By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
Howard Hurt drilled pivotal buckets as Duke’s basketball team stunned favored North Carolina and Wake Forest on consecutive nights to claim its first ACC championship.
That was back in 1960, but Hurt’s competitive fire still smolders and he’s made few concessions to age. The 70-year-old still can score and remains as lean and mean as the average Marine.
The belly-less Rockwell resident was a key figure on the North Carolina state champions who finished second in the 70-over National Senior Games in San Francisco earlier this month.
“I’m within five pounds of my playing weight, but I really have to work at that,” the 6-foot-3 Hurt said. “I probably shoot the ball better now than when I was 20, but running, defense, driving to the basket ó those things have gotten harder.”
Hurt’s not elated with a silver medal. He’s still not sure how his team ó dubbed the 56ers because that was the high school graduation year for most of the roster ó failed to win gold in the halfcourt, 3-on-3 event.
Hurt’s teammates include Ernie “Twig” Wiggins and 6-6 Bill Hull, who spent time in the NFL. Both were Hurt’s rivals when they played for Wake Forest.
Another 56er is former Clemson Tiger George Krajack. Dr. Jim Nuckolls, ex-Davidson Wildcat, is a 56er and the team trainer.
“I played with those guys in 2003, and we won the national championship in Hampton Roads, Va., fairly easily,” Hurt said. “We went 12-2 out there at Stanford, but we fooled around and lost to a South Dakota team we should never have lost to. That put us in the loser’s bracket and that forced us to play a lot of games. “We played five games that last day and lost to a law firm from Boston in the final. That was a team we’d already beaten once.”
Hurt returned home hurting and sporting splints. He broke both little fingers. He’s not sure how or when.
“I told a ref there was a lump on the basketball,” Hurt said. “It wasn’t a lump. It was my fingers.”
– – -Whenever Hurt drives past the map-dot of Norwood in southern Stanly County, he stops to see Dr. Julian Trail.
Hurt and the Norwood dentist are permanently linked. They were youngsters in Beckley, W. Va., when their fathers teamed to construct a primitive basketball goal. Hurt’s father provided the backboard, while Trail’s dad fashioned a rim.
The homemade goal was nailed to a light post. That gave the boys the chance to play ball long after dark.
It proved an important gift. At Woodrow Wilson High School, Hurt and Trail were leaders of the 1954 state championship team.
There were other good players in West Virginia. Hurt recalls he and Mullens High star Willie Akers were in a gym shooting one summer and discussing their All-State honors when they were challenged to a game by two skinny boys at the other end of the gym.
“They must not know who we are,” Hurt told Akers.
One of the unknowns was the same height as Hurt, but his arms dangled to his knees and he could leap.
“He stuffed everything,” Hurt said. “That’s the day I met Jerry West.”
West became a star at West Virginia, an Olympic hero and the NBA logo.
Hurt became a Duke Blue Devil following a year of prep school at Greenbrier Military Academy.
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Hurt’s postmaster, who had played ball at Duke decades earlier, urged him to go to Durham. So did Hurt’s mother, who thought blue blazer-wearing Carl James, the charming Duke recruiter, was the perfect Southern gentleman. Hurt, who had listened to Duke superstar Dick Groat’s games on the radio growing up, wasn’t hard to convince.
Hurt enjoyed a splendid career at Duke for coaches Hal Bradley and Vic Bubas. He was a 1,000-point scorer, Duke’s 1959 team MVP and a second team All-ACC pick three straight seasons.
Hurt’s career average of 13.7 points a game came without benefit of the 3-point shot. He was a strong rebounder for a guard and broke Duke’s free-throw shooting records.
Hurt is remembered by Duke partisans for that run in 1960. The No. 4 seed, the Devils knocked off a UNC club that had slaughtered them three times in an ACC tournament semifinal. Then Duke edged Wake Forest and guard Billy Packer for the championship.
Hurt was first team all-tournament. He scored 31 points in the two upsets, and Duke went on to win two games in the NCAAs.
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In 1961, Hurt’s senior year, Duke was loaded. It returned the top four scorers and added cocky, controversial sophomore Art Heyman, a future national player of the year.
“I was the captain,” Hurt said. “So Coach Bubas told me I was the one that had to room with Heyman.”
Duke was in the top five nationally that season but lost momentum when Heyman got into his famous fist-fight with UNC’s Larry Brown and was suspended.
“I was about to jump into that fight,” Hurt said. “Carolina’s Jim Hudock grabbed me and told me, ‘We’ll just watch it.’ Jim was 6-6 and 230 so I said, ‘OK.’ ”
Hurt was an 11th-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1961, but he examined a roster that included his old friend West and had no need for guards. He called the Lakers and respectfully declined.
He did give pro ball a brief whirl with the American Basketball League.
Hurt was a trivia question one night on ESPN SportsCenter: “Name the two Duke players drafted by the Lakers.” Hurt and Jay Buckley are the correct answers.
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Hurt was a pre-dental student at Duke and expected teeth to be his career, but taking the Dental Aptitude Test he flunked the manual dexterity portion of the exam. He made a smooth crossover to education.
“How many people were going to go to a dentist named Dr. Hurt, anyway,” he said with a laugh.
His teaching career began at Raleigh’s Enloe High in 1964. He coached Randy Denton, who became an All-American at Duke. He coached against Raleigh Broughton’s Pete Maravich.
“Held Pete to 50 with a box-and-one,” Hurt said.
His next tour was at R.J. Reynolds, where he coached 7-footer Danny Traylor.
Hurt earned two masters degrees along the way, moved into administration and served as principal at West Davidson (1975-78) and Greenville Rose (1978-85).
He was a principal in Lynchburg, Va., in 1995 when he accepted the job of associate superintendent of schools for the local system and moved to Rowan County.
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Hurt has five children, three from a previous marriage. He and his wife, Phyllis, have raised their two children here.
Elinor ran cross country at East Rowan, graduated from Duke and now works in Duke’s athletic office.
Young Howard Hurt stands 6-4. He made waves in middle school at Erwin, played high school ball at North Davidson for his half-brother Fredrick and now plays at East Carolina.
Like his 21-year-old son, Howard Hurt still works at basketball. It’s also his outlet, his way to relax, although he didn’t relax any before the Senior Nationals.
He worked out twice daily at the East YMCA, running, lifting weights, even taking a Zumba class. That’s a form of aerobic dancing, but Hurt isn’t a typical 70-year-old.
Hurt jokingly complains that Wiggins runs the 56ers with the zeal of an NBA franchise and is constantly sending out messages, reminding his guys to stay in shape and not to get hurt.
Hurt expects the 56ers to win the state title in 2010. That would qualify them for the next Senior National Games in Houston in 2011.
Hurt plans to be there ó with healthy little fingers.
And this time he expects to bring home gold.