BALTIMORE BULLET BUDDY JEANNETTE--PLAYER/COACH/CHAMPION
Buddy Jeannette made Baltimore a big league town
1/19/95 By Paul Baker, Baltimore Sun
Tomorrow night the Washington Bullets will honor Hall of Famer Harry "Buddy" Jeannette during halftime ceremonies of the Bullets/Philadelphia 76ers game at the Baltimore Arena. Buddy Jeannette, a player and coach with the old Baltimore Bullets for nine years between 1946 and 1967, led the team to the '47-'48 Basketball Association of America (forerunner to the present National Basketball Association) title, putting Baltimore on the map as far as professional sports were concerned.
In doing so he won the hearts of thousands of Baltimore kids, including me. At the age of 13 in 1948, I used to hop a ride from my West Baltimore to catch a Bullets game at the old smoked-filled Baltimore Coliseum on Monroe Street. Just $3.50 would cover a game ticket, a hot dog and a Coke. It was a teen-age boy's dream. I got to see some of the greatest pro basketball players in the world.
But Buddy was my favorite -- truly a great player and leader of men. Standing a little under 6 feet and weighing around 175, with long arms and big hands, he was a premiere ballhandler who was known for handling pressure.
Nothing fancy, he just threw precision two-hand chest and bounce passes. His passing set his team in motion. He also possessed a soft shooting touch from the outside. His trademark was the two-hand underhand foul shot.
Harvey Kasoff, a retired local businessman who was the Bullet ball boy of that era recalls, "Buddy was my idol. When he stepped to the foul line and took that deep breath, everybody in the Coliseum breathed with him. He was money in the bank from the foul in the closing minutes."
Paul "The Bear" Hoffman, Rookie of the Year in 1947-48 as a Bullet, recalls, "I have never seen a player win more games for his team in the final two minutes than Buddy. He would always find a way. Setting up the offense, driving to the hoop, stealing the ball, making foul shots. We always felt we could win with Buddy on the floor."
Buddy was revered here, but with the advent of modern basketball, his Hall Of Fame bid was repeatedly denied. Until last May when Buddy, at age 76, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. That moment came thanks to the relentless lobbying on Buddy's behalf by Harvey Kasoff, the old ball boy, and writers for The Sun and The Evening Sun, particularly Seymour Smith who covered Jeannette's Bullets for The Sun.
His induction was a greatly deserved triumph of the spirit. These people knew he deserved his sport's highest honor. It was only fitting that Buddy got in "in the closing minutes."
The high point of his career came in Baltimore in the 1947-48 season when the Baltimore Bullets beat the New York Knicks in the Eastern semifinals, then finished off the Philadelphia Warriors for the title. New York was the league's premier team. Owned by the great Madison Square Garden promoter and entrepreneur Ned Irish, the Knicks played to huge crowds of over 15,000 even in those days. Irish and his entourage came down by private train car to the 3,000-seat Monroe Street Coliseum to see their boys whip the upstart Bullets before facing the Warriors for the title. But we had Buddy.
In the closing seconds, New York's Carl Braun, who had a high dribbling style, was slowly burning time off the clock, protecting a one-point lead. All of a sudden Buddy lunged across Braun's elongated frame and with those quick hands knocked the ball away, caught up with it and drove in for the winning basket. I can still see, the haze of the cigar smoke framing Buddy's two-hand underhand layup. The place exploded. Ned and his big city boys got back on the train pronto. Baltimore got on the map by beating Philly for the title. Later, our pro football Colts in 1958 and the Earl Weaver's Orioles gave New York our calling card. But it was Buddy and his band of feisty Bullets from the old Monroe Street Coliseum that first put this town into the big leagues.
Tomorrow night we'll review these memories. That's when Buddy Jeannette will be officially honored by the Bullets for his dynamic career and Hall of Fame berth. It seems only right that Buddy -- who lives with his wife, Bonnie, in Nashua, N. H., -- would return to Baltimore for the honors. The Bullets, of course, will move further from Baltimore with the planned construction of a $200 million arena in downtown Washington. It should open about 50 years after the Bullets first world title in 1948.
City celebrates with Jeannette
2/10/94 By Bill Tanton, Baltimore Sun
There was excitement in Harvey Kasoff's voice when he called this week. I knew why.
