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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: Former OU great Mike Haley dies
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akroncat
4/4/2017 4:41 PM
The Dayton Daily News is reporting that the former OU and Portsmouth High star has passed away at the age of 73. He was on the team that played Kentucky in the final eight. May he rest in peace.
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colobobcat66
4/4/2017 5:35 PM
Got to meet Mike several times. Seemed like a really nice guy. Watching him and Hilt playing basketball and playing pool was something. Great memories.
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brucecuth
4/4/2017 9:04 PM
Just exchanged texts with my pal Denny, class of '69. He grew up in Portsmouth and remembers the town virtually shutting down and everyone leaving to go to the state championship game.
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BillyTheCat
4/4/2017 10:01 PM
Mike was a good man and came out of Portsmouth at the height of its Golden Age of a city and athletics. A real loss to the city of Dayton's basketball scene and the State of Ohio.
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OhioCatFan
4/4/2017 10:40 PM
Hearing this news is very sad. Mike was a contemporary. I always loved his style of play, and though I did not know him personally I loved him as a fellow Bobcat. He was part of my formative years. He was part of the integrated OHIO team that shut down lilly-white UK in convincing style -- 85-69, for those keeping score at home. One of my fondest memories of Mike was when he was still back in high school. After his team had won the state high school tournament, he was interviewed in St. John's arena by none other than OHIO alumnus Jimmy Crum. Jim knew that Fred Taylor was interested in Mike and asked him something to the effect, "Wouldn't you love to come back here next year and play in this legendary field house." To which Mike reply, in a gentlemanly fashion, "Yes this is a nice gym, but I've decided to go to Ohio University." After a brief bit of stammering and stuttering, Jim says, "Oh, that's a great school, too. That's my alma mater." Precious memory. Truly a Bobcat legend! RIP
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Mike Johnson
4/5/2017 9:05 AM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
Haley, Hilt, Storey, Jackson, Gill - the starting 5 on that Elite 8 team. All but Gill are in Ohio's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Re the win over Rupp's Wildcats, Ohio took an early large lead and never let up.
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OhioCatFan
4/11/2017 5:41 PM
Mike Johnson wrote:expand_more
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/sports/former-city-leagu... /
Haley, Hilt, Storey, Jackson, Gill - the starting 5 on that Elite 8 team. All but Gill are in Ohio's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Re the win over Rupp's Wildcats, Ohio took an early large lead and never let up.
An interesting bit of trivia about that Elite 8 starting five: They were all from southern Ohio; and three were from SEO: Jackson, Gill and Haley. Specifically, Gill and Jackson were teammates at Corning; Haley, Portsmouth; Storey, Xenia; and Hilt, Cincinnati.
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Mike Johnson
4/11/2017 7:56 PM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/sports/former-city-leagu... /
Haley, Hilt, Storey, Jackson, Gill - the starting 5 on that Elite 8 team. All but Gill are in Ohio's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Re the win over Rupp's Wildcats, Ohio took an early large lead and never let up.
An interesting bit of trivia about that Elite 8 starting five: They were all from southern Ohio; and three were from SEO: Jackson, Gill and Haley. Specifically, Gill and Jackson were teammates at Corning; Haley, Portsmouth; Storey, Xenia; and Hilt, Cincinnati.
As I recall - and I acknowledge I could be wrong - in that special season Haley, Hilt, Storey and Jackson all averaged double figure ppg.
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OhioCatFan
4/12/2017 12:24 AM
Mike Johnson wrote:expand_more
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/sports/former-city-leagu... /
Haley, Hilt, Storey, Jackson, Gill - the starting 5 on that Elite 8 team. All but Gill are in Ohio's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Re the win over Rupp's Wildcats, Ohio took an early large lead and never let up.
An interesting bit of trivia about that Elite 8 starting five: They were all from southern Ohio; and three were from SEO: Jackson, Gill and Haley. Specifically, Gill and Jackson were teammates at Corning; Haley, Portsmouth; Storey, Xenia; and Hilt, Cincinnati.
As I recall - and I acknowledge I could be wrong - in that special season Haley, Hilt, Storey and Jackson all averaged double figure ppg.


I would not bet against that proposition. They did put up some impressive numbers.

