Transcripts For CSPAN2 Andrea Chamblee The Capital Of Basket

I talk to you about what john gave to this community. I say this all the time. We have to fight for our local newspaper, for local journalism. When we lament losing our Hardware Store or our bakery or things that are in bit parts of the community our local newspaper is just as important. John mcnamara reported on the things we care about turkey cared about our kids, our local teams and obviously in his book he celebrates that i talking about there is Nothing Better than a local basketball game which i agree with 100 . I also want to thank everyone for coming here. I think andrea hasnt shown tremendous bravery in what she has done for us, not only has she lost her soulmate, but she has had the courage to step forward and stand up against the nra. She has been subjected to horrible things throughout the process, but she was brave enough to stand there and say we need to talk about these issues, these kind of violent things happening in our communities are not partisan. It is a thing for us all to tackle whether you are red or blue, old or young, when these horrible things happen in our communities, they are not picking on democrats or republicans. If they are heartbreak and devastation in our communities and she has stood up for us, stood up on this issue so i want to thank her for that. [applause]. I also want to say what it must have taken in the face of all of that to deliver on this book. How she could continue her husbands dream and the passion and the love that is a shown in continuing this and making this event possible today, so thank you all for coming. Annapolis thinks you. I think you and we love you all, thank you. [applause]. Thinks. Next, i would like to introduce a dear friend, Jerry Jackson who worked sidebyside with john at the Annapolis Capital and now is the Sports Editor of the Baltimore Sun acting Sports Editor of the Baltimore Sun and i have a fond memories of going to springsteen concert with jerry and his lovely wife and im grateful he is here today. [applause]. Hi, everybody. I had the distinct pleasure of my desk having a abutted johns for 23 years at the capital so we shared a lot of good times and i can tell you he was one terrific guy and i cannot think andrea enough for the work she has done to finish his book for him. I would like to just give you like a little snippet about the book and how well researched it is i mean most of us who were are in the sports are really sort of history buffs. We like the trivia and you know looking back at stuff, so when john was researching this book, one thing that i kind of knew but didnt know much about it was my dad was a sportswriter for the Baltimore Sun for 30 years and when he first moved down from new jersey his first big assignment for the sun was to cover the power memorial game , which you know sort of put the basket on the map. They upset luau, at the time Kareem Abduljabbar and was just a huge event, sold out at coldfield house so when john was doing the research he saw that my dad had covered the game and would bring me in the clips. You know, i feverishly read all of them and it was a treat to get to see something that my dad had done, you know, 30 years ago i thought i knew just about when i was reading johns book i thought i knew just about everything about this famous power memorial game, but just to show you a little bit of what detail john puts into this book is he tells us in the book that the game was sold out and tickets were selling scalping for more than the beatles concert, which was at the same time so can you imagine one of the highest grossing you know rock n roll right now at a High School Basketball game with tickets selling for more than that, so kind of gives you a little bit gives you this rich perspective of how much High School Basketball meant it to washington and this a book is chockfull of stuff like that. Its such a great history of washington dc and goes into integration, School Integration and he sort of tells the history of dc through High School Basketball, so its just a terrific book and i cannot think andrea enough before finishing it and i thoroughly enjoyed reading it and i think anyone else that picks it up will love it. [applause]. Think you. There are a few seats for those of you coming in later and that is rick snyder who also worked with dawn and has covered the redskins for 30 years or more and he would like to read a segment of the book. [applause]. Thank you. My notes are on a phone now. Thats how this business has gone. I met just john sometime in the early 80s and i cannot exactly say when but we always seemed to be on the sidelines together a basketball games we were at maryland at the same time and probably had class together. Its been so long i dont remember much. You get old, but john and i were at tens of games together and everyone liked john. I think he was probably the most popular Sports Writer among the Sports Writers in the area because he knew everyone from baltimore and washington and annapolis, one of those rare triangles and it has been a grievous loss. Every time i see johns picture on tv it just hits me and how much i miss him. I missed him when i was reading the book because i was looking through things and one in particular he quoted Bill Mccaffrey. A bill was great guy, legislator who knew sports inside and out and was also a ballplayer and i left and wanted to pick up the phone ago john, you talked to Bill Mccaffrey who never told the truth about anything so you know it was just thats how it is every day. You just want to call him up. We talked turf all the time. That was his passion and mine. We started watching early 70s, mcmillan days and i was the publisher of johns classic book where we got it