Collision Course

by William Cook

  The Cincinnati Royals played their first game at Cincinnati Gardens on October 26, 1957, defeating the Syracuse Nationals 110–100. Jack Twyman led the Royals with 32 points, big Clyde Lovellette, known as the “Terre Haute Terror” had 28, and Maurice Stokes had 10. Dolph Schayes led the Nationals with 32 points.

  During their first month in Cincinnati, the Royals achieved a slightly better than .500 record. But any hope of a division championship went down the tubes when they lost nine straight games between December 10 and 27. The Cincinnati Royals finished 1957–58 with a four-game winning streak that put them in third place with a record of 33–39, good enough to make the playoffs.

  On March 12, in the final game of the season, the Royals pulled a 96–88 victory out of the fire over the Lakers in Minneapolis that was needed to make the playoffs. The victory came in the closing minutes by a pair of three-point plays by Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes.

  However, a monumental tragedy had occurred in the game when Maurice Stokes was injured. In the game, Stokes, who had 24 points, had gone up for a rebound, fallen on the hardwood court, and hit his head, knocking him unconscious. At the time, NBA teams had no trainers or doctors as part of the everyday team and knowledge of sports head trauma injuries was in its infancy, so Stokes was revived and remained with the team with only a cursory examination. There was hardly a mention of Stokes injury in the newspapers, which said that he was being treated for a boil on his neck.

  A coin toss took place to determine home-court advantage for the Western Division Semi-Finals playoff between Detroit and Cincinnati with Pistons coach Red Roche calling it correctly.

  The first of the three-game series, nationally televised by NBC, was played in Detroit at the University of Detroit Memorial Gymnasium before 2,482 spectators. The Pistons defeated the Royals 100–83.

  Despite his injury, Maurice Stokes flew with the team to Detroit and played in the opening playoff game against the Pistons.

  Something seemed wrong with the Royals as they had a frigid first half, letting the Pistons roll to a 56–36 halftime lead. Jack Twyman, who had led the NBA in field goal percentage during the season, didn’t score a point in the first half and, according to coach Bobby Wanzer, Maurice Stokes looked sluggish and scored only 12 points in the game. Even Clyde Lovellette was off his game. In twelve previous games vs. the Pistons, Lovellette had averaged 22.1 points per game; he scored just 15 in this one.

  On the flight home from Detroit, Maurice Stokes became ill and upon the plane’s landing at Greater Cincinnati Airport in Boone County, Kentucky, was rushed to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington, Kentucky.

  Stokes had first become ill on the bus going from Detroit to the airport and while the team waited for their plane to take off. On the plane, Stokes seemed to recover slightly and began to read a book he had brought with him. Then, at about 10:05 p.m., as the plane neared Cincinnati, Stokes passed out. Immediately, a stewardess on the TWA plane, Jeanne Phillips, administered oxygen attempting to keep Stokes alive until the plane landed.

  On Sunday afternoon, March 16, at Cincinnati Gardens before a crowd of 2,508, while Maurice Stokes lay unconscious in a hospital bed in Covington, the Pistons eliminated the Royals, winning the second game 124–104 to a complete a sweep in the best-of-three game series.

  Meanwhile, Maurice Stokes lapsed into a coma and laid unconscious for several weeks. Following tests, Stokes would be diagnosed with having suffered encephalopathy, a traumatic brain injury that affected his motor control functions. At that time, diagnostic technology such as CAT Scans and MRIs were a couple of decades in the future, so the primary diagnostic tests included ECGs and X-rays. Samples of Stokes’ blood were sent to the U.S. Public Health Service in Louisville.

  Today’s analysis of Stokes’ head injury suggests that it caused swelling in his brain, then complications occurred on the plane with a change in cabin pressure that resulted in the injury mimicking symptoms of encephalitis.

  At the time of Stokes’ injury, Dr. Benjamin Hawkins, who served as the Royals team physician, stated in a press release, “[Stokes] is holding his own in a light coma. He opens his eyes slightly occasionally but has shown no real signs of regaining consciousness.”4

  Royals owner Les Harrison was deeply concerned over Stokes’ circumstances and he, along with Stokes mother, twin sister, and brother, who had arrived from Pittsburgh, maintained a vigil by his bedside. Soon they were joined by Stokes’ teammates, Dick Ricketts and Jack Twyman. Even opposing players started to arrive, such as Ed Fleming of the Minneapolis Lakers. Everyone was concerned about “Big Mo,” it was very difficult to conceive such a strong man could be in such a state of helplessness.

