The Clyde Lovellette Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, September 15th,
2005
Following college, the Olympics beckoned. You, along with six of your Kansas
teammates and coach Allen, were selected to represent the United States in
Helsinki, Finland. What was this experience like for you, and where does it
rank in terms of your athletic achievements?
I
think the Olympics ranks number one with me, because it was so much bigger than
anything else I'd ever accomplished as an athlete. And I think that that's only
natural, because if you win an award for Kansas, playing Kansas basketball, you
win it for two groups of people other than yourself – you win it for Kansas
University, and you win it for the State of Kansas. So when I was named
All-American, the award meant something to me, Phog, KU and the people in Kansas
who I represented. But when I won a gold medal, it was much higher honor
because I was representing the United States in the Olympics. No longer was I
representing a single state. I was representing millions of Americans with my
behavior, my ability, and my performance on the basketball court. That meant a
whole lot to me. Much more than just representing the state and the
university. There were only five-hundred athletes in the world who were
selected to compete in the Olympics. So that in itself was a great honor. And
to be able to win a gold medal is almost beyond words, because I won it first
for the American people, then the State of Kansas, then Kansas University, then
Phog, and finally myself. That's the order in which it mattered to me. If you
watch the Olympics today, most of the athletes are concerned only with
themselves – not all of them, of course, but the vast majority. And with
basketball you have pro players on the roster. When I played it was all amateur
athletes, and I think that it meant more because of that. So you find that most
of the athletes today just go to the Games with the USA logo on their back.
They don't place representing their country at the top of their priority list.
After the
Olympics, you spent a year playing amateur basketball, winning the National
AAU title with Phillips Petroleum (1953). Please take me back to this
period on your life.
After
graduation, a lot of ballplayers went on to play in the Industrial League,
which was comprised of approximately twenty-eight teams located all over the
country. And the teams represented big corporations in various industries
such as banking and petroleum. There were teams sponsored by Phillips,
Goodyear, Caterpillar, and so forth. Players would graduate from college
and go to work for these companies – and by work, I mean taking real,
nine-to-five jobs that paid a salary and included benefits such as vacation
and sick leave – and, in the process, get a jump on a business career.
When I went to interview with Phillips, I learned that eighty percent of the
ballplayers were still on the payroll – and this was from the inception of
the Industrial League. So I was impressed by that, and I decided to go to work
for Phillips. I was in chemical sales. I was behind a desk, which I didn't
like much, but every once in awhile I would get out. But during basketball
season I'd get to practice every day, and then I'd get to travel with the
team to the games. Phillips had a private plane for the team, and we
traveled first class; in many respects, I think it was much better than when
I started playing in the pros. In the pros we had eight teams, four in the
East and four in the West, and the travel and accommodations weren't as good
as what we had with Phillips.
I remember making a remark that I was happy to be playing with Phillips in
the amateurs, and that I never really considered going pro. Shortly after
that, I read a comment by "Easy" Ed Macauley, which quoted him as saying
that the amateurs was the best place for me. He told the reporter that he
didn't think that I could make it in the NBA. He later said that he didn't
make the comment, and that it was written out of context, but I used that as
a source of tremendous motivation. I took that as a challenge. I played
one year with Phillips and then told the company president that I wanted to
try the NBA. He said that he was sorry to see me go, but he understood and
wished me luck. The next year I was playing center with the Minneapolis
Lakers, behind the great George Mikan.
You
signed your first professional contract in 1953, joining –as you have just
said – George Mikan and the defending-champion Minneapolis Lakers. Mikan
represented the NBA's first great center, while the Lakers were the league's
first true dynasty. Please tell me a little about Mr. Mikan, and also about
the experience of winning the NBA championship as a rookie with Lakers.
You
don't have enough time for me to tell you about Mikan [laughs]. I didn't
follow the pros at that time – I didn't know too many players in the pros,
so when I signed the contract to go to Minneapolis and they told me about
George Mikan…well, I had to read about George Mikan to find out what
everyone was talking about. He was the biggest guy in the NBA, an All-Star,
the leading scorer and rebounder…everything that I read about him seemed
larger than life. And then meeting him at that first practice was an
awesome sight, because George was a full inch taller than me and outweighed
me by at least twenty-five pounds. He had square shoulders, and he was very
powerful – he was all man.
I was twenty-one at the time, and George was in his thirties – he had
already been in the league a number of years, because he retired the year
after I got there. He was a truly dominating player. I don't mean this in
a bad way, but George was also a mean, aggressive ballplayer. When he got
the ball he wanted to put the ball in the hole, and you'd better be out of
the way – if not, he'd want to take you, the ball and everything else and
try very hard to put it all in the basket [laughs]. I learned from George
very early on that if I was going to stay in the league any length of time –
and I planned on staying in the pros a number of years, and not getting
booted out as a rookie and having nothing to do – then playing the physical
part of the game was a must. George also taught me that if I was going to
be squeamish, then I wasn't going to make it in the league. I learned very
quickly that I had to take it, that I had to dish it out, and that I had to
be prepared to take it again, because they were going to come right back at
me and try to do the very same thing. So I learned a lot from George that
first year. I played behind him. I played some when he was injured. We
got in together in a dual post attack. And we had a great supporting cast –
we had Vern Mikkelson on one side, we had Jim Pollard on the other. We had
Slater Martin and Whitey Skoog, and George in the middle. We had
All-Americans sitting on the bench. It was just a great, great experience
to be a part of that, and to win an NBA title that first year.
You
finished in the NBA's top 10 in scoring, rebounding, and field-goal
percentage in your first season as a starter. A year later you ranked
fourth in the NBA in scoring (22.1 ppg), third in rebounds (14.0 rpg), and
sixth in field-goal percentage (434 percent). Were you surprised at how
quickly you became one of the leagues' most dominant players?
Yeah,
because when I first came into the league George was the biggest player in
the NBA. But by my second season they started getting bigger players in the
league – there was suddenly a bunch of guys 6'10" and 6'11", so I had to
adapt to playing inside and outside. I had to learn more about team play,
because I had to really work the ball to score. I had to be patient, and
trust that I'd get the ball back if I gave it up. And I worked hard in the
offseason to get better. Coming out of college, I thought that everything
was going to be as easy as it was for me at Kansas. I found out very
quickly that that wasn't the case. Every NBA roster was stocked with guys
who had been All-Conference, or All-American. They were the top players at
their schools. They might not have been the leading scorers in the nation,
but they were pretty close. So I had to adjust. I learned that you just
can't put your sneakers out on the court and not be able to fill them. I
had to be ready to play.