together and that was a great remembrance. We even talked about yeah, remember when you and john and i were down in the bottom of the field house which was like cracking open one of the pyramids or something with the dust and you thought no one had been down there forever. He also had classrooms above the house peeled house which i would have to go to in Summer School when the windows were painted shut and all the dust that had broken around campus through up their end it was our passion i think thats why went to maryland, maybe why john went he knew everything to the point i knew a lot about maryland basketball, but i would call john and say john who does this remind you of an we would talk about things. He loved maryland basketball and i still missed last season with him. Wish he could been around last year and this year, but thats johns real passion, that an High School Ball so about five years ago john calls me and asked me a question about High School Ball and we talked about it and he said im working on a book about High School Basketball and i didnt know he was doing it but we both covered things, late 70s early 80s so a lot of parts in the book i enjoyed because we were both of their and it went on and on and i have written 10 books now. They are torturous things to do and john i think took 12 years to write this book, i mean, in the last conversation i had with john was a few days before he passed and it was about maryland basketball and i was doing a piece Pearl Washington magazine about the 25 greatest athletes couldnt decide living or dead. We ended up going with living and i said where should lend the end he said not on the list and i said what are you talking about i will get run out of this town if i dont have him on the list and he said it doesnt belong there this is a guy who loves the maryland basketball but he loves journalism and the truth more and he convinced me not to put them on the list because i kind of had to agree, lynn had a Great High School career and i saw some of that myself, two or three great years at maryland and that was it. Then he was dead. He didnt get a chance to be that great prone go on to do all these things and i was johns point and i thought i cannot believe john talked me out of that, but thats how he is. He was an Old Newspaper man like me and i can tell you we dont do it for the money. We sure dont do it for popularity, but we do it because we love it and at the very end, hurry up and write this book. I had one chapter to go and unfortunately everything happened so i went to read a couple pages of johns book so i dont tell my come stuttering all the time, but what i loved about the book was when he went back to the 50s and did the segregation days and i had heard about baylor a lot but i was not old enough to have seen him play and john went back and did all the teams back like 1906 didnt even know they had basketball than and john would research. You fleshed out one chapter particular i wanted to read a couple pages of it because i thought it showed the great detail of what he was into. Anyway if you are following along on page 38 sounds like church. Theres this part about armstrong coach baltimore watch baylor torched the team for 45 and 44 straight regularseason though he had to change tack six tactics. Used senior captain berry base to shadow the citys best player his job was to stick close to baylor and make it difficult for him to get free. Baylor came into the area with the primary responsibility. Coaches said i have a job for you, mays recalled. Baylor goes into the bathroom that i want you to follow him. [laughter] okay, not today, but much has been made over the years of maze performance that night although mays tried to downplay it. Elgin stopped himself for the record mays scored 12 points and self including the clinching free throws in the threepoint victory, the only day a game baylor overhead. Elgin was just missing a lot of shots. Whether mesa stopped baylor was a material. Mays was an incredible story, no matter what happened on the night in question. Since the age of five, when he was hit by an accidental discharge of shotgun pellets yet lived with a left arm a few inches long my nub, he called it and in times he became known to as the one armed bandit and by lacking a left arm hardly hindered him at all. He learned to cope with this particular challenge nor on the baseball field where he was generally acknowledged as the best catcher in the city. Cant is not in my vocabulary. Ive never had problems doing anything. He had a hell of a time convincing some folks, though as he was forced to practice on his own beat because no one would choose him for pickup games as a youth. Willie jones remembered seeing him on the playground and notice he shoelace was on tide. Let me get that for you, jones said. Wap, wait mays whacked him on the top of the hand with his damaged limb shouting i can tie my own issues. Mays did not need anyones help and did not want their pity. He was pure and simple a player, tenacious defender, good enough to make seconds team as a senior. He was too quick into clever to be overplayed to one side despite his handicap. He would spin and twist while handling the ball. I could see where they were trying to do but i had no problems, mays is said. You are wasting your time overplaying him, he was that good with the ball. At one point mays was approached about signing with the harlem globetrotters, but i did not interest him. I did not like the clowning part of it. If you only have one arm you are a freak show already. Mays wanted to play it straight as everyone else and he felt he couldve played professional baseball, but he never got the chance. He was no less noble behind the plate that he was on the Basketball Court and 