The golf was uneventful yesterday, but conversations with several former Portland Trailblazers, who were outing celebrities, proved to be memorable. At lunch, we talked with Larry Steele about his local Basketball Camp and in the process learned that he was an Indiana native, just like the other two hometown friends that were with me. I told him of my experiences at the Taylor University Junior Basketball Camp run by legendary coach Marion Crawley. One of the councilors was Hallie Bryant, who achieved fame as a Harlem Globetrotter. Bryant went to Indiana University, as did the three of us. In fact, four born-and-bred Hoosiers at the same table is a remarkable coincidence in Portland, Oregon.

Larry Steele went on to play for Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky, and could not off-the-top-of-his-head remember a familiar connection to Bryant. I learned later that he was one of Steele’s coaches when he played for the Indiana High School All-Stars against Kentucky. Larry was head coach himself for the University of Portland over a 7-year span. He hailed from tiny Bainbridge, Indiana and graduated in 1967 with only 54 classmates. Willie Long from Ft. Wayne South was Indiana Mr. Basketball that year, an honor that Hallie Bryant of Indianapolis  Crispus Attucks shared in 1953. Steele once scored 46 points in a high school game. We chatted about his Hoosiers move-like experience in the single-class 1966 tournament playing for The Pointers when they faced heavily favored East Chicago Washington in the Lafayette Semi-State. It was classic big-school vs. small-school, but Larry’s team fell 4-points short to The Senators. In the other game, “Rocket” Rick Mount, another Mr. Basketball, scored 47 to lead Lebanon over Logansport, so it was quite a double-header for the fans. 

As most Hoosiers know, Rick Mount went on to star for Purdue, while Larry Steele spent 4-years at Kentucky, beating up on Indiana and then drafted by The Trailblazers in 1971. Hallie Bryant helped Indiana win the 1957 Big Ten Championship, and crossed paths with Steele in the high school border-wars series. I once played against Bryant as part of a radio station promotion back in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Like all Globe Trotter games, it was a carefully controlled outcome in the interest of entertainment. Meadowlark Lemon was also involved in that memorable moment on the basketball court, making all of us look like fools. It allowed me to have a great conversation with Larry, who was part of the NBA championship team in 1977, as was his Blazer teammate Bob Gross, our table guest for dinner after a hot afternoon of divot-making on the golf course.