Billiken great Bob Ferry Passes away

[thetorch]

 

[RUBillsFan]

RIP Mr. Ferry.

Here are his SLU stats:

Didn't win a title like Easy Ed, but played for some really good teams & is arguably one of the best players in program history.  Nearly 22 ppg and 14 rpg is senior year is crazy.

Do any older MBMs remember if we even tried at all to recruit Bob's son Danny Ferry who ended up starring at Duke (1985-89)?  Seems like we would have been a Jayson Tatum type situation - dad who played at SLU, son who is highly ranked HS recruit, SLU program in a rough stretch, son ends up at Duke.  Recruiting Danny Ferry would have had the added complication of him not actually being local since he was born & raised in Maryland.  Still it would be interesting to know if Danny ever had any inkling of follow in his Dad's footsteps. 

[thetorch]

34 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

RIP Mr. Ferry.

Here are his SLU stats:

Didn't win a title like Easy Ed, but played for some really good teams & is arguably one of the best players in program history.  Nearly 22 ppg and 14 rpg is senior year is crazy.

Do any older MBMs remember if we even tried at all to recruit Bob's son Danny Ferry who ended up starring at Duke (1985-89)?  Seems like we would have been a Jayson Tatum type situation - dad who played at SLU, son who is highly ranked HS recruit, SLU program in a rough stretch, son ends up at Duke.  Recruiting Danny Ferry would have had the added complication of him not actually being local since he was born & raised in Maryland.  Still it would be interesting to know if Danny ever had any inkling of follow in his Dad's footsteps. 

We didn't.

Ferry was not living in St. Louis and never was a real active alum. In 83, 84 we were in bad shape as a program and recruiting a kid from DeMatha would have been insane.

Ferry was the top recruit in his class playing for Morgan Wooten the top prep coach and top HS program in the nation. It was a coup for Duke to get him. They were a good program but not quite Duke yet. Ferry elevated that program, getting to 3 final fours, though he never won a title like laettner.

[Cowboy II]

1 hour ago, thetorch said:

We didn't.

Ferry was not living in St. Louis and never was a real active alum. In 83, 84 we were in bad shape as a program and recruiting a kid from DeMatha would have been insane.

Ferry was the top recruit in his class playing for Morgan Wooten the top prep coach and top HS program in the nation. It was a coup for Duke to get him. They were a good program but not quite Duke yet. Ferry elevated that program, getting to 3 final fours, though he never won a title like laettner.

-I thought we at least got a visit from Danny

-RIP Bob

 

[billiken_roy]

5 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-I thought we at least got a visit from Danny

-RIP Bob

 

my guess is that is on Bob.  did he ask danny to look?   

when my kids were picking colleges i insisted that they at least look at Saint Louis University and consider that as their college destination.   My son bought off and has done very well imo with his SLU Diploma.   My daughter went elsewhere but she too has done very well.   i always wonder if she had gotten the presidential scholarship which she was a finalist for, would she have went to slu?   maybe.   regardless she's a success and mom and dad are still proud even though she is the only non billiken in our family.  

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

my guess is that is on Bob.  did he ask danny to look?   

when my kids were picking colleges i insisted that they at least look at Saint Louis University and consider that as their college destination.   My son bought off and has done very well imo with his SLU Diploma.   My daughter went elsewhere but she too has done very well.   i always wonder if she had gotten the presidential scholarship which she was a finalist for, would she have went to slu?   maybe.   regardless she's a success and mom and dad are still proud even though she is the only non billiken in our family.  

I don't remember the whole story, but I think we got a home and home with Duke while K was actually still in the process of recruiting Danny Ferry as part of Coach K trying to sway the family. The series actually started in St. Louis while Danny was still in high school.  I think the Ferrys were led to believe that Duke planned to continue the series while Danny was at Duke with him getting to play in the same building his dad played in.  Harvard, also, at that time got a home and homes scheduled because Danny's brother Bob Jr. was playing at Harvard.

Ferry only got to play against SLU at Cameron in a game Duke won big.  The year before Ferry arrived at Duke they beat the Billikens big at the old Kiel.  I was a young kid, but that Duke team was something to see in person.  They were on that night at least the second best basketball team I had seen close up in person to that point in my life.  The best was the year before when my dad took me to NCAA Regional and I saw Houston.   I think that had more to do with Hakeem, who to me at that age was other worldly as a player.  

[NH]

I met Bob Ferry once in Atlantic City at the A-10 tournament. He was scouting for the Cavs when Danny was the GM. I was just a kid and he had no reason to talk with us, but he could not have been nicer, watched like 2 games with my Dad and me discussing players, draft prospects, and the like. Will always be a very fond memory of mine. 