9055 not using profile explain how he tossed the ball in the air as he got out of the catchers crouch, took off his glove and plucked the ball from midair catching the ball. Then he would wither down to mexican basin of flash and after while baserunners simply stop trying to steal off of him. These could hit also. 6751 season according to the daily news. He homered and threw everyone out. He did not even get a nibble from scouts on hand even though he was chosen as the events outstanding player. Mays continue to play ball sandoval bought in the adult leagues but never got the break he longed for and everyone expected me too make the majors. I did everything in my heart to make it, but i could never get anyone to believe in me. Incredible amount of information there, so wellwritten. It just showed johns tenacity. No wonder it took him so long to write the book, i mean, thats an antic dealt from someone i had never heard of and john digging. Thats what hed dig. He liked to just write, find a detail, talk about people. He was a great sportswriter for so many reasons and so many reasons why we all miss him. Thank you all for coming. [applause]. Thank you. I found that jet magazine picture of gary mays throwing the ball up in the air, throwing his mitt under his chin and catching the ball and throwing it. I wanted to use it in the book, but it was old and not particularly good quality so it is not there, but he really was an amazing person and i think if a spike lee gets a hold of this book there are a whole lot of stories to tell in the movies, but thank you for choosing that passage. Next is one of my favorite stories in the book, eb henderson was probably the worlds best basketball player at the time he played in the early 1900s. He graduated with a phd from Howard University and, of course, he could not get drafted in the pros because he was african american. He could not get a job coaching white kids so he gave back to his community 100 and transformed the sport of basketball in our city. He went to massachusetts to talk to doctor smith then take a look at this new game. That was a nine man passing only game, and it together with maurice joyce, a circus performer who coached president roosevelt in boxing, but two of them transformed the game to the fiveman dribbling game we know today. Its known for its tenacious defense all because of doctor eb henderson. His grandson worked to get him in the hall of fame and was successful and he got information about his wonderful grandfather and he is here today to talk about that. Thank you. [applause]. First, i would like to thank andrea. I dont know how working for your great and finishing her husbands book, how she did it, but its truly a profile in courage and i commend her. What to to come to the event here in annapolis because eb henderson has a connection here in about he was part of a committee at Highland Beach maryland that marched to the capital to incorporate the town of Highland Beach. It is a community here in annapolis. I would also like to correct the point of that it was my wife and i who worked tirelessly to get eb henderson into the Basketball Hall of fame and she is right here with my sister. [applause]. Eb henderson, my grandfather i am his namesake. But, in 1904 he went to harvard. And he went to the physical training curriculum there to be certified to teach his education booker t. Washington went there as a did Teddy Roosevelt for one summer, but in order to get certified to teach you had to spend three summers and thats what my grandfather did in order to be certified and he was the first male africanamerican to be certified to teach physical education in that united states. He was actually encouraged her to do that by a woman, and need at turner who was also a certified teacher of physical education in the dc Public Schools. When eb henderson went to harvard, part of the curriculum in 1904, was the game of basketball and so he learned the fundamentals of basketball there ironically, thats a mere also basketball was in exhibition sport at the st. Louis olympics. That was in 1904. He brought basketball back to washington dc and started teaching it in the Public Schools. Creating teams that played against each other and what he also realized was that there were no africanamericans that were trained to referee, so he helped to two starts the eastern board of officials so that the games would be official. In 1906, he started that Interscholastic Athletic Association, which was the first africanamerican Athletic League in the united states. Some people think new york had the first one, but the Olympian League of new york was started in 1907, so he beat them by one year. In addition to that, in 1910, he was commissioned by the school board for the dc colored schools to start an Athletic League, so he started the ps cl Public School Athletic League. Today is called the beastie Dc Interscholastic Athletic Association which also takes the name of his first league, but in 1907, he was kicked out of the ymca in washington dc, the central ymca where he and his brotherinlaw went to watch a game of basketball and they were told, get out. So, he decided that he would start a league and he started a championship. He went to new york and talked to George Latimer and Conrad Norman who had teams there to start a championship between the teams of washington dc and the teams of new york city, so that africanamericans would have a championship to aspire to. After two years of losing dc losing that championship he started the 12th street ymca team or rather the washington 12th streeters. In 2013, the week before he was to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of fame, the Washington Post magazine printed this story in that. I dont know if some of