The most major and vitalizing ball game I have at whatever point seen happened at the Owensboro Sports spin around Friday, December 14, 1962. The hopefuls were Rexi Mundi (Evansville) and Owensboro High School. Rexi Mundi came into the game undefeated and organized number one in Indiana while Owensboro was in like manner undefeated and organized number two in Kentucky.
It was the basic year of racial blend in Owensboro, and everybody considering impact it would have in the ball group. The player a huge number individuals were taking a gander at was 6-3 senior Charles Taylor who had been a starter at Owensboro Western, the limited Black school, since his most essential year. Two Rex Mundi players were other than getting high profile suspected. One was 6-8 Tom Neimeir who could later continue to highlight at Evansville College. The other was Bob Griese. Without a doubt, it was a comparable Bob Griese who could change into a mislead All-American quarterback at Purdue University and a legend with the Miami Dolphins. 10 years after the Owensboro game, he would be a piece of the last undefeated NFL pack.
Close to the perfection of the essential half, Owensboro had a basic lead. Rex Mundi came out roaring in the second from last quarter and got inside two close to the zenith of the packaging. With time running down close to the satisfaction of the last quarter, Neimeir hit a 15 foot jumper to send the game into extra time. The major extra time was to some degree plan, and the score was at this point tied at its end. Close to the completion of the resulting additional time with Owensboro following by two, Taylor shot a most recent conceivable second curving 30 foot jumper that banked in.
With three seconds to go in the third additional time and the score tied, Owensboro had the ball at this point expected to go the full court. The ball was passed in to Bobby Woodward, an Owensboro watch, who flipped it to Taylor. Taylor was staying on the right of the free throw line at the most distant edge of the court. He plunged the ball to his lower legs and flung a two hand set shot- – – just net!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One dumbfounding side note, in those days packages dependably didn’t crush full court. Taylor was unguarded when he put forward the undertaking. He completed the game with 39 spots, Neimeir scored 28, and Griese had 14.
Also, after a short time, to the rest of the story! Owensboro would continue to win the Third Region and advance to the State Tournament. They controlled two headings in the State with the second against high regarded Princeton Dodson, an isolated all Black school. One of Dodson’s players was Dwight Smith who could continue to include with Clem Haskins at Western Kentucky University. Smith was projected to go high in the NBA draft, yet before it ended up actually working, he choked in a terrible car crash. In that State Tournament coordinate, regardless, Smith was totally squashed by Taylor who outscored him 26-14.
Taylor went to Kentucky Wesleyan College and had a spectacular first year as he teamed up with Mike Redd. Redd was Kentucky’s 1963 Mr. Basketball and drove Louisville Seneca to the State Championship. Around the completing of his most basic year, Redd was shed from the get-together for disciplinary reasons. Taylor continued to play into his sophomore year regardless was represented enlighteningly ineligible fairly through the season.
I would later have bound contact with two players in the Rex Mundi-Owensboro game. George Moore was a 6-4 power forward who had gone to Owensboro Western with Taylor. In the Rex Mundi game he tumbled off the seat to score 4 focus interests. As the season progressed, he changed into a starter and before the year’s finished, was Owensboro’s second driving scorer.
In 1966, I went to the Kentucky Young Republican show in Louisville. The social gathering that I stayed aware of placed George’s name in task for sergeant-at-arms. We both rode back to Owensboro with a couple of specific people who had gone to the show. Right when they let him out in Owensboro’s West-end, I created some distance from the vehicle to shake his hand and bid goodbye. The others began hollering; “Larry, get in the vehicle — get in the vehicle!” They were unnerved by the West-end. George advanced forward from Kentucky State University, got a PhD in science, and is a person from the Owensboro High School Hall of Achievement.
Grant “Gi” Talbott was an accessory of Taylor and Moore at Owensboro Western. He didn’t play in the Rex Mundi game yet was a person from the gathering. For the most part through the season, he became one of Owensboro’s starting watchmen. Grant later different into the lead tutor of Owensboro’s young women’s ball pack. He likewise served on the Board of Control for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. I met him when I was athletic boss at Trinity High School. My contact with him was not wide, yet it was fundamental. I learned he had a genuinely wonderful and overwhelming person. He was the kind of person who never met a distant, and when he traded words with you, perhaps he had known you for quite a while. He expected to talk about past times and participate in sports’ whimsical information.
