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Speaker 1: This podcast is based a large part on the book

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Speaker 1: Born Ready Mixed Legacy of Lenn Bias. Some quotes are

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Speaker 1: narrated by podcast producer and book author Dave and Grady

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Speaker 1: from interviews done for the book. Recordings for those comments

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Speaker 1: were not available.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I found out after calling Lefty Uh that Lynn

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Speaker 2: has never been inducted into the Maryland Basketball Hall of Fame,

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Speaker 2: and so I actually said, what the hecken?

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Speaker 3: Again?

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Speaker 2: You know, he deserves to be recognized.

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Speaker 4: I remember one gear recently departed alumni said that he

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Speaker 4: would have his name removed from the Hall of Fame

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Speaker 4: if Lenn Bias got in. So that was how strong

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Speaker 4: they felt about it.

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Speaker 5: We are experiencing today here.

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Speaker 6: It would have been so sick.

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Speaker 7: Crucial m byers fan here anybody, Yeah, that's what we're here.

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Speaker 3: What do you know about him?

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Speaker 8: That he played a lot long time ago.

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Speaker 9: I think it was yeah, yeah, the world was the kids,

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Speaker 9: me out coming up.

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Speaker 10: I remember every almost every game from from Lenny.

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Speaker 3: I actually the Lenney was.

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Speaker 10: Actually the reason why I attended Maryland back then.

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Speaker 11: He made uh Maryland Pride a regular routine, became.

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Speaker 6: The life of Lynn still goes on. The legacy.

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Speaker 12: Family, my grandchildren that Lynn didn't even know, he never

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Speaker 12: twenty eyes on them.

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Speaker 6: But he had enough facts on that and then the

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Speaker 6: curse with lym byxcept the Earth. He gave the world

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Speaker 6: a wake up calling it.

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Speaker 13: I'm speaking totally as a fan. You know, there's nobody

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Speaker 13: had more than greater impact on me in terms of

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Speaker 13: my favorite Maryland athlete of all times. You know, it's

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Speaker 13: no doubt for me it was Lynn Bias.

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Speaker 14: Now it was strictly based on his achievement, that's that Maryland.

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Speaker 14: It was based on what he did on the court

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Speaker 14: you heard, you know, comparisons to Michael Jordan's that he

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Speaker 14: would have been greater than Michael Geordan, or he would

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Speaker 14: have been just as good as Michael Jordan.

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Speaker 6: Man all get paid.

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Speaker 4: I'm just trying to pay respect.

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Speaker 15: One tragic story. When Lynn Bias passed away from using cocaine,

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Speaker 15: my father came in the house furious, furious, if you

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Speaker 15: ever do this, I'll kill you. You don't even have time

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Speaker 15: though overdose, I'll kill you. So I always say, you

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Speaker 15: know what, no drugs for me.

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Speaker 16: This story rings as a very very tragic story that

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Speaker 16: will be used for a long long time.

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Speaker 3: To help other people.

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Speaker 17: Records, how decisions and mistakes matter.

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Speaker 1: On this episode of Lembias, the mixed legacy, fame and honor,

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Speaker 1: the struggle to accept the legacy of Lembias.

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Speaker 6: Second game.

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Speaker 2: I think they ought to put a statue up. I

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Speaker 2: think he was a better college player than Michael Jordan.

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Speaker 18: That's Lefty Drizzl, the former college coach for Len Bias.

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Speaker 18: There are no statues of Len Bias, no roads named

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Speaker 18: in his honor, no memorial tournaments or charitable events raising

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Speaker 18: money in his name. The Bias family has formed foundations

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Speaker 18: to raise money on behalf of Len and j. Bias,

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Speaker 18: but public records show they generated little, if any revenue

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Speaker 18: and no wonder When considering the legacy of Len Bias,

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Speaker 18: questions arise. How do you define the legacy of an

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Speaker 18: All American basketball player, one with potential to be one

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Speaker 18: of the greatest of all time when he goes and

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Speaker 18: throws it all away? How can when you honor a

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Speaker 18: young man whose youthful indiscretion placed the University of Maryland,

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Speaker 18: the school that helped make him a star, into a

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Speaker 18: tailspin that lasted for almost a decade. How can a

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Speaker 18: fan or even a friend of Len Bias salute the

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Speaker 18: vast achievements and joyful moments of his life without also

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Speaker 18: acknowledging how his choice one night wreaked havoc on the

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Speaker 18: world around him. You want to badly, but even thirty

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Speaker 18: five years later, some still struggle. One pioneer did find

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Speaker 18: a way before anyone else to honor Len's legacy more

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Speaker 18: than a quarter century after his death.

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Speaker 2: And of course I had only known Len because he

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Speaker 2: played in the Capitol Classic, which is an all star game.

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Speaker 2: I started in nineteen seventy four, he played in the

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Speaker 2: eighty two, and his brother Jay played in nineteen eighty eight,

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Speaker 2: so I was familiar with the biases. And I had

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Speaker 2: gone to Maryland or basketball games at Colefield House when

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Speaker 2: he was playing and saw some of his great games

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Speaker 2: and was very familiar with him.

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Speaker 18: That's Bob Gagan, a legend promoting basketball. Gagan started the

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Speaker 18: Capitol Classic in the mid nineteen seventies. It was an

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Speaker 18: annual all star game in the Washington, DC area, featuring

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Speaker 18: the top high school basketball players in the United States

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Speaker 18: against those from the DC area. It was one of

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Speaker 18: the first of its kind, so it's no surprise that

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Speaker 18: Gagan was the first person to induct Len Bias into

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Speaker 18: a Hall of fame. He was inspired in part after

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Speaker 18: reading the book Born Ready, The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias.

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Speaker 2: I found out after calling Lefty that lenn had never

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Speaker 2: been inducted into the Maryland Basketball Hall of Fame, and

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Speaker 2: so I said, well, what the heck? You know, he

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Speaker 2: deserves to be recognized.

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Speaker 18: Gagan is also the founder of the Washington, DC Metropolitan

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Speaker 18: Basketball Hall of Fame. It inducted its first class in

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Speaker 18: nineteen seventy eight. Bias joined that hall in twenty twelve.

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Speaker 2: I did it primarily because of the injustice that he

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Speaker 2: wasn't being recognized by the Maryland university that he played for.

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Speaker 2: And I wasn't looking to get a lot of publicity

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Speaker 2: from it, But I was doing it because I thought

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Speaker 2: it was the right thing to do.

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Speaker 18: The effort to afford Bias Hall of Fame recognition has

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Speaker 18: been a prolonged process. It was not only because of

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Speaker 18: the way he died from a heart attack after consuming

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Speaker 18: a large amount of very pure cocaine, but also when

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Speaker 18: he died less than forty eight hours after the Celtics

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Speaker 18: made him the second pick of the NBA Draft, and

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Speaker 18: with Bias expected to be a prime time player in

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Speaker 18: the NBA. By the end of twenty twenty one, Bias

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Speaker 18: was a member of four Halls of Fame that includes

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Speaker 18: the University of Maryland. But it took more than a

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Speaker 18: quarter century after his death for all of that to

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Speaker 18: start to happen, and Maryland, for one, is finally accepting

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Speaker 18: the legacy of Bias. In late November, Maryland Athletics released

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Speaker 18: a documentary about the basketball accomplishments of Bias, and on

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Speaker 18: December first, it held its first Len Bias Knight at

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Speaker 18: a Maryland basketball game. In this episode, we will explain

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Speaker 18: why it took so long for Len Bias to receive

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Speaker 18: his ultimate honors and how it happened, and we will

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Speaker 18: also provide comments about the depth and breadth of his

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Speaker 18: legacy from many who knew him. Some did try to

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Speaker 18: memorialize the legacy of Len Bias before the Halls of

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Speaker 18: Fame came calling. The Columbia Park Civic Association represents the

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Speaker 18: neighborhood where Bias grew up. John Ware was a longtime

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Speaker 18: neighbor of the Bias family in Columbia Park. He saw

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Speaker 18: Len and Jay grow up and play basketball in the

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Speaker 18: neighborhood where was part of a group that wanted to

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Speaker 18: establish a one thousand dollars annual scholarship award in Len's name.

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Speaker 18: It would be given to someone in the neighborhood to

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Speaker 18: attend college, but Lenisse Bias turned it down. Here's podcast

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Speaker 18: producer Dave Ungrady where.

