The Frank Ramsey Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, August 13th, 2002
Like
many of your Boston Celtic teammates, you were born
during the decade of The Great Depression – the same
year, in fact, that the Empire State Building opened in
New York (1931). What was Madisonville like during
the 30s, and what memories did you carry with you from
this period?
I was born in Corydon, Kentucky, and lived
there those first six years. My parents lived in
my grandparent’s house, and there was no air
conditioning and no indoor plumbing. It was a
farmhouse, and I worked the farm.
When I was six we moved to Madisonville, which at the
time was a town of about five thousand. After the
move, I continued to work the farm until I could drive.
I went to school in Madisonville for twelve years and
graduated from high school there. I played
basketball, football and baseball. I was an
all-state baseball player and was honorable mention in
football.
Madisonville High School was small – there were 350
students in the top six grades, and 72 students in my
1949 graduating class. As a matter of fact, we had
our 50th reunion three years ago. Also, most of my
teammates at the University of Kentucky came from small
towns and smalls schools.
Oh yes, I remember that day very well. The attack
occurred on December 7th, 1941. It was a Sunday.
There was an extra section in the newspaper devoted just
to the attack on Pearl Harbor. I remember going to
the grade school on Monday, and we had an assembly in
the school’s auditorium. Everyone – students,
teachers, administrators – were packed in there.
We sat and listened to President Roosevelt address the
nation. It was radio address – there wasn’t a
television to watch back then – and we all sat there
and listened to him make his famous speech.
That’s when we learned that the United States had
officially declared war on Japan.
Things got really scarce during this period. There
weren’t enough men to go around because everyone was
off to the war. There was a shortage of everything
back then. There were no new cars being produced,
and you couldn’t get new tires anywhere. And not
just car tires, you couldn’t find tires for bicycles
either. Everybody had to make sacrifices – I
remember the ladies in the churches making bandages for
the Red Cross. People were asked to buy war bonds
to support the war effort.
Things gradually got better. I remember the first
new car to come off the lines after the war. It
was a Chevrolet, and it cost one-thousand dollars.
When did you first
become interested in playing basketball?
I started playing basketball in grade school. Back
then there just wasn’t anything else to do from a
recreational standpoint. There was always plenty
of work to do, though; in high school I worked on the
farm, painted, dug ditches, cleaned the streets for the
city, you name it.
When I was in the fourth and fifth grades, I was playing
basketball with the seventh and eighth graders. I
made the junior varsity team in high school, and my
first season as a starter was my sophomore year.
At what point did you
think about playing college basketball?
I didn’t think about it at all. Back then it
never entered my mind. It was a different time
back then, and not everyone thought about college.
For many people, high school was as far as their
schooling took them. At that time I was playing
sports, concentrating on my studies, and getting
involved in the other extracurricular activities
provided by the school and the community. Just
like anyone else.
You
mentioned being all-state in baseball, and honorable
mention in football. You were recognized in
basketball as well.
I was all-state in 1948 and 1949.
