March 31, 2014
Jerome “Buddy Boy” Blakelee (May 1, 1917-March 30, 2014)
“The world of basketball lost a truly unique man today. ‘Buddy Boy’ Blakelee, who spent forty-three years coaching Division I basketball at various schools here in the south, ending up at Georgia Tech where he had great success, died today in his LaGrange, GA home, surrounded by his family, beloved wife of 73 years, Loretta Blakelee, son Jerome, Jr., and daughters Emmy Lou and Bobby Jo. He was 96 years old."
“WATL radio here in Atlanta has literally thousands of hours of programming on Buddy Boy Blakelee. Beginning on this Wednesday, WATL will present a weekly program on his life and career. Please join me, Jackson Lee, on Wednesday evenings at 9:00.”
(April 2, 2014)
“Welcome to ‘Buddy Boy’, an ongoing radio series on Coach Jerome ‘Buddy Boy’ Blakelee. I’m your host, Jackson Lee, and it will be my pleasure to be with you for this ongoing series.”
“I don’t hardly ‘member it a course but they tell me mah momma was in labor for like ta 48 hours afore I was borned.”
“And that was on May 1, 1917. Were you born in a hospital, Coach Blakelee?”
“Call me ‘Buddy Boy’. Hell no, weren’t nobody in our part a the state born in no hospital. We was all dirt poor. No hospital, no doctor. This old colored woman, a midwife sorta, would come ta the house an’ he’p out. Worked jus’ fine mos’ times. Course if they was complications I guess mebbe not but I got myself borned with no problems atall. Momma was up doin’ the chores roun’ the house by evenin’ they tell me.”
“And what kind of childhood did you have, Coa- Buddy Boy?”
“Damn fine one! We didn’t have nothin’ much, lived in a cabin with a dirt floor, but my poppa farmed our little spread an’ we had plenty a food. No money though. He sold a little truck down in LaGrange- our place was mebbe 3-4 mile northeast a there. Yeah, he sold a little truck, jus’ enough to keep us in supplies, you know, fertilizer, seed for the next crop, stuff we couldn’t grow er make ourself, that sorta thing. We didn’t have two nickels ta rub together. But we ate good. They was beans an’ corn an’ greens an’ taters, an tomaters, an’ squash, an’ all like that. We had apple trees, too. Fer meat daddy hunted. Time I was 9 or 10 I hunted with him- possum, rabbit, squirrel, duck- you name it. An’ they was this stream with some good eatin’ fish. We ate good.”
“So I should assume that your parents didn’t have much education?”
“None atall. Daddy could read enough ta get by. Don’t think momma could read atall. Leastwise I never saw her read nothin’.”
“And yet you somehow managed to get an education.”
“Well sir, they done passed some laws aroun’ that time makin’ it that ya hadta send yer kids ta school. Daddy didn’t like it none, thought it was a waste a time an’ it took us kids away from the farm- he needed the help. But it was the law and daddy always b’lieved in follerin’ the law.”
“And you liked school?”
“Well, they was a lot I didn’t like. The teachers was hellish strict in them days an’ they wasn’t shy about beatin’ us kids if we didn’t know the answer er if we acted up.”
“But…”
“But yeah, I liked readin’ stories an’ I really liked ‘rithmatic- thas what we called it, not math, like nowadays. An’ when we studied up on wars an’ such, I liked THAT a whole lot!”
“And so this son of uneducated parents-”
“Now don’t you make out that my folks was dumb. They wasn’t. They hadn’t had no opportunity ta git no education but they was smart as kin be.”
“No sir, I was only going to point out that your parents had no education but they valued it, and they made sacrifices so that you could get an education.”
“Thas all right then. Thas all right. Yep, thas what they done.”
“You had two brothers and two sisters.”
“Yeah but wasn’t none a them int’rested in getting’ a education. I was the on’y one.”
“This is Jackson Lee, WATL radio. After this commercial break we’ll be back…"
"Jackson Lee, WATL radio. We’re happy you’ve joined us for our first episode of ‘Buddy Boy’. Our plan is to weave in interviews with Buddy Boy Blakelee, and interspersed with that we’ll go through the story of his legendary career as first a player, at the University of Alabama, and then a coach at various schools in the South, ending up at Georgia Tech, where he gained fame with his great success.”
“So I was in I think sixth grade when the Depression hit. It was terrible for most folks but it didn’t change all that much fer us. Couldn’t get no poorer than we was, but the crops kep’ growin’. Wasn’t like them poor folks out West with them terrible dust storms. We was okay."
“Come spring a my eighth grade year the high school basketball coach come ta the door one night an’ told daddy I had ta go on ta high school. He said I was a good enough player- I’d played on the seventh an’ eighth grade team- that if I went an’ played high school ball they was a good chancet I would get a scholarship an’ go ta college free. Now ya gotta know I was 6’ 4” tall at that point in eighth grade and’ still growin’ like a weed. So a course Coach Johnson wanted me. They wasn’t nigh as many real tall kids in them days as they is now."
“Anyways ya could see daddy thinkin’ on this. It come outta the blue fer both a us, I tell you, I figgered after eighth grade I was done with education an’ back on the farm. Never thought nothin’ else. I liked school mostly but didn’t see no way I could go so I never even give it a thought. So daddy axed what part a the year was basketball season. When Coach Johnson tole him daddy said that was a time a year when he reckoned he could spare me. So there it was. I become a high school boy an’ I played ball.”
“And played well!”
“I grew ta be 6’8” an’ wide as a barn door, 275 pound as a senior. Couldn’t nobody move me. Oncet Coach Johnson learned me how ta play Power Forerd, I got so’s I was okay.”
“You were more than okay, Buddy Boy. You made second team all state as a sophomore, first team as a junior and senior, and were named state of Georgia player of the year your senior year.”
“Well, I had the best dang coach they was, an’ the other fellas on the team was a big part a all that. I’m mos’ proud a the fac’ we won the champeenship both a my las’ two years.”
“And the big name colleges came to call.”
“Lordy, lordy, they did! Seem like they was a college coach at the house mos’ ev’ry night fer a coupla months. We couldn’t hardly eat our supper in peace. Even some Yankee college coaches- not that I ever woulda gone up there.”
“You chose the University of Alabama. Can you recall why? There must have been a lot of pressure to go to Georgia.”
“They was- a LOTTA pressure. But Georgia didn’t have that great a basketball team. And Alabama at the time, this was 1935, had the best team in the whole South, even better than Georgia Tech which I didn’t have the grades ta go to, or at least that’s what I was told by Coach Johnson and them- about 'Bama bein’ the best I mean, not about my grades an’ Georgia Tech an’ that. So’s anyways, I took the scholarship from ‘Bama, an’ I played for Coach Stony Grey an’ the Crimson Tide. An’ I’m dang glad I did!”
“And that concludes our first episode of ‘Buddy Boy.’ In putting together this series we’ve gone over WATL radio tapes dating from 1972 until the present. Some of the voices you hear speaking with Coach Blakelee are former radio show personalities here at WATL. Occasionally the voice is mine. We’ve woven interviews with Buddy Boy Blakelee with sports stories and other such. Please join us next week at this same time when we’ll talk more about Buddy Boy’s youth, as well as his time at the University of Alabama. Thank you for joining us.”