LC Letter 2

Hondo’s college career at Ohio State was very impressive… lost 6 games in three varsity seasons, was NCAA Champions his sophomore year, runner-up two years, and selected as an All-American as a senior. He played on a team with very good players as well; Jerry Lucas was an All-American who also had a long career in the NBA, Bobby Knight became one of the greatest college coaches ever, coaching at Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech, Larry Siegfried joined Havlicek on Championship Boston Celtic teams, and Joe Roberts became an assistant coach with the San Francisco Warriors, helping them win an NBA Championship in 1974. It was during a high school All-Star game that a future teammate named, Mel Nowell, who couldn’t pronounce his name, came up with the nickname, “Hondo.” Nowell decide that “Havilicek” was too difficult to say correctly, and since John resembled the movie star, John Wayne, who was starring in a new western movie, “Hondo”, he began calling Havlicek, “Hondo!”

“Mel was the one who came up with the name “Hondo” for me. When we first met during those high school All-star games, he couldn’t pronounce my name correctly. He decided that I looked like John Wayne from the side, and he said, Let’s call him ‘Hondo’ ” because that was the name of a John Wayne movie which was out at the time.

One of the biggest disappointments that Hondo had as an amateur was his experience with the United States Basketball Olympic Committee. He was invited to Denver in 1960 for the Olympic trials and played very well. Unfortunately, politics got in the way. As most All-Star teams are chosen, at any level, whether it be Little League, to a World Team, there usually is some degree of politics in selecting the “All-Stars”, versus who truly are the “Best Players”. The organizers wanted each team invited to have at least one player from that team be selected. Since Jerry Lucas, his teammate at Ohio State, was chosen to the first group, Havlicek was passed over by less skilled players from other teams. From reading the passage, Havlicek describes his contempt for the Olympic Committee.

“Not making the 1960 Olympic basketball team is probably my most bitter disappointment in sports, and I will never get over it. You get only one chance. I knew I should have been there, and I wasn’t.”