Nick's note: With basketball season -- and the first games played at Grambling's long-awaited new arena -- upon us, here is a look back at the facility's long and winding road to completion.
A welcome addition
Arena will offset gym's deficiencies at Grambling State
June 11, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING - Grambling State basketball coach Larry Wright looks around Memorial Gym, and he sees history.
Too much history.
"My coach played in this building - and I'm 50," said Wright, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's 1975-76 Player of the Year under legendary former coach Fred Hobdy.
He says the aging gymnasium, even with a sweeping remodel in 2002, is dragging down recruiting efforts.
"Renovation here is just like putting a Band-Aid on cancer," said Wright.
In fact, Memorial looms over the program, even though the men won eight of their final 10 games in 2005 to earn a SWAC Tournament berth - a finish that ranked Grambling as one of the hottest teams in the conference.
"The renovations have held up," said Wright, "but most high school kids have buildings that are better than this one."
His next comment is telling: "When I am recruiting a kid, I try to do it without him ever visiting this facility."
Wright hasn't made any prospect announcements during this late signing period. Yet, he finds hope for the future in a long-awaited new basketball building, which is finally taking shape behind Robinson Stadium on campus.
The project - envisioned more than 20 years ago during the administration of Joseph Johnson, who served as GSU president from 1977-1991 - will be capable of seating 7,500 for sports events, and as many as 9,000 for other occasions.
"A new building would help," said Wright. "At least the kids wouldn't choose based on a raggedy building. Not only will it help basketball, it will help the university as a whole. We just had graduation outside. That's not just an athletic issue. It would be nice to have parents to come in and sit in an air conditioned building for commencement."
The 135,000-square-foot facility, to be known as the HPER building, will feature an arena to accommodate sporting and nonsporting events alike. The men's and women's basketball teams will play and practice there, but the building will also include classrooms, administrative offices, banquet areas and faculty offices - as well as locker rooms, weight rooms, storage areas and offices for supporting services.
Meanwhile, Wright struggles to attract players who don't have traditional connections with Grambling.
Take starting junior guard Brion Rush, who averaged 17.6 points and nearly 31 minutes of playing time per game last season.
"It didn't make a difference about the facility, because his coach went to school here," said Wright. "We were able to get him for that reason. That trust. But those kids who don't have that history, we couldn't have gotten them."
Memorial isn't to blame for every lost recruit. Wright points to coveted West Ouachita prospect Anthony Ford, who signed with conference foe Alcorn State last week.
"We thought we had a shot at him. We really did," said Wright. "It seemed to me he just wanted to leave. I guess he wanted to get away from home."
Three years ago, Grambling installed a new heating and cooling system, plumbing system, and locker rooms in Memorial - at a cost, according to vice president of finance Billy Owens, of $2 million.
That simply slowed the inevitable, said Wright. A new facility, with modern amenities, is a standard facet in the recruiting process of today's young people.
"When I came to Grambling, years ago, I didn't care what I played in," Wright said. "I could have went to school anywhere, but I was coming to Grambling. Kids are not like that anymore. Let's face it, integration came and Grambling will not get the same kids that Grambling used to get. Willis Reed isn't coming. But the new building makes you feel better. At least you know you have a chance now."
Next spring - the targeted opening date of GSU's first new basketball facility in generations - can't come soon enough.
"I drive by it," Wright said, "and I know, somewhere, Coach Hobdy is very happy."
GSU program seeks area recruits
Grambling State was in the running for West Ouachita's Anthony Ford, though he eventually signed with Alcorn State last week. Texas Tech's Bobby Knight also lured Ouachita's Jay Jackson two seasons ago, then Richwood's Terry Martin Jr. this past off-season.
Still, GSU men's coach Larry Wright, a Richwood High product, has had his own local successes.
He signed Bastrop guard Marcus Watson - a member of The News-Star/Glenwood SportsCare All-Northeast Team - last year and has both Wossman forward Jamar Lewis and West Monroe guard Donte Gordon on the squad as seniors for next season. Vidalia senior Ron Ellis just finished his eligibility last year.
"We have talented players here, and we're going to continue to try to get them to Grambling," said Wright, a former assistant at Ouachita Parish High before taking over his alma mater's basketball program in 1999. "We hope to sign a couple of kids who are pretty good athletes. What we've got to do is bring in kids and keep them for four years - and hopefully, toward the ends of their careers, they have improved."
- Nick Deriso, nderiso@thenewsstar.com
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Building momentum
March 17, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Grambling men's coach Larry Wright loses his best player with the graduation of do-it-all guard Brion Rush.
So why's he so optimistic about next season? The answer is slowly rising behind Robinson Stadium.
GSU's long, long, long-awaited Health, Physical Education, Recreation Building is all but done. (The project has been talked about around Grambling since the 1970s.)
In addition to housing the HPER department, this 134,573-feet facility will become home to the university's basketball programs and serve as a multi-purpose assembly center for hoops and community events.
Wright expects to tip off in the new gym next fall. He also expects to make the building a cornerstone in recruiting efforts in the meantime.
"They no longer can say we don't have the facility," said Wright. "That's part of building this program back to respectability."
Constructed by Lincoln Builders at a cost of about $19 million, the HPER building will have game-seating capacity of 7,500 - and approximately 9,000 for other events like graduation, which has traditionally been held outdoors.
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At long last, a new beginning for Grambling hoops
August 6, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Larry Wright was recruited into Grambling State back in the 1970s with the promise of a new basketball facility.
Thirty years later, he was still talking about the proposed building when he took over as the GSU men’s coach.
In many ways, Wright didn’t know if it would ever happen.
He’d played at Memorial Gymnasium for the late legendary former GSU coach Fred Hobdy. Since 1999, he’s coached every one of his own home games there.
So the long-awaited 160,450-foot facility that’s slowly been rising on the western side of campus was all the more remarkable.
"It’s a dream come true, to see Grambling have a good facility like everybody else," Wright said. "Years ago when I came to Grambling, that facility was in the works. They were talking about it even back then."
A ribbon cutting and official dedication ceremony for the new basketball arena is set for 1 p.m. today.
"Finally," Wright says, still marvelling, "we get to see it open."
The project was envisioned during the administration of Joseph Johnson, who served as GSU president from 1977-1991, but it didn’t pick up steam until 1994 — when legislation was finally passed to issue $1 million in bonds.
Work never began. Another decade passed before $17 million in top-priority bonds was approved in 2004 to fund construction, with another $6.75 million set aside for use when needed.
The Shreveport-based Newman Marchive Partnership firm then began consctruction two years ago.
It’s about more than basketball, though. The arena also houses the university’s kinesiology sport and leisure studies department, faculty offices, the athletic ticket office, a weight room, dance studio, concessions areas and the team store.
A crowd of more than 6,000 was given a sneak preview of the facility during local memorial services for the GSU’s late former football coach Eddie Robinson last month.
So finally will the next group of Grambling hoops recruits, a long-made promise turned real.
"When you go into a kid’s home, you can talk to them about the school, the tradition of your school, and everything else," Wright said, "but in the end that kid wants to see where we are going to play. To have to take a kid to our former gym, it was not up to par with what everybody else has. At one time, Memorial was one of the best facilities in our conference. But now it’s the worst. We are just glad to have a new one."
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It's home, sweet home for GSU basketball teams
Ribbon-cutting for new facility set to be held today
May 19, 2007
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING -- Larry Wright was recruited into Grambling State back in the 1970s with the promise of a new basketball facility.
Thirty years later, he was still talking about the proposed building when he took over as the GSU men's coach.
In many ways, Wright didn't know if it would ever happen.
He'd played at Memorial Gymnasium for the late legendary former GSU coach Fred Hobdy. Since 1999, he's coached every one of his own home games there.
So the long-awaited 160,450-foot facility that's slowly been rising on the western side of campus was all the more remarkable.
"It's a dream come true, to see Grambling have a good facility like everybody else," Wright said. "Years ago when I came to Grambling, that facility was in the works. They were talking about it even back then."
