And just like that, they were a team again, imagining that they were back on the basketball court, running plays, remembering the special nicknames that they called each other. Five of the twelve members of the ‘82-83 Ohio State High School Basketball Championship Team were gathered together in our living room:

-> Pat Bellamy (“Bells”)
-> Rich Gatterman (Richie)
-> Chris Kondracke (over 10 nicknames chosen as the situation warranted)
-> Doug Lundsford
-> Steve Williard (“Hondo”)

Two more players — Bob Bohn and Steve Calhoun — were on the phone calling from Denver and Charlotte.

And… at the center of the team, once more, sat legendary Coach Gene Millard, 88 years old – frail, but with a smile on his face – surrounded by his beloved boys one more time. Memories endure, probably few more powerful than those recalling the steps to winning a state championship. Although, not directly admitted, the coaching staff and the team were aware of the possibility that they could win it all!

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Where it began…

The boys had been fortunate to grow up in an era of “pick-up” games where a kid could roam around, find a game at school or in the alley. Most had grown up together and played competitively on Bexley Rec teams together – whether the sport was wiffle ball, dodge ball, T-ball or basketball.

There were fewer fences back then, so a pick-up game could be almost anywhere, including the famous dunk-hoop behind the Wagenbrenner house on North Remington. As one player reflected, “We just kept playing and having fun!” It was an earlier time, with no cell phones, or video games… just you, your bike and your friends.

Additionally, the basketball courts at Cassingham Elementary School were often used as exhibition courts. Players from other schools would show up and play, allowing the boys to both see the higher skills of basketball and hear the accompanying street talk. They could then pick and choose what skills, and language, to incorporate into their own game.

Kids were less programmed back then, so you had to take initiative and create your own games; show up at the dunk hoops, be present, learn, have fun, get roughed up, toughen up, take a lot of guff and get better.

When these boys arrived in high school and made it into organized school basketball, it took a knowledgeable coach to assess, shape, and, yes, drill them into a highly functioning team. If Coach believed in you, you were free to believe in yourself and also in your team mates, pushing each other to get better without damaging relationships.

Coach Millard was not a screamer or overly demonstrative. He could coach just fine with a smile on his face or, as needed, a frown. His plays were not complicated and the team, while amazingly talented, had no superstars. What they did have was a coach that gave them the tools, knowledge, and confidence to perform at a season-defining, increasingly high level – “we knew we were good”.

That love for their coach was apparent then and even now, forty years later, as they sat together in our living room. This Bexley team had great chemistry, depth, talent, height and could shoot. But, for suburban kids from a small high school, what could they really achieve, what was reasonable to reach for? Across the state of Ohio, powerhouse high school basketball teams and programs could, in effect, recruit top talent, including a team that had a player who became Ohio’s Mr. Basketball.

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The Semi-Finals…

The path forward was taken one game at a time, one victory at a time. In tournament play, Coach’s famous line held true: “Unless you win out, you will always lose your last game”. So, when the 1982-83 Bexley Boys Basketball Team made it to the semi-finals, a lesser group would have been tested for their depth of confidence, their reservoir of resolve.

Their opponent, Akron St. Vincent was indeed a powerhouse, led by Curtis Wilson, Ohio Mr. Basketball – who was later recruited and played for The Ohio State University. The Bexley boys were a bit awestruck coming onto the floor of the renowned St. John Arena at The Ohio State University, the same court where Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek played for the Buckeyes.

Almost all of the players missed their first round of practice layups. Bexley trailed by 9 points at the end of the first half of the game, and Coach Millard and Coach Bill Hoyer instructed Rich Gatterdam, with his quick feet, to hound Wilson every second of the second half and to put all his focus on shutting down Wilson.

Each possession counted, and there was no “three point” line to fall back on. The thinking was that Akron St. Vincent was overly dependent on their superstar, and if his production dropped, they’d fall apart. And they did!

The coach’s strategy and Richie’s defensive prowess were working. Frustration set in with the Akron St. Vincent team as they began to yell at each other. Bexley’s margin increased and the clock ticked away. Everyone on the Bexley team knew their role, no turn-overs, solid rebounding and Hondo burying corner jumpers after a fast break – as one player said, “the blueprint to how you win”.

Wilson would end up with 12 points and not be Akron St. Vincent’s top scorer. Bexley had won a game that only Coach Millard, Coach Hoyer and the team had expected to win. A reporter asked after the game, “Did you expect to win?” Coach Millard succinctly answered, “Well, I didn’t expect to lose!”

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The Finals…

In sports parlance, Akron St. Vincent was the “hump game”. In the championship game, Bexley was to face Oak Harbor, a small town east of Toledo that had not lost a game all season: 26-0. Over 14,000 people showed up for the championship game including many Columbus high school teams – such as St. Charles, Columbus Academy and Bishop Hartley – who came to support their local rival, Bexley High School.

Oak Harbor was coached by Tom Christie who had two sons on the team – Dan and Don – Dan being a superstar sharp shooter in his own right. Going into the final game, the Oak Harbor Team couldn’t have really understood what the Akron St. Vincent “win” had done to Bexley‘s sense of confidence in their ride to destiny.

As the game progressed, the defensive play of Hondo and Richie against their opponents so confused the Oak Harbor sharp shooter that he fouled out mid-way in the second half. The path to victory was now on “cruise control” and the Oak Harbor season record was now 26-1.

Bexley had won the state championship and did so in grand style, making over 58% of their shots, and 80% of their free-throws! Steve Williard (“Hondo”) was the top scorer with 27 points.

The accolades soon followed; parades, celebrations, special shirts from Huntington Clothiers, State Championship signs on East Broad Street and the adulation of every young boy or girl in Bexley who has ever held a basketball in their hands.

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Forty years is a long time, but in their minds these guys can put on their shoes and go back out on the floor, reliving the plays, the shots made, and remembering not to get ahead of the game clock with their anticipation of a win.

These men will never NOT be that basketball team. In their words, “they still tell tales about these games, and 93% are true!”. They have earned that right to be a championship team for the rest of time, and to know the high ground of winning it all; to have felt and experienced exactly what it took; each practice, each play, each shot, each free throw, and from their Coach each smile and each frown.

Time of course moves on. These guys are now parents of their own kids, with several coaching youth teams, watching their own children out on the field or the floor while remembering their own paths, their own growth as an athlete from alley basketball to a state championship. Sports has a way of teaching you life lessons: one practice, one shot, one game, one loss, one win at a time; trust, skill, composure, grit, team work, friendship, losing and winning; and in turn becoming more and more of who you can truly be.

Written by Larry Helman
Edited by Martina Campoamor
January 2025

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