  A few days later, Les and Jack Harrison had to leave town, but they did not abandon Stokes; they sent a check to the hospital to cover the cost of 24-hour nursing care and left word that any other bills necessary for his care should be forwarded to them in Rochester.

  With the motor control center in his brain damaged, Stokes became a quadriplegic, was confined to a wheelchair, and would never fully recover from his injury. The medical bills for his care became astronomical. Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes were both from Pittsburgh and had faced each other on the hardwood as teenagers in high school. Going forward, Jack Twyman would act as Stokes’ legal guardian and raise funds for his care through such events as benefit games and golf tournaments that amounted to more than a couple hundred thousand dollars. Also, Twyman taught Stokes to communicate by blinking his eyes for each letter.

  Today, a lot of sports writers, too young to have witnessed the Maurice Stokes story, feel a compulsion to point out that Jack Twyman, a white player, had helped out Maurice Stokes, a black teammate. But the fact was that there was no black-white connection to their friendship. The friendship between Twyman and Stokes was one with a strong human bond and race was never a factor. Not one of the sportswriters and broadcasters of the time ever suggested that there was a racial connection to the Twyman-Stokes friendship. It wasn’t part of the story.

  On April 6, 1970, after a courageous twelve-year battle for recovery from his injury, Maurice Stokes died at the age of 36 with Jack Twyman by his side.

  For years, following Stokes’ death, Jack Twyman advocated on his behalf for induction in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Finally, in 2004, Maurice Stokes was inducted posthumously.

  While Maurice Stokes remained in a semi-coma in a Kentucky hospital, back in Rochester, Les and Jack Harrison were undecided as to what to do with the Royals. The Royals’ move from Rochester to Cincinnati had not turned out to be the land of “milk and honey” that the Harrisons had hoped it would be for their financially ailing franchise. The Royals attendance for 1957–58 in Cincinnati had been a dismal average of 3,641 fans per game.

  A group from Washington D.C. was offering the Harrisons $225,000 for the team, which it intended to move to the nation’s capital.

  Then, the Harrisons received another offer from local businessman Norm Shapiro, to buy the Royals for $250,000 and return the team to Rochester. Shapiro even sweetened the pot by offering Les Harrison a job in the Royals organization as a scout and consultant. So Les Harrison was being given an opportunity to remain in professional basketball and not have any financial profit and loss concerns. The Shapiro offer was made public in Rochester and as expected, fans in the city rallied behind it, circulating petitions. Of course, this was a bit of a surprise to some observers; these were the same fans that had failed to provide adequate support in ticket sales for the Royals while they played in Rochester for over a decade.

  Anyway, a move of the Royals from Cincinnati to Washington or back to Rochester would require an affirmative vote of three-quarters of the NBA Board of Governors made up of the team owners to approve the transfer. It was doubtful that the Board of Governors would approve a shift of the franchise back to Rochester as it had already made it clear to all concerned that they wanted the league’s teams to play in major league cities. Also, contract talks with N
BC for televised games were in progress and the network had also stated that they wanted a league that played only in major markets.

  In Cincinnati, no one was rushing forward to save the Royals. One of the reasons for the lack of support for the Royals in the Queen City was that most basketball fans were focused on the University of Cincinnati Bearcats that featured one of the most talented and exciting players to ever play the college game—Oscar Robertson—who had just completed his sophomore year.

  It was because of Oscar Robertson, known as “The Big O,” that the NBA Board of Governors would have been reluctant to move the Royals back to Rochester or to Washington. The Cincinnati Royals were in a position to exercise territorial draft rights on Robertson when he completed his senior year in 1960. With Robertson playing for the Royals, the Board of Governors was certain that fan interest in the Royals would increase significantly, not just in Cincinnati but in every city in the league. So, it was worth waiting and letting the franchise lose money for a couple of years.