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Speaker 7: Told me his mother did not allow me to do it.

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Speaker 7: She did not tell me why. They are a very

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Speaker 7: private family. They don't take advantage of their name.

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Speaker 18: An alumnus of Northwestern High School tried to erect a

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Speaker 18: statue in lens honor on the school's campus. Bias also

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Speaker 18: attended that school. The alumnus was Victor Ramirez, a Maryland

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Speaker 18: state senator at the time. The effort didn't go far.

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Speaker 18: He withdrew a fifty thousand dollars bond bill to fund

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Speaker 18: the effort in twenty thirteen. Apparently some people were concerned

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Speaker 18: about recognizing Bias as a positive role model. One was

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Speaker 18: Melinda Miles, then the mayor of the town of Mount Rainier,

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Speaker 18: It's located some five miles southwest of the Maryland campus.

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Speaker 18: In a news report in twenty thirteen, Miles said she

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Speaker 18: didn't want her grandchildren to model someone who died of

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Speaker 18: a drug overdose. She seemed to soften her thoughts about

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Speaker 18: it in an interview with podcast producer Daveonngrady in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 7: Miles told me there was a lot of discussion in

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Speaker 7: my neighborhood about it. I care what the message says

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Speaker 7: to young people, but life has changed the people who

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Speaker 7: are as peers. If you are doing it for them,

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Speaker 7: maybe now. If you want to create a legacy for

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Speaker 7: his mother, that's a different ballgame.

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Speaker 18: Ramirez was a big fan of Bias for years. He

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Speaker 18: explained the reason for the statue in a Washington Post

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Speaker 18: story in twenty thirteen. Quote, I grew up with a

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Speaker 18: Lenbias poster in my room. He represented someone who could

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Speaker 18: make it. He was one of us. I think it

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Speaker 18: was a tragedy, but you can't allow that one night

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Speaker 18: to take away from who he was, what he stood for.

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Speaker 18: I think he stood for giving people hope and giving

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Speaker 18: kids who grew up in the neighborhood just like his hope,

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Speaker 18: that education the University of Maryland, That college was possible.

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Speaker 19: End quote.

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Speaker 18: Two restaurants in College Parker Forever linked to the legacy

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Speaker 18: of Bias. A jersey of Bias hung on a wall

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Speaker 18: in an enclosed class frame at RJ. Bentley's for years.

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Speaker 18: Then one day in the early nineteen nineties, it was gone.

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Speaker 18: It was removed from the frame. Bentley's owner John Brown,

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Speaker 18: had offered as much as several thousand dollars for the

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Speaker 18: return of the jersey. Brown told some Marilyn lacrosse players

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Speaker 18: at a Maryland football tailgate party that whoever found the

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Speaker 18: jersey would receive a one hundred and fifty dollars bar

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Speaker 18: tab at Bentley's. A few weeks later, Brown received an

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Speaker 18: unmarked Brown envelope in the mail. Inside was Bias's jersey.

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Speaker 18: A loyal customer later told Brown that her brother and

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Speaker 18: two of his friends stole the jersey and rotated possession

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Speaker 18: of it.

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Speaker 7: John Brown told me they put it up wherever they

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Speaker 7: were living. One would have it for a while. Something bad,

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Speaker 7: what happened to him? They'd handed to the next guy,

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Speaker 7: and something bad what happened to that guy? So they

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Speaker 7: got fit up with it and sent it back. This

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Speaker 7: could be an urban myth, the Curse of the Bias Jersey.

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Speaker 18: Mike Cogburn was the manager on duty at Townhall Liquors

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Speaker 18: in College Park when Bias stopped by A few hours

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Speaker 18: before he died, Cogburn advised Bias on his liquor purchase,

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Speaker 18: suggesting a bottle of cognac. He talked with Bias about

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Speaker 18: the Celtics in the NBA, and Bias autographed the purchase receipt.

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Speaker 18: A short time later, Cogburn was featured in a local

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Speaker 18: television news report about Bias stopping by the liquor store.

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Speaker 18: About six months later, Cogburn was fired from town Hall.

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Speaker 18: He claims it was due in part to the media

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Speaker 18: attention he brought to the bar and liquor store. The

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Speaker 18: bar owner was not pleased when the media calls didn't stop.

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Speaker 18: Cogburn then moved to Saint Croix, where he stayed until

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Speaker 18: Hurricane Hugo devastated the island in nineteen eighty nine. After that,

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Speaker 18: Time's got so tough that Cogburn was forced to sell

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Speaker 18: the receipt for just two hundred dollars. Lefty Drizzel was

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Speaker 18: among those invited to attend the induction of Len Bias

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Speaker 18: into the Washington, DC Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame in twelve.

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Speaker 18: Drizzell was Biased, his coach. He had been inducted into

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Speaker 18: that same hall a few years earlier. But this time

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Speaker 18: he couldn't attend. Here's Bob Gagan, the founder of the event.

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Speaker 2: I wanted him to be there because I thought he

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Speaker 2: had a great relationship, you know, with Lynn, and would

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Speaker 2: like to be there when we inducted him. And he

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Speaker 2: said his health didn't allow him to travel that particular

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Speaker 2: night that we were doing it, But he said, I

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Speaker 2: would love to stand you a letter and if you

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Speaker 2: could read it at the event, I would appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: So I gave it to our host that night.

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Speaker 18: The master of ceremonies was Chris Knaki, currently the color

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Speaker 18: analyst on Maryland basketball radio broadcasts. Naki recalled that Drizzl

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Speaker 18: wrote a long and heartfelt letter from Drizzel to his

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Speaker 18: fallen star.

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Speaker 20: What I remember was the emotion, and I also felt

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Speaker 20: like it was a very cathartic letter for Lefty to write,

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Speaker 20: and it.

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Speaker 3: Was it was.

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Speaker 20: Clear in the letter, the verbiage, just how emotional he

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Speaker 20: was still about Len. I just felt like Lefty was

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Speaker 20: unburdening himself of, you know, something that had waited on

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Speaker 20: him for a long long time. It was not it

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Speaker 20: wasn't a one pager, it wasn't a three paragraphs And

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Speaker 20: I'm done.

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Speaker 3: Hey had a great night at the Hall of Fame

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Speaker 3: kind of thing. It was not that at all. It

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Speaker 3: was heartfelt, it was emotional, it was I mean, it was.

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Speaker 18: Something KNACKI grew up in the Washington, DC area. He

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Speaker 18: was an assistant coach at American University when Bias played

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Speaker 18: at Maryland. He later became the school's head coach. Naki's

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Speaker 18: among many who wondered why Bias had not been selected

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Speaker 18: to a Hall of Fame until twenty twelve.

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Speaker 20: Well, I mean, my first thought, to be quite honest

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Speaker 20: with you, is what took you so long? I was

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Speaker 20: fortunate I had a chance, at a very young age

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Speaker 20: in my coaching career to watch Len play almost every

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Speaker 20: day for about three months leading up to that NBA draft.

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Speaker 20: I was working at American. You he was working out

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Speaker 20: in that gym every single day, and he was working

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Speaker 20: out with a bunch of NBA guys and a bunch

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Speaker 20: of really great college players. Georgetown was loaded at the time,

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Speaker 20: as was Maryland, and he was superman, you know, he

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Speaker 20: was so much better than everybody else.

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Speaker 18: Drizell was not the only notable no show at the ceremony.

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Speaker 18: Another was a member of the Bias family. Here's Bob Gagan.

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Speaker 2: I thought it would be proper to invite his mom,

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Speaker 2: who was making a name for herself in Prince George's

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Speaker 2: county but going around talking about her son and the

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Speaker 2: problems that she saw with young people that she was

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Speaker 2: trying to correct, and I thought I would reach out,

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Speaker 2: but I got no response.

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Speaker 18: Gagan had hoped a member of the Bias family or

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Speaker 18: Drizzelle himself could accept the honor on Len's behalf, with

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Speaker 18: no luck. He then chose to ask Dave On Grady,

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Speaker 18: the executive producer of this series. He is also the

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Speaker 18: author of the book on Bias that inspired this podcast series,

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Speaker 18: and Grady was more than a bit surprised.