A ribbon cutting and official dedication ceremony for the new basketball arena is set for 1 p.m. today.
"Finally," Wright says, still marveling, "we get to see it open."
The project was envisioned during the administration of Joseph Johnson, who served as GSU president from 1977-1991, but it didn't pick up steam until 1994 — when legislation was finally passed to issue $1 million in bonds.
Work never began. Another decade passed before $17 million in top-priority bonds was approved in 2004 to fund construction, with another $6.75 million set aside for use when needed.
The Shreveport-based Newman Marchive Partnership firm then began construction two years ago.
It's about more than basketball, though. The arena also houses the university's kinesiology sport and leisure studies department, faculty offices, the athletic ticket office, a weight room, dance studio, concessions areas and the team store.
A crowd of more than 6,000 was given a sneak preview of the facility during local memorial services for the GSU's late former football coach Eddie Robinson last month.
So finally will the next group of Grambling hoops recruits, a long-made promise turned real.
"When you go into a kid's home, you can talk to them about the school, the tradition of your school, and everything else," Wright said, "but in the end that kid wants to see where we are going to play. To have to take a kid to our former gym, it was not up to par with what everybody else has. At one time, Memorial was one of the best facilities in our conference. But now it's the worst. We are just glad to have a new one."
Showing posts with label Fred Hobdy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fred Hobdy. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Monday, November 06, 2006
Grambling greats: Larry Wright
Wright receives SWAC glory
GSU coach joins former Richwood teammate Sammy White in Hall of Fame
December 10, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Folks used to call them "White and Wright," back when these two won the Class 3A basketball state title at Richwood High School southof Monroe in 1972.
Now, Larry Wright and Sammy White will be known as Southwestern Athletic Conference hall-of-famers.
Wright, Grambling State University men's basketball coach, was honored Friday night, just one year after White, his former Richwood teammate. Both later had distinguished careers at Grambling, a SWAC institution located just a few miles down Interstate 20.
That was appropriate, Wright said, since their prep coach, Herschel West, had also played at GSU for the legendary Fred Hobdy.
"To this day," Wright said, "I haven't seen a high school backcourt like `White and Wright.' To go in a year after Sammy, I feel like it's fitting."
Wright joined a stellar cast of former SWAC greats who were honored at the Sheraton Ballroom in Birmingham, a day before the conference's football championship game. Among those also inducted Friday night was former Mississippi Valley star Jerry Rice, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
White was on hand to see Wright's emotional induction, along with fellow former Grambling great James "Shack" Harris, a Carroll High product who now works as an executive with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.
The crowd was peppered with other legends, including former Alcorn and Southern coach Marino Casem; and Valley coach Willie "Satellite" Totten, who was Rice's quarterback.
"The guys that are here," SWAC commissioner Robert Vowels said, "it just sends chills up my spine."
Wright won a SWAC tournament title under Hobdy, then a NBA title with the NBA's Washington Bullets in 1978. Meanwhile, White would focus on football, playing for former GSU coach Eddie Robinson, then later for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings. He's now Grambling's offensive coordinator.
"Coach Hobdy saw me as a sophomore at Richwood High School and he told me: `If I don't see you anymore, you will be my starting guard two years from now,'" Wright said. "That was overwhelming for me. I didn't know what he saw. When I became a senior and was being recruited by schools all over the nation, I remembered what Coach Hobdy told me. That's the reason I came to Grambling."
A former SWAC Freshman of the Year, Wright would go onto garner all-conference and NCAA small-college All-America honors twice. He led Grambling to the 1976 SWAC tournament championship, on the way to player-of-the-year honors.
Wright then entered the NBA draft, where he was selected in the first round by Washington. A season later, he had won a world championship. Wright later had a celebrated basketball career overseas, winning the European Championship in 1982.
He took over Hobdy's old spot in May 1999 at Grambling.
"Having an opportunity to play at Grambling, following in the footsteps of my high school coach Herschel West, it was overwhelming," Wright said. "The biggest thing I did not want to do was to let him down. I had some big shoes to fill. Hopefully, one day people will realize that what I did at Grambling was try to live up to what those guys did before me, guys like Herschel West and James Jones before him. They need to be in the SWAC Hall of Fame as well."
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Hard work by Wright was catalyst
Ex-GSU standout will be member of LABC Hall
April 30, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Something burned inside small guard Larry Wright, the product of a single-parent home in the poorest part of southside Monroe.
He'd use that fire to win championships for his Louisiana high school and college — then titles in the National Basketball Association and overseas.
"I hope it says something to our youth today, that just because you come from a household with just a mother and nine kids, it doesn't mean you can't go out and make something of yourself," said Wright, who still has a photo of his mother inside the basketball office at the old Memorial Gym at Grambling State.
Now, the former Richwood High and GSU standout has been selected for induction in the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. Wright is the fifth GSU product to be inducted, along with players Bob Hopkins, Aaron James, Willis Reed — and the man who led them all, the late Fred Hobdy.
Hobdy remains an inspiration to Wright, who assumed his college mentor's job as GSU coach in 1999. Hobdy, who died in 1998, is the winningest men's college basketball coach in Louisiana history, with nearly 600 victories over a 30-year career.
"He would be drilling you, running you like there is no more tomorrows, but afterwards if you had a problem he would switch hats," Wright said. "Instead of your coach, he became your father — so understanding of the problem, whatever it might have been. There was no way you could think a guy who had just been screaming at the top of his voice could do that, but he did. I will always remember that."
Wright was a two-time Parade All-American at Richwood, where he won a Louisiana state Class 3A title in 1972 as a junior, then transferred to Western High in Washington D.C., as a senior. There, he played for another future Grambling AD, Robert Piper.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference's freshman of the year in 1973, Wright would go on to garner all-conference and NCAA small-college All-America honors twice.
"The best small guard we've ever had, pound for pound the best guard," Hobdy once said. "A great jumper, he gets an 'A' in every category."
Wright finished his Grambling career on a high note, leading the Tigers to the 1976 Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship, on the way to player-of-the-year honors.
"That was the last time we won the SWAC tournament," said teammate Theodis Johnson, a 1978 GSU graduate who now works as an assistant to Wright.
"Nobody gave us a chance that particular year," Johnson continued. "We played all the Mississippi schools (Alcorn State, Jackson State and Mississippi Valley) and we ended up defeating all of them. It was a Mississippi sweep for us. That was one of the bright spots in Coach Wright's career. That's when everybody took notice."
Then a junior, Wright entered the NBA draft — where Washington selected him in the first round. Wright's Bullets won the 1978 NBA championship in his second professional season, part of a career that included a two-year stint at Detroit.
Wright also helped Italy's Banco DiRoma to the European Championship and was named the best player in Europe in 1983-84.
Wright's first return to Grambling was to complete the degree he'd never gotten: He graduated in health and physical education in 1982, and served as an assistant coach at GSU while he pursued a master's degree in sports administration in the early 1990s.
Wright then worked as an NBA scout and as an assistant at Ouachita Parish High before returning to coach athis alma mater seven seasons ago.
It's given him a chance to continue that tradition of close-knit family.
Wright's daughter Ashana played basketball for GSU, where she earned a master's in social work. Son Larry Jr. also received a master's at Grambling, while son Lance earned a bachelor's while playing as a multi-year starter on the football team.
Wright traveled all over — only to find himself, and his family, right back at home. That's why, he said, this recognition is so meaningful.
Every coach he played for in high school and college was a Louisiana native. Richwood's West and Western's Piper are Rayville products, while Hobdy hailed from Winnfield.
"It means a lot of that we were all Louisiana folks," Wright said. "Then to go to Grambling and be a first-round draft choice after my junior year, that says something about the teaching they gave me."
Those roots run further back, too, all the way to the southside of Monroe — where Wright used his mother's love as a catalyst to get out.
"It makes me think of all the values that she taught me," Wright said. "I worked hard, and kept working, and things worked out. It's rewarding when you get my age and look back over your career like that. I always dedicate awards like this to my family. They got me here."
