The Jim Ard Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, May 2nd, 2005
You
were born in Seattle, Washington, and played basketball at Thornton Township
High School in Harvey, Illinois. Please tell me a little about your childhood
in Seattle, and about the things that spurred your interest in playing
basketball.
You
are correct – I was born in Seattle, but my family moved south of there not long
after that. We moved to a little
town called Richland, which was home to the Hanford Site, or better known as the home of the first nuclear power plant in the United States. We lived there though junior high school, at which point we relocated in Illinois.
In junior high I wanted to play football, but I found out that I didn’t like it. I ended up playing basketball instead. My father put up a backboard – I could either play by myself and work on the various aspects of my game, or I could have friends over to play against. It was a valuable tool in my development. I think that's the thing that really got me hooked on basketball.
You led
Thornton to the state championship in 1966, received dozens of scholarship
offers, and decided to play collegiate basketball for the University of
Cincinnati. What led you to sign with the Bearcats?
Well,
I was part of the team, but I can't really say that I led Thornton to the
championship. It was exciting to win it all, no question about that, and it
helped to open doors at schools like Cincinnati.
In selecting a college, I wanted the right combination of academics and
athletics. There were several schools that had the right blend, and I was
able to narrow my choice down to two – Cincinnati and Michigan. But the Big
Ten was more of a football conference, while Cincinnati had a rich
basketball tradition and a very strong nucleus of players. I had a chance
to sit down with Oscar Robertson and talk about the University of
Cincinnati, and my place in the basketball program. It was a great
meeting. I was in awe. He's the one who sold me on the school.
During
your senior season, the team compiled a 21-6 record and was selected to play
in the NIT Tournament. You earned All-American honors in the process.
Please take me back to this period on your life. What was it like to play
for the Bearcats, and what was it like for you to recognized as one of the
best basketball players in the country?
It
was rather surprising to be named All-American, to tell you the truth. We
had a great team during my senior season – I think my selection was a result
of the team’s success, and not anything that I did that was extraordinary.
That’s the way I’ve always looked at it. I just went out and did my part to
help us win games, which was the attitude all of my teammates had that
season. We preferred team achievements over individual accolades. Still,
it was an honor to be selected. Cincinnati has a storied basketball
program, and there have been so many great All-Americans to play there –
Oscar, Tom Thacker, Ron Bonham, Bob Wiesenhahn, Paul Hogue, and Tony Yates,
to name a few. It was an honor to join a group like that.
Socially, there was a lot going on in our country during my time in high
school, and later at Cincinnati. You had the Vietnam War, you had the
assassinations of Martin Luther King and President Kennedy, and you had the
British Invasion. It was a very interesting time to grow up. In
professional basketball, you had Bill Russell and all of those great Celtic
championship teams. You also had the rivalry between Russell and Wilt
[Chamberlain], and the rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers. In that
context, I later found it hard to believe that I had won an NBA Championship
playing for those same Celtics. It was a great thrill.
