Severals connections to greatness . . . sort of

Paula and I went out for a night of playing cards in the Chula Vista Recreation Center in The Villages, Florida on Saturday night.

Susie Williams Dodd, John Olesky

When Susie Williams Dodd walked in, Paula’s Akron St. Mary’s High School classmate Carol said:

“There’s another West Virginian.” 

I was the first one, as a Monongah native and a graduate of the same Monongah High School as Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

I asked Susie where she was from originally. She said East Bank. 

I said, “Oh, the land of Jerry West,” who led East Bank to the West Virginia high school basketball title.

Susie said, “Yes, and my father is Roy Williams.” Roy was Jerry’s coach at East Bank.

Jerry, of course, became WVU’s best player ever, an all-time NBA Hall of Famer and, indeed, the guy whose silhouette is on the NBA logo.

The connection to greatness doesn’t end there.

Susie said she was born in Charleston, West Virginia.

“What hospital?,” I asked.

“It doesn’t exist any more,” Susie replied.

Could it be, I wondered . . . “McMillan?,” I asked.

Yes. The same hospital where my older daughter, LaQuita, was born in 1956 when I was a sportswriter for the Charleston Daily Mail while Jerry was starring at East Bank. LaQuita is a teacher in Aurora, Ohio.

I guess that gives me at least three tenuous connections to greatness. It’s enough to make me (Mr.) Clutch my heart.

As WVU fans know, Mr. Clutch was Jerry’s nickname because he came through in the clutch so often with the game on the line at East Bank, WVU and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Roy Williams is deceased. Roy’s wife, Susie’s mother, taught third grade at East Bank Grade School.

Susie moved from East Bank to her home in The Villages.

Jerry, the fifth of six children born into his Chelyan, West Virginia family, was All-State at East Bank for three years in a row, became the best basketball player in WVU history and came within 2 points of giving the Mountaineers a national title in 1959.

East Bank was so enamored of Jerry that on March 24 of every year the town name was changed to “West Bank” to memorialize the town’s most famous son.

Maybe I can attach a smaller sign each March 24 that says: "John Olesky played cards with Susie Williams Dodd, daughter of Roy Williams, coach of Jerry West."

Hey, I take my claims to fame anywhere I can get them.