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Speaker 7: I told Bob it was an honor, but I wasn't

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Speaker 7: sure I deserved it. I wasn't sure how it would

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Speaker 7: be received. At that time. There seemed to be some

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Speaker 7: reluctance still to accept the premise of the book. It

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Speaker 7: dealt with so many uncomfortable issues. And I recall a

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Speaker 7: response after I posted something about it and Facebook, a

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Speaker 7: local broadcaster who I won't name and who was a

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Speaker 7: big Bias fan and went to Maryland, said, really, as

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Speaker 7: if he was surprised, as well, but it's hard to

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Speaker 7: say no to Bob Gagan. He's done so much for others,

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Speaker 7: So in large part I did it out of respect

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Speaker 7: for him.

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Speaker 18: And Grady recalls a somber crowd during his presentation.

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Speaker 7: I purposefully wanted to keep keep it brief, and I

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Speaker 7: didn't want to embellish the good or the bad. I

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Speaker 7: really wanted to explain the reality of his legacy and

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Speaker 7: acknowledge his life and accomplishments. I vividly recall sad expressions

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Speaker 7: on many faces. That's not typical when you're honoring someone

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Speaker 7: in such a way. One that comes to mind is

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Speaker 7: prominent broadcaster James Brown. He's a DC native and he's

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Speaker 7: a close friend of the Bias family. He looked very somber,

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Speaker 7: and I vividly remember at the end there was muted applause,

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Speaker 7: and I understood why it must have felt odd for

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Speaker 7: them to applaud such a presentation by someone with no

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Speaker 7: real direct connection to the family.

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Speaker 18: Naki gives Ungrady credit for helping keep alive the memory

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Speaker 18: of Bias as well as the impact of his legacy

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Speaker 18: by writing the book that forms the basis of this

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Speaker 18: podcast series.

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Speaker 3: I want to circle back to too.

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Speaker 20: You asked me if I felt like we were sort

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Speaker 20: of the forerunners in terms of starting that continuum that

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Speaker 20: we talked about. I really think Dave has a big

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Speaker 20: hand in that. You know, he's alone. He wrote a

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Speaker 20: pretty comprehensive book. It's not one of those he understood.

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Speaker 20: It was not a cut and dried look and a

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Speaker 20: guy who made an awful choice one night. There are

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Speaker 20: a lot of angle with different angles to this, and

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Speaker 20: I think that that sort of thing is what is

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Speaker 20: what matters as much as anything. And I'm not gonna

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Speaker 20: say he beat the drum because he doesn't impress me

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Speaker 20: as a guy who beats a drum, but I would

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Speaker 20: say he he did a great job of increasing awareness.

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Speaker 3: I think a lot of people don't even want to

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Speaker 3: talk about it.

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Speaker 20: We realized that we were past the point of the

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Speaker 20: wound and and that, you know, we had to sort

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Speaker 20: of come to terms with this. A part of coming

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Speaker 20: to terms with that is recognizing who Lenn was and

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Speaker 20: for all his faults, he was an absolute gem of

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Speaker 20: a basketball player.

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Speaker 3: And so I think Dave has.

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Speaker 20: A big hand in terms of you know, how that

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Speaker 20: all that all happened.

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Speaker 18: The first Hall of Fame induction ceremony for len Bias

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Speaker 18: ended with a dubious and unique act of tribute. Gagan

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Speaker 18: had placed placards of all the inductees on a stage.

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Speaker 18: At the end of the night, all but one remained.

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Speaker 2: So I had five easels up there. They were mostly

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Speaker 2: hand and shoulder pictures, and I put that on stage

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Speaker 2: to decorate the stage a little bit. And after the

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Speaker 2: event was over, somebody took the len Bias who walked

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Speaker 2: off with it. I still have the remaining ones other

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Speaker 2: than Lenz. I don't really know what happened to it.

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Speaker 2: I know I never got it back.

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Speaker 18: The Exfinity Center in College Park, Maryland, is the epicenter

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Speaker 18: of University of Maryland athletics. It's the home venue of

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Speaker 18: the men's and women's basketball teams, and other sports. Athletics

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Speaker 18: offices are housed in the facility as well. It also

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Speaker 18: features a temple of Terrapin's tradition and a triumph known

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Speaker 18: as the Maryland Walk of Fame. It's on a wall

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Speaker 18: that stretches about a half length of a football field.

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Speaker 18: It features dozens of larger than life images of the

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Speaker 18: best athletes to ever wear a Terps athletic outfit. In

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Speaker 18: the middle of the wall, it's easy to notice two

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Speaker 18: of Maryland's all time great basketball players from the early

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Speaker 18: nineteen seventies. They are All Americas, Len Elmore and Tom McMillan,

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Speaker 18: standing side by side. A few feet to the left

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Speaker 18: is the headshot of Lewis Bosey Berger. In nineteen thirty one,

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Speaker 18: Burger became Maryland's first basketball All America. To the right,

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Speaker 18: you noticed the Terrapins mascot Testudo. He's holding a sign

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Speaker 18: that reads fear the Turtle. Next to him stands Len Bias.

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Speaker 18: He is wearing the iconic gold Maryland jersey with the

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Speaker 18: blazing red number thirty four. His arms are raised triumphantly.

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Speaker 18: Until twenty fourteen, it was one of the only two

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Speaker 18: concrete reminders of his career at Maryland. The other was

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Speaker 18: his banner head in the Arenas Rafters. That year, Bias

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Speaker 18: was finally inducted into the University of Maryland Athletics Hall

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Speaker 18: of Fame. Bias was eligible to receive induction in nineteen

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Speaker 18: ninety six, but the way Bias died, related to a

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Speaker 18: drug overdose, created caution among many who had to say

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Speaker 18: in his selection.

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Speaker 4: I think every year for a number of years Len's

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Speaker 4: name would come up, and we probably would spend an

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Speaker 4: hour in the meeting talking about Len's nomination.

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Speaker 18: That's Steve Haylick. From two thousand and five to twenty twelve,

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Speaker 18: Halick was a member of the selection committee that picked

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Speaker 18: inductees for Maryland's Hall of Fame. He supported Len's selection,

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Speaker 18: but he was also among the minority. Another was Laura Lemire,

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Speaker 18: a Hall of Fame inductee. In two thousand and four.

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Speaker 18: The Hall of Fame selection committee had used one of

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Speaker 18: its bylaws to exclude bias. It reads, nominees must have

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Speaker 18: good character and reputation and not have been a source

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Speaker 18: of embarrassment in any way to the university.

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Speaker 4: And there seemed to have been a generational divide. I'm

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Speaker 4: going back to now, I would have been in my fifties.

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Speaker 4: It seemed like those that were in their upper sixties

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Speaker 4: seventies were just totally against it because he died of

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Speaker 4: a drug overdose, whereas I know Laura and I would

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Speaker 4: be allied in arguing for it.

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Speaker 18: Lemiir now deceased, compared a bias selection to Babe Ruth

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Speaker 18: being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ruth was

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Speaker 18: known for his borish and abusive behavior off the field,

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Speaker 18: but he made it to Cooperstown on the strength of

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Speaker 18: his playing feats.

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Speaker 7: Laura told me, should we really be paying tribute and

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Speaker 7: honor to someone of Ruth's character with Bias? Some are

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Speaker 7: looking at after his death. You have to look at

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Speaker 7: his career and what he accomplished.

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Speaker 18: The selection committee is part of Maryland's m Club, a

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Speaker 18: group of former Maryland letter winners and coaches that supports

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Speaker 18: programs for athletes at the school. Halick is a former

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Speaker 18: terps wrestler, and he served as club president in the

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Speaker 18: nineteen nineties. Halick called Bias the six hundred pound gorilla

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Speaker 18: in the room.

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Speaker 4: It never went to a vote that I recall, or

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Speaker 4: if it did, you know, he didn't get in. And

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Speaker 4: it was every year for a number of years. I

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Speaker 4: remember one recently departed alumni who said that he would

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Speaker 4: have his name removed from the Hall of Fame if

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Speaker 4: len Bias got in. So that was how strong they

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Speaker 4: felt about it.

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Speaker 18: The person who made the threat just happened to be

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Speaker 18: one of the most revered quarterbacks in Maryland history. In

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Speaker 18: nineteen fifty two, he was a unanimous first team All

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Speaker 18: America and a runner up for the Heisman Trophy.

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Speaker 4: But I mean the one that said he would resign

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Speaker 4: if it was Jack Scarbat carried a lot of weight.