GSU coach joins former Richwood teammate Sammy White in Hall of Fame
December 10, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Folks used to call them "White and Wright," back when these two won the Class 3A basketball state title at Richwood High School southof Monroe in 1972.
Now, Larry Wright and Sammy White will be known as Southwestern Athletic Conference hall-of-famers.
Wright, Grambling State University men's basketball coach, was honored Friday night, just one year after White, his former Richwood teammate. Both later had distinguished careers at Grambling, a SWAC institution located just a few miles down Interstate 20.
That was appropriate, Wright said, since their prep coach, Herschel West, had also played at GSU for the legendary Fred Hobdy.
"To this day," Wright said, "I haven't seen a high school backcourt like `White and Wright.' To go in a year after Sammy, I feel like it's fitting."
Wright joined a stellar cast of former SWAC greats who were honored at the Sheraton Ballroom in Birmingham, a day before the conference's football championship game. Among those also inducted Friday night was former Mississippi Valley star Jerry Rice, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
White was on hand to see Wright's emotional induction, along with fellow former Grambling great James "Shack" Harris, a Carroll High product who now works as an executive with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.
The crowd was peppered with other legends, including former Alcorn and Southern coach Marino Casem; and Valley coach Willie "Satellite" Totten, who was Rice's quarterback.
"The guys that are here," SWAC commissioner Robert Vowels said, "it just sends chills up my spine."
Wright won a SWAC tournament title under Hobdy, then a NBA title with the NBA's Washington Bullets in 1978. Meanwhile, White would focus on football, playing for former GSU coach Eddie Robinson, then later for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings. He's now Grambling's offensive coordinator.
"Coach Hobdy saw me as a sophomore at Richwood High School and he told me: `If I don't see you anymore, you will be my starting guard two years from now,'" Wright said. "That was overwhelming for me. I didn't know what he saw. When I became a senior and was being recruited by schools all over the nation, I remembered what Coach Hobdy told me. That's the reason I came to Grambling."
A former SWAC Freshman of the Year, Wright would go onto garner all-conference and NCAA small-college All-America honors twice. He led Grambling to the 1976 SWAC tournament championship, on the way to player-of-the-year honors.
Wright then entered the NBA draft, where he was selected in the first round by Washington. A season later, he had won a world championship. Wright later had a celebrated basketball career overseas, winning the European Championship in 1982.
He took over Hobdy's old spot in May 1999 at Grambling.
"Having an opportunity to play at Grambling, following in the footsteps of my high school coach Herschel West, it was overwhelming," Wright said. "The biggest thing I did not want to do was to let him down. I had some big shoes to fill. Hopefully, one day people will realize that what I did at Grambling was try to live up to what those guys did before me, guys like Herschel West and James Jones before him. They need to be in the SWAC Hall of Fame as well."
g g g
Hard work by Wright was catalyst
Ex-GSU standout will be member of LABC Hall
April 30, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Something burned inside small guard Larry Wright, the product of a single-parent home in the poorest part of southside Monroe.
He'd use that fire to win championships for his Louisiana high school and college — then titles in the National Basketball Association and overseas.
"I hope it says something to our youth today, that just because you come from a household with just a mother and nine kids, it doesn't mean you can't go out and make something of yourself," said Wright, who still has a photo of his mother inside the basketball office at the old Memorial Gym at Grambling State.
Now, the former Richwood High and GSU standout has been selected for induction in the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. Wright is the fifth GSU product to be inducted, along with players Bob Hopkins, Aaron James, Willis Reed — and the man who led them all, the late Fred Hobdy.
Hobdy remains an inspiration to Wright, who assumed his college mentor's job as GSU coach in 1999. Hobdy, who died in 1998, is the winningest men's college basketball coach in Louisiana history, with nearly 600 victories over a 30-year career.
"He would be drilling you, running you like there is no more tomorrows, but afterwards if you had a problem he would switch hats," Wright said. "Instead of your coach, he became your father — so understanding of the problem, whatever it might have been. There was no way you could think a guy who had just been screaming at the top of his voice could do that, but he did. I will always remember that."
Wright was a two-time Parade All-American at Richwood, where he won a Louisiana state Class 3A title in 1972 as a junior, then transferred to Western High in Washington D.C., as a senior. There, he played for another future Grambling AD, Robert Piper.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference's freshman of the year in 1973, Wright would go on to garner all-conference and NCAA small-college All-America honors twice.
"The best small guard we've ever had, pound for pound the best guard," Hobdy once said. "A great jumper, he gets an 'A' in every category."
Wright finished his Grambling career on a high note, leading the Tigers to the 1976 Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship, on the way to player-of-the-year honors.
"That was the last time we won the SWAC tournament," said teammate Theodis Johnson, a 1978 GSU graduate who now works as an assistant to Wright.
"Nobody gave us a chance that particular year," Johnson continued. "We played all the Mississippi schools (Alcorn State, Jackson State and Mississippi Valley) and we ended up defeating all of them. It was a Mississippi sweep for us. That was one of the bright spots in Coach Wright's career. That's when everybody took notice."
Then a junior, Wright entered the NBA draft — where Washington selected him in the first round. Wright's Bullets won the 1978 NBA championship in his second professional season, part of a career that included a two-year stint at Detroit.
Wright also helped Italy's Banco DiRoma to the European Championship and was named the best player in Europe in 1983-84.
Wright's first return to Grambling was to complete the degree he'd never gotten: He graduated in health and physical education in 1982, and served as an assistant coach at GSU while he pursued a master's degree in sports administration in the early 1990s.
Wright then worked as an NBA scout and as an assistant at Ouachita Parish High before returning to coach athis alma mater seven seasons ago.
It's given him a chance to continue that tradition of close-knit family.
Wright's daughter Ashana played basketball for GSU, where she earned a master's in social work. Son Larry Jr. also received a master's at Grambling, while son Lance earned a bachelor's while playing as a multi-year starter on the football team.
Wright traveled all over — only to find himself, and his family, right back at home. That's why, he said, this recognition is so meaningful.
Every coach he played for in high school and college was a Louisiana native. Richwood's West and Western's Piper are Rayville products, while Hobdy hailed from Winnfield.
"It means a lot of that we were all Louisiana folks," Wright said. "Then to go to Grambling and be a first-round draft choice after my junior year, that says something about the teaching they gave me."
Those roots run further back, too, all the way to the southside of Monroe — where Wright used his mother's love as a catalyst to get out.
"It makes me think of all the values that she taught me," Wright said. "I worked hard, and kept working, and things worked out. It's rewarding when you get my age and look back over your career like that. I always dedicate awards like this to my family. They got me here."
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Grambling greats: Willis Reed
The GOOD LIFE
The Hornets bring Willis Reed home after decades on the East Coast
July 25, 2004
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Willis Reed will forever take that long limping walk onto the court in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals.
This iconic imagery has become bigger than the moment, bigger even than Reed - the 6-foot-10 former Grambling State All-American who took a job as vice president of basketball operations with the New Orleans Hornets last month.
"I am 62 and we are still talking about it," Reed said. "I told everybody then that I didn’t want to be sitting somewhere 30 years later, thinking I should have tried."
He isn’t.
In fact, three decades later, Reed was sitting on his very own man-made pond - one of three on a 60-acre farm hideaway north of Grambling on Louisiana 544.
He was thinking about smaller things.
"For me, I love the country," Reed said. "I’m just a country boy at heart. That will never change."
Not even after a Hall of Fame career that included two NBA titles. Not even after a professional life spent in the brash bustle of New York.
He caught eight bass last weekend - then, one by one, threw each of them back. Reed, in the twilight of a magical career around basketball, is taking it easy.
"I didn’t feel like cleaning them up," Reed said, chuckling. "At least I know there are eight bass in there."
Reed bought this land in 1989, but is only just now getting to fully explore it.
TAKING THE LONG WAY HOME
Reed couldn’t be farther away from the place where he made his name professionally - as a player, coach and an executive with the Knicks.Yet, he’s right at home.
