thetorch Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Tremendous man passed today at 71. I was lucky enough to have met him a few times as he knew my father and grandfather. White starred on the 68 Olympic squad while many other black athletes boycotted. Then he was embroiled in a dispute with STL draft board. Sen Eagleton was instrumental on allowing White to get out of the draft. Starred on the Celtics through a couple different eras and reached his peak as NBA finals MVP in 76. The famous triple OT game in those finals, White logged 56 minutes. We've probably had this debate before but White and Macauley are certainly the two best players to come out of STL with Bradley right behind them. Everyone else is a distant 4th but I'm sure Beal or Tatum will soon take those spots. milwaukeebill and rgbilliken like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papal Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 He used to stop by the West Pine gym on Saturday mornings for pickup games. we would just watch in amazement as he .drilled 30 footers. His senior year at McKinley High played on team with Harrison Steptor who later went on to star as guard at Michigan State under John Bennington(former SLU coach) and with ? Coleman who became a starting forward for Mizzou. Amazingly McKinley did not win district that year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 SLU certainly missed out on some great locals back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 RIP Jo Jo you were a great Celtic. Saw you play a number of times in the Gahden! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 26 minutes ago, slu72 said: SLU certainly missed out on some great locals back then. Jo Jo is either the best or second best player to come out of St. Louis. The SLU teams in Jo Jo's college years didn't suffer because of a lack of talent. They had five guys that got drafted over that time period plus Joe Wiley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 minute ago, brianstl said: Jo Jo is either the best or second best player to come out of St. Louis. The SLU teams in Jo Jo's college years didn't suffer because of a lack of talent. They had five guys that got drafted over that time period plus Joe Wiley. The NBA draft featured a lot more rounds until the late '80s, so one must take that count of those drafted with a grain of salt. Also, there were a whole lot fewer Div. 1 schools back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prebilliken Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Easy Ed, Jo Jo, and Bradley are the holy trinity of St. Louis area players. Legends. According to my father, I met White a few times as a young boy growing up in Boston. My Dad's company did a lot with the C's and apparently he was a consummate class act. RIP Mr. White. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 5 minutes ago, prebilliken said: Easy Ed, Jo Jo, and Bradley are the holy trinity of St. Louis area players. Legends. According to my father, I met White a few times as a young boy growing up in Boston. My Dad's company did a lot with the C's and apparently he was a consummate class act. RIP Mr. White. not sure i wouldnt take larry hughes nba stats over bill bradley. however i will concede bradley played on a legendary knicks national championship team. Tonka likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 minute ago, Quality Is Job 1 said: The NBA draft featured a lot more rounds until the late '80s, so one must take that count of those drafted with a grain of salt. Also, there were a whole lot fewer Div. 1 schools back then. It featured more rounds but only 14 teams. One played one season on the ABA championship team. Another had a six year ABA/NBA career. A third made the ABA all-rookie team, then the next season the ABA All-Star team and had a seven year career. Those teams had talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, brianstl said: It featured more rounds but only 14 teams. One played one season on the ABA championship team. Another had a six year ABA/NBA career. A third made the ABA all-rookie team, then the next season the ABA All-Star team and had a seven year career. Those teams had talent. I don't mean to disparage the talent, but I do think that if there were still more rounds than two, more former Billikens since the late '80s would have been drafted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papal Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 no 3-point shot for White,McCauley,Bradley. Walt Frazier and a guy named McNeil (SLU Carbondale-coached by alex Hanuum) used to also play in those pickup games. SLU would get top local talent until Buddy Brehmer came along as coach. He set the program back decades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierPal Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 A St. Louis born player very few ever mention is Jennings HS Bob Kurland. At 7' he was a giant in his days. He played for OK State in the 1940's and lead the Cowboys to two NCAA titles and was a multiple AA. He passed up pro ball to play AAU with the Phillips Pet team, which was not uncommon in the 1940's. He helped win a Gold Medal twice for the US as an amateur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 7 minutes ago, papal said: no 3-point shot for White,McCauley,Bradley. Walt Frazier and a guy named McNeil (SLU Carbondale-coached by alex Hanuum) used to also play in those pickup games. SLU would get top local talent until Buddy Brehmer came along as coach. He set the program back decades. -we have way too many examples of this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 9 minutes ago, Cowboy said: -we have way too many examples of this Right. Every few years, the program gets set back decades. Cosmic forces conspire to keep us humble. Or maybe it's just a long history of ineptitude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 56 minutes ago, billiken_roy said: not sure i wouldnt take larry hughes nba stats over bill bradley. however i will concede bradley played on a legendary knicks national championship team. Love Larry but I think David Lee and Bradley Beal have,will have better NBA career's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 6 minutes ago, willie said: Love Larry but I think David Lee and Bradley Beal have,will have better NBA career's. as in not yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 That Imo's Pizza guy might turn out to be pretty good as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prebilliken Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 13 minutes ago, Iggy said: That Imo's Pizza guy might turn out to be pretty good as well. My hope, as a C's fan, is that Tatum is a Celtic as long and as successfully as Jo Jo was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almaman Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 hour ago, HoosierPal said: A St. Louis born player very few ever mention is Jennings HS Bob Kurland. At 7' he was a giant in his days. He played for OK State in the 1940's and lead the Cowboys to two NCAA titles and was a multiple AA. He passed up pro ball to play AAU with the Phillips Pet team, which was not uncommon in the 1940's. He helped win a Gold Medal twice for the US as an amateur. Olympic golds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 4 hours ago, brianstl said: Jo Jo is either the best or second best player to come out of St. Louis. The SLU teams in Jo Jo's college years didn't suffer because of a lack of talent. They had five guys that got drafted over that time period plus Joe Wiley. As I recall we had guys like Ferry, Barry Ohrms (sp), Neidemeyer (sp). Add Wiley, but not big enough for the NBA, on those mid to late 60s teams. You're really telling me Jo Jo would not have been a valuable addition? Come on, Brian, I respect you too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Just now, slu72 said: As I recall we had guys like Ferry, Barry Ohrms (sp), Neidemeyer (sp). Add Wiley, but not big enough for the NBA, on those mid to late 60s teams. You're really telling me Jo Jo would not have been a valuable addition? Come on, Brian, I respect you too much. Jo Jo would have been the best Billiken ever with maybe the exception of Easy Ed. My point was getting talent wasn't the big problem back then. They had some good talent. The coaching was bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierPal Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 2 hours ago, almaman said: Olympic golds? Yes. London and Helsinki I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGB91 Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 4 hours ago, papal said: no 3-point shot for White,McCauley,Bradley. Walt Frazier and a guy named McNeil (SLU Carbondale-coached by alex Hanuum) used to also play in those pickup games. SLU would get top local talent until Buddy Brehmer came along as coach. He set the program back decades. Who set us back more Brehmer, Ekker, Crews or Pestello? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 7 minutes ago, AGB91 said: Who set us back more Brehmer, Ekker, Crews or Pestello? Excellent question.....I only remember two of the above and they are bad enough..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papal Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Brehmer and Ekker were not nice guys; Crews was a nice guy; Unfortunately, the jury is still out on Pestello Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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