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Speaker 4: It was extremely frustrating. I mean, it's an athletic Hall

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Speaker 4: of Fame. You have the arguably the best basketball player

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Speaker 4: in Maryland's history. You have gone on, you know, and

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Speaker 4: I think we're all looking forward to seeing him in

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Speaker 4: the NBA. And if he'd gone on to a distinguished

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Speaker 4: career in the NBA and then died of a drug overdose,

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Speaker 4: they probably would have voted him into the Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 4: But it was I mean, it was it was tragic

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Speaker 4: the way it happened, but it was just they implied

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Speaker 4: that he was unworthy because of that, and I guess

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Speaker 4: a letter of the law with the rules depending on

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Speaker 4: how you said, brought this honor. And part of it

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Speaker 4: was I think because of the reaction to the university

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Speaker 4: and how the athletic department suffered in the aftermath of

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Speaker 4: Len's death, that I think steal some of those against him.

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Speaker 18: Those on the committee supporting a bias selection gained a

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Speaker 18: stronger voice after others who were against it started to

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Speaker 18: leave the committee. Frank Costello was Maryland's head track coach

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Speaker 18: in the nineteen seventies and was an All America high

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Speaker 18: jumper at Maryland in the nineteen sixties. He's a member

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Speaker 18: of the Hall of Fame and a past member of

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Speaker 18: its selection committee.

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Speaker 21: And I can understand both sides of the picture on that.

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Speaker 21: I can really see where some people may have had

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Speaker 21: a hard time going past the drug problem and so

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Speaker 21: forth like that. But I remember those meetings, yeah, and

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Speaker 21: I remember Jack wasn't happy, and so Forth's hard sometimes

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Speaker 21: to divorce from the drug problem to the super athlete.

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Speaker 21: Here's this individual right in the middle, and I think

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Speaker 21: that's where the problem was.

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Speaker 18: Jerry Bechtel played basketball at Maryland in the late nineteen

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Speaker 18: fifties and early nineteen sixties. He's a past member of

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Speaker 18: the selection committee. Bechtel offered a prescient proclamation about a

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Speaker 18: decade ago.

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Speaker 7: Bechtel told me it would not surprise me that sooner

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00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:57,320
Speaker 7: or later he will get in there. There are enough

439
00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 7: people talking about it. Lena is a good example why

440
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,240
Speaker 7: some kids now are not using drugs.

441
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 18: It was a slow build in the early two thousands

442
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 18: toward a Maryland Hall of Fame induction for Bias podcast

443
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 18: producer Dave and Grady recalled an incident in twenty eleven

444
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 18: related to his book that reflected the department's reluctance to

445
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 18: accept the bias legacy.

446
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,680
Speaker 7: I had set up a signing in a party room

447
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:23,960
Speaker 7: and then Comcast Center in a room called Heritage Hall.

448
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 7: It was hosted by the Fastbreakers. They were a basketball

449
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 7: fan club that supports Maryland. The night before the event,

450
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 7: they called me and said they had to cancel. Apparently

451
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 7: Athletics wanted no part of the book.

452
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 18: And Grady saw that reluctance change. In twenty fourteen, he

453
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 18: explains a chance meeting with then athletic director Kevin Anderson

454
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:49,160
Speaker 18: that signaled lends eventual Hall of Fame induction at Maryland.

455
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 7: It was in the spring of twenty fourteen. Maryland was

456
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 7: hosting an NCAA seminar on campus. I was there and

457
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:01,160
Speaker 7: I met Anderson for the first time. Introduced myself to him,

458
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 7: said I was a former chirp athlete and author of

459
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 7: a book about bias. He responded saying he read the

460
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 7: book and then he said, we've got to get len

461
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,439
Speaker 7: Bias in the Hall of Fame. I agreed with him.

462
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 7: I had advocated for Len's Hall of Fame induction since

463
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:20,199
Speaker 7: the book was published. Kevin then reached in his pocket

464
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,399
Speaker 7: and handed me something. He said, take this. It was

465
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 7: a Maryland Challenge coin. On one side was Testudo, the

466
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 7: school mascot. On the other it read presented by the

467
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 7: Athletic Director for Excellence. He jokingly explained that if I

468
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,359
Speaker 7: met him again and did not have the coin with me,

469
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 7: I had to buy him a drink. I thought there

470
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 7: was more to it and later asked him why he

471
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 7: gave it to me. He responded, for the work you

472
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:53,200
Speaker 7: are doing for len Bias. At that time, I felt

473
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 7: the mood and athletics related to Bias was about to change,

474
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,400
Speaker 7: and it did. A few months later, Maryland announced lend

475
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,240
Speaker 7: would be inducted into its Hall of Fame.

476
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 22: And we are absolutely thrilled. Though some people have said

477
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 22: it should have been done, the Bias family is thrilled,

478
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 22: and so many of our friends are thrilled that this

479
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:22,200
Speaker 22: time has come.

480
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 18: That's Lenise Bias speaking on the Rock Newman television show

481
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 18: in early October twenty fourteen. Later that month, Bias was

482
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 18: finally inducted into Maryland's Athletics Hall of Fame.

483
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 6: Lynn Myers was Rais dolan flair ed fluair of Maryland's

484
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 6: massic cultures and surely his athleticism and Rachel's only.

485
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 9: Court Overgil.

486
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 4: Philip back a, she is a remarkable career time and

487
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 4: she's not doing it americaland athletics.

488
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:57,200
Speaker 23: All the vais.

489
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 18: Moments later, the events MC introduced Lynn's parents.

490
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 24: Against us that ever, it is Anita and I and

491
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 24: a privilege to be here this evening and should be

492
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:28,920
Speaker 24: a part of this historic occasion.

493
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,680
Speaker 5: Some of the best times of our life were spent

494
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 5: out of here over at cold Field House watching Lynn

495
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 5: play ball. But I can remember when I made in

496
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 5: the floor and cried, and back.

497
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 9: Tonight when my second son died.

498
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 5: I didn't know how my two remaining children were gonna.

499
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 9: Make it, how my husband and I were going to

500
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 9: make it.

501
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 5: And so here we are today with fine brand children.

502
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 9: And so one of the things that I like.

503
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 5: To impress upon the audience tonight is this is to

504
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 5: reveein the time, because we're in a time of suddenly.

505
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 9: Everything is happening so quick and so fast.

506
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 25: And I will just tell.

507
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 5: You, just let your loved ones know how you feel

508
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 5: about them, your love and encouragement because this is not

509
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 5: the time not to have time. We stay here today

510
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 5: for twenty six, twenty eight years saying that there is

511
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 5: life after death, after you had the good life, after

512
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 5: you have your night, there after you had life after death.

513
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 9: That the best is yet to come. And we are here.

514
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 5: Today experiencing history when the best coming upon the Bias

515
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:51,719
Speaker 5: family today here at the University.

516
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 9: Of Roland as left Bias as Dames inducted and you w.

517
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 3: I thought it was well deserved.

518
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:11,240
Speaker 13: I mean, obviously a huge, huge error in judgment took

519
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 13: place and he paid the ultimate price for his death.

520
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 18: That's Mike Loxley, Maryland's head football coach. He imparts a

521
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 18: message of forgiveness related to honoring the legacy of Bias.

522
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 13: But I also don't feel as though that error that

523
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 13: he made, which we all make mistakes in our life,

524
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 13: should prevent a guy that had such a huge impact

525
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 13: on Maryland athletics, Maryland basketball, this community.

526
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 4: To be given his second chance post mortem.

527
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 3: Per se.

528
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 13: And I deal with kids on a daily basis, eighteen

529
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 13: to twenty two year olds that will and do make mistakes,

530
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 13: and a lot like as a parent when your kids

531
00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 13: make a mistake, do you minished them from your family

532
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 13: that you say you're done because you made a mistake.

