the visitor’s bench in 1998 at the University of Redlands (photo by Savannah College of Art & Design).

 

Thirty years later, which included an NBA title in 1970 – Knicks over the Lakers – Russell was sitting in an Ontario hotel, sort of an Interstate 10 highway midway point between La Verne and Redlands.

“I love coaching here,” he says. “Nobody expects anything from us. We’re a bunch of cartoonists, graphic designers, architects. We come into another school’s gym and they’re thinking they’ve got us.

“When they get us on the court, we fool ’em.”

Someone else could write connections Russell had with a variety of NBA legends, including teammates, plus plenty of opponents that included Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, onetime teammates Willis Reed and Walt Frazier, Nate Thurmond and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and John Havlicek.

“I just saw Oscar two or three weeks ago,” said Russell. “I remember when he came to my high school and tried to get me to go (coach at) Cincinnati, his old school.”

During his NBA days, Russell was traded by the Knicks to the San Francisco Warriors for legendary rebounder Jerry Lucas in 1971.

Three decades later at SCAD, Russell laid the groundwork for recruiting, basketball, getting his team a chance for an education at an NCAA Division 3 institution.

No one sees us at practice, he says. “We’re working on defense, shooting, fundamentals … just like everyone else, I suppose.”

Teaching those fundamentals at practice, he said, “is like trying to introduce them to a new cereal.”

At SCAD, Russell’s recruits are playing for a former No. 1 draft pick, a one time NBA champion who played against the best basketball players in the world.

“A lot of kids are in awe of the fact that I was drafted number 1,” he said.

That list of overall number one picks –  Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem, Robertson, Baylor, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes or Bill Walton – does NOT include Michael Jordan or Chamberlain, Russell or Karl Malone.

Russell’s in rare company.

Joked Russell: “I don’t want to get into the difference in the amount of money we made then and what they make now.”

During his post-playing career, Russell coached at every level – high school, CBA, an NBA assistant, collegiately in both NAIA and NCAA – before settling in at SCAD.

In SCAD’s three-game swing out west in 1998, the Bees swept games at Westmont, La Verne and Redlands.

It seemed strange to see Russell seated on the bench as SCAD warmed up to play the Bulldogs inside Currier Gymnasium on that December 16, 1998 night.

It was a far cry from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum when, playing for the Warriors, the smooth-shooting Russell was swishing shots in a rare win over NBA powerhouse Milwaukee Bucks.

Averaging 15 points a game over a 10-year career, Russell not only played in New York and Golden State, but also the Lakers and Chicago Bulls. When the Lakers signed him away from the Warriors, according to rules of those days, Russell’s former team received draft compensation.

Russell chuckled, noting that draft pick turned out to be Robert Parrish, that 7-foot center later winding up in a deal with the Boston Celtics.

As for SCAD basketball, Russell’s coaching career in Savannah lasted 13 seasons. That school cancelled the sport in 2009.

Russell was as well-versed in spiritual necessities as he was setting up a jump shot. He seemed to make as much joy in reporting that God was a huge factor in his life.

“If God is first in your life,” he told me, “then you’re going to be successful. I’m not talking about making money. I’m talking about faith in everything you do.”

You can run from God, he said, “but you can’t hide. When I decided I was going to be obedient in 1989, it was the best thing I ever did.”

“I’ve got no plans to leave.”