[RUBillsFan]

1 hour ago, brianstl said:

I don't remember the whole story, but I think we got a home and home with Duke while K was actually still in the process of recruiting Danny Ferry as part of Coach K trying to sway the family. The series actually started in St. Louis while Danny was still in high school.  I think the Ferrys were led to believe that Duke planned to continue the series while Danny was at Duke with him getting to play in the same building his dad played in.  Harvard, also, at that time got a home and homes scheduled because Danny's brother Bob Jr. was playing at Harvard.

Ferry only got to play against SLU at Cameron in a game Duke won big.  The year before Ferry arrived at Duke they beat the Billikens big at the old Kiel.  I was a young kid, but that Duke team was something to see in person.  They were on that night at least the second best basketball team I had seen close up in person to that point in my life.  The best was the year before when my dad took me to NCAA Regional and I saw Houston.   I think that had more to do with Hakeem, who to me at that age was other worldly as a player.  

Can't imagine Duke doing a home & home with SLU or Harvard nowadays.  That's crazy.  They barely play any non-conference road games at all except for those mandated by Big Ten / ACC challenge.  The rest that aren't within the cozy confines of Cameron Indoor are neutral site games as part of MTEs or one offs.

[Bay Area Billiken]

2 hours ago, brianstl said:

I don't remember the whole story, but I think we got a home and home with Duke while K was actually still in the process of recruiting Danny Ferry as part of Coach K trying to sway the family. The series actually started in St. Louis while Danny was still in high school.  I think the Ferrys were led to believe that Duke planned to continue the series while Danny was at Duke with him getting to play in the same building his dad played in.  Harvard, also, at that time got a home and homes scheduled because Danny's brother Bob Jr. was playing at Harvard.

Ferry only got to play against SLU at Cameron in a game Duke won big.  The year before Ferry arrived at Duke they beat the Billikens big at the old Kiel.  I was a young kid, but that Duke team was something to see in person.  They were on that night at least the second best basketball team I had seen close up in person to that point in my life.  The best was the year before when my dad took me to NCAA Regional and I saw Houston.   I think that had more to do with Hakeem, who to me at that age was other worldly as a player.  

I remember that Duke game at Kiel Auditorium.  SLU got blown out.  We didn't really expect that.  SLU under Coach Grawer played teams pretty tough at the Old Kiel.

I also remember hearing about Danny Ferry, that he was Bob Ferry's son, etc.  We were really dreamers in those days, which were the later years of the Dark Ages.  The Dark Ages ended when Rich Grawer recruited Monroe Douglass and Roland Gray out of McKinley High School.  I was in Humphrey's eating lunch and overheard Coach Grawer tell his Assistant Coach, Ed Stewart, that Douglass and Gray were SLU bound.  The two coaches were seated at a table by the window.

[bauman]

What a coup-getting Bob from Cleveland HS.  Those were the good old days when the PHL was filled with great players in many sports, especially at some of the north city schools like Beaumont.  They even had their own stadium the Public School Stadium on N Kingshighway, a couple of blocks north of McBride HS and the original DePaul Hospital (both now gone as is just about every other business in the new Wild Wild West).  Cleveland is no more,  becoming first an NJROTC school and I think now boarded up or at least shut down.  Tracing the decline of these high schools mirrors the decline of the city and its population.

While Bob Ferry didn't help guide his son to SLU he might have been responsible for getting his cousin to follow him from Cleveland.  I'm not certain if I have his name correct but I think it was George Bickel or maybe Berkle, a good player but no where near the quality of Ferry.

[RUBillsFan]

14 hours ago, bauman said:

What a coup-getting Bob from Cleveland HS.  Those were the good old days when the PHL was filled with great players in many sports, especially at some of the north city schools like Beaumont.  They even had their own stadium the Public School Stadium on N Kingshighway, a couple of blocks north of McBride HS and the original DePaul Hospital (both now gone as is just about every other business in the new Wild Wild West).  Cleveland is no more,  becoming first an NJROTC school and I think now boarded up or at least shut down.  Tracing the decline of these high schools mirrors the decline of the city and its population.

While Bob Ferry didn't help guide his son to SLU he might have been responsible for getting his cousin to follow him from Cleveland.  I'm not certain if I have his name correct but I think it was George Bickel or maybe Berkle, a good player but no where near the quality of Ferry.

Assuming it was George Burkel.  Interesting footnote that he was Bob Ferry's cousin.