Though I only listened to it on the radio (later saw some film clips), Mr. Haley's defense in the 1964 UK game was inspired and the stuff of legends. Storey was probably assigned to guard the All-American Center Cotton Nash, but Mike kept jumping up and ripping the ball out of his hands as he was preparing to shoot. As I've said before, this game had implications beyond just basketball. It was the integrated OHIO Bobcats against the lily white UK Wildcats. It was a foretaste of what would happen to UK a few years later in the 1966 national championship game against Texas Western, a team with an all black starting lineup. Old Adolph Rupp didn't get the message when the Bobcats beat UK with an integrated starting five. When Texas Western (now UTEP) beat them with an all black starting lineup, he still didn't get the message. It wasn't until 1969 the UK had the first black member of its basketball team. OHIO, proudly, was on the right side of history.
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OhioCatFan
4/12/2017 10:14 AM
It has been brought to my attention by a poster who has personal knowledge of the Rupp family that Adolph Rupp was not personally a racist, but that his major problem in this regard was that he was a coward. He was afraid to take black players into the Deep South for SEC games. In the mid-1960s, the SEC was beginning to integrate. I just looked it up, and Perry Wallace, at Vanderbilt, was the first black player on an SEC basketball team. He was recruited in 1966 -- three years before Rupp recruited his first black player.
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BillyTheCat
4/12/2017 10:23 AM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/sports/former-city-leagu... /
Haley, Hilt, Storey, Jackson, Gill - the starting 5 on that Elite 8 team. All but Gill are in Ohio's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Re the win over Rupp's Wildcats, Ohio took an early large lead and never let up.
An interesting bit of trivia about that Elite 8 starting five: They were all from southern Ohio; and three were from SEO: Jackson, Gill and Haley. Specifically, Gill and Jackson were teammates at Corning; Haley, Portsmouth; Storey, Xenia; and Hilt, Cincinnati.
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Last Edited: 4/12/2017 10:25:02 AM by BillyTheCat
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OhioCatFan
4/12/2017 10:35 AM
To further clarify the question of Adolph Rupp's racial attitudes, I quoted what the other poster said to me about Rupp to my youngest daughter's father-in-law, who is African American. Here is his direct response: "I have heard basically the same from an acquaintance who knew Rupp. He didn't say that Rupp was a coward. He did say that Rupp was not a racist. He said that Rupp was so focused on basketball that the campus could have burned down around him and he would not have noticed."
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OhioCatFan
4/12/2017 10:41 AM
BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Maybe it depends on which side of town he lived on! ;-)
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BillyTheCat
4/12/2017 12:48 PM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Maybe it depends on which side of town he lived on! ;-)
Well, knowing both Mike and city, SE is a real stretch. But man what a golden decade for Portsmouth sports, Mike Haley, Al Oliver, Larry Hisle, Curtis Gentry, then over in South Portsmouth Big Daddy Don Gullet, Gene Tenace from Lucasville, Chuck Ealey from Notre Dame. And then great collection of High School athletes. My how economies and opportunities have changed the landscape of a once great town.
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OhioCatFan
4/12/2017 1:06 PM
BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Maybe it depends on which side of town he lived on! ;-)
Well, knowing both Mike and city, SE is a real stretch. But man what a golden decade for Portsmouth sports, Mike Haley, Al Oliver, Larry Hisle, Curtis Gentry, then over in South Portsmouth Big Daddy Don Gullet, Gene Tenace from Lucasville, Chuck Ealey from Notre Dame. And then great collection of High School athletes. My how economies and opportunities have changed the landscape of a once great town.
+1
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colobobcat66
4/12/2017 2:00 PM
OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Maybe it depends on which side of town he lived on! ;-)
Not really. Nobody lives west of the Scioto river in Portsmouth. I know you're just kidding. See below.

I just think that's it's sad that we've gotten to the point on here that we're arguing about whether Portsmouth is in SEO or not. Why do it?

This site is getting less user friendly all the time. Oh yeah it's great that it's pretty tame compared to everywhere else. Big deal.
Last Edited: 4/12/2017 2:26:06 PM by colobobcat66
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BillyTheCat
4/12/2017 2:25 PM
colobobcat66 wrote:expand_more
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Maybe it depends on which side of town he lived on! ;-)
Not really. Nobody lives west of the Scioto river in Portsmouth. I know you're just kidding. See below.

I just think that's it's sad that we've gotten to the point on here that we're arguing about wether Portsmouth is in SEO or not. Why do it?

This site is getting less user friendly all the time. Oh yeah it's great that it's pretty tame compared to everywhere else. Big deal.
OCF and I were doing anything but arguing. Rather reminiscing about another era.
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colobobcat66
4/12/2017 2:27 PM
BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
I am curious how you call Portsmouth SEO? It sits dead center of the state to the immediate south. But yes, all are from south of what would be I-70.
Maybe it depends on which side of town he lived on! ;-)
Not really. Nobody lives west of the Scioto river in Portsmouth. I know you're just kidding. See below.

I just think that's it's sad that we've gotten to the point on here that we're arguing about wether Portsmouth is in SEO or not. Why do it?

This site is getting less user friendly all the time. Oh yeah it's great that it's pretty tame compared to everywhere else. Big deal.
OCF and I were doing anything but arguing. Rather reminiscing about another era.
Sorry I missed that
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