"Buddy Jeannette has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame," Kasoff said. "Now we've come full circle."
Full circle?
"Sure," said Kasoff. "Buddy Jeannette in his day was to Baltimore basketball what John Unitas and Brooks Robinson became to football and baseball. John and Brooks are in the Hall of Fame. Now Buddy is."
Harry "Buddy" Jeannette was, indeed, the man when he was player-coach of the Baltimore Bullets and they won the championship of the Basketball Association of America -- forerunner of the National Basketball Association -- in 1947-48.
For this city, that was more than simply winning a title. It was the breakthrough year for Baltimore in sports.
Up to then, this had been a Triple-A town. It was a decade later when the Colts and, afterward, the Orioles became major-league champions.
We viewed ourselves as minor league and then along came the Bullets and Buddy Jeannette and players like Paul "Bear" Hoffman and Chick Reiser and Mike Bloom to change that.
Those Bullets played in a bandbox on Monroe Street, the 3,000-seat Coliseum. When they started beating the Knicks and Philadelphia and Chicago and the Lakers, who then played in Minneapolis, this doddering old port city changed. It began to think of itself as big league.
All that took place nearly a half-century ago, but it seems like yesterday to Kasoff, who was then the Bullets' 13-year-old ball boy.
Kasoff has conducted a long crusade to get Jeannette his deserved place in the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
Seymour Smith, who covered Jeannette's Bullets for The Sun, and Paul Hoffman are other old friends who have campaigned for years for Buddy. This week their efforts paid off, finally.
"I feel like I just had a baby," said Kasoff.
Jeannette lives in Nashua, N.H., is 76 years old and walks with a cane. So many of those who played and coached against him are gone.
A notable exception is influential Red Auerbach of the Celtics. For years Red has told the people at the Hall of Fame that Buddy belongs.
Recently I had lunch with Kasoff, Hoffman and Jake Embry. Embry owned the Bullets in Jeannette's time. As always, they talked about Buddy. They wondered if his chances of getting in the Hall of Fame were disappearing.
They talked about center Walt Bellamy, who went in last year. Bellamy played for the Baltimore Bullets in the '60s when Hoffman was general manager. "Bellamy was a good pro," said Hoffman, "but he was no Buddy Jeannette."
"There's no comparison," agreed Embry, who has also owned pro football and hockey teams here. "Buddy was the toughest competitor I've ever known."
"Buddy was so tough," said Hoffman, "if they could have put Bobby Knight and Jeannette in a room together, Buddy is the one who would have come out standing up."
Kasoff agreed. He can still hear Jeannette's booming voice and his blue language.
He remembers how Buddy always seemed to find a way to win. He can still see the 5-foot-11 Jeannette driving for the basket with the game on the line and getting fouled. He remembers the deep breath at the foul line and the two-hand, underhand shots.
"Buddy was a pioneer," Kasoff said. "He helped to get pro basketball established for the great players who came later.
"The game was very different then. They played in dance halls and ballrooms. Drunks came out of the stands and started fights. The teams drove through blizzards to get to some of the games. Buddy drove the car.
"You had to be tough just to survive in those days. Buddy played on four championship teams [Detroit Eagles, Sheboygan Redskins, Fort Wayne Pistons and Baltimore Bullets] in three different leagues [NBA, American Basketball League and the BAA]. The man was a winner."
Baltimore's Gene Shue, who has been in the NBA for 40 years, was on the Hall of Fame ballot this year for the first time. He didn't get elected but he's happy that Jeannette did.
"Buddy is such an important figure," said Shue, now personnel director of the Philadelphia 76ers.
"When I was a kid growing up in Govans and Buddy was the leader of the Bullets, I was such a fan of his. Those were the early days of TV. We kids used to stand outside J.V. Stout's electronics store on York Road and watch through the window on little black and white TVs. Buddy always seemed to be doing the right thing to help the team win."
When Jeannette didn't get in the Hall of Fame last year, I called and told him I was sorry.
"I'm getting my pension now and that's more important," he blustered. "What the hell do I care about the Hall of Fame?"
Yesterday I called his wife, Bonnie, in Nashua. She told the truth about Buddy and the Hall of Fame.
"He cared," she said.
He'll be inducted May 9 along with coaches Denny Crum and Chuck Daly, Italian coach Cesare Rubini and former women's star Carol Blazejowski.