Cabin Creek has the incomparable Jerry West, Bridgeport, Ohio brags of its native son, John Havlicek, but the greatest shooter of them all, Bevo Francis, is from Columbiana County, Ohio.
Shooting Star; The Bevo Francis Story
By Kyle Keiderling, forward by George Steinbrenner III
Sports Media Publishing Inc., Toronto, Canada, 2005
Hdbk, 256 pgs., index, bibliography, Appendix
ISBN: 1-894963-49-0
PEOPLE’S ALL-AMERICAN.”
– Ohio State University basketball
coach Floyd Stahl, March 1953.
If your time is limited and consequently read only a few books every year, let me suggest a good one; Kyle Keiderling’s Shooting Star; The Bevo Francis Story. Biography is a difficult art at best. Authors engaged in such endeavors tend to either admire or despise their subject to the point of establishing a bias that fails miserably to serve the reader’s interest. But, when an author has pierced the essence of a man (or woman), discloses his strengths and weaknesses, and has placed him in the context of his milieu, then we have a book that serves an objective truth, and no reader can ask for more.
In these, the final days of the “Age of the Bourgeoisie,” we have declined into an anomie so deleterious to society that we now define our “heroes” as self-adulating, misogynistic, athletes with no concept of “team,” and semi-functioning entertainment figures whose primary goal is to rid themselves of their latest infection. Given the dearth of “heroes” it is refreshing to read a well-crafted biography of a genuine American hero, his successes and failures. And, one such genuine American hero is former basketball great, Bevo Francis.
It is best, I think, for the reader to understand that when Bevo Francis came on the scene the game of collegiate basketball was in the dumper. The year before Bevo arrived at tiny Rio (pronounced RYO) Grande College in southwestern Ohio a point shaving scandal of immense proportions had hit the country. College administrators recoiled in horror, players and gamblers were indicted and brought to trial, and even the immortal Adolph Rupp of Kentucky came under the cloud of suspicion. The point shaving scandal brought college basketball to its knees, the American people lost faith not only in the game, but in the players as well.
As for Bevo Francis, the reader should understand that he is an Ohio Valley boy, and the cultural traditions of many of the people who settled the Ohio Valley are rooted in the south. Bevo, like so many of his friends, family, and neighbors took his pleasure in field and stream. Hunting in the fall, fishing in the summer, and running his coon dogs at night produced a robust youth who overcame a severe case of anemia. But, at 6’9” Bevo came quickly to the game of basketball. Perhaps, at first, it was for obvious reasons — his height — but in short order he came to love “the game.” Much like Jerry West of Cabin Creek fame, Bevo practiced endless hours in a drafty old barn generously provided by a kindly neighbor. He played pickup games with the neighbor kids and when no one was around he practiced his shot until the sun went down. And, it was here that he perfected his fade away jumper and taught himself the art of the “soft” touch. Little did Bevo know as he played ball in that old barn that the dark clouds of a malicious and inimical bureaucracy were forming to thwart his one desire, to play the game.
However, even before the nomenklatura got their hands on him Bevo was faced with one of human nature’s lesser attributes; jealousy. Transferring to Wellsville High School during the 1949/50 season he hoped to play ball immediately, but the myopic fathers of certain team members, aware of Bevo’s abilities, filed a complaint with the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The result of their perfidious act was that Bevo was suspended from playing ball at Wellsville, not for a semester, not for a year, but in the end, for two years. The mean-spiritedness of these men probably cost Wellsville High School a state championship.
While restricted from high school play, Keiderling tells his readers, Bevo joined the Eastern Ohio All Stars and other leagues and played two years against teams comprised of local talent, active college players, and gifted “old timers” in their mid-twenties. Bevo honed his skills against players four and five years older then himself. He did so well that his reputation grew; from Pittsburgh to Wheeling everyone knew Bevo Francis.
1951/52 was Bevo’s final year of high school eligibility because he’d been taken out of school years before with severe anemia. His new coach would be a young, former Little All-American basketball player, and alumnus of Rio Grande College, the intransigent, Newt Oliver. Wellsville ended the year with a 23-2 record; the two losses coming at the hands of Ohio Valley powerhouse, Steubenville Big Red. Predictably, the last game ended in a melee because in those days, if you played Big Red there were always the mandatory fisticuffs either during the game or in the parking lot outside the auditorium.
Following the season Coach Oliver received an invitation to coach at his alma mater. The only employment stipulation was of course that Bevo would get his collegiate education at Rio Grande. Keiderling explains how
Rio Grande College was nearly bankrupt and it was Oliver’s plan to parlay Bevo’s obvious gifts into a payday for the college that would allow the school to operate in the black. Bevo would be showcased, he would be the draw that filled the auditoriums but Oliver had the foresight to assemble a cast of talented support players around his star. Indeed, the Rio Grande team that took the floor in the 1952/53 was competent enough to challenge the best teams in the land. They finished the season with a 39-0 record, with Bevo scoring a phenomenal 116 points against Ashland Junior College, and earning a 50.1 points-per-game average.
Bevo’s second year at Rio Grande is the stuff of legends. Keiderling inspects every aspect of the games played, the relationship between Bevo and his Svengali-like coach, and the reaction to the countrywide notoriety that Bevo and his teammates were receiving. Bevo had become America’s hero, the fellow from small town America that saved “the game.”
Kyle Keiderling’s biography of Bevo Francis is far superior to any other “sports” history I’ve ever read. The author successfully reveals the inner man; the student/athlete who only wanted to play “the game” and was never seduced by fame and notoriety. In the end Bevo proved he was the better man.
Cabin Creek has the incomparable Jerry West, New York is the hometown of the sublime Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bridgeport, Ohio brags of its native son, John Havlicek, but the greatest shooter of them all, Bevo Francis, lives right here in Columbiana County, Ohio. And, it's Bevo, not Michael, Kobe, or Shaq, who holds the scoring record for most points scored in a game, and for the highest points-per-game average in a season.
Shooting Star is available on Amazon.com.
robertcheeks@core.com
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