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| Oscar Robertson Internet Image - USA Today |
While I was a Packer fan first, the first team i followed closely were the Milwaukee Bucks when I was 7 and 8 years old.
Milwaukee won the NBA championship at the end of the 197071 season with Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Curtis Perry, Bob Dandridge, Lucius Allen, and Oscar Robertson taking the expansion team all the way to glory.
Just seen on television occasionally outside Milwaukee, I listened to nearly every game on the radio called by Eddie Doucette with analysis by Ron Blomberg whom Eddie called the Professor. If games had been on TV, I was too young to have been allowed to watch anyway.
I was captured by the rapid descriptions on the radio and excited when I heard Doucette exclaim, "Bango!" when long jump shots found the bottom of the net.
Listening on the radio created bigger-than-life figures in my mind and the "Big O" was bigger than the rest. In the driveway I shot Skyhooks like Alcindor and long jumpers like Robertson. OK, I shot it like them in my head, on the court I looked like a 7-year old trying to get a cheap basketball in the rim.
Years later when I was working as a reporter -photographer for WISC-TV, I was sent to cover a press conference with the "Big O." I don't recall why he visited Madison, but it was thrilling to see a hero up close.
He was serious, no-nonsense even in a friendly media session. I do know the event wasn't on a difficult topic. There was a level of dignity about him that I appreciated.
When I lived In Indianapolis, I learned more about Robertson. He grew up there and was a star player at Crispus Attucks High School taking the team to two state championships. He was a top player while in college at the University of Cincinnati. What I didn't know or understand as a young fan was about the amount of racism he dealt with most of his life. It makes sense he wasn't "suffering fools lightly," as the expression goes.
Robertson spent most of his professional career in Cincinnati before coming to Milwaukee. Because of the accomplishments he, Kareem, and the team had in the early 1970s he will always be revered as a player,
There is more to him than that. He was president of the Player's Union and it was his name on a lawsuit against the National Basketball Association that gave players the right to decide where they wanted to play which also increased salaries. Robertson received a signing bonus of $33,000 in 1960. The average salary in the NBA this season is $10,000,000. I hope on occasion they thank the Big O for the big dough.
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