Today I had a chance to sit down for a nice meal with some of my golf buddies. We met along with about 100 other people at Quinets Restaurant to celebrate our friend Mark’s graduation from college. Quinets hosts such events in a room with photos of local sporting events and athletes spanning almost a century. As we sat down one of my friends asked, “Is that Lou in that photo?” Sure enough, it was one of our golf buddies in his Marshall University basketball uniform. Beside it was another in his high school uniform, the same school where I graduated and played. I asked if they had all heard the story of Lou’s game against the great Oscar Robinson. Some had not, and so I told it, trying to tell it exactly like Lou has told us a few times.
This is a true story, and if you know Lou or any Shortliner, it’s certainly believable, if not heartwarming and hilarious.
Lou Mott might be the greatest basketball player to come out off my high school. He later became one of the greatest ever to play at Marshall. These days he walks the golf course with us. But in 1958 he played on a Marshall basketball team that found itself over matched against NCAA powerhouse the University of Cincinnati. Their captain was Oscar Robinson. At this point, it is prudent to mention that Robinson, in each of his three years at U of C, won the national scoring title, was named an All-American, and was chosen College Player of the Year, while setting 14 NCAA and 19 school records. He dominated opponents by averaging nearly 34 points per game. Later in 1960 he would co-captain the US Olympic team along with WVU’s Jerry West while earning a gold metal. (Not to get too far of the story line here, but that 1960 US team included Bobby Knight, John Havlicek, Jerry West, and Oscar Robinson…and they call the teams of today “Dream Teams”??) So, you get the idea - Oscar Robinson was a pretty big star.
And so in the 1958 season, Lou found a spot at the edge of the center-court circle seconds before the tip off before the biggest crowd ever to see a basketball game in the city of Huntington WV. He felt a shoe against his, and then looked Oscar Robinson in the eye. With an intense look on his face, Robinson said, “I’m Oscar Robinson of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. You see those thousands of people in the stands? They came here to see ME play tonight. I want you remember that from now on!”
Lou didn’t back down, but stuck his chest out, pointed to a group of Marshall fans and said, “You see that couple sitting over there? That’s my mom and dad and they came here to see ME play tonight. That’s all that matters to me. You remember that tonight and then I don’t care after that.”
Nobody was going to shut Robinson completely down, and the Thundering Herd was no match for the Bearcat team, but Lou held Robinson well below his 34 ppg average and the game was much closer than predicted. I can’t find the stats on that game, but that’s not the important thing. The important thing is the ties that bind athletes through the years, from basketball stars to weekday golf buddies, and the stories they share.
