Dedicated to Danny Patchell & Clair Bee 

I grew up in a little midwestern town called Milford, Ohio.  Watch the movie Hoosiers.  We lived in the same town at the same time only it was a hundred miles east and a few years later.  Milford people were also friendlier than the snobbish and self centered residents of mythical Hickory, Indiana.  An old video:  CROSSING THE BRIDGE INTO MILFORD IN THE 60S

Read the Chip Hilton sports series and you'll get a good description of Milford in the late 50s and early 60s.  Clair Bee was probably writing with West Virginia, Ohio or Indiana as the backdrop.  He could have been describing Milford in those days.  Chip Hilton was the all American boy and Clair Bee wrote about living by a code of decency based on fair play, hard work, loyalty and honesty.  His heroes were patriotic and morally pure of heart.  Maybe the author was a tad naive but it doesn't hurt to realize he was a war hero in two world wars, a college professor and administrator of some note, a devoted family man and arguably, the greatest basketball coach and innovator of all time.  Basketball awards are still named for him and his fictional star, Chip Hilton. 

His plots were a little over the top sometimes.  In one memorable book (Hoop Crazy), the hard playing team lost a heart breaker when the rival opponent fired a last second desperation, full court heave.  The ball was going to sail well beyond the basket when it suddenly deflated in mid flight and tumbled toward the basket  for a score to defeat our heroes.  The deflated ball rested on the rim and an enemy player leaped to tap the flattened ball through the net.  Earlier in the day, the exhausted team had fought miles through heavy snow to rescue children from a stalled train in a blizzard!  Chip returned to town and defeated (and beat up) a con man who was about to swindle the town's major employer with pottery formulas originally created by Chip's late father.  (Chip's father was a legendary athlete who died saving a careless worker from being crushed to death.)  Of course, Chip refused a cash reward for capturing the bad guy.  All in a day's work for Chip Hilton and pals.  I own the entire 23 volume set and sometimes re-read a volume for the sake of nostalgia.  You might say I've led a twisted life.  Earlier this year I was re-reading a Hilton Classic (Fence Busters) at the same time I was re-reading The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. 

That brings me to Danny Patchell.  He was a flesh and blood Chip Hilton in our midst. Part clown and part serious mentor, to know Danny was to know a young Johnny Carson with just a touch of Wally Cleaver.  He loved people and he loved to laugh but his true love was basketball.  And he could play the game.  He also lived by a code of decency.   He was also my friend.

Danny always found time to "school" the younger guys on how to carry yourself.  He was a role model.  In the Michael Jordan era, you wanted to "Be like Mike."  In those days you wanted to be like Dan.  Most of us had lost contact with Danny when news of his passing reached us in the 80s.  He'd been a coach and teacher when disease overtook his body.  I doubt if it even phased his spirit.  I probably last spoke to him in the late 60s yet I think about him often...very often.  He remains one of the joys of my youth.

We played basketball for hours on the old playground.  It's where Danny and the older guys held court.  When it was our turn, we tried to lead by following their example.  I joke about Milford but it was a good place to be raised.  Those young years are scary ones in everybody's development.  The uncertainty was powerful but we prepared for the future on that playground.  It is believed that the Duke of Wellington once said: "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playgrounds of Eton."  I don't know about such lofty claims but I know that the playgrounds I grew up on had a profound influence on my life.