In Tribute “The Boston Six”
Coordinated by New England Basketball Hall of Famer Rob Wilde
Forward by Dan Doyle
No matter how noble if not prescient an idea might be, one can never be sure if the stars will align in its favor. But such uncertainty did not deter a 5’6” giant of spirit and purpose from conjuring up an event in 1972 that would rise to the level of happening for four glorious decades.
At time of germination, Kenny Hudson had already made his mark as the first man of color to become a full-time NBA referee. But while the game he loved had experienced steady ascent since, back in 1891, another utopian had fastened two peach baskets to an overhead track just 91 miles west of The Hub, there was scant attention paid to high school basketball in Greater Boston.
And this bothered Kenny.
“Yet we’ve got these six kids…so what if…?” The more he considered the factors, the more the vision roved toward 20–20. “Yeah, we’ve got these six kids playing high school ball in Greater Boston who could surely compete against the best that any other city has to offer. So, what if…” Kenny’s first call was to Ronnie Perry, whose spectacular success at Catholic Memorial in West Roxbury MA, had marked him as among the best high school basketball coaches in America.
“I figure if Ronnie likes the idea and agrees to coach these kids, that gives me the cred I need when I call Connecticut about Walter Luckett, or New Jersey about Phil Sellers, and most importantly, when I call Morgan Wooten at DeMatha in DC about his kid Dantley. Yeah, I’ll tell Morgan that Ronnie’s on board, and that we’ve got these six blue chippers ready to suit up, and…well!”
Well now over to then 22-year-old Tom McCarthy, for on the weekend of June 23, 1972, Tom was there, and he remembers.
QUESTIONS TO TOM MCCARTHY
As a young coach just out of Boston College, what were your impressions of watching the Boston Six?
Four years prior to the emergence of the Boston Six, the Boston City League was a hotbed (although few fans had the opportunity to actually see the games due to the lack of seating options in the high schools) with players in the 1968 class like Marshall Lee (Hyde Park High School/Marquette University/Milwaukee Bucks #1 round pick & older brother of Boston Six-star Ronnie Lee) and “What’s The Word? Reggie Bird!” (Boston English/Princeton University/Atlanta Hawks 4th round) along with Owen Wells (Boston English) and a few more Five-Star Boston Ballers. However, due to the lack of a Boston Shootout type of event they never really got their maximum due. The above-mentioned players, all of whom I happened to play against while at Boston Latin High School, certainly were not the first stars to come out of Boston. In my eyes, there is one player who stands above all to this day (Sorry Patrick!) as Boston’s Best and that is Roxbury’s own Jimmy Walker! Whether playing street ball at Mozart Street Playground (the same playground on which I learned the game) or dropping 50 for Providence College at Madison Square Garden in a college career that led to his selection as NBA’s Detroit Pistons #1 pick, Jimmy Walker, at 6’4” and 220 pounds, was the true “King of Hoops” of Boston!
Four years later high school basketball moved into what one can only call Boston’s “Golden Age of Hoops”! In 1972, I officially entered the coaching ranks as an assistant junior varsity coach of my alma mater Boston Latin and actually helped devise the game plan that defeated Boston Tech led by Boston Six’s Wilfred Morrison. We weren’t so lucky against Boston English’s Carlton Smith, another of the Boston Six, who became a legend when he hit the buzzer beater against New York to take the first Boston Shootout crown!
I guess my first memory of the Boston Six could be shaped in question form, “How in the heck did Boston develop six young superstars all at the same time?” It certainly was not the coaching or facilities, although King Gaskins, arguably the best of the Six (with Ronnie Lee a close second), did have at Catholic Memorial High School the iconic NEBHOF coach (a great player too at Holy Cross College) Ron Perry as his cherished mentor. Remember, back in those days there were no real AAU circuits (and no ESPN) nationally. New England Basketball Hall of Famer Leo Papile, another Boston legend, was just starting his BABC club that would soon become a perennial AAU national power, and which still operates today with Leo still at the helm! Street ball at places like Mozart Playground, Ruggles Street Gym and so many more indoor & outdoor facilities was where you went to look for “game” as a player, fan or recruiter. It was “Shirts & Skins” games of non-stop “Man-Ball” played to 21 points, and if you did not bring your A-game you’d better stay off the court!
My second memory out of thousands is that each Boston Six player had a different style. You started with King Gaskins (Catholic Memorial HS) at the point, who was similar to Naismith HOF Isaiah Thomas with the ball on a string and an ability to score from anywhere, and bring the fans to their feet howling in approval. “Superman” Ronnie Lee (Lexington HS by way of the newly-formed METCO Program but a Dorchester native) who, at 6’4”, could rise above the clouds and attack the basket with his patented left-handed rim-rocking dunks. Tall & slender 6’6” Bobby Carrington (Archbishop Williams HS but another Boston native) was “Mr. Smooth” with a long-range jumper that made it rain buckets.
Billy Collins (Don Bosco HS) at 6’10” patrolled the paint and ran by people up the court. 6’5” Wilfred Morrison (Boston Tech) carried himself like a distinguished gentleman who could be found in either corner burying one-bounce jumpers or using his patented reverse spin move to get to the cup. And last but not least, 6’4” Carlton Smith with his fashionable Afro hairstyle (like Dr. J) who was silky-smooth in everything he did on the hardwood. I can envision all of these players right now as I type this piece. What sticks out most about them as a group is that they left their egos at the gym door for the Boston Shootout. Yes, there was no shortage of spectacular one-on-one moves. However, these six young men came together for two days and played as one, delivering a spectacular basketball ballet that led to a Boston championship that made all of us feel privileged to be present. Boston was the king of USA Streetball!
