He has worn purple and white, scarlet and gray, red, white and blue and finally blue and orange. He has spent hours standing for the national anthem.
All because, more times than not, Lucas used his God-given talent to shoot a basketball through an iron rim, grab a rebound off the glass and the push the ball up the court.
Not bad for a poor boy from Middletown.
Middletown, of course, is where it all started for Lucas. He never forgot those roots. After he left the game he loved, he could have said he was from Columbus or Cincinnati, or any larger city, but Lucas never hid from his hometown.
He was Middletown Proud.
And on Friday and Saturday night, first at Wade E. Miller Gym, and then at Miami University Middletown, Lucas was given yet another sports hero’s welcome back home.
The gym was packed Friday with Middie fans who were there to honor Lucas, to celebrate Senior Night, and as it turned out, watch the Middies handily defeat arch-rival Hamilton. Lucas never lost to the Big Blue in his career, so why should it be any different with him sitting in the first row?
Before the varsity game, the school named the floor at Wade E. Miller Gym, where Lucas helped lead the Middies to back-to-back state championships and a 76-game winning streak, the Jerry Lucas Court.
On Saturday night, more than 200 people crammed into a sold out event at MUM for what was billed a Jerry Lucas Appreciation Dinner, where the proceeds are set to establish a Jerry Lucas scholarship, possibly through the Middletown Community Foundation. It would be fitting that a scholarship be named in his honor since, after graduating from Middletown High School in 1958, Lucas earned an academic scholarship at Ohio State.
He was as keen with the books as the balls.
For both events, those who supported Lucas throughout his career and those who played with him on the 1956 and 1957 state championship teams and the team that lost in the 1958 state final, were at his side, giving him at least one more standing ovation.
The crowd resembled an all-class Middie reunion, and included Jerry Nardiello, who covered the Middies for more than 60 years, and Warren Johnson, the voice of the Middies on WPFB radio from 1948-76. Nardiello said the evening was like turning the clock back 50 years.
Like the glory days, Wade E. Miller was the place to be on a Friday night.
After being introduced by Jim Nein, a standout Middie athlete in the early 1960s, Lucas stood near midcourt, not far from the 5-foot-by-2-foot decals that bear his distinguished signature, and thanked his late parents, his brother, Roy, his family, many of whom were there, his teammates and coaches.
Lucas, nicknamed “Dr. Memory” because of his uncanny ability to memorize names, talked about his final two games in Miller Gym. In 1958, his senior season, Lucas scored only 16 points — the lowest of his high school career — on the road against Lima.
But in his last home game that season, against Lima, he scored 63 points, missing just one field goal and one free throw. After the season ended with a loss in the state championship game, which snapped the school’s 76-game win streak, Lucas played in an Ohio-Kentucky all-star game at Miller Gym. Toward the end of the game, and just for fun, Lucas tipped a jump ball near the top of the circle through the net.
As he prepared to walk off the court Friday night, he told the crowd: “Thank you Middletown for everything.”
Lucas was joined at the ceremony by his wife, children and four of his 11 grandchildren. One granddaughter, Sierra Albright, 12, of Palm Beach, Fla., sang the national anthem before the Middies played Hamilton.
“She’s good,” the proud papa said.
His son, J.J. Lucas, a 1993 MHS graduate, played two seasons for the Middies. He said the court dedication was “very special” for the entire Lucas family. J.J. said he didn’t learn his father played basketball until he was 6.
“More than basketball, I remember him for being a great dad,” said J.J., 38.
Those who played with Lucas in junior high said they realized early on he’d be a special player because of his 6-foot-8 frame and his coordination, typically reserved for a much smaller player.
“He was just something else,” said A.C. Mitchell, who played with Lucas and graduated in 1959.
Gene Snow, who graduated from MHS in 1959, played on the McKinley team while Lucas played for Roosevelt. Snow said McKinley had a 6-foot-3, and a 6-foot-5 player and they were confident they could stop Lucas and derail some of the hype. McKinley lost only two games that season, both to Lucas and Roosevelt.
“He was a player,” Snow said.
Because of his athletic abilities, Lucas has served as a great ambassador for Middletown, Snow said.
“He put us on the map,” Snow said.
Snow has heard the comments around town that Lucas should have done more for his hometown after his playing career. Snow said Lucas never turned his back on the city.
“He gave us as much as he could,” Snow said. “There’s only one Jerry Lucas and I’m proud of him.”
Paul Walker Jr., whose late father, Paul Walker, coached the Middies for 30 seasons and to five state championships, said he truly didn’t appreciate Lucas’ basketball feats until recently when he was researching his resume. Lucas was the first player to win championships in high school, college, the Olympics and professionally. He was three-time all-Ohio player, Player of the Year in 1957 and 1958, three-time Big Ten Player of the Year, and he was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players.
Also on Friday, a banner was unveiled that proclaimed Coach Walker as “Hall of Fame Middie Coach.” He coached the Middies for 30 years and led the Middies to five state championships. He was three-time Ohio Coach of the Year and National Coach of the Year. The banner hangs in the rafters right there next to the one for Lucas and Archie Aldridge.
Miller gym is named after Mike Miller’s grandfather, who served as principal and superintendent in the district. Miller was there Friday night, for the first time in several years, and said his grandfather would have been “very proud” that was court was named after Lucas.
“It’s just fantastic and this should have happened a long time ago,” Miller said.
Lucas, 72, who posed for numerous photos and didn’t turn down an autograph request Friday night, was asked if he thought the recognition came too late.
He smiled, then said: “I’m just glad that I was alive to see it. I have a lot more work to do.”
What about the criticism that Lucas didn’t give enough back to the Middletown community?
“Why be critical of me?” he said. “What was I suppose to do? I’m not a wealthy man.”
Does it bother him that not everyone admires him?
“Nobody is loved by everybody,” he said.
Then he stood up. There was another picture to be taken. Another friendship to renew.
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