Wayne Estes

I'm posting this for a few reasons.

1) It's a great little bit of journalism
B) My father was a college classmate of the guy and this story touches me personally
III) I think this should be the next good sports movie

http://www.nbcsports.com/sports/1122671/detail.html

A little warning: It will take you a good 20-30 minutes to read and watch everything. But it just might be the bst 20-30 minutes you spend today.

 

Thanks for posting this.

Wow. Had never heard of Mr. Estes, but what a telling story. I loved the video.

Some excellent writing, indeed.

 

I was the sports editor at the college paper on the 30th anniversary of Wayne's death. Researching the story made him a little more real to me. You mention his name in that town today and you'll see eyes get misty from the locals.

Loved this quote at the very end of the story:
"So live your lives that in the hour of your death, all others will be weeping, and you will be the only one without a tear to shed. Then you shall calmly face death whenever, wherever it comes."

 

What a fabulous piece, Ides. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. And you're right. It should be a movie.

 

When I was a young lad, there was a piece in Sport magazine about this tragedy. It seemed then, probably 1972 or 1973, that what happened to Estes was ancient history.

 

Considering it was more than 40 years ago, it is ancient history in many regards.

I know my vision of the story is rose colored because of my location and my father's stories of him, but I think it's a great, great story.

He was Hank Gathers (kinda, sorta) 30 years earlier.

 

I distinctly remember sitting in the living room of my family's house and hearing he had died on the radio.

 

You're old.

 

Great story.

 

Loved this piece!
(...and even the aggrandizements...
"There was no better college basketball player west of the Mississippi, and likely none more popular." Gail Goodrich, anyone?)