  At first, no sports-minded entrepreneur in Cincinnati came forward with an offer to buy the Royals from the Harrisons, but as soon as the Washington offer became public, reality set in, and various Cincinnati businessmen and basketball fans of means realized that the city could lose the team. Rapidly, an eclectic group of investors was formed, ranging from millionaire insurance magnate Thomas E. Wood to Bill Powell, co-proprietor of Shipley’s, a popular neighborhood bar and grill near the University of Cincinnati campus, that collectively ponied-up an offer of $200,000 for the team.

  The Board of Governors approved the Cincinnati offer and the Royals became a public corporation with Thomas E. Wood becoming the majority partner.

  Despite having the number two pick in the 1958 NBA draft, the Royals did not fare well. Their first pick was 6′8″ center-forward Archie Dees from Indiana University. Dees would be traded after one year with the Royals and last just four years in the NBA, playing on four teams and one additional year in the newly formed ABL.

  Other draft picks by the Royals were players taken from colleges within their potential territorial fan base of 100 miles of which no one would have an immediate impact: Arlen “Bucky” Bockhorn (University of Dayton), Larry Staverman (Villa Madonna College/now Thomas Moore College), Adrian “Odie” Smith (University of Kentucky), and Wayne Stevens (University of Cincinnati).

  With Maurice Stokes hospitalized and struggling to recuperate, the 1958–59 Royals would be led by Jack Twyman. After the Royals lost 15 out of their first 18 games, Bobby Wanzer was replaced as coach by Tom Marshall. Without Maurice Stokes, the Cincinnati Royals became the doormat of the NBA, finishing with a league-worst record of 19–53. During the 1958–59 season, the 11,000-seat-plus Cincinnati Gardens had been an empty house. Attendance was so bad the season before, it had caused Les Harrison to sell; the team now had dropped in attendance by 33% in 1958–59 to an average of 2,445 per game. So sparse were the crowds that a fan could hear a conversation of another fan sitting in the stands across the court.

  Of course, finishing last did have a benefit, it gave the Royals the first non-territorial draft pick in the 1959 NBA draft. The Royals took advantage of that fact and selected 6′8″ All-American forward Bob Boozer from Kansas State University. In 1958, Boozer had led the Wildcats to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. However, the Royals would have to wait a year for Boozer to join the team as he wanted to sit out the 1959–60 season to remain eligible to play in the 1960 Olympic Games.

  Meanwhile, the Royals continued to pick other players in the draft of local interest such as 6′5″ forward Joe Viviano (Xavier University) and Mike Mendenhall (University of Cincinnati). Both of these players would have no impact on the Royals in the standings and both would have short careers in the NBA.

  In 1959–60, the Cincinnati Royals would finish with a record of 19–56, despite the fact that Jack Twyman finished second in the league in scoring with a 31.2 points-per-game average. Once again, attendance for the Royals was abysmal, falling to a pre-NBA low of just 1,878 fans per game.

  But help was on the horizon and following the 1959–60 college season, the Cincinnati Royals would be able to exercise territorial draft rights on Oscar Robertson.

  The big prize in the 1959 draft was Wilt Chamberlain, another player like Oscar Robertson, that the NBA was hoping would be a franchise saver and a marketing giant for the NBA.

  The 7′1″ Chamberlain had been recruited out of Overlook High School in Philadelphia by University of Kansas coach Forrest C. “Phog” Allen. Ed Gottlieb who owned the cash-strapped Philadelphia Warriors had been waiting five years to exercise territorial draft rights on Chamberlain with high hopes that he would save the franchise.

  Chamberlain had led Kansas to the NCAA Finals in 1957 where the Jay Hawks lost to North Carolina 54–53 in triple overtime. In his senior year in 1958, Chamberlain averaged 47.2 points per game.

  Chamberlain was controversial because he was using the dunk to change the game. Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown had said that Wilt Chamberlain should be banned from the NBA “because he proselytized himself at Kansas. No NBA team can afford to pay him what he gets at Kansas.”5

  There was at least a half-truth to Walter Brown’s assertion. No NBA team could afford Chamberlain—the salary cap was $25,000. So, Chamberlain passed on joining the Philadelphia Warriors to accept a contract to play for Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters calling for $46,000 plus an attendance clause that had the potential to add another $20,000.

