Gray was a 'Quiet Warrior'
by Doug Krikorian, Long Beach Press-Telegram
July 9, 2006 It was like reversing time, going back to another era, replaying a slice of memorable 1970s history among old athletes and coaches and boosters who Saturday afternoon turned a sweltering sauna called the Soroptimist House on the Long Beach State campus into a poignant den of heartfelt affection for a beloved fallen comrade, Leonard Gray.
There was loud laughter and glad remembrances and even sad tears as middle aged men, some bringing wives and girlfriends, gathered to offer their tributes to Gray, a legendary 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward for the 49ers who passed away in New Jersey at age 54 on June 13 from heart-related problems.
"This is just unbelievable," said Gray's first coach at Long Beach State, Jerry Tarkanian, taking a brief pause from telling Gray stories and from shaking hands with so many players he coached a long time ago. "I feel like I'm back home. I always liked Long Beach. I had the most fun in this city. We had it all going here. If they (the NCAA) would have left us alone, we'd have beaten UCLA and won a national title."
The old coach drove from Las Vegas to attend the event, and was glad he did.
"I can't drive very well anymore," said the 75-year-old Tarkanian. "But I wouldn't have missed this for anything. Leonard Gray was one of my favorite all time players. Great guy. Never let you pay for a meal. Always upbeat.
"Never forget a game we had in Oklahoma City against Abe Lemons' Oklahoma City University team. Abe told the referee before the game to be prepared for his 7-foot center to fall down and act as though he were dead. Apparently, the guy was scared to death of Leonard."
They were there, so many, people who played alongside Leonard Gray with the 49ers like Ed Ratleff and Glenn McDonald and Roscoe Pondexter and Rick Aberegg and Nate Stephens and Chuck Terry and Dave Leslie and Carlos Mina and Kyle Jackson and Lamont King and John Kazmer and Floyd Heaton and Dale Dillon.
"I'll never forget the time Leonard elbowed me once in the chest in practice, and it was the most pain I ever felt in my life," related Pondexter, who lives in his native Fresno. "I went into the dressing room later, and cried.
"But Leonard had a kind heart. He was just very competitive and did what it took to win."
"Loved playing with Leonard," said McDonald, now in charge of the intramural athletic program at Long Beach State.
"Very unselfish and always gave it a good effort."
"Teams never got too aggressive with us in those days because they didn't want to have to deal with Leonard," said Ratleff, who owns a State Farm agency in Long Beach. "Tark gave Leonard that mean image because Leonard looked so mean. But he was such a good person inside."
"Leonard was unbelievably quick for such a big man," said Aberegg, a tile contractor in Anaheim. "He was fun to play with and was such an unselfish player."
"Absolutely the meanest guy I ever played with," said Leslie, a retired Long Beach fireman. "But he was a big teddy bear. He never hurt anyone."
"I weighed about 240 at the time and was pretty strong myself, but I couldn't even budge Leonard in our practices," said Heaton, now a plumbing contractor who resides in Reno.
They were there, so many, people who played basketball at Long Beach State and got to know Leonard Gray well but never played alongside Gray, people like Sam Robinson and Tap Nixon and Billy Jankans and Amen Rahh, who was known as Arthur (Sleepy) Montgomery when he performed on those early Tarkanian 49er teams.
Rahh, a tall, imposing man decked out in a stylish, pinstripe suit who is a former Compton city councilman and also a former head of the African-American studies at Long Beach State, gave a Don King-like monologue on Gray, filled with hyperbolic metaphors that drew occasional laughter from the perspiring crowd.
"Sleepy hasn't changed in 37 years," said Tarkanian. "He can still talk like no one else."
"Leonard Gray was a quiet warrior who let his game do his talking for him," said Rahh. "He gave a 100 percent effort all the time, and all the time 100 percent effort."
"I saw Leonard regularly when he was living in Las Vegas," said Robinson, a Las Vegas resident and another one of Tarkanian's early 49er recruits.
"He liked to play dominos, and he usually always beat me. I'll never forget after one time he beat me, I told him, `You better read a book on dominos because I'm gonna beat you in the next game.' And he replied, `In your dreams you will!' "
"Leonard was a very caring person, and just a joy to be around," said Nixon, who soon will retire after a 35-year tenure with the Long Beach Park and Recreation Department.
They were there, so many people, people who knew Leonard Gray like community leader Errol Parker and Long Beach City College track coach Jim Richardson and the one-time Tarkanian assistant and one-time Long Beach State basketball coach Dwight Jones and Pasadena City College teammate Norm Nelson and 49er football players like Dee Andrews and Jeff Severson and David Mead.
"He was just such a glib and gregarious guy, and he just loved to play dominos," said Mead, an instructor in the Long Beach city school system.
"Leonard would have made a great NFL tight end," said Severson, who played nine seasons in the NFL. "He definitely was tough enough to play pro football."
The four-hour affair elapsed too quickly, and at the end, at the end of the speeches, at the end of the farewells to a revered figure, the old players and coaches and boosters warmly embraced and reluctantly went their own ways.
Even in death, Leonard Gray turned out to be an uplifting force, bringing together so many people from so many different places who hadn't seen one another for decades.
"This great turnout shows just what kind of person Leonard Gray was and how much people loved him," said Tarkanian. "This has really been fun. Brings back a lot of great memories, great times..." |
