Uhl then leaned close to the coach’s ear and spoke quietly from his heart:
“I just told him I was grateful for him and that I love him. I said I was grateful for everything he had done for me.”
Uhl has a legacy and a reputation like no other player on the Dayton team.
He is part of just two families — the other is the Zimmermans — who have had three generations play for the Flyers.
Brady’s late grandfather, Bill Uhl Sr., was one of the greatest players ever to wear a Dayton uniform. The program’s first-ever 7-footer, he would become an All American, score 1,627 points and grab 1,289 rebounds in three seasons, lead his teams to an overall 75-5 record and two NIT runner-up finishes and end up in the UD Hall of Fame.
Bill Jr., Brady’s dad, was a 6-foot-9 forward who played for Don Donoher and Jim O’Brien, had several shining moments of his own and was part of the UD team that outlasted Xavier in 1990 to win the Midwestern Collegiate Conference title and go on to beat Illinois in the NCAA Tournament.
While Brady has inherited that storied pedigree, he’s better known for his hard work, team-first attitude.
The fact that he’s thought of as blue collar, not blue blood, is why he is so appreciated not just by Grant, but his teammates and the fans.
Tuesday night’s game against Saint Louis will be the last regular season game of Uhl’s career — he already graduated in December and is working on his MBA — and that prompted a question that silenced him a few seconds and made him think.
“What will you miss most from your Dayton Flyers days?”
“It’s hard to say one answer,” he finally ventured, “but the easy answer — and the honest answer — is everything!
“Just putting on the jersey and lacing up my shoes. Coming out of the tunnel. Checking into the game. Celebrating wins with the team in the dressing room. Being thankful for the way certain teams worked through adversity in the course of a year.
“And the most important thing is the relationships I’ve made. I’ve made friends for life.”
When the Flyer Faithful think of Uhl, several things come to mind.
Early in his career — when he got little time on the court — there were the chants from his fellow students in the Red Scare section: “We want Uhl!... We want Uhl!”
There were the long-range shots that made the crowd roar.
His first came in early December of 2022, his sophomore season, a three-point net snapper from the corner, right in front of the UNC Asheville bench.
Later that month — just days before his grandfather died at age 89 — he hit two treys, 88 seconds apart against Alcorn State.
His biggest shot though, came in March of that season when he “saved the day,” — those were Malachi Smith’s words back then — in an Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal against Saint Joseph’s at the Barclays Center.
The Flyers were in trouble. They had two guards — Kobe Elvis and Mike Sharavjamts — who were hurt and the rest of their long-range shooters were 0-9.
With his team trailing by five points, Grant sent Uhl into the game and two minutes later he got a pass on the wing from DaRon Holmes II and buried a three.
The UD bench and the Flyers crowd erupted. The shot shook the team from its doldrums and it went on a 14-2 run and would end up winning by six.
“That was a big shot,” Smith said afterward “He set the tone for us.”
Standing outside the locker room after the game, Uhl tried to put the moment in perspective:
“When you’re in the position I am, you have to stay ready. And if you’re bummed that you didn’t get to play, that doesn’t matter.
“At the end of the day I’m part of a team and it’s something that’s bigger than just me.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Senior leadership
Uhl grew up a Flyers fan. He once told me he went to his first game when he was 3 years old and started going to UD basketball camps a year or so later.
He had Flyers Fathead pictures on his bedroom wall, wore a Flyers jersey to games and just like kids do now, he clamored for autographs as players left the court.
He became a three-year starter and two-year captain at Alter High School, scored 1,036 career points and was named the Greater Catholic League co-Player of the Year,
“I got my name from my dad, but my height from my mom,” the 6-foot-2 Uhl will tell you.
He got no Division I offers so he decided to go to the University of Cumberland, an NAIA school in Kentucky.
His first season — 2020-21 — was marred by the COVID pandemic. Fans, including his family, couldn’t go to games and eventually he decided to return to Dayton.
He figured his competitive basketball was over and he’d get his hoops fix with pick-up games at the Rec Plex.
UD assistant coach Ricardo Greer had seen him play at Alter and thought he could be a walk-on.
Uhl turned him down at first, then finally went to a tryout and was the only hopeful among 20 the Flyers kept.
That first season he only got into four games, played a total of three minutes and never took a shot. Now, after four years, he’s played in 40 games and scored 32 points.
More importantly, he leads the scout team and second team in practice as they help prepare the starters for each game.
Off the court he has become a cornerstone of stability in these turbulent transfer portal times that see rosters turn over from season to season.
“Mali and I are the only four-year guys here,” he said. “We know what to expect and with a new team each year, we can share that with the other guys.”
That’s one reason Grant surprised him with a scholarship last January and why he’s been named one of the team captains two seasons in a row.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Team-first approach
Going from Alter stardom to limited playing time was a tough transition, but one he found he could handle:
“It was challenging, but at the end of the day, even when I was in the role that I was in at Alter, I always tried to make the team first and keep it about winning. Having that mindset made it a lot easier to adjust.”
And it was that approach that showed he had more in common with his grandpa than you’d think.
When “Big Bill” Uhl joined the UD team after starting his career at Ohio State, Donoher was already a Flyers player.
“He was a great teammate and just a good guy who everybody respected because of his work ethic,” Donoher said.
As Brady’s career has unfolded here, there have been reminders of his dad’s Flyers days, too.
When Bill Jr. was a senior, the Flyers won the MCC tournament at UD Arena and as his teammates celebrated on the court, I remember him wading into the stands to hug his dad and mom.
Now Bill and his wife Kelly sit in those same 200 level seats behind the UD bench.
And every game, when the Flyers finish their warmups and head to the sideline, Brady looks up, makes eye contact and waves to his parents.
“Coming back to Dayton and becoming a Flyer is the best decision I’ve made as a young adult,” he said. “I am super proud of that.
“Whether I’m part of a legacy here or not, the biggest thing is that I grew up following the team and, like a lot of kids here, you have a dream of being a part of that.
“And for me, that dream came true.”
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