  In 1959, the Globetrotters became the first team to play in Moscow where Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev greeted the team.

  But Chamberlain really wanted to test himself against the best players in the game, so he left the Globetrotters after one season and signed with Philadelphia. At that time, only a few players made the $25,000 league limit, Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, etc. Ed Gottlieb got the salary cap raised to $27,000 and then included an attendance clause in Chamberlain’s contract. Wilt Chamberlain immediately lived up to his billing and was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1960.

  6

  Oscar Robertson & the University of Cincinnati Bearcats

  Before joining the Cincinnati Royals in 1960–61 and beginning an NBA career that would lead him to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Oscar Robertson had a storied college basketball career at the University of Cincinnati (UC) where, during his three varsity years, the Bearcats had a record of 79–9 and played in two NCAA Tournament Final Fours.

  Oscar Palmer Robertson was born November 24, 1933, in Charlotte, Tennessee. His parents, Bailey and Mazell Robertson, had three sons Henry, Bailey, Jr., and Oscar. When Oscar was four, the family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to seek better employment opportunities. Bailey worked at various jobs as a security guard, butcher, and sanitation worker. Mazell, an aspiring gospel singer, worked part-time.

  In Indianapolis, the Robertson family lived in Lockefield Gardens, a government-subsidized housing project, and Oscar grew up dirt-poor. It was there in the projects that Oscar Robertson began playing basketball on the inner-city dirt courts against his older brothers and neighborhood kids. He would practice his game endlessly shooting tennis balls and rags bound with rubber bands into a peach basket behind his family’s home.

  Oscar also liked playing baseball and was a shortstop until he got too tall. Eventually, he gave up baseball because it interfered with basketball in the summertime.

  Oscar’s brother Bailey, Jr. turned out to be a pretty good basketball player, too. He went on to set scoring records at Indiana Central College that was coached by Ray Crowe, brother of Milwaukee Braves and Cincinnati Reds first baseman George Crowe.

  Oscar Robertson attended the all-black Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis where his natural ability and unique skills would be honed by coach Crowe.

  Indiana is a state with a blighted racial past. In the 1920s, Indiana had more Ku Klux Klan members per capita than any state in the union. At the Klan’s pinn
acle in 1923, it had more members (178,000) in Indiana than the Methodist Church.

  Crispus Attucks High School, named for a runaway slave believed to be the first American killed by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre, had been founded in 1927 by Indiana KKK Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson along with a group of Klan supporting politicians that wanted a segregated high school for black students in the city.

  The day that Crispus Attucks High School opened its doors the Ku Klux Klan led a parade past the school that lasted for an hour.

  The Indiana Magazine of History describes D.C. Stephenson as “a charming personality and powerful orator; he was also arrogant, cunning, evil, and hedonistic. Early in 1925, he assaulted, raped, and held captive his young secretary Madge Oberholtzer, who took poison and died one month later. Stephenson was indicted, and when Governor Jackson (who had now distanced himself from the Klan) refused to pardon him, Stephenson leaked information to Jackson’s trial for bribery (the governor was acquitted on a technicality).”1

  When Crispus Attucks High School was founded the Indiana High School Athletic Association ruled that it was not a public school because it had no white students in its enrollment. In fact, it was not until 1933 that member schools in the Association were permitted to play in sporting events vs. Crispus Attucks. Finally, in 1942 Attucks was granted membership and permitted to play in the state basketball championship tournament.

  By the 1950s, Indianapolis was still a heavily de-facto segregated city and Oscar Robertson has never overcome his early experiences with racism in the city. From the time Robertson’s Crispus Attucks High School basketball team won back-to-back championships in 1955 and 1956, becoming the first all-black high school team in Indiana to win the state title, throughout his brilliant All-American collegiate career at the University of Cincinnati, and into the NBA, he thought of himself as a victim.

  These deep-seated feelings were fueled by various episodes of overt racism Robertson had experienced. When Crispus Attucks won back-to-back state basketball titles it was an unsettling event for many people in Indianapolis. They considered the victories by an all-black team a threat to the tradition of the state’s game. According to Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star, “They saw their horizontal game shifting vertical, a group of bigger, faster, stronger athletes uprooting convention and burying their white teams along the way.”2