4 / THE INSIDER / January 2019
UP FRONT
01.19
VOLUME 21 NO. 6
compiled by Bill Cornwell THE INSIDER Editor
A long-overdue honor was celebrated at the recent Marshall-Western Kentucky men’s basketball game as a model of a statue depicting Marshall Basketball trailblazer Hal Greer was unveiled at halftime. The sculpture, created by Huntington sculptor Frederick Hightower, shows Greer in the midst of launching his typical one-handed jumper. The finished statue will stand over seven feet tall and will be placed adjacent to the Henderson Center near the corner of 3rd Avenue and 18th Street. Greer, who has a Huntington street named for him, might be called the “Jackie Robinson” of college athletics in West Virginia as he came out of Huntington’s Douglass High School and became the mountain state’s first African-American scholarship athlete at a predominately-white school. That scholarship offer was made by legendary Marshall coach Cam Henderson, but Greer eventually played for Henderson’s successor, Jule Rivlin. After his Marshall career, which included Marshall’s first NCAA Tournament trip in 1956, Greer entered the NBA, where he played for the Syracuse Nats, who eventually became the Philadelphia 76ers. When the NBA celebrated its 50th birthday, Greer was honored as one of the league’s 50 greatest players of all time. He is a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame. Greer died last April at age 81. Appropriately, Greer’s family was on hand for the unveiling of the model, including his widow, Mayme, his daughters Kelly and Cherie, son Harold Jr. and his sister Jean. A fundraising campaign is now being spearheaded by the Big Green to pay for the Hal Greer statue. If you’d like to help, you can visit HerdZone.com or call the Big Green at 304-696-4661. The Big Green offices are located at 1900 3rd Avenue on the left side of the City National Bank building.