"If you would have asked me the beginning of June, I would have never thought all of this could happen," Reed said. "I still had a multiple-year contract. I figured I would probably finish up in New York and retire back in Louisiana. For me to be sitting here? I never thought about it."
Selected Finals MVP during both years that the Knicks won a title, Reed was an adviser for the team last season. That followed 14 years in the New Jersey front office, where he served as senior vice president when new Hornets coach Byron Scott led the Nets.
"There are very few people with Hall of Fame credentials and achievements as both a player and as an executive," said New Orleans owner George Shinn, "so we took advantage of a rare opportunity."
But Reed never really left northeastern Louisiana. Not in his heart.
"From 1969 to ‘73, we won two championships with the Knicks," said Reed. "But if I had to live four years of my life all over again, which would it be? It would be 1960 to ‘64. The greatest four years I ever spent were those at Grambling."
Reed’s experience is becoming ever more rare in an NBA made over with stars who never finished college - if they went at all.
"Kids today miss that," said Reed, who led GSU to three Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. "They come right into the pros. College was the right place at the right time."
The Hornets selected their own high-school phenom this year, choosing J.R. Smith out of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., with the 18th pick in the NBA Draft. Smith was one of a record eight prep seniors chosen in the first round.
"What it has forced NBA teams to do is rethink how they do things," Reed said. "Coaching staffs have become much larger, because you have to have developmental programs for younger players. After the draft, we met with the ownership and we are talking about how and what we need to do to get ready for a player as young as J.R."
HOOPS DREAMS COME TRUE
Born in Hico - a town so small, Reed once said, that "they don’t even have a population" - he grew up in Bernice in Union Parish.
After attending Westside High School in the late 1950s, Reed walked off his front porch to stardom just 26 miles south in Grambling.
He led the Tigers to the NAIA title as a freshman in 1961 - then to the NAIA Final Four in 1963 and 1964. Reed would score 2,280 career points, averaging 26.6 points and 21.3 rebounds during his senior year.
"I was blessed, growing up in Bernice and playing in Grambling and having the chance to play on a good team, to travel," Reed said. "I did everything I could have done at a major school at Grambling. That basketball program hasn’t been as good, because Division I is so much more difficult than the old NAIA."
Reed was one of 26 All-Americans who played for the late coach Fred Hobdy, a football player on Eddie Robinson’s legendary undefeated 1942 club. Hobdy, who later served as GSU’s athletics director, would amass a hoops record of 572-288.
"Fred had that program at its greatest during that time," said Collie J. Nicholson, the school’s sports information director from 1948-78. "The athletic programs were tops across the board back then. But as we tried to move into the big time for football, we left the NAIA."
Meanwhile, the New York Knicks were putting on a stunning display of basketball mediocrity, posting just one winning season in the 12 years between 1955-56 and 1966-67. All of that changed as Reed’s 10-year career got going.
He started fast. Selected by the Knicks in the second round of the 1964 draft, Reed was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year.
Reed was already having his best season as a pro - he’d been named the NBA’s regular-season most valuable player and the All-Star Game MVP - when a now-familiar pregame drama unfolded on May 8, 1970.
HOPE AND THAT HOBBLE
The championship series against Los Angeles - a team led by fellow Hall of Famers Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain - was tied at three games apiece.Reed had scored 37, 29, 38 then 23 points in the first four contests, but wasn’t expected to start after suffering a deep thigh injury in Game 5.
Nevertheless, Reed struggled out onto the floor, sparking thunderous applause at Madison Square Garden. He would somehow out-jump Chamberlain for the opening tip - a feat many men with two good legs never achieved - then hit from the top of the key and again with a 20-foot jumper.
Reed didn’t score again. He didn’t have to, as New York eventually won the contest, 113-99.
"The reason it’s a moment that’s talked about?" Reed asked. "Thirty-four years later …"
He ruminated some more.
Seems Reed, so comfortable outside of fame’s circle of light, is still humbled by the attention.
"It inspired the team to a championship," he said, finally. "If we would have lost, nobody would be talking about it."
Reed, an All-Star in his first seven years as a pro, continued to be slowed by injuries. Tendinitis in his knees marred the 1971 and 1972 seasons, but he rallied the Knicks to a second title in 1973.
"None of us had played on a championship team," Reed said, still lost in reverie.
His quiet manner makes it easy to forget that he ever did.
Reed attended services with his mother, Inell, last weekend in the church of his youth - the New Hopewell Baptist Church on Plum Street, just off U.S. 167 in Bernice.
Reed didn’t wear a Knicks championship ring. He never does.
"You remember those gyms, the process. That makes the ring unneeded," Reed said.
Still, a steady stream of inspired folks find Reed, even back home. Sometimes, they’ll stop in the middle of Louisiana 544, just to take pictures of his place.
He will forever talk about those first two baskets in the 1970 Finals, will forever be associated with hope and that hobble.
But, even with time, words sometimes fail.
"A championship," Reed said, still talking about his bare ring finger, "is something you live in your soul."
Reed file
· Age: 62 (born June 25, 1942)
· College: Grambling State
· Drafted: 1964, by New York Knicks (10th overall)
· Honors: Elected to Hall of Fame (1982); NBA champion (1970, ‘73); NBA MVP (1970); All-NBA First Team (1970); All-NBA Second Team (1967, ‘68, ‘69, ‘71); Rookie of the Year (1965); One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).
The Hornets bring Willis Reed home after decades on the East Coast
July 25, 2004
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
Willis Reed will forever take that long limping walk onto the court in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals.
This iconic imagery has become bigger than the moment, bigger even than Reed - the 6-foot-10 former Grambling State All-American who took a job as vice president of basketball operations with the New Orleans Hornets last month.
"I am 62 and we are still talking about it," Reed said. "I told everybody then that I didn’t want to be sitting somewhere 30 years later, thinking I should have tried."
He isn’t.
In fact, three decades later, Reed was sitting on his very own man-made pond - one of three on a 60-acre farm hideaway north of Grambling on Louisiana 544.
He was thinking about smaller things.
"For me, I love the country," Reed said. "I’m just a country boy at heart. That will never change."
Not even after a Hall of Fame career that included two NBA titles. Not even after a professional life spent in the brash bustle of New York.
He caught eight bass last weekend - then, one by one, threw each of them back. Reed, in the twilight of a magical career around basketball, is taking it easy.
"I didn’t feel like cleaning them up," Reed said, chuckling. "At least I know there are eight bass in there."
Reed bought this land in 1989, but is only just now getting to fully explore it.
TAKING THE LONG WAY HOME
Reed couldn’t be farther away from the place where he made his name professionally - as a player, coach and an executive with the Knicks.Yet, he’s right at home.
"If you would have asked me the beginning of June, I would have never thought all of this could happen," Reed said. "I still had a multiple-year contract. I figured I would probably finish up in New York and retire back in Louisiana. For me to be sitting here? I never thought about it."
Selected Finals MVP during both years that the Knicks won a title, Reed was an adviser for the team last season. That followed 14 years in the New Jersey front office, where he served as senior vice president when new Hornets coach Byron Scott led the Nets.
"There are very few people with Hall of Fame credentials and achievements as both a player and as an executive," said New Orleans owner George Shinn, "so we took advantage of a rare opportunity."
But Reed never really left northeastern Louisiana. Not in his heart.
"From 1969 to ‘73, we won two championships with the Knicks," said Reed. "But if I had to live four years of my life all over again, which would it be? It would be 1960 to ‘64. The greatest four years I ever spent were those at Grambling."
Reed’s experience is becoming ever more rare in an NBA made over with stars who never finished college - if they went at all.
"Kids today miss that," said Reed, who led GSU to three Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. "They come right into the pros. College was the right place at the right time."
The Hornets selected their own high-school phenom this year, choosing J.R. Smith out of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., with the 18th pick in the NBA Draft. Smith was one of a record eight prep seniors chosen in the first round.
"What it has forced NBA teams to do is rethink how they do things," Reed said. "Coaching staffs have become much larger, because you have to have developmental programs for younger players. After the draft, we met with the ownership and we are talking about how and what we need to do to get ready for a player as young as J.R."
