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Willis Reed remembered as true friend of Callicoon

NBA All-star, champion dies Tues. at 80

By Fred Stabbert III
Posted 3/24/23

RUSTON, LA – One of the greatest basketball players to ever walk on the court died Tuesday, March 21 at the age of 80 in Ruston, LA.

Willis Reed was the centerpiece on the New York Knicks …

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Willis Reed remembered as true friend of Callicoon

NBA All-star, champion dies Tues. at 80

Posted

RUSTON, LA – One of the greatest basketball players to ever walk on the court died Tuesday, March 21 at the age of 80 in Ruston, LA.

Willis Reed was the centerpiece on the New York Knicks starting five when they made it to the NBA finals three times in four years, bringing back two Championship Trophies while Reed was named Finals MVP in 1970 and 1973.

But it was in the backwoods of Pennsylvania in 1965, at Indian Head Camp, where Reed would run into a couple of guys who would become friends of the 6’10” basketball star and forge friendships that would last a lifetime.

Back in the day, many prospective and rookie NBA players would come to the Catskills during the summer to work at the hotels and oftentimes play on their summer basketball teams.

Wilt Chamberlain was certainly one of the most well known, as his bellhop days at Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello was legendary.

Another giant of the game, Willis Reed, spent a few summer days early in his career as a New York Knickerbocker, giving clinics at Indian Head Camp in Equinunk, PA.

One day the owner of the camp, who was great friends of Mickey and Rease Roche of Roche’s Garage, asked them if they would like to meet Willis Reed, a New York Knick who was coming up for a visit.

“They called me up to see if I wanted to go along and I said absolutely,” Ed Sykes remembered. “So the three of us go over to meet him and right away Willis says, ‘Do you guys hunt? I want to find a place to hunt.”

Well, not only were Rease, Mickey and Ed able to find a place for Willis to hunt, they introduced him to a group of buddies who also had a passion for the great outdoors and would become lifelong friends of Willis, too.

“He liked the adventure,” Willis’ wife Gale said Wednesday afternoon. “He loved to fish, loved to hunt… and he found a bunch of friends in Callicoon.”

Gale and Willis were married in 1982 and she recalled that Willis invited the Callicoon boys to their wedding at The Terrace in New York City.

“They were doing turkey calls,” she laughed. “It was lots of fun.”

Gale said those friends from Callicoon were near and dear to Willis’ heart and they had known him “longer than I did.”

“Willis was such a special person,” Sykes remembered. “Every where Willy went he made friends… everybody loved him.”

Sykes said Willis’ friendship with Rease and Mickey Roche, Ed Lohr, Cubby Wagner, Walt Sipple and so many others was unique in many ways.

“Willis grew up in the 1960s in the segregated south,” Sykes said. “We talked about it many times – he had to sit at the back of the bus, couldn’t use the same water fountains, or even eat at the same restaurants. 

“He couldn’t stay with the players at the same hotel when he started in the NBA,” Sykes said. “But he was never bitter.”

Instead, Willis turned his hardships into a path for great success.

When Willis grew up, his dad worked at a lumber yard and would come home soaked in sweat, every day.

Willis got a job picking cotton as a youth and thought to himself, “I don’t want to come home soaked in sweat every day like my dad.”

So he dreamed of becoming a school teacher and went to Grambling State University to earn his degree.

“You know, Willis was as good at football as he was at basketball,” Sykes said. “He played tight end.” 

But at Grambling, Willis picked the round ball – and became a two-time All-American while leading the Tigers to a NAIA championship and three league titles.

Drafted by the NY Knicks in 1964, Willis would go on to earn Rookie of the Year, two NBA titles, was a seven time all-star and was the first player in NBA history to win the regular season, all-star and finals MVP in the same year. 

Great Memories

Sykes remembered the first time Willis walked into the Hankins House, which his father, Ed Sr., owned.

“I’m in the bar helping my father and the door opens and this huge man has to duck to walk in,” Sykes said. “I got to sit down with him and really have a great talk. And he even stayed there several times.”

Sykes recalled another time him, Mickey, Rease and Ed Lohr were asked by Willis to attend his Hall of Fame induction and retiring of his jersey ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

“We first go to Mamma Leone’s Restaurant and walk in,” Sykes said. “And there is New York CIty Mayor Abe Beame, Earl the Pearl Monroe, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley,  Dave DeBusschere, Dustin Hoffman….

“We were all sort of star struck,” he said. 

And Sykes recalled all the  great hunting trips he took with Willis, in Manitoba, New Mexico, and Colorado.

“Willis also belonged to the Acidalia Sportsmen  Club with me and we also hunted together in Alabama,” Sykes said.

Willis loved to turkey hunt and sometimes would drive up to Callicoon to stalk the birds during the May season.

“He would sleep at Ed Lohr’s house and I can still see him, laying on the bed, with about two feet of his legs hanging off,” Sykes laughed.

“He was an extraordinarily decent, kind guy and one helluva basketball player,” he said. “And I’m really going to miss him.”

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