Post
by MikeMaloy15 » Wed Feb 21, 2024 7:15 pm
I have been very lucky, in that I've had a large number of one-on-one conversations with the Lefthander over the last 15 years or so and, importantly, did so as someone who was not one of his players nor was I his employee or employer. With neither of us the boss and no money involved, I had all the fun and almost none of the headaches of others interacting with him.
We replayed a bunch of old Davidson games. His memory for detail was very good, and he was surprisingly willing to laugh it off if called on some small detail. Yes, he actually would say, "Well I don't know, you know..." if it was time for him to back off a disagreement over some trivial fact (that probably wasn't essential to his point -- my bad). There were also previews of Wildcat conference tournament games, talk about Currys, and his desire to get former players into one HoF or another. It was easy to say at that late stage, but he often said he loved Davidson.
He stopped calling a few months after going into assisted living. I think he wasn't built for that, though I'm in no position to call into question the circumstances that required it.
Some of our conversations don't match up exactly with some facts asserted in this thread, but that's OK. Haziness on those subjects is part of the legend surrounding a larger than life character.
It's been a treat. RIP, Lefty.