Jim Ard: In a Pressure Cooker, 1974

For the time being, Ard is putting all the ifs and buts out of his mind. His wife, daughter, and now nine-month-old son are arriving tomorrow, and, when the furniture gets here, they’ll move into an apartment he’s rented in Peabody. 

Billy Cunningham: Tale of Two Leagues, 1974

“It’s a different life four months a year. I get up when I want to. I don’t play basketball at all. I visit friends and stay with my family. As a professional, I live in two different worlds. I live two different lives.”

David Brent: Strawberry Fields For Never, 1973

David Brent was not the first St. Louisan to sign a professional basketball contract. It is doubtful, though, that any other St. Louis athlete ever encountered the incredulous twists and turns that the David Brent story has taken. 

Earl Strom: NBA’s Oldest Referee Does It His Way, 1982

Earl Strom officiates with his whistle in his hand. His partner, Joe Gushue, wore his on a lanyard. Strom suggested that Gushue remove the lanyard before they reach the exit, so that fans couldn’t get such an easy hold of him.  

George McGinnis: Would You Believe . . . A Strong Julius Erving . . . A Tall Elgin Baylor? 

At the age of 22, McGinnis has already been compared—favorably—with a man many considered the finest and most complete forward in basketball history—Elgin Baylor.

Julius Erving: The Greatest Show on Earth, 1973

Did Erving need the big-time to feed his ego, feeling perhaps that he’d suffer the sort of way Henry Aaron did by playing in towns where he didn’t get much national publicity? “No, I don’t feel that way,” said Erving. “All during my basketball career and life, the acknowledgement of me has been in a very limited sense.”