533
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 18: Acceptance of the Len Bias legacy increased gradually. His image

534
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 18: was featured on promotional materials when Maryland celebrated one hundred

535
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 18: years of basketball in twenty nineteen. That included a ticket

536
00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,479
Speaker 18: stub for a game that year that would have seemed

537
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 18: unimaginable just ten years earlier. Since his induction, Len's been

538
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 18: featured in university publications. On the thirty fourth anniversary of

539
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 18: his death, in June twenty twenty, Maryland's Alumni magazine published

540
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,960
Speaker 18: a cover story called Remembering thirty four for its Winter

541
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 18: twenty twenty two edition. Maryland's Athletics magazine published an updated

542
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 18: version of a story about Bias it first appeared in

543
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:48,880
Speaker 18: twenty fourteen, and recognized his accomplishments as a player That's

544
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 18: not all. In late twenty twenty one, Len was inducted

545
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 18: into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Former Maryland

546
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 18: coaches Lefty Grisell and Gary Williams are also members of

547
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 18: that Hall of Fame. Only one other Turps player is

548
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:06,440
Speaker 18: in as well, and that's Tom McMillan. He feels fewer

549
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 18: as pleased at Len's induction into the Hall of Fame

550
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 18: as Drizzell, the former coach for both McMillan and Bias.

551
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 26: And I don't think that Lenny's mistake should deny him,

552
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 26: you know, credit for his great basketball career. That's just

553
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 26: my view, and you know, I know coach shares that view,

554
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 26: but I mean, it certainly has marred his reputation and

555
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,520
Speaker 26: it's left a big chip on his shoulder for years. Hey,

556
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 26: he'll never get over it, I mean, And so he

557
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 26: pushes hard to make sure that Lenny's so honored. He

558
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 26: doesn't think the athletic department does enough, not promoting this enough.

559
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 26: He thinks this is a big deal and they need

560
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 26: to really make it a big deal.

561
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 18: They did. In late November twenty twenty one, Maryland Athletics

562
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 18: released a documentary about Len. It focused primarily on his

563
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 18: legacy as a basketball player and had only one mention

564
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 18: of how he died.

565
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 25: Maybe one of the best players ever to play at

566
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 25: the University.

567
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 6: Of Maryland, I said, that's the guy. You know, he

568
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 6: was unbelievable.

569
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for me, I had a coach against him for

570
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,240
Speaker 2: four years in the acc.

571
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 3: Well of a player.

572
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 27: Len Bias was not a great player.

573
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 18: He was a transcendent player. He's one of the best

574
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 18: players I've ever seen.

575
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,560
Speaker 28: I was a student here when Leonard was a god

576
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 28: on campus and.

577
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 19: Growing up a turf ban.

578
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 28: He was the guy then and remains my all time

579
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 28: favorite term.

580
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 11: He was the best, damn player.

581
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 6: He was the best.

582
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 18: A couple of weeks later, Maryland basketball stage Len Bias

583
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 18: Knight during a home basketball game against Virginia Tech. It

584
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 18: was the first time Maryland dedicated one game to Bias.

585
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 18: The game, some four thousand Len biased jerseys in gold

586
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 18: with red lettering and trim were handed out to students

587
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,399
Speaker 18: A few hours before the game. Hundreds of students lined

588
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,240
Speaker 18: up outside the arena to be the first to claim

589
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:14,880
Speaker 18: them first. A group of female students.

590
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 4: Who's a end Bias fan here?

591
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,919
Speaker 6: Anybody? Yeah, that's why we're here.

592
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 19: What do you know about him that he played a

593
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 19: long time ago?

594
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 2: I think it was an over Yeah.

595
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 6: The dress.

596
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:33,240
Speaker 18: Here's Jacob Corba, a student from Eldersburg, Maryland.

597
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 29: Well, he was a great player. People said at the

598
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,400
Speaker 29: time that he could have been like Well in college.

599
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 29: He could have been better than Jordan decided to celebrate

600
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 29: with some friends and then that, uh, it's an then

601
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:45,240
Speaker 29: too well.

602
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,720
Speaker 18: Inside the arena, a fan was wearing a different Bias jersey.

603
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 18: It had a white background with red letters. It's Rob

604
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 18: Mitchell of Ellicott City. Mitchell claims he played against j

605
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 18: Bias in pickup games when he was a student at

606
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 18: Maryland from nineteen eighty eight in nineteen ninety three.

607
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 10: I've had it for about fifteen years now. It is

608
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 10: one of my class of jersey. I remember every almost

609
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 10: every game from Lenny. I actually Lenny was actually the

610
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 10: reason why I attended Maryland back again.

611
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 11: He made Maryland Pride a regular routine.

612
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 10: I enjoyed it. It was the battles against UNC's, the

613
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:33,719
Speaker 10: battles against Duke, the championship from nineteen eighty four, I

614
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:35,319
Speaker 10: remember distinctly.

615
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:35,680
Speaker 3: Like it was Jessin.

616
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 18: Maryland's players even were long sleeve versions of the giveaway

617
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:51,840
Speaker 18: jersey as warm up tops. Johnny Holiday had a courtside

618
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 18: seed at the game. He's been Maryland's play by play

619
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 18: announcer for football and basketball for more than forty years.

620
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 25: And it's a whole ballgame now, a whole new generation

621
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 25: of fans, and I think that's the best tribute to

622
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 25: him is to see people walking around at games at

623
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 25: other events with number thirty four and Bias in the

624
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 25: back of their jersey.

625
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,440
Speaker 18: Chris Naki was at Exfinity Center that night working with

626
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 18: Holiday as the radio broadcast analyst.

627
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:22,760
Speaker 20: None of those kids were alive when Len was alive.

628
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 20: It was an awesome moment to have those people. I

629
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 20: think even the kids who weren't alive understand the significance

630
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 20: of Len his life and his death and the fact

631
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 20: that the Bias has got to walk out on that court. Now,

632
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 20: honestly it wasn't called Fieldhouse where Len had played, but

633
00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 20: it was it was, you know, the Gary Williams court

634
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 20: on Exfinity Center.

635
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:47,760
Speaker 3: To have them walk.

636
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 20: Out and be recognized like that, it was an emotional

637
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 20: minute or so.

638
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,840
Speaker 3: And you know, I cannot remember it can't speak.

639
00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 20: To exactly what kind of ovation he got in twenty twelve,

640
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 20: but I can speak to what happened in Infinity and

641
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:03,320
Speaker 20: it was brilliant.

642
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 3: It was awesome, it was well.

643
00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:12,880
Speaker 20: Deserved, it was extremely respectful, and it was loud and

644
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 20: Whiles no longer but must be.

645
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 9: It's a legacy. It's a forever.

646
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,799
Speaker 26: James On the boy that I was their name.

647
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 9: Sight Love was Lenny spies LEAs do.

648
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 18: James and Lenise Spie held a press conference after the game.

649
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:48,240
Speaker 18: Linise Spicue has spoken often publicly about Len's death and legacy,

650
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:49,880
Speaker 18: but it.

651
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:55,200
Speaker 22: Wasn't until his death that I realized who he was

652
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 22: and the impact that he had made in the sports

653
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:07,719
Speaker 22: were and how his death impacted the entire earth. I'm

654
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:11,919
Speaker 22: a firm believer that Len was a seed that went

655
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:16,400
Speaker 22: down into the ground to bring forth life. And to

656
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:21,760
Speaker 22: see the hardship that the Bias family endured, not only

657
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 22: through death but the death of Len, but forty two

658
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:30,359
Speaker 22: months later with the death of our son Jay, and

659
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:34,800
Speaker 22: then to see us come full circle, not running away

660
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:38,800
Speaker 22: from where the pain was, but standing until the healing

661
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 22: took place.

662
00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 9: And to be here today showing that.

663
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 22: Just my husband and I standing out on the floor

664
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 22: through the death of Len is a message that you

665
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:53,879
Speaker 22: can make it.

666
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 18: James Bias has rarely talked publicly about lenn His words

667
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 18: then provided a more pro found impact at the press

668
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 18: conference than those of his wife, which, based on the

669
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,279
Speaker 18: revered reputation of Lenise Bias is saying something.

670
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,400
Speaker 6: See no recognized.

671
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:16,840
Speaker 12: After thirty four years going thirty five years and that

672
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 12: a new receptment crowd. Things have teamed. You have a

673
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:29,320
Speaker 12: whole brand faculty. Those people who were students then adults

674
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:32,040
Speaker 12: can have children now. So I'm probably Indian right now

675
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:33,960
Speaker 12: within that crowd out there.

676
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:37,280
Speaker 6: I mean, you know for real.

677
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 12: And so that you think back on the legacy of

678
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,319
Speaker 12: Limb and what do your accomplished here and June and

679
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 12: then you uh, many of those people were regular students,

680
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:51,719
Speaker 12: just like Lynn was, and we need to ever forget that.

