Where have you gone Mike Redd, Jeff Lamp, Dwayne Morton, Jermaine Brown, Tick Rogers and Elton Scott?
Harry Todd is looking for you.
Todd, who was co-Mr. Basketball in 1958, is trying to add some lustre to what he calls “the most cherished award in the state” by establishing a Mr. Basketball Fraternity. Its exclusive membership will be the 53 players who have been voted Kentucky’s top senior and worn the No. 1 jersey in the summer all-star games against Indiana.
Todd has contacted 31 of the 51 honorees still living. (Pat Doyle, who won the title in 1959, and Mike Silliman, who won it in ‘62, are deceased.) Most of them, including the first Mr. Basketball, King Kelly Coleman, and the latest, Steffphon Pettigrew, have agreed to gather in Elizabethtown in a few weeks to officially form the fraternity. But Todd is having a difficult time tracking down such luminaries as Jeff Mullins, Jason Osborne, Ervin Stepp and Phil Cox. If you know a missing Mr. Basketball’s whereabouts, email Todd at hrtodd@mchsi.com.
Among the goals Todd has set for the organization will be to re-energize the Kentucky-Indiana all-star game by helping the sponsoring Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation promote the series against Indiana. The summer all-star games have drawn little interest from fans in recent years, partly because the Hoosiers have regularly manhandled the boys from the Bluegrass State.
Todd also wants to lead a drive to have all Mr. Basketball honorees inducted into the Dawahares/KHSAA Hall of Fame. (I won’t fault Todd’s effort, but I’m not sure every Mr. Basketball has Hall of Fame credentials.)
Once the fraternity is established, Todd hopes it can hold an annual banquet a couple weeks after Mr. Basketball is announced to welcome the newest honoree. Todd is thinking of getting all the members blazers, complete with nifty badges. This won’t be a dues-paying organization, however. “We paid our dues by being chosen Mr. Basketball,” Todd said.
