A publicity photo of Hot Rod Hundley with a personal inscription to Rene Henry, his sports information director at WVU in the mid-1950s.
	Submitted photo

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Friends and family of Rodney Clark Hundley will gather here tomorrow (Saturday) morning to celebrate the life of this great basketball legend.  Better known as Hot Rod, he pleased, thrilled and entertained West Virginia University and Lakers fans much to the dismay of opposing players and coaches.

 

Basketball will never see another Hot Rod Hundley.  He is a one-of-a-kind.  I first met him in March 1954 during the Southern Conference basketball tournament in Morgantown, West Virginia.  I was sports information director for William & Mary and working at the press table.  Rod sat next to me during a couple of the games and introduced himself.

 

He was outgoing, personable, and a delight to talk with.  We had mutual interests and talked about growing up in post-depression Charleston.  Unlike Rod, I had a family.  It is almost impossible to imagine the challenges and poverty he endured.  Basketball became his life.  And this was the start of our 60-year friendship.

 

Little did I know that three months later I would be the sports information director at West Virginia University and promoting him for All-American honors.  He made my job easy.  On December 28, 1954 he put on one of the greatest shooting exhibitions I have seen when he scored 47 points in a losing cause to Wake Forest 96-94 in the Dixie Classic in Raleigh, N.C.  It was a record for both the tournament and the arena.  A week later he scored 37 points against New York University for a Madison Square Garden record.

 

In the 1950s freshmen were not allowed to play on varsity teams as they are today. But in just three years he scored 2,180 points in 89 games for WVU, second only to Jerry West’s 2,309 in 93 games.  The way the game is played today with a three-point line and 35-second clock, Rod would easily top 3,000 points.

 

People always talk and write about Rod’s offensive talents and overlook the fact that almost always Coach Fred Schaus assigned him to guard our opponent’s leading scorer.  In nearly every game he not only outscored his opponent but held him below his average.  After three years and everybody’s All-American, he became and still is the only Mountaineer athlete to be chosen first in an overall draft by the National Basketball Association or National Football League.

 

He played six years with the Minneapolis and later Los Angeles Lakers, twice being named to the All-Star team.  He became a Hall of Fame sportscaster, was the voice of the Utah Jazz for 35 years, and broadcast more than 3,500 basketball games.  Following a New Year’s Eve game the Lakers played against the New York Knicks during his rookie year, I walked with Rod and then-coach George Mikan to Times Square.  I felt secure in the crowd standing between them as the ball came down to ring in 1958.  Every time I see a New Year’s Eve telecast from Times Square it brings back fond memories.

 

As the PR man for WVU sports he sometimes created problems for me with his antics or his comments.  Rod was amazing on a three-on-two fast break the way he would go airborne before reaching the foul line and take the ball behind his back and around his body giving him the option of passing to either teammate or taking the shot himself.  In the December 1955 Orange Bowl Classic in Miami he did this after the first two rebounds of the game and WVU should have led Florida State 4-0, but both times the officials, having never seen anyone handle a ball like this, called a traveling violation.  The second bad call resulted in a technical foul called against WVU. 

 

After the game Rod spoke freely with sportswriters and the headline the next day in the Miami Herald read “Hundley Calls Refs Worst Ever,” and in the story went on to quote him “they weren’t qualified to even officiate an alligator wrestling match.” As the team was warming up for the game that night against Columbia, the same two officials walked on to the court!  WVU won the tournament beating Miami in the finals.

 

On February 13, 1956, the Mountaineers had a commanding lead late in the game over William & Mary in Norfolk, Virginia and Rod began tormenting his defenders with some of his basketball tricks.  Someone from the W&M bench threw a towel at him that resulted in a technical foul against the Indians.  WVU won 105-90.

 

A week later the Indians came to Morgantown and in the fourth quarter after he made a layup Rod walked over and sat down on the end the W&M bench.  He rolled up a towel, pretended it was a microphone, and started doing play-by-play of the game.  The W&M coach went ballistic when he saw him as did Fred Schaus who quickly sat Rod on the Mountaineer bench.  WVU won 97-88 and that may have been an early start on his broadcasting career.

 

Rod invited me to be in Morgantown in January 2010 with his three daughters and good friend and teammate Joedy Gardner when his #33 was retired.  For a perfect ending to the event, dressed in a suit and tie and street shoes, he made a 16’ hook shot.  The only other Mountaineer to have his number retired is another basketball legend, Jerry West.

 

He always gave back to help charitable and education causes and especially the YMCA.  Rod had a remarkable memory and loved to recite quotes of famous people. He could give you statistics and a play-by-play of games years earlier.  He is the only person I know who flunked first grade and returned to college when he was 65 years old to complete his WVU degree.

 

Somewhere up there I know he’ll be looking down on all of us tomorrow, smiling, and will say, “You gotta love it baby!”