681
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 12: And that was a student at the University of orl

682
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 12: didn't just pop up and be here gone. No, he

683
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 12: was a student just like those kids that up down

684
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 12: and doing the same thing he did before he came

685
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:04,960
Speaker 12: in to the school.

686
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,480
Speaker 6: So that's what impressed me.

687
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:10,719
Speaker 12: And I was looking at every one of them, and

688
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,640
Speaker 12: I said, look at that, Look at them.

689
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:14,880
Speaker 6: He was just like that.

690
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 12: My sons, my sons, and my daughter was just like

691
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,399
Speaker 12: them up there. They was up there, jumping up, down

692
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 12: and recruiting for Maryland. So that's what I was thinking

693
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:30,279
Speaker 12: about it man, and each one of them I could

694
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 12: see a part of him because they're just like him.

695
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,960
Speaker 6: And that gave me a hope about the future. All

696
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 6: those people out there. We never know.

697
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:46,759
Speaker 12: One day one of them might be president. They may

698
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 12: be the president of this university. That's how I hope,

699
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 12: so that I still have hope that life going on.

700
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 6: We've been successful at and that many things Bill jump

701
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:03,920
Speaker 6: into uh yet done, and the life of Lynn still

702
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 6: goes on. The legacy lives.

703
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:09,720
Speaker 12: Not only does he live through them and live stool

704
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 12: my grandchildren that Lynn didn't even know when he never

705
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:17,320
Speaker 12: put his eyes on them, but he had an effect

706
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:25,440
Speaker 12: on them. I have three grandchildren who graduated college.

707
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 6: They weren't he born. Then you understand what I'm saying.

708
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 6: He never saw.

709
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:33,719
Speaker 12: Them, but he had an effect on them because we

710
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 12: taught them about their and their own and who.

711
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 6: He was and his legacy.

712
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:42,760
Speaker 12: And that's why you see, after all these years, people

713
00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:47,400
Speaker 12: still talking about land Bys on the media and in

714
00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 12: conversations everywhere. So I'm very proud of it. But he

715
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 12: accomplished Chill, and I'm just proud of everyone who supports him.

716
00:41:58,120 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 12: And I'm standing up in.

717
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 9: Chier, as my husband said, seeing the sea of.

718
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 22: Jerseys out there and the young people cheering and jumping

719
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,040
Speaker 22: up and down, and said, when we were passing through

720
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:19,960
Speaker 22: the crowd, people touching us and finding us. And I

721
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:24,880
Speaker 22: understand that when we grieved, as I said earlier, for Lend,

722
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,319
Speaker 22: there were so so many people that grieved and they

723
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 22: are people that are still.

724
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:31,720
Speaker 9: Breathing over his death.

725
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 18: Lenbias Knight marked a departure from the old way of

726
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 18: thinking about bias at Maryland, no longer a burden, but

727
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:47,320
Speaker 18: rather a blessing to be accepted. Few can offer insight

728
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,800
Speaker 18: is deeply on the evolution of acceptance of bias at Maryland.

729
00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:54,600
Speaker 18: As head football coach Mike Loxley, he grew up in Washington,

730
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,359
Speaker 18: d C. As a Len Bias fan and has seen

731
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 18: the change within Terps athletics.

732
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:03,800
Speaker 13: Folk lord that goes along with it, and his legacy

733
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 13: just continues to grow with these generations because it's the unknown.

734
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 13: I'm speaking totally as a fan and not as the

735
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,360
Speaker 13: coach of the football team. That you know, there was

736
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 13: nobody that had more of a great impact on me

737
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 13: in terms of my favorite Maryland athlete of all times.

738
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 13: You know, it's no doubt for me it was Len Bias.

739
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 18: Two more Halls of Fame of honored Bias. The DC

740
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 18: Sports Hall of Fame inducted Bias in twenty eighteen. Perhaps

741
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 18: Len's highest honor happened in late November twenty twenty one.

742
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 18: That's when he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball

743
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 18: Hall of Fame. Here's part of his introduction.

744
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 15: Thirty five years later.

745
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 14: The memory of Len Bias and his startup at Maryland

746
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:47,240
Speaker 14: still stands, Straw.

747
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 30: What we're here tonight to do is to celebrate the

748
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 30: life and the playing career at the University of Maryland

749
00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:59,319
Speaker 30: of Len Bias, which was unbelievable and for those that

750
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 30: obviously aren't old enough to have witnessed it, it was

751
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:04,240
Speaker 30: something special.

752
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:07,360
Speaker 18: Kevin Henderson was well aware of the Lenn Bias story.

753
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:09,960
Speaker 18: He was a student at the University of Kansas when

754
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 18: Bias died, and he's been a member of the selection

755
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,880
Speaker 18: committee at the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame for

756
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 18: some fifteen years.

757
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,520
Speaker 19: We really became more aware of Lyn and his story

758
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 19: as young men when thank you for reminding me.

759
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:31,239
Speaker 14: The other day. Peter Jennings came on the World News

760
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,760
Speaker 14: tonight and it was the lead story, and I remember

761
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:39,080
Speaker 14: seeing that, and that's when I became more aware of

762
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 14: Lynn and his kind of his short history as a

763
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:52,759
Speaker 14: college basketball player and everything that happened in that tragedy.

764
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:57,359
Speaker 14: But Lynn's death was a shock because he looked like us,

765
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:03,800
Speaker 14: looked like us, he was our age, we can relate.

766
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 14: So it was a shock in that way. It's like, oh, man,

767
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:11,400
Speaker 14: here's a guy who's, you know, basically on top of

768
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:19,319
Speaker 14: the world, and his potential was long, and you know,

769
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 14: now this happens that he's gone.

770
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:26,320
Speaker 18: Henderson is also the CEO of the College Basketball Experience,

771
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 18: which manages it's Hall of Fame. He says discussions about

772
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:33,360
Speaker 18: lens induction focused only on one aspect of his career.

773
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:42,800
Speaker 19: Obviously, the tragedy that befeled him was a topic of

774
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:46,640
Speaker 19: conversation during the discussion, but I don't believe it had

775
00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:49,759
Speaker 19: any varying on him getting into the Hall or not.

776
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 19: So it wasn't let's do it because we feel sorry

777
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:57,360
Speaker 19: for them bias or you know, with you know, this

778
00:45:57,480 --> 00:46:01,359
Speaker 19: whole drug thing, and now it was based on his

779
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,400
Speaker 19: It was based on what he did on the court.

780
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 19: And you often heard during those deliberations, you heard, you know,

781
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:14,920
Speaker 19: comparisons to Michael Jordan that he would have been greater

782
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 19: than Michael Jordan, or he would have been just as

783
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 19: bid as Michael Jordan. A lot of that talk was

784
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 19: going on how phenomenal of a basketball player he was,

785
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 19: and I'm talking guys who have been in the game

786
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:33,560
Speaker 19: on that committee for forty fifty years, and how they

787
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:35,800
Speaker 19: remarked about him as a player.

788
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,360
Speaker 18: What is the most profound part of the legacy of

789
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 18: Len Bias? Was he a savior or a villain, a

790
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:52,560
Speaker 18: cautionary tale or wasted talent? What is the big takeaway

791
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:56,400
Speaker 18: from his story? Does his laws still trigger sadness today?

792
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 18: What follows is a sampling of responses we've compiled from

793
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,279
Speaker 18: as we talked to for this podcast series, as well

794
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 18: as others profound perspectives on Len's legacy. We start with

795
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 18: Shaquille O'Neil, a four time NBA champion and a member

796
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:14,600
Speaker 18: of the Nasmith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was

797
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:17,799
Speaker 18: fourteen years old when Len Bias died. This comes from

798
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 18: an interview on the Jordan Harbinger Show.

799
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:25,720
Speaker 15: One Tragic Story. When Len Bias passed away from using cocaine,

800
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:31,839
Speaker 15: My father came in the house furious, furious, if you

801
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 15: ever do this, I'll kill you. You don't even have time,

802
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:36,239
Speaker 15: no overdose, I'll kill you. So I always say you

803
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 15: know what, no drugs for me.

804
00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 18: Bryan Strauss is a soccer writer for SI dot Com.

805
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:45,920
Speaker 18: He grew up in Washington, DC and watched Bias play

806
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 18: basketball on television. Strauss found a deep connection with the

807
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:51,160
Speaker 18: death of Bias.

