Sitting courtside watching a New Haven, CT, basketball tournament named in his honor, Bob Saulsbury, 94, reminisced about his earlier hoop days.
The former Wilbur Cross High School boys' basketball coach recalled a bygone era when players weren't nearly as physical or agile - and never dunked, he said.
"It's a whole different world out there," a smiling Saulsbury said. He sat at the scorer's table at the 10th annual Robert Saulsbury Basketball Invitational on Dec. 28, 2023. More than 2,200 spectators packed the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven, CT, where a quadruple-header (eight teams) attracted the state's top boys' and girl's teams.
Saulsbury was the main attraction - the shining star - of the seven-hour hoop night. Spectators approached a smiling Saulsbury in his bright, red Cross letter jacket and showered him with hugs and handshakes throughout the evening.
"He's done so much for his players and New Haven,"said Rowlan McClendon, 76, a 1966 Cross High grad. Saulsbury won the first of his nine state championships in 1966, his first year at Cross.
The Most Valuable Player award was named in honor of former Wilbur Cross basketball star John Williamson. "Super John," as fans and the media called him, played for Saulsbury from 1966-1970. As a senior, he led the nation in scoring, averaging 37.7 points per game.
A player from each winning - and losing - team received a MVP award.
John Williamson attended New Mexico State University and averaged 27 points per game.
He teamed with former Cross High All- Staters Alex Scott and Clint Davis.
As a pro, "Super John" Williamson and teammate Julius "Dr. J" Erving helped the New York Nets win two American Basketball Association championships in 1974 and 1976.
Williamson died Nov. 30, 1996, of kidney failure related to diabetes. He was 45.
The Brooklyn Nets retired Williamson's No. 23 jersey on Dec. 7, 1990.
James Hassinger, 57, and his wife, Leonor, flew from Louisiana to attend the Dec. 28 basketball tournament. Hassinger, a financial advisor, said he was 14 when he first met Saulsbury at Brown's summer basketball camp in the mid-1980s. Saulsbury's kindness and coaching tips helped him to improve his basketball game, and also helped build his self-confidence and self- respect. Hassinger always remembered Saulsbury's major impact on making him a
better person and contacted him years later, he said.
Hassinger has been one of Saulsbury's biggest supporters in the effort to have him inducted into the hall of fame.
Dale Brown, 88, former Louisiana State University men's basketball coach, had called Saulsbury earlier in the week to wish him well.
In 2017, Brown, now 88, had nominated Saulsbury for the Springfield, MA, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The two coaches had met nearly 55 years earlier when Brown was trying to recruit Cross High superstar John Williamson. Before coaching at LSU in 1972, Brown coached at Washington State in the early 1970s. Although Williamson chose to play for New Mexico State, the two coaches became good friends and kept in touch through the years.
For more than 25 years Saulsbury coached at Brown's summer basketball camp in Baton Rouge, LA.
Williamson's son, Maurice, 53, later played for Brown at LSU from 1988 to 1992. Today, Maurice Williamson is a Wilbur Cross men's basketball assistant coach.
Proceeds from the basketball event go to the Robert Saulsbury Scholarship Fund. The fund has given more than $13,000 in scholarships in the past five years.
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