HOOPS DREAMS COME TRUE
Born in Hico - a town so small, Reed once said, that "they don’t even have a population" - he grew up in Bernice in Union Parish.
After attending Westside High School in the late 1950s, Reed walked off his front porch to stardom just 26 miles south in Grambling.
He led the Tigers to the NAIA title as a freshman in 1961 - then to the NAIA Final Four in 1963 and 1964. Reed would score 2,280 career points, averaging 26.6 points and 21.3 rebounds during his senior year.
"I was blessed, growing up in Bernice and playing in Grambling and having the chance to play on a good team, to travel," Reed said. "I did everything I could have done at a major school at Grambling. That basketball program hasn’t been as good, because Division I is so much more difficult than the old NAIA."
Reed was one of 26 All-Americans who played for the late coach Fred Hobdy, a football player on Eddie Robinson’s legendary undefeated 1942 club. Hobdy, who later served as GSU’s athletics director, would amass a hoops record of 572-288.
"Fred had that program at its greatest during that time," said Collie J. Nicholson, the school’s sports information director from 1948-78. "The athletic programs were tops across the board back then. But as we tried to move into the big time for football, we left the NAIA."
Meanwhile, the New York Knicks were putting on a stunning display of basketball mediocrity, posting just one winning season in the 12 years between 1955-56 and 1966-67. All of that changed as Reed’s 10-year career got going.
He started fast. Selected by the Knicks in the second round of the 1964 draft, Reed was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year.
Reed was already having his best season as a pro - he’d been named the NBA’s regular-season most valuable player and the All-Star Game MVP - when a now-familiar pregame drama unfolded on May 8, 1970.
HOPE AND THAT HOBBLE
The championship series against Los Angeles - a team led by fellow Hall of Famers Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain - was tied at three games apiece.Reed had scored 37, 29, 38 then 23 points in the first four contests, but wasn’t expected to start after suffering a deep thigh injury in Game 5.
Nevertheless, Reed struggled out onto the floor, sparking thunderous applause at Madison Square Garden. He would somehow out-jump Chamberlain for the opening tip - a feat many men with two good legs never achieved - then hit from the top of the key and again with a 20-foot jumper.
Reed didn’t score again. He didn’t have to, as New York eventually won the contest, 113-99.
"The reason it’s a moment that’s talked about?" Reed asked. "Thirty-four years later …"
He ruminated some more.
Seems Reed, so comfortable outside of fame’s circle of light, is still humbled by the attention.
"It inspired the team to a championship," he said, finally. "If we would have lost, nobody would be talking about it."
Reed, an All-Star in his first seven years as a pro, continued to be slowed by injuries. Tendinitis in his knees marred the 1971 and 1972 seasons, but he rallied the Knicks to a second title in 1973.
"None of us had played on a championship team," Reed said, still lost in reverie.
His quiet manner makes it easy to forget that he ever did.
Reed attended services with his mother, Inell, last weekend in the church of his youth - the New Hopewell Baptist Church on Plum Street, just off U.S. 167 in Bernice.
Reed didn’t wear a Knicks championship ring. He never does.
"You remember those gyms, the process. That makes the ring unneeded," Reed said.
Still, a steady stream of inspired folks find Reed, even back home. Sometimes, they’ll stop in the middle of Louisiana 544, just to take pictures of his place.
He will forever talk about those first two baskets in the 1970 Finals, will forever be associated with hope and that hobble.
But, even with time, words sometimes fail.
"A championship," Reed said, still talking about his bare ring finger, "is something you live in your soul."
Reed file
· Age: 62 (born June 25, 1942)
· College: Grambling State
· Drafted: 1964, by New York Knicks (10th overall)
· Honors: Elected to Hall of Fame (1982); NBA champion (1970, ‘73); NBA MVP (1970); All-NBA First Team (1970); All-NBA Second Team (1967, ‘68, ‘69, ‘71); Rookie of the Year (1965); One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996).
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Grambling greats: Fred Hobdy
VISIONARY
Grambling's Hobdy never lost his focus on life after basketball
July 13, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Fred Hobdy's players at Grambling would find themselves still huffing and puffing from drills, when he'd abruptly switch the subject.
There was more to life, the late coach would say, than just basketball.
"He wanted all of us to grow up to be productive citizens," said current GSU coach Larry Wright, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's 1975-76 Player of the Year under Hobdy. "He used to say that all the time: 'Basketball is not going to last forever.' He would always talk about that. When you first came, he made sure that you understand that basketball was a means to an education."
Wright would later win the 1978 NBA title with the Washington Bullets before returning to coach in the same office where Hobdy once sat.
"He was tough as coach; don't get me wrong," said Wright. "He worked your butt off. But at the end of the day, when you needed him, it was all together different."
Often times, Wright said, life lessons would come just after one of Hobdy's now-legendary practices — sweat-drenched affairs that stressed preparation and conditioning.
"He would be drilling you, running you like there is no more tomorrows, but afterwards if you had a problem he would switch hats," Wright said. "Instead of your coach, he became your father — so understanding of the problem, whatever it might have been. There was no way you could think a guy who had just been screaming at the top of his voice do that, but he did. I will always remember that."
Wright, whose voice colors with emotion at the very mention of his mentor, continues to lobby in the hopes that the basketball arena being constructed on campus will be named after Hobdy.
"I could say so many things about Coach Hobdy," said Wright. "When you start talking about the people who built Grambling," Wright mused, "you have to say (former football coach) Eddie Robinson. You have to say (former school president) R.W.E. Jones. I think you also have to say Fred Hobdy. He should be mentioned in the same breath."
Lessons in Leadership
This was another in our series profiling legendary coaches from around the area, and the effects they had on the athletic field and on their players' lives after the games ended.
About Fred Hobdy
Hobdy, a member of the Louisiana Sports and Southwestern Athletic Conference halls of fame, is rightly remembered for his contributions as a basketball genius. After all, he remains the winningest college coach in Louisiana with 572 victories between 1957-86. His teams won seven Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association championship in 1961 - the last men's national title from this state. But that's not the full measure of Hobdy's legacy. A three-sport letter winner at Grambling, he later served as athletics director before passing in 1998. He's perhaps best known as a collegiate athlete for his contribution to a legendary 1942 squad that went unbeaten, even unscored upon, under Eddie Robinson.
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GSU fans want new arena to be Hobdy
January 28, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Grambling State University's Fred Hobdy won more college basketball games than any coach in Louisiana history.
It's only fitting, some fans and former players say, to put his name on GSU's new multi-purpose basketball facility.
"I love the idea of a Fred Hobdy Arena," said Michael Watson of Sicily Island, a 1977 graduate of GSU. "Coach was a winner."
Hobdy posted 572 wins, with 288 losses, over 30 seasons from 1956-86. His 1961 squad, paced by Basketball Hall of Famer Willis Reed, won the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association championship.
"I think naming the arena for Coach Hobdy is a great idea," said Reed, now vice president of basketball operations with the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. "Coach Hobdy spent his whole life there. He loved Grambling. He was a black-and-gold guy."
A member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Louisiana Sports halls of fame, Hobdy died on Dec. 8, 1998.
State Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Grambling, said naming school buildings after deceased individuals is handled through the University of Louisiana System Board. GSU president Horace Judson would need to write a letter of request to the board, Gallot said.
Former University of Louisiana at Monroe president Lawson Swearingen went through the same process in December 1999 when long-time Indians coach Lenny Fant's name was added to Ewing Coliseum on campus.
"Coach Hobdy is one of the winningest coaches in history, and a legend in basketball. There wouldn't be anyone moredeserving," said Gallot, who remembered attending Hobdy's summer camps "from the time I could dribble a ball — until I realized that I wasn't much of an athlete. He had an impact on so many people's lives, including my own."
Judson was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment. Sally Clausen, president of the ULS, was also traveling and could not be reached.
