I HAVE OFTEN WALKED Knicks’ Willis Reed: ‘O Captain, our Captain!’

by Ron Marzlock Chronicle Contributor

Willis Reed Jr. was born in Hico, La., on June 25, 1942. At 6 feet, 9 inches tall, he showed a talent for basketball early on. His records at Grambling State University caught everyone’s eye. He was selected first pick in the second round of the 1964 NBA Draft. On Oct. 16, 1964. Reed plays his first game for the New York Knicks.

Park City Estates, a three-building luxury complex, was built in 1960. The complex’s first inhabitants were wealthy Jewish families leaving the Bronx for Queens. By 1964 many UN diplomats and people of color were entering the complex.

The first New York home of Willis “The Captain” Reed, when he came from Louisiana to New York in 1964, the Park City Estates at 61-35 98 St. in Rego Park, as it looks today. GOOGLE MAPS IMAGE; INSET NY KNICKS

Square Garden.

Reed’s agent got him into the luxury complex’s middle building at 61-35 98 St. The Long Island Expressway abutting the complex helped get him to work in minutes. He played his entire career with the Knicks, retiring in 1974. He is enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and his retired No. 19 jersey hangs in the rafters at Madison

With the money Reed earned he moved out to an impressive 36-story building at 300 East 34 St. in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. He became head coach for the New Jersey Nets in 1988. He had two children with his first wife, Geraldine, his college sweetheart. Reed passed away at age 80 on March 21, 2023, of heart failure. Q