Being a Boston College graduate, I hoped that the Boston Six would be wearing the maroon & gold. I got half my wish as Carrington, Collins and Morrison did hit the Heights in Chestnut Hill. BC did pretty well with this crew but to this day I wonder what might have been if we had recruited a flamboyant ball wizard like Gaskins, a man-child like Lee, and a deadly assassin like Smith. Boston high school and university basketball would have changed Boston from strictly a pro town!
Many said that the Boston Shootout was more than a two-day event but a cultural happening. What are your thoughts?
Let’s begin with a special thanks to Kenny Hudson. Kenny became the NBA’s first African American referee & was also GM of Boston’s hottest soul radio station WILD. It was Kenny and his colleagues at WILD who convinced Coca-Cola to invest in promoting the Boston Shootout in 1972 at Boston University’s Case Center. Note: (Case was a band box if there ever was one!)
Anyone and everyone involved with Boston basketball will tell you that they were there for those two days. Yet the truth is the Shootout should have been played at the iconic Boston Garden because the Case Center only accommodated a fraction of the crowd that wanted to see the Boston Six take on the country’s very best. As a projects kid, I came to know Kenny quite well, so my nose-bleed tickets were delivered and were like gold in my hands!
And for the next several decades the Boston Shootout became the nation’s #1 summer basketball extravaganza!
This was not just a Boston happening but an American inner-city happening! Every “City Player” wanted to come to Boston to hoop with the best of the best. Over the years players like Kobe (Philly), Paul Pierce (LA), Doc Rivers (Chicago)…the Shoot-out Star list goes on and on.
For this first Shootout, it was Sports Illustrated cover boy Walter Luckett (Connecticut) who brought his 40 plus points per game to Beantown. Bruising forward Phil Sellers was the Big Apple’s leading man. But aside from the Boston Six, the “Main Man” of this basketball extravaganza was by way of legendary DeMatha HS (DC) in the person of future NBA star & Naismith HOF inductee Adrian Dantley! I can still recall him making his entrance into Case Center on the first day of the event. With WILD DJ spinning R&B tunes to pump up the crowd, which I can assure you needed no pumping, the 6’4” AD came strutting into the gym with his shoulders confidently back, head high, and a walk that exuded total confidence. And of course, he was wearing his freshly white Chuck Taylors and heavy Snowbird socks. You weren’t a player if you didn’t wear your Cons & Snowbirds!
Right away you knew this kid was a player. With the joint rockin’, Dantley went up and rebounded the first missed shot with elbows flying and a primal scream that nearly shattered the windows! At first stunned by what they just witnessed the crowd exploded, high fiving and dancing in the aisles.
I’ll never forget it!
To add to the story, fast forward 26 years to 1998. I had the honor of becoming the CEO of all Asian basketball (44 countries) and brokered a deal with the National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA). We collaborated to form the “NBA Legends” Team that traveled to China for a 4-game tour, competing against the China National Basketball Team. Other than the 1992 Dream Team, this 1998 Legends Team collectively had scored more points than any other team assembled. With the Big O as the coach we had Kareem, Moses, and a slew of other Hall of Famers including that “Main Man” from the 1972 Shootout Adrian Dantley!
In a conversation with A. D., I recalled my introductory impression of him as a young player. All he could do was laugh and say he was still upset that he could not lead DC to the Shootout title but that he recalled it as a “Special Happening”. He also confirmed that he never expected Boston to develop ballers like the Boston Six.
All props go out to Maestro Hudson who, two weeks before the event, was riding around Boston in a van blasting WILD music promoting the Boston Shootout! Kenny had a vision that plugged into the soul of the inner city. After every Shootout the whole of the Boston basketball community began to count the days until the next summer’s hoop spectacle. Yet in truth, nothing compared to the initial event, and no Boston team save the Celtics would ever match the accumulated talent of the Boston Six!
How did the Boston Shootout impact interest in high school basketball in Greater Boston?
This is an interesting question, for sure. In 1972 we were in the midst of desegregation and busing. Not an easy time for the inner city. On the hardcourt city playgrounds high school kids were balling even harder so they might get a shot at being invited to try out for a chance to represent Boston in the Shootout. Unfortunately, the Boston School system then and now has never invested in the elementary, middle, and high school sports infrastructure. Whether it be high school facilities or strong coaching, it just has not been a priority, by example basketball hotbeds such as Indiana, Kentucky and other places where basketball is near religion. Candidly, Boston high schools have failed to consistently develop great student/athletes. To be sure, there have been exceptions, but not enough to say that Boston is a hotbed of high school basketball. With so many high schools within the city itself, limited sports budgets and uninspiring leadership at the top to support coach-player-school team development, great Boston players have been far and few between. It’s a tragedy really.
On the other hand, Ronnie Lee put Metco on the map for parents and players as a program that could provide future success for their families. As a result, many Boston kids have migrated to the suburban schools whose programs have blossomed from the skills of Boston players. Most recently it is prep schools that have benefited from Boston talent.
Regardless of the present situation, old-timers like me can bask in the memories of the basketball blessing called The Boston-Six!
Additional Boston Six articles:
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2012/01/31/the-shootout-heard-around-the-world/