808
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:55,719
Speaker 31: And so it became this reflex that whenever cocaine was

809
00:47:56,360 --> 00:48:03,239
Speaker 31: referenced in any way or mentioned or seen, the immediate

810
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:10,320
Speaker 31: like electrical cognitive response was Len Bias and Len Bias's death,

811
00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:12,640
Speaker 31: and this is what this drug does, and this is

812
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:16,279
Speaker 31: the havoc and chaos that this drug can cause. And

813
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:19,920
Speaker 31: so it was the red light kind of the metaphor

814
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 31: like stop immediately, like an instantaneous repulsion, because to me,

815
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:32,560
Speaker 31: cocaine represented everything that happened to this guy, who obviously

816
00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:35,760
Speaker 31: I never met and had no connection to and barely

817
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:38,160
Speaker 31: understood who he was. But like I said, I knew

818
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 31: he was this larger than life figure in Washington sports.

819
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:43,719
Speaker 31: I loved sports, and it was the only way that

820
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 31: I could comprehend his death when I was eleven was

821
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 31: to connect it to the drug. And that connection has

822
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:50,919
Speaker 31: existed ever since.

823
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:55,400
Speaker 18: Robert DuPont was the president of the American Council of

824
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,759
Speaker 18: Drug Education when Bias died in the nineteen seventies. He

825
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:01,520
Speaker 18: was the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse

826
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 18: and a white House Drugs Are. He sees Lens legacy

827
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:08,719
Speaker 18: is a profound marker that changed the perception of cocaine.

828
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:12,319
Speaker 23: Oh my god, I think that that death was not

829
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:16,680
Speaker 23: in vain. That death was a marker of a changed

830
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 23: attitude in our society, in the world. It was a

831
00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 23: very dramatic switch that went on, and I think about

832
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:29,160
Speaker 23: it very much as a legacy of len Bias that

833
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:34,840
Speaker 23: we're all grateful for. We're all in his debt and

834
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 23: gave a meaning to his life that otherwise wouldn't have

835
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 23: been there, and that was to unmask cocaine as a

836
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 23: dangerous drug.

837
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:47,840
Speaker 18: Bonnie Bernstein was a Maryland gymnast in the late eighties

838
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:50,920
Speaker 18: and early nineties, at a time when Maryland athletics endured

839
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,840
Speaker 18: drastic changes. She later became a network sportscaster.

840
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 32: It's important to keep history alive because we have to

841
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:06,279
Speaker 32: keep the anti drug message alive. The reality is the

842
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:10,719
Speaker 32: kids who need to hear that message, they're not going

843
00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 32: to listen if it's coming from a parent. They're probably

844
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:15,479
Speaker 32: not going to listen if it's coming from a coach

845
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:21,680
Speaker 32: or an administrator. Those messages resonate most strongly when they're

846
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:27,400
Speaker 32: coming from people they admire and want to emulate. And

847
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:31,280
Speaker 32: while len Bias is gone, his story is still strong.

848
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:34,279
Speaker 32: And when his story is shared, and when you think

849
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 32: about who len Bias could have been, that means something.

850
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:44,480
Speaker 32: That means something to kids, whether they're playing basketball or football,

851
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 32: or soccer or lacrosse or gymnastics, they want to be

852
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:52,840
Speaker 32: the very best. Len Bias was one of the best

853
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 32: in college basketball, and he was projecting to be one

854
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:58,880
Speaker 32: of the best to ever play the game in the NBA,

855
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 32: and he never may had that chance because of the

856
00:51:03,239 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 32: choices he made, and for that reason alone, we need

857
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:08,560
Speaker 32: to keep history alive.

858
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 18: Joe Anne Borzakian was a marketing representative for Reebach who

859
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:17,080
Speaker 18: was working with lenn when he died. She sees the

860
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 18: legacy of Bias for what he was, not what happened

861
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:21,400
Speaker 18: because of how he died.

862
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 33: For me, it's everything he had accomplished and all that

863
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:28,840
Speaker 33: he could have accomplished. I think he had the potential

864
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:33,120
Speaker 33: to make others great. I just feel so sad. I

865
00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 33: feel so sad that we didn't get to see all

866
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:40,160
Speaker 33: the greatness that he brought up to that point. I

867
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:42,840
Speaker 33: just wonder what was in that Genie bottle ready to

868
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:44,120
Speaker 33: be unleashed.

869
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 18: Johnny Dawkins was the College Player of the Year in

870
00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:49,839
Speaker 18: nineteen eighty six. A duke like Bias. He is from

871
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,919
Speaker 18: the Washington, DC area. He played against Bias in high

872
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 18: school and college.

873
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:58,080
Speaker 34: Definitely a sadness in a DMV. There was definitely a

874
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:01,960
Speaker 34: sadness in that community. You know, probably still is, to

875
00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:05,200
Speaker 34: be quite frank, I mean, just you know, just thinking

876
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:07,480
Speaker 34: about who we would have become. I think everyone carries

877
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:10,040
Speaker 34: that you know with them. I mean, I think sometimes

878
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:12,840
Speaker 34: we overlook the fact that, you know, a generation of

879
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:13,520
Speaker 34: players that have.

880
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:14,759
Speaker 6: Come behind him.

881
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 34: I mean, who knows that would have happened to one

882
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:18,960
Speaker 34: or more of those players if it hadn't been for

883
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:21,240
Speaker 34: the story of Lenn Bias too. I think he saved

884
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:24,640
Speaker 34: a lot more lives that we'll never know because of

885
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:27,200
Speaker 34: history and the fact that we've kept his story alive

886
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:28,720
Speaker 34: the way that des been kept alive.

887
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:32,360
Speaker 18: Earlier in this podcast series, Len Elmore compared the legacy

888
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,760
Speaker 18: of Bias to a Greek tragedy for all involved. Elmore

889
00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:38,840
Speaker 18: was an All American at Maryland in the mid nineteen seventies.

890
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:43,000
Speaker 35: Len Bias's name will always be associated with Maryland because

891
00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:44,280
Speaker 35: of his greatness.

892
00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:47,520
Speaker 19: As an athlete, but it should also be.

893
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 35: Associated with Maryland because of the tragedy and the humanity

894
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:54,800
Speaker 35: that's associated with it as well.

895
00:52:54,880 --> 00:52:59,360
Speaker 17: Yeah, and this is the idea of a star in full.

896
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:05,479
Speaker 36: Bloom that ultimately had that had that flame dowst by

897
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:09,799
Speaker 36: a mistake. And this is not the only kind of

898
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:13,400
Speaker 36: mistake that you've can make to dowst that flame, and

899
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:14,840
Speaker 36: to recognize that.

900
00:53:15,080 --> 00:53:17,200
Speaker 35: No matter how good you are, no matter how good

901
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:20,719
Speaker 35: you think you are, you know you're vulnerable. And the

902
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:25,239
Speaker 35: idea is to recognize those vulnerabilities now before you know

903
00:53:25,280 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 35: they have a chance to catch up to you. And

904
00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:31,320
Speaker 35: as I said, dowst that flame too. You know, limit

905
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,880
Speaker 35: your trajectory, you know, to to place a ceiling on

906
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:37,960
Speaker 35: your altitude.

907
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:41,439
Speaker 18: And similar to iconic actors and musicians who died young,

908
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:45,480
Speaker 18: from James Dean to Jim Morrison, Bias has become larger

909
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 18: in death than he was in life. Here's Chris Knaki,

910
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 18: Marilyn Basketball's radio analyst.

911
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 20: It's the same reason why people talk about James Dean,

912
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:57,960
Speaker 20: John Kennedy. You know it's a it's a it's a

913
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:00,759
Speaker 20: wonder kind dying young way.

914
00:54:00,640 --> 00:54:02,480
Speaker 3: Way way before their time.

915
00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:06,560
Speaker 20: And it's a I think it's the age old thing,

916
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,239
Speaker 20: and part of it is that promise unfulfilled.

917
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 18: Here's more from Dawkins, the men's head coach at the

918
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:13,520
Speaker 18: University of Central Florida.

919
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,239
Speaker 34: You know, we all are in a position where we

920
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:20,440
Speaker 34: you know, we're not invincible, and not to tell my

921
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 34: players that to this day, I say, you know, you

922
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:25,520
Speaker 34: guys walk around you like you superman, but you know

923
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:26,640
Speaker 34: we really aren't.

