The Shadow
I first saw Grady Wallace, a 6’4” center who weighed 165 lbs., lead Betsy Layne High School’s Bobcats over our McDowell High School Daredevils in the early 1950s while I was still in elementary school.
Before I graduated from MHS in 1959, I had attended a Harlem Globetrotter’s game at Prestonsburg High School’s new fieldhouse where Wilt Chamberlain dazzled the crowd by dunking his free throws and dominating all aspects of the game.
After graduating from Morehead State University in 1963 and coaching basketball at Lewis County High School 1963-1965 in Vanceburg, Ky., I moved to the Detroit area in Michigan where I coached varsity baseball two years at Fraser High School before moving on to coach basketball at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Calif. for the late Lute Olson.
During the 10 years I taught and coached in Calif., I was able to watch Elgin Baylor team up with Jerry West to take on the Boston Celtics at The Forum in Englewood, adjacent to Los Angeles.
Wallace, Chamberlain and Baylor, who was named for his father’s pocket watch, were high scoring stars in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1957, Wallace at the University of South Carolina, Chamberlain at the University of Kansas, and Baylor at the University of Seattle.
Born on Jan. 20, 1934 at Muddy Run that was later renamed Stanville, Wallace distinguished himself as a star center for BLHS after his parents, Rufus and Sudie (Smith) Wallace moved to Betsy Lane.
Grady attended Pikeville Junior College after graduating from BLHS in 1953. For the next two years, he played for the Pikeville Bears.
In 1956, Grady played for the University of South Carolina where he broke USC’s single game scoring record by swishing the nets for 54 points against the University of Georgia his junior year during which he posted a 23.9 points per game scoring average that landed him his first All-American honor, one that would be duplicated his senior year.
During his senior year, Grady engaged in a scoring race to become the NCAA’s top scorer in the nation. Wilt Chamberlain, a 7’1” and 275 pound center for the University of Kansas who was in his junior year, averaged 29.6 points per game in leading the Jayhawks to the championship game that the University of North Carolina won 54-53 in triple-overtime. Despite being on the losing team, Chamberlain was named MVP.
Baylor, who was born in Washington D.C. on Sept 16, 1934, was another junior in the hunt for the NCAA’s leading scorer title. At Seattle U. he averaged 29.7 points per game to finish second in the nation to Grady who won the title by averaging 31.3 points per game.
Of the six highest point totals in USC’s history, Grady posted four of them that have lasted throughout the years, and his No. 14 jersey became the first number to be retired in the Gamecocks’ men’s basketball history.
Both Chamberlain, as a center, and Baylor, as a forward, went on to have stellar careers in the NBA where Chamberlain holds the single game scoring record of 100 points and remains one of the most prolific scorers of all time with 31.1 points per game average compared to Baylor’s 27.4 NBA career scoring average per game.
As for Chamberlain who was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 21, 1936, he was selected to the NBA All-Stars ten times and was named the NBA’s MVP four times.
Baylor set the Seattle U. scoring record on Jan. 30, 1958, when he ripped the nets for 60 markers, and he led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA championship series eight times and still holds the NBA record for the most points scored in a single game during an NBA final series. He poured in 61 against the Boston Celtics on April 14, 1962.
Also, Baylor’s record of scoring 284 points in the same NBA final series remains unequaled. His NBA record-setting scoring spree against the Celtics began in 1960 during the regular season when he burned the nets for 71, an NBA single-game scoring record, only to see Chamberlain set a new NBA single-game mark of 100 points in a single contest in 1962, a record that has remained unbroken for the past 60 years.
In the 1,045 games Chamberlain played in the NBA, he established himself as one of the best in the history if not the best, and his career 54 percent field goal shooting accuracy combined with his 31.1 scoring average and his yet untouchable 100 points in one game remain as top credentials to lay claim as the best ever to play in the NBA.
Ironically, Baylor who helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to eight NBA finals, only to be defeated by the Boston Celtics, never won an NBA championship ring, but the year he retired because of a knee injury after playing in a few early season games, Jerry West led the Lakers to become NBA champions.
Also, the irony of Grady outscoring both Chamberlain and Baylor to win the NCAA scoring title only to never play in a professional basketball game is thick. After being selected by the Boston Celtics as the NBA draft’s 40th pick, Grady declined to sign to go pro.
By contrast, Baylor was the NBA draft’s No 1 pick the next year, and he wound up being perhaps the best forward in the NBA from 1958 till 1972. He was selected 10 of those seasons as an NBA All-Star.
Baylor was the last of the three who competed for the NCAA scoring championship in 1957 to die. He passed away on March 22, 2021, more than 20 years after Chamberlain died on Oct. 12, 1999.
The three-point basket had not been introduced into the game when the three played their final college games, making their scoring feats even more impressive.
I have often wondered why Grady opted to play two years in an industrial amateur league for the Phillips 66ers rather than pursuing a pro career with the Boston Celtics.
As a high school basketball coach, Grady coached two of his nine teams to state tournament championships in South Carolina. He passed away in Columbia, S.C. on Aug. 17, 2006, at 72.
All three of them have given me life-long memories that are woven into the tapestry of my basketball highlights from watching and coaching basketball in Ky., Calif., and Va.
In my mind’s eye, I can still see Grady at the free-throw line with his right arm extended over his head, hand forming the perfect fishhook after releasing the ball on each of his free throw attempts.
Also, I will never forget the way Chamberlain soared from behind the free-throw stripe by leaping and sailing high through the air before dunking.
As for Baylor, he was the only one I saw in person play in the NBA, and I can still see him driving from his forward position and then twisting past defenders to score for the Lakers.
