Coaching legend Bobby Knight reminisces at reunion with first team, 1962-63 Cuyahoga Falls junior varsity

SILVER LAKE — Hall of famer Bobby Knight still remembers the unusual circumstances of his first loss as a basketball coach. But for the members of his 1962-63 Cuyahoga Falls High School junior varsity team, the practice that followed is more vivid.

Or at least the duration is more vivid.

“It was pushing 8:30 at least,” Gary Eiber said of the session that stretched for over five hours.

At a reunion of that team Thursday night, Knight, 74, sat in Eiber’s home in Silver Lake reminiscing about that loss to Kent Roosevelt, decided on a shot from behind the backboard that went over its corner and skimmed off the glass into the net as the buzzer sounded.

“The Roosevelt kid is actually behind the board,” Knight said. “If you had a line he would be on the backside of the backboard. I can still see him taking the shot. That was the brilliance of my first game.”

“I wasn’t guarding him,” chimed in one of Knight’s former players. Another echoed that.

“God, Vuke, you’re awful quiet,” one said to Larry Vucovich, a former vice president of sales and marketing for a steel company who lives in Birmingham, Ala.

The stories ranged from how Knight got Boston Celtics owner Red Auerbach to draft Indiana’s Landon Turner after a car accident ended his career to why Knight now keeps houses in Lubbock, Texas, and Bozeman, Mont. The latter is a favorite of his wife, Karen, a basketball coach he met at a clinic in Oklahoma and married in 1988.

As they shared stories, Knight’s cellphone rang and its ring tone was Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

“Got that pheasant thing lined up yet?” Knight asked during the call from one of his hunting buddies.

Eiber, who played for Knight for two seasons at Army, received a letter from Knight in January, when the longtime tire executive was in Africa with his wife, Carol. Knight said he was going through some books, photos and newspaper clippings and decided he wanted to have a reunion of their JV team.

Eiber contacted everyone and realized the perfect time would be this week, when Cuyahoga Falls High School holds the 50th reunion of its Class of 1965 on Saturday at Silver Lake Country Club.

About 25 attended, including wives and some friends of Knight’s who live in the area. Counting its host, the evening drew eight players, including two from the backup JV team called the Bombers. Besides Eiber and Vucovich, also attending were Jim Wolcott, a doctor from Bradenton, Fla.; Tim Dudich, an audiologist and Kent State graduate who lives in San Antonio; Dick Long and John Kaser of Cuyahoga Falls; Craig Gaston, from Cowpens, S.C.; Tom Parsons of Las Vegas and former team manager John Ohlson.

“Everyone respected and loved him. No one hesitated one minute,” Eiber said. “I could have invited 30 friends. [Knight] said he wanted to keep it simple and for us boys. We’re all 68 and he still refers to us as boys.”

Knight flew in only for the day, scheduled to depart Friday morning for a basketball clinic in Tulsa.

Eiber said he went to Lubbock four times when Knight coached at Texas Tech from 2001-08. Once Eiber took Dudich and Vucovich, another time Wolcott and Parsons.

Eiber also saw Knight and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, captain of Eiber’s plebe team at Army, last week in Pinehurst, N.C., at a 50th anniversary celebration of Knight’s college coaching debut. Eiber told his ex-teammates the story of calling Knight when his mother died on New Year’s Eve only to pick up the paper the next morning to see Knight’s mother had passed away later that evening.

An Orrville native, Knight was a 21-year-old just out of Ohio State when he came to Cuyahoga Falls after Buckeye teammate Dick Taylor, who had played for Falls coach Harold Andreas, called Andreas to recommend Knight.

In his only season there, Knight went 13-3. He also taught a class called “Principles of Democracy.”

“One of the best days I had was getting to come here,” Knight said of that first job.

Knight later hired Andreas, who died of lung cancer in 1994, as an assistant at Indiana from 1975-77.

Knight’s voice cracked more than once, including when he remembered Auerbach giving Turner a Celtics uniform and when Bo Schembechler’s wife told Knight he was one of Schembechler’s best friends when the legendary Michigan football coach from Barberton died in 2006. Knight thought back to a high school baseball game against Barberton, which also included future major-leaguer Hal Naragon, won by Orrville 6-2.

“I was responsible for all eight runs, our six and their two,” Knight said. A first baseman, he said he hit a grand slam and a two-run double, but also was responsible for a throw over the shortstop’s head that allowed the Barberton runs to score.

Knight’s former players remembered the brutal drills he put them through. Vucovich proudly told the story of how he became the first player Knight threw out of practice and briefly off the team after he threw a bounce pass.

“I have no clue what I did, but for the next two years at Falls and for four years at [Ohio] Wesleyan I never threw a bounce pass,” Vucovich said.

As for the fallout from the first loss to Kent Roosevelt, Eiber recalled that varsity practice ran from 3:15 to 5:15 and “at 6:30 he was still running us to death.”

The marathon drew ire from some parents, praise from others.

“We all wanted to win. He instilled in us winning is imperative,” Eiber said. “Losing is not an option.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Coaching legend Bobby Knight reminisces at reunion with first team, 1962-63 Cuyahoga Falls junior varsity