"It would be an injustice and a disservice to name the arena after anyone other than Fred Hobdy," said current GSU coach Larry Wright, the SWAC's 1975-76 Player of the Year under Hobdy.
Jean Bush, a 1980 GSU graduate, added, "It's a fantastic idea to honor one of the legends that helped build the institution."
The long-delayed plan for a new basketball facility began during the tenure of GSU's second president, Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, in the 1970s. But the idea didn't pick up steam until 1994, when legislation was finally passed to issue $1 million in bonds.
Hobdy never saw the ground-breaking ceremonies. Another decade passed before $17 million in top-priority bonds was approved in 2004 to fund construction, with another $6.75 million set aside for use when needed.
"If there is anybody that I know of who it should be named after, it was him," said Rayville basketball coach Larry Wilson, who played in high school for Herschel West — one of Hobdy's best guards — and then for Hobdy at GSU.
Nicknamed "Lefty," Hobdy coached 26 All-Americans and his teams won seven SWAC championships. Along with the 1961 NAIA title, Hobdy's teams also earned two Midwest Conference championships, two NCAA regional championships and four NAIA district titles. Half of his 30 squads won 20 or more games, and two won 30 or more.
Basketball, however, wasn't the total measure of Hobdy's legacy at GSU.
He was an assistant on the baseball and football teams, and served as athletic director at GSU from August 1989 until September 1996.
Hobdy was a member of former football coach Eddie Robinson's legendary 1942 squad before leaving school to fight in World War II. That year, the Tigers not only finished undefeated, but were unscored against. The Winnfield native even played baseball for Jones.
"Coach Hobdy did so many significant things — and he did it while playing at Grambling and then coaching at Grambling," said Reed, who later won two NBA titles with the New York Knicks. "Naming the building after him would be a great tribute to a man who gave so much to the school."
The arena, now under construction behind Robinson Stadium on campus, is projected to open in the spring of 2006.
Produced by the Shreveport-based Newman Marchive Partnership, the original architectural plans call for a 7,705-seat athletic and academic facility. It's designed to house the women and men's basketball programs, as well as health, physical education and recreation departments — and would also serve as a multi-purpose assembly center for the university and surrounding community. Seating capacity would expand to approximately 9,000 during non-sporting events.
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Former GSU great Reed kicks off Hobdy endowment
September 26, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Former Grambling State University coach and athletics director Fred Hobdy coached 26 All-Americans and the last national championship by a men's basketball team from Louisiana in 1961.
Still, a group led by Hobdy's widow wants to make sure that he's remembered for more than those fading banners hanging on gymnasium rafters.
The Fred Hobdy Endowed Professorship in Education, endorsed by Mary Hobdy, has been established to supplement salaries and provide faculty support for research.
"'Hob' loved Grambling," said Mary Hobdy, whose husband died Dec. 8, 1998. "When the idea came up, I was really thrilled that his name will continue in perpetuity at this university."
The endowment recognizes a long-overlooked facet of contribution by Hobdy — who served 30 years as basketball coach, then later as athletics director through 1996.
"We all know about his success as a basketball coach," said Larry Wright, a late 1970s player who now coaches the men's team at GSU. "He was also a teacher for 30 years or better, a guy that worked in health fitness and education department for years. I think it's long overdue."
An important lead gift from Willis Reed — the Pro Basketball Hall of Famer who scored 2,280 career points for Hobdy in the early 1960s — has kicked off a fund drive to support the endowment.
"The fact that Willis Reed is working with it is a great thrill," said Mary Hobdy, also secretary to former GSU president R.W.E. Jones from 1956-77. "He was one of greatest players that 'Hob' coached, and a great person and humanitarian.
"I hope that it will inspire people and the players who came after to participate also."
GSU organizers hope to make a $60,000 donation at the February annual endowment ceremony on campus. The Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund, established by the state, would provide $40,000 in matching funds to create the professorship, said Ulysses Tucker Jr., annual fund director and major gifts officer.
The principal of this endowment, managed under guidelines set by the University of Louisiana System's Board of Regents, is never invaded, Tucker said. Funds are reinvested each year to provide growth as a hedge against inflation.
Reed, an executive of the New Orleans Hornets, said, "That's a new legacy, one that will also live as long as a university lives."
A standout with the NBA's New York Knicks in the early 1970s, Reed said he became involved in an effort to recognize both Coach Hobdy and his wife.
"It's honoring a person who was very significant to me and all of us, but also Mrs. Hobdy. She was our biggest fan, really enjoyed basketball," he said.
Hobdy squads, in addition to winning the 1961 NAIA title, also earned two championships in the Midwest Conference that Grambling called home before joining the SWAC, along with two NCAA regional championships and four NAIA district titles.
Fifteen of his 30 GSU teams won 20 or more games. Two won 30 or more.
That’s perhaps kept his past performers humble. Still, it’s hard to argue that the involvement of a player of Reed’s stature doesn’t create considerable buzz around these new fundraising efforts.
Hard for everyone but Reed.
“I’m just one of the boys who played for him,” Reed said. “Coach Hobdy had some great players. Over time, that would include Hershel West, probably one of the greatest basketball players to never play pro.”
In fact, Hobdy still holds the men’s hoops record for career victories in this state — despite retiring nearly 20 seasons ago.
As time passed, Wright — who left Grambling as a junior first-round draft pick then won the 1978 NBA title with Washington — was sadded that Hobdy might never again get the chance to influence young lives. Now, it appears that he could.
“I hope this is way that his name will be etched in stone forever,” said Wright, a longtime proponent of naming a basketball facility now under construction on campus after Hobdy. “I say this without hesitation: There has never lived a more loyal Gramblinite than Fred Hobdy. Never. Unconditionally.”
For Mrs. Hobdy, hearing Wright’s and Reed's fond memories serves as both tribute and sweet reminiscence.
“I would think about that, and the tears that I would cry would tears of joy at the contribution that he had made — even to those who weren’t stars,” she said. “The students that will be helped from (this endowment) will serve as a continuation of that, of everything ‘Hob’ was about.”
Working on the endowment has girded her through difficult treatments for cancer — an illness Mrs. Hobdy is determined to hold at bay until this tribute is made to her husband.
“I’m an optimistic person,” she said, “but I don’t think I have to be so great an optimist to see that this will one day happen. I just hope to be there.”
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Resolution drafted to name GSU arena after Hobdy
July 30, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A Grambling State history professor has drafted a resolution asking that the university's new arena be named for former basketball coach Fred Hobdy. Next, Jimmy McJamerson will begin pressing school and state officials on the issue.
"The legacy is all inclusive, in the sense that he was a contributor at every level — as a teacher, an administrator and certainly as a basketball and football coach," McJamerson said. "He helped build the winning tradition at Grambling."
Hobdy, a member of both the Louisiana Sports and Southwestern Athletic Conference halls of fame, is rightly remembered for his contributions as a basketball genius. After all, he remains the winningest college coach in Louisiana with 572 victories between 1957-86. His teams won seven Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association championship in 1961 — the last men's national title from this state.
But that's not the full measure of Hobdy's legacy at Grambling, McJamerson reminds. A three-sport letter winner at Grambling, Hobdy was a member of that legendary 1942 football squad that went unbeaten, even unscored upon, under Eddie Robinson. He later served as assistant football coach with Robinson and then athletics director before passing in 1998.
One of Hobdy's enduring dreams was a new basketball arena, a project that lingered as an idea from the late 1970s until very recently. Construction is nearing completion on the 135,000-square-foot facility, which will be capable of seating 7,500 for sports events and as many as 9,000 for other occasions.
"That building deserves to be named in his honor for the tremendous number of things he did to build the Grambling legacy throughout the nation and also throughout the world," McJamerson said.
His resolution reads, in part: "We earnestly recommend to Dr. Horace A. Judson, President of Grambling State University, and the Louisiana Board of Supervisors for State Colleges and Universities that the new assembly building be named in honor of Coach Fredrick C. Hobdy as a fitting tribute to this Son of the Black and Gold."
Former players and members of the Hobdy family hailed McJamerson's efforts as long-overdue recognition.
