MU HOF member Buddy Graham passes away

[Dick Ash]

Graham died last Wednesday at age 78. He was a former golfer and golf coach for Marshall. Graham originally walked onto the Herd golf team in 1956. He was an assistant coach in 1962 when Marshall won the MAC and finished 11th in the NCAA Championships. He was head golf coach in 1963-1968, and Marshall won the MAC title in 1969 using players he recruited. Graham was inducted into the MU Hall of Fame in 2013.

Graham also worked in the Athletic Department under AD's Whitey Wilson and Eddie Barrett. After leaving Marshall, Graham ran the Memorial Field House and started the first AAU youth basketball program in West Virginia. He was a coach from 1972-1978 and won national titles in 1975 and 1977.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/spor...cle_b7609a43-6931-57a6-8029-734b72c4758d.html

 

[bbneutralfan]

Rest in Peace Buddy. Nice gentleman.

 

[GreenDuke]

I didn't know Buddy real well but was in the same group with him several times in local amateur tournaments in the 60's and 70's. He was a gentleman with a dry wit and it was a pleasure to play a round with him. He did a lot for local AAU back when it was still in its infant stages in the Tri State.

 

[marshallmark]

Back when Buddy was involved, it was called "Junior Olympics", but was de facto the early years of AAU. Because of him, and to a lesser extent, coaches like Bill Carroll from St. Joe, Huntington was immediately competitive with teams from all over the nation. His standard operating procedure would be to take a group of excellent players from Huntington, win the local/state qualifying tournament, then pick up 2-3 kids from the losing teams to supplement his team. In 1975, I played on such a team of 14-15 year olds that included 6' 11" Earl Jones at PF; 6' 8" Larry Watson at C; 6' 7" Michael Price at SF, 6' 1" Kevin Dillard at PG and 6' 5" David Wade at SG. Coming off the bench was 6' 6" Alan Price, 6' 4" Stephen Price, 6' 3" Jim Cummings, 6' 1" Ron Hess and a few other excellent and talented players -- I did little more than keep the score book for that team.

We got to the semi-finals in Pontiac, MI, but fell to Howard Carter's team out of Louisiana (future star of LSU) after Earl broke his ankle in the quarter-finals. The next year, Huntington hosted the tournament at the Field House and that team (I was too old by then), led by Earl and David Wade, won the national championship over Isiah Thomas' Detroit team in overtime with a long jump shot by Earl from the corner (would have been a '3' today) as the buzzer sounded.

I played for Buddy Graham in all-star tournaments when I was 11 and 12, and even then he'd have the team over to his house to view game film from Bobby Knight's Indiana team to study man-to-man motion offense. He was amazingly ahead of his time, and a great role model.

 

[GreenDuke]

Mark, thanks for the post. I came to know,as adults, many of the guys you mentioned, that was a terrific ball club.