5-12-10 —    Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series about noted

writer Jim O'Brien who covered the old American Basketball Association,

including the Kentucky Colonels, in the late 1960s and the early 1970s for

The Sporting News magazine and the New York Post. Popularly known as the

"Mr. ABA," the 67-year-old O'Brien, the author of 22 books on sports in

Pittsburgh, shares his ABA thoughts and memories with this columnist.)

   

    Through his job as a writer of nationally-published ABA articles and

columns, Jim O'Brien got to meet all kinds of people in the ABA, including

the former Wildcats. He has had a good share of interesting interviews.

    Who was his favorite ABA player?

    "Julius Erving," wrote O'Brien in a recent e-mail. "Dr. J. was such a

great player and such a down-to-earth individual. (He was) easy to interview

and was always quick to introduce you to members of his family."

    What about O'Brien's favorite ABA coach?

    "My favorite coach was Bill Sharman," he said of the former San

Francisco Warriors mentor who moved to ABA to coach the Los Angeles (and

Utah) Stars. "He was helpful in so many ways and such a class individual. He

went the extra yard to accommodate all of my requests. I still see him from

time to time and he has become a friend."

    After his ABA days, Sharman also coached the Los Angeles Lakers. He is

one of two coaches who has won NBA and ABA championships.

    O'Brien's favorite ABA city as far as traveling or covering games are

concerned?

    "I loved to go to Indianapolis," said the journalist. "The treatment

there by everyone in the organization was first-class. Louisville was close

behind for the same reasons. The Pacers and Colonels were easy to work with.

The whole league was.

    "I loved staying at the Executive Inn (in Louisville). It had high beds,

I remember. It was my favorite hotel on the road."

    His thoughts or memories of ex-UK standouts Louie Dampier, Dan Issel and

Mike Pratt when they were with the Kentucky Colonels?

    "Louie Dampier and Dan Issel were two of my favorites from my ABA days,"

he said. "I don't remember dealing with Mike Pratt, although I do remember

him and can see his face.

    "I was covering a Pacers-Colonels playoff game at Freedom Hall one

night. I was interviewing Issel after the game and someone shoved a cream

pie in my face, blinding me momentarily. I'll never forget that Issel

offered me a towel and was apologetic about the incident."

    Two years later, while attending a college all-star game in Las Vegas,

O'Brien said he learned "it was the wife of the Colonels' coach, Hubie

Brown, who had done the evil deed. So Issel is on my all-star team of good

guys. (Colonels' management team) Mike Storen, Alex Groza, the Browns (John

Y. Brown, Jr. and his first wife, Ellie), and Dave Vance were as good as

they get. They provided you with access. I was even inducted into the

Kentucky Colonels for life, I think. I hope so. I like being a Kentucky

Colonel."

    The 6-7 Groza, by the way, was a former All-American at UK during the

Fabulous Five years in the late 1940s. He spent several years with the

Colonels and the San Diego Conquistadors as a coach and an executive. He was

the one who replaced NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain as the new coach at San

Diego in 1974.

    What about 7-2 center Artis Gilmore, who earned the ABA's Rookie of the

Year and MVP honors in 1972 and helped the Colonels to a stunning 68-16

mark?

    O'Brien said, "I always remember that Gilmore's wife's name was Enola

Gay. That was the name of the plane that dropped the A-Bomb on Hiroshima.

That was the name of the pilot's mother, I just learned in a book I read.

(Mrs. Gilmore's parents had watched a movie about the bombing of Hiroshima

while mother was pregnant.)

    "I met Artis right after he signed with the Colonels at a party hosted

by Ellie and John Y. Brown at their palatial estate. Gilmore had legs like

tree trunks and was hard to move. He was from Chipley, Fla., in the Florida

panhandle. He went to Gardner-Webb Junior College (in North Carolina) and

then Jacksonville. He played with a guy there named Rex (Morgan who briefly

played in the NBA). I got along fine with Gilmore. He was a real soft-spoken

guy."

    As you will recall, Gilmore was the one who helped Jacksonville beat

Issel-led UK with a 106-100 victory in an NCAA tournament showdown in 1970.

    Folks today are still talking about Gilmore, who was recently profiled

(along with a big color picture in his Colonels' blue-and-white uniform) in

Sports Illustrated's "The Vault" section.

    Gilmore, who later played for the Chicago Bulls, among others, after ABA

merged with the NBA in 1976, is currently a special assistant to the

President at Jacksonville University. You may want to check his website at

www.artisgilmore.com and it's a very interesting one.

    What was O'Brien's most interesting (or memorable) interview that he has

had in the ABA?

    "The most memorable one was definitely that one with Issel (in a

pie-throwing incident)," recalled O'Brien. "Rick Barry was always a good

interview; he was so self-deprecating, never happy with his own performance.

Freddie Lewis of the Pacers was one of my favorites. I interviewed Red

McCombs, one of the owners of the Spurs, in a private club at the arena in

San Antonio and three other owners were at the table."

    What about Adolph Rupp when he was with the Memphis Tams (as president

for one year) and the Colonels after his coaching days at UK?

    "I spoke to Rupp at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington," O'Brien said of the

Baron who was in his early 70s at the time. "I was happy to be in his

company. I have a picture to prove it.

    "The (New York) Nets were playing the Colonels at the campus arena

because they (the Colonels) had so many UK players on the team."

    Said Herky Rupp of his famous father in an interview with this columnist

many years ago, "He enjoyed that (his years with the Colonels) because that

was back home. He had Dan Issel, Mike Pratt, Louie Dampier and Ron Thomas

(who was slated to be the first black‹instead of Tom Payne‹to play

basketball at UK). It was easier than going to Memphis in a Howard Johnson

Motel five days out of the week and that got to be pretty tough."

    About a year and half before Rupp passed away in December 1977 at the

age of 76, the Kentucky Colonels, who were one of the league's strongest

franchises, unfortunately folded when NBA took four other ABA teams in a

merger.

    Speaking of O'Brien, after his ABA days, he continued working on Street

and Smith's basketball yearbooks as the founding editor and began to write

more books, especially about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pirates, over

the years in addition to his regular newspaper work.

    O'Brien, who has his own website at www.jimobriensportsauthor.com, is

the only Pittsburgher ever named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of

Fame. He was honored during the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament in New

Orleans in 2003.

    Thanks to O'Brien's fine journalistic efforts, ABA managed to survive

for nine years and become a thorn to NBA.

    "The ABA was a fun ride, a continuous adventure serial," said O'Brien.

"(Hall of Fame coach) Alex Hannum said Œthe red, white and blue ball

belonged on the nose of a seal.' The NBA is now playing the ABA game."

    And the wild and wacky ABA will never be forgotten by many fans and

writers, including O'Brien.



    Jamie H. Vaught, whose syndicated sports column currently appears in

Kentucky newspapers, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is

currently a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College

in Middlesboro and can be reached by e-mail at CatsUpClose2008@yahoo.com.