"It would be quite fitting for a basketball arena named after Coach Hobdy to stand next to the stadium named for Coach Robinson; they worked so closely together," said former player Larry Wright, now the GSU men's coach. "I could say so many things about Coach Hobdy."
Wright, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's 1975-76 Player of the Year under Hobdy, has consistently lobbied for naming the facility in his mentor's honor.
So has nephew William Hobdy, himself a former GSU basketball player.
"Fred Hobdy was one of the building pillars, along with Robinson and (legendary former president R.W.E. 'Prez') Jones," William Hobdy said. "His many accomplishments speak for themselves. Look at the record: If not for the giant shadow cast by Robinson, his name might be even more esteemed by Grambling's faithful."
Each mentioned not just Hobdy's accomplishments on the basketball court, but also the way he continued to provide support and guidance to students long after their playing days where done.
"Even in death he is still the winningest basketball coach in the state of Louisiana; no one is even close to his record," McJamerson said. "To add to that, he promised his players, even after they finished at Grambling, all they had to do was pick up the phone and call him and he would be there. He lived up to that promise, as a man of his word. He was a mentor when they needed him later. That speaks to the nature of the man. I have nothing but love and respect for him."
About the resolution
Grambling State history professor Jimmy McJamerson has drafted a resolution urging school and state officials to name the new basketball arena on campus in honor of former coach Fred Hobdy.
The resolution makes for a dramatic retelling of one of the school's most important coaching and administrative pioneers.
Included is recognition of Hobdy's stints as high school basketball coach at GSU, Peabody High and Grambling High, as well as teaching and administrative positions that included physical education instructor, men's and women's basketball coach, assistant football coach, assistant athletic director and AD.
The resolution also notes that Hobdy was named conference coach of the year six times, coached 26 All-America honorees and sent 16 players to the professional ranks.
McJamerson asks that anyone wishing to sign the resolution, or with questions about it, call him at 254-5067 or send an e-mail to mcjmcj@cox.net.
Grambling's Hobdy never lost his focus on life after basketball
July 13, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Fred Hobdy's players at Grambling would find themselves still huffing and puffing from drills, when he'd abruptly switch the subject.
There was more to life, the late coach would say, than just basketball.
"He wanted all of us to grow up to be productive citizens," said current GSU coach Larry Wright, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's 1975-76 Player of the Year under Hobdy. "He used to say that all the time: 'Basketball is not going to last forever.' He would always talk about that. When you first came, he made sure that you understand that basketball was a means to an education."
Wright would later win the 1978 NBA title with the Washington Bullets before returning to coach in the same office where Hobdy once sat.
"He was tough as coach; don't get me wrong," said Wright. "He worked your butt off. But at the end of the day, when you needed him, it was all together different."
Often times, Wright said, life lessons would come just after one of Hobdy's now-legendary practices — sweat-drenched affairs that stressed preparation and conditioning.
"He would be drilling you, running you like there is no more tomorrows, but afterwards if you had a problem he would switch hats," Wright said. "Instead of your coach, he became your father — so understanding of the problem, whatever it might have been. There was no way you could think a guy who had just been screaming at the top of his voice do that, but he did. I will always remember that."
Wright, whose voice colors with emotion at the very mention of his mentor, continues to lobby in the hopes that the basketball arena being constructed on campus will be named after Hobdy.
"I could say so many things about Coach Hobdy," said Wright. "When you start talking about the people who built Grambling," Wright mused, "you have to say (former football coach) Eddie Robinson. You have to say (former school president) R.W.E. Jones. I think you also have to say Fred Hobdy. He should be mentioned in the same breath."
Lessons in Leadership
This was another in our series profiling legendary coaches from around the area, and the effects they had on the athletic field and on their players' lives after the games ended.
About Fred Hobdy
Hobdy, a member of the Louisiana Sports and Southwestern Athletic Conference halls of fame, is rightly remembered for his contributions as a basketball genius. After all, he remains the winningest college coach in Louisiana with 572 victories between 1957-86. His teams won seven Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association championship in 1961 - the last men's national title from this state. But that's not the full measure of Hobdy's legacy. A three-sport letter winner at Grambling, he later served as athletics director before passing in 1998. He's perhaps best known as a collegiate athlete for his contribution to a legendary 1942 squad that went unbeaten, even unscored upon, under Eddie Robinson.
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GSU fans want new arena to be Hobdy
January 28, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Grambling State University's Fred Hobdy won more college basketball games than any coach in Louisiana history.
It's only fitting, some fans and former players say, to put his name on GSU's new multi-purpose basketball facility.
"I love the idea of a Fred Hobdy Arena," said Michael Watson of Sicily Island, a 1977 graduate of GSU. "Coach was a winner."
Hobdy posted 572 wins, with 288 losses, over 30 seasons from 1956-86. His 1961 squad, paced by Basketball Hall of Famer Willis Reed, won the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association championship.
"I think naming the arena for Coach Hobdy is a great idea," said Reed, now vice president of basketball operations with the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. "Coach Hobdy spent his whole life there. He loved Grambling. He was a black-and-gold guy."
A member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Louisiana Sports halls of fame, Hobdy died on Dec. 8, 1998.
State Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Grambling, said naming school buildings after deceased individuals is handled through the University of Louisiana System Board. GSU president Horace Judson would need to write a letter of request to the board, Gallot said.
Former University of Louisiana at Monroe president Lawson Swearingen went through the same process in December 1999 when long-time Indians coach Lenny Fant's name was added to Ewing Coliseum on campus.
"Coach Hobdy is one of the winningest coaches in history, and a legend in basketball. There wouldn't be anyone moredeserving," said Gallot, who remembered attending Hobdy's summer camps "from the time I could dribble a ball — until I realized that I wasn't much of an athlete. He had an impact on so many people's lives, including my own."
Judson was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment. Sally Clausen, president of the ULS, was also traveling and could not be reached.
"It would be an injustice and a disservice to name the arena after anyone other than Fred Hobdy," said current GSU coach Larry Wright, the SWAC's 1975-76 Player of the Year under Hobdy.
Jean Bush, a 1980 GSU graduate, added, "It's a fantastic idea to honor one of the legends that helped build the institution."
The long-delayed plan for a new basketball facility began during the tenure of GSU's second president, Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, in the 1970s. But the idea didn't pick up steam until 1994, when legislation was finally passed to issue $1 million in bonds.
Hobdy never saw the ground-breaking ceremonies. Another decade passed before $17 million in top-priority bonds was approved in 2004 to fund construction, with another $6.75 million set aside for use when needed.
"If there is anybody that I know of who it should be named after, it was him," said Rayville basketball coach Larry Wilson, who played in high school for Herschel West — one of Hobdy's best guards — and then for Hobdy at GSU.
Nicknamed "Lefty," Hobdy coached 26 All-Americans and his teams won seven SWAC championships. Along with the 1961 NAIA title, Hobdy's teams also earned two Midwest Conference championships, two NCAA regional championships and four NAIA district titles. Half of his 30 squads won 20 or more games, and two won 30 or more.
Basketball, however, wasn't the total measure of Hobdy's legacy at GSU.
He was an assistant on the baseball and football teams, and served as athletic director at GSU from August 1989 until September 1996.
Hobdy was a member of former football coach Eddie Robinson's legendary 1942 squad before leaving school to fight in World War II. That year, the Tigers not only finished undefeated, but were unscored against. The Winnfield native even played baseball for Jones.
"Coach Hobdy did so many significant things — and he did it while playing at Grambling and then coaching at Grambling," said Reed, who later won two NBA titles with the New York Knicks. "Naming the building after him would be a great tribute to a man who gave so much to the school."
The arena, now under construction behind Robinson Stadium on campus, is projected to open in the spring of 2006.
Produced by the Shreveport-based Newman Marchive Partnership, the original architectural plans call for a 7,705-seat athletic and academic facility. It's designed to house the women and men's basketball programs, as well as health, physical education and recreation departments — and would also serve as a multi-purpose assembly center for the university and surrounding community. Seating capacity would expand to approximately 9,000 during non-sporting events.
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Former GSU great Reed kicks off Hobdy endowment
September 26, 2005
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — Former Grambling State University coach and athletics director Fred Hobdy coached 26 All-Americans and the last national championship by a men's basketball team from Louisiana in 1961.
Still, a group led by Hobdy's widow wants to make sure that he's remembered for more than those fading banners hanging on gymnasium rafters.
The Fred Hobdy Endowed Professorship in Education, endorsed by Mary Hobdy, has been established to supplement salaries and provide faculty support for research.
"'Hob' loved Grambling," said Mary Hobdy, whose husband died Dec. 8, 1998. "When the idea came up, I was really thrilled that his name will continue in perpetuity at this university."
The endowment recognizes a long-overlooked facet of contribution by Hobdy — who served 30 years as basketball coach, then later as athletics director through 1996.
"We all know about his success as a basketball coach," said Larry Wright, a late 1970s player who now coaches the men's team at GSU. "He was also a teacher for 30 years or better, a guy that worked in health fitness and education department for years. I think it's long overdue."
An important lead gift from Willis Reed — the Pro Basketball Hall of Famer who scored 2,280 career points for Hobdy in the early 1960s — has kicked off a fund drive to support the endowment.
"The fact that Willis Reed is working with it is a great thrill," said Mary Hobdy, also secretary to former GSU president R.W.E. Jones from 1956-77. "He was one of greatest players that 'Hob' coached, and a great person and humanitarian.
"I hope that it will inspire people and the players who came after to participate also."
GSU organizers hope to make a $60,000 donation at the February annual endowment ceremony on campus. The Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund, established by the state, would provide $40,000 in matching funds to create the professorship, said Ulysses Tucker Jr., annual fund director and major gifts officer.
The principal of this endowment, managed under guidelines set by the University of Louisiana System's Board of Regents, is never invaded, Tucker said. Funds are reinvested each year to provide growth as a hedge against inflation.
Reed, an executive of the New Orleans Hornets, said, "That's a new legacy, one that will also live as long as a university lives."
A standout with the NBA's New York Knicks in the early 1970s, Reed said he became involved in an effort to recognize both Coach Hobdy and his wife.
"It's honoring a person who was very significant to me and all of us, but also Mrs. Hobdy. She was our biggest fan, really enjoyed basketball," he said.
Hobdy squads, in addition to winning the 1961 NAIA title, also earned two championships in the Midwest Conference that Grambling called home before joining the SWAC, along with two NCAA regional championships and four NAIA district titles.
Fifteen of his 30 GSU teams won 20 or more games. Two won 30 or more.
That’s perhaps kept his past performers humble. Still, it’s hard to argue that the involvement of a player of Reed’s stature doesn’t create considerable buzz around these new fundraising efforts.
Hard for everyone but Reed.
“I’m just one of the boys who played for him,” Reed said. “Coach Hobdy had some great players. Over time, that would include Hershel West, probably one of the greatest basketball players to never play pro.”
In fact, Hobdy still holds the men’s hoops record for career victories in this state — despite retiring nearly 20 seasons ago.
As time passed, Wright — who left Grambling as a junior first-round draft pick then won the 1978 NBA title with Washington — was sadded that Hobdy might never again get the chance to influence young lives. Now, it appears that he could.
“I hope this is way that his name will be etched in stone forever,” said Wright, a longtime proponent of naming a basketball facility now under construction on campus after Hobdy. “I say this without hesitation: There has never lived a more loyal Gramblinite than Fred Hobdy. Never. Unconditionally.”
For Mrs. Hobdy, hearing Wright’s and Reed's fond memories serves as both tribute and sweet reminiscence.
“I would think about that, and the tears that I would cry would tears of joy at the contribution that he had made — even to those who weren’t stars,” she said. “The students that will be helped from (this endowment) will serve as a continuation of that, of everything ‘Hob’ was about.”
Working on the endowment has girded her through difficult treatments for cancer — an illness Mrs. Hobdy is determined to hold at bay until this tribute is made to her husband.
“I’m an optimistic person,” she said, “but I don’t think I have to be so great an optimist to see that this will one day happen. I just hope to be there.”
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Resolution drafted to name GSU arena after Hobdy
July 30, 2006
By Nick Deriso
nderiso@thenewsstar.com
GRAMBLING — A Grambling State history professor has drafted a resolution asking that the university's new arena be named for former basketball coach Fred Hobdy. Next, Jimmy McJamerson will begin pressing school and state officials on the issue.
"The legacy is all inclusive, in the sense that he was a contributor at every level — as a teacher, an administrator and certainly as a basketball and football coach," McJamerson said. "He helped build the winning tradition at Grambling."
Hobdy, a member of both the Louisiana Sports and Southwestern Athletic Conference halls of fame, is rightly remembered for his contributions as a basketball genius. After all, he remains the winningest college coach in Louisiana with 572 victories between 1957-86. His teams won seven Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association championship in 1961 — the last men's national title from this state.
But that's not the full measure of Hobdy's legacy at Grambling, McJamerson reminds. A three-sport letter winner at Grambling, Hobdy was a member of that legendary 1942 football squad that went unbeaten, even unscored upon, under Eddie Robinson. He later served as assistant football coach with Robinson and then athletics director before passing in 1998.
One of Hobdy's enduring dreams was a new basketball arena, a project that lingered as an idea from the late 1970s until very recently. Construction is nearing completion on the 135,000-square-foot facility, which will be capable of seating 7,500 for sports events and as many as 9,000 for other occasions.
"That building deserves to be named in his honor for the tremendous number of things he did to build the Grambling legacy throughout the nation and also throughout the world," McJamerson said.
His resolution reads, in part: "We earnestly recommend to Dr. Horace A. Judson, President of Grambling State University, and the Louisiana Board of Supervisors for State Colleges and Universities that the new assembly building be named in honor of Coach Fredrick C. Hobdy as a fitting tribute to this Son of the Black and Gold."
Former players and members of the Hobdy family hailed McJamerson's efforts as long-overdue recognition.
"It would be quite fitting for a basketball arena named after Coach Hobdy to stand next to the stadium named for Coach Robinson; they worked so closely together," said former player Larry Wright, now the GSU men's coach. "I could say so many things about Coach Hobdy."
Wright, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's 1975-76 Player of the Year under Hobdy, has consistently lobbied for naming the facility in his mentor's honor.
So has nephew William Hobdy, himself a former GSU basketball player.
"Fred Hobdy was one of the building pillars, along with Robinson and (legendary former president R.W.E. 'Prez') Jones," William Hobdy said. "His many accomplishments speak for themselves. Look at the record: If not for the giant shadow cast by Robinson, his name might be even more esteemed by Grambling's faithful."
Each mentioned not just Hobdy's accomplishments on the basketball court, but also the way he continued to provide support and guidance to students long after their playing days where done.
"Even in death he is still the winningest basketball coach in the state of Louisiana; no one is even close to his record," McJamerson said. "To add to that, he promised his players, even after they finished at Grambling, all they had to do was pick up the phone and call him and he would be there. He lived up to that promise, as a man of his word. He was a mentor when they needed him later. That speaks to the nature of the man. I have nothing but love and respect for him."
About the resolution
Grambling State history professor Jimmy McJamerson has drafted a resolution urging school and state officials to name the new basketball arena on campus in honor of former coach Fred Hobdy.
The resolution makes for a dramatic retelling of one of the school's most important coaching and administrative pioneers.
Included is recognition of Hobdy's stints as high school basketball coach at GSU, Peabody High and Grambling High, as well as teaching and administrative positions that included physical education instructor, men's and women's basketball coach, assistant football coach, assistant athletic director and AD.
The resolution also notes that Hobdy was named conference coach of the year six times, coached 26 All-America honorees and sent 16 players to the professional ranks.
McJamerson asks that anyone wishing to sign the resolution, or with questions about it, call him at 254-5067 or send an e-mail to mcjmcj@cox.net.
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