924
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 25: We all are vulnerable and we all.

925
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:31,440
Speaker 34: Can succumb to something. And again, you know, you think

926
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:35,680
Speaker 34: about Linear's situation because it's no more powerful, explosive person

927
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:38,520
Speaker 34: and player than he was during his time, and he

928
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:41,239
Speaker 34: was still in his early twenties, and so that can

929
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 34: happen him, it can happen to anybody.

930
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 18: Jeffrey Harding is a Maryland basketball fan who was also

931
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,480
Speaker 18: a prosecutor in the Brian Tribble trial related to the

932
00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 18: death of Bias.

933
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:55,719
Speaker 3: His real legacy is that he.

934
00:54:57,280 --> 00:55:01,879
Speaker 37: Really presented two sides of the roller to people. He said,

935
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:04,040
Speaker 37: on this side of the roller, you can be whatever

936
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:07,720
Speaker 37: you want to be coming up from the streets, working hard,

937
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:12,319
Speaker 37: being dedicated, you know, getting to be the number one

938
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:16,719
Speaker 37: draft pick, number two in the overall draft and making it,

939
00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:19,120
Speaker 37: you know, getting out there making it.

940
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:23,640
Speaker 3: The other side of the ruler is the outside. You know,

941
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 3: Drugs took his life.

942
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:29,200
Speaker 37: Not on purpose, but it took his life, and that

943
00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:32,000
Speaker 37: should be an example and part of his legacy of

944
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:32,759
Speaker 37: what not to do.

945
00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:36,000
Speaker 18: J Billis played four years of basketball at Duke at

946
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:38,720
Speaker 18: the same time Bias played at Maryland. As an analyst

947
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:41,560
Speaker 18: for ESPN, he's now one of the more respected voices

948
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:43,080
Speaker 18: in college basketball.

949
00:55:43,600 --> 00:55:46,440
Speaker 27: Well, you can always use use him and others as

950
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:49,879
Speaker 27: a cautionary tale, but it doesn't work. You know how

951
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:53,360
Speaker 27: many cautionary tales are there out there about not just

952
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:56,960
Speaker 27: about drug use, but about drinking, about you know, driving

953
00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:01,759
Speaker 27: too fast, all these things. You know, does it work?

954
00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:02,560
Speaker 14: I don't know. I don't.

955
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:03,920
Speaker 25: I don't think it did.

956
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 27: With drug use, that's sir. I'm maybe a little more

957
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 27: cynical about that kind of thing because we've all sat

958
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:14,560
Speaker 27: through those and I think the people that resonates with

959
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 27: are the ones that wouldn't do it in the first place.

960
00:56:17,320 --> 00:56:20,359
Speaker 27: I just don't think the data shows that it's doing

961
00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:21,200
Speaker 27: a hell of a lot of good.

962
00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:24,759
Speaker 18: Molly Glassman was a Marylyn beat reporter for the Baltimore

963
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:27,520
Speaker 18: Sun during the Bias era. She looks at his legacy

964
00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:30,319
Speaker 18: through the lens of her two different careers as a

965
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:33,840
Speaker 18: sports writer and sports editor and later as a teacher

966
00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:35,640
Speaker 18: in the Baltimore County system.

967
00:56:36,120 --> 00:56:42,800
Speaker 8: Well, his legacy at Maryland is of a local kid

968
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:52,359
Speaker 8: who made good and worked his ass off to make

969
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:54,280
Speaker 8: himself a great basketball player.

970
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 9: And so that could be you.

971
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:06,160
Speaker 8: The greatness can be achieved by anyone who has talent

972
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:14,359
Speaker 8: and is willing to work to make that talent the best. Well,

973
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:18,520
Speaker 8: that's why I'm very happy to have these ten year,

974
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:24,680
Speaker 8: twenty five year, thirty five year retrospectives to you know,

975
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:30,600
Speaker 8: to revive those memories and introduce Lend's story to another

976
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:32,960
Speaker 8: group of kids. You're like we tell kids all the

977
00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:36,920
Speaker 8: time as teachers. You know, you learn through your mistakes.

978
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:40,960
Speaker 8: Don't be afraid to make mistakes, don't be a perfectionist,

979
00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:45,080
Speaker 8: keep trying, keep working. But Lenny's story shows us that

980
00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:49,040
Speaker 8: even when you keep growing and learning and making yourself

981
00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:52,320
Speaker 8: the best person you can be, that there.

982
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:54,040
Speaker 9: Can be.

983
00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:59,080
Speaker 8: Tragic consequences You are never totally invincible.

984
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:02,960
Speaker 18: Marriam Leguer was a friend of Bias at Maryland and

985
00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 18: is now a producer for ESPN. She sees those who

986
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 18: feel betrayed by his loss.

987
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:12,160
Speaker 38: And I think people, actually, they get so emotionally invested

988
00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:15,160
Speaker 38: in it. They're angry, They're like, you cheated me out

989
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:18,880
Speaker 38: of rooting for you. They were looking towards the future,

990
00:58:18,880 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 38: and I feel like while Lenny's future was cut short,

991
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 38: I think people's dreams about who he was and who

992
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:27,919
Speaker 38: they wanted him to be was cut short too.

993
00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:31,680
Speaker 18: Ed Tapscott is a former college and NBA head coach.

994
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:35,080
Speaker 18: He is a Washington, DC native who followed the career

995
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:36,560
Speaker 18: of Len Bias closely.

996
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:40,600
Speaker 16: Tragic waste of potential is what I see as the legacy.

997
00:58:42,680 --> 00:58:45,560
Speaker 16: It was a guy who had put himself on the

998
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 16: precedence and enormous success.

999
00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:52,600
Speaker 17: But for a one mistake that didn't work out the

1000
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:56,720
Speaker 17: way it was supposed to. It was obviously an object

1001
00:58:56,760 --> 00:59:01,320
Speaker 17: lesson that many coaches used to preach to their players about,

1002
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:06,080
Speaker 17: and so for Lenny. I think for an entire generation

1003
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:07,400
Speaker 17: of young.

1004
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:12,240
Speaker 16: Men in this area, young men and women, and particularly

1005
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:16,080
Speaker 16: those in the athletic community, this story rings as a

1006
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:22,280
Speaker 16: very very tragic story that will be used for a

1007
00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:26,480
Speaker 16: long long time to help other people recognize how decisions

1008
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:27,960
Speaker 16: and mistakes matter in life.

1009
00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:31,440
Speaker 18: Tom O'Neill's father, Tip O'Neill, was the Speaker of the

1010
00:59:31,480 --> 00:59:35,240
Speaker 18: House when len Bias died. Tip O'Neill guided the nineteen

1011
00:59:35,280 --> 00:59:39,080
Speaker 18: eighty six Anti Drug Abuse Act legislation through Congress. The

1012
00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:44,840
Speaker 18: legislation created mandatory minimum sentences for certain cocaine criminals. One

1013
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:48,080
Speaker 18: of Tom O'Neill's brothers died from drug and alcohol addiction.

1014
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:49,960
Speaker 6: You know, he's a great basketball player.

1015
00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:52,960
Speaker 39: I think people don't know his backstory because there was

1016
00:59:52,960 --> 00:59:56,640
Speaker 39: so much abuse in our society today that anything that

1017
00:59:56,680 --> 01:00:01,000
Speaker 39: could be remedial, anything that can educate, can inform people

1018
01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:04,200
Speaker 39: as mistakes being made by others or having been made

1019
01:00:04,200 --> 01:00:06,120
Speaker 39: by others won't be repeated or done again.

1020
01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:17,920
Speaker 7: This is Dave Ungrady, a producer of this podcast series.

1021
01:00:18,600 --> 01:00:21,120
Speaker 7: I'd like to take a minute or so to recognize

1022
01:00:21,160 --> 01:00:25,760
Speaker 7: someone who was featured in this episode, and that is

1023
01:00:25,840 --> 01:00:30,480
Speaker 7: Bob Gagan. Bob passed away earlier this year. Bob was

1024
01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:35,240
Speaker 7: a pioneer promoting basketball in the Washington, DC area. In fact,

1025
01:00:35,320 --> 01:00:40,840
Speaker 7: he is considered perhaps the most prominent promoter of basketball

1026
01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:45,280
Speaker 7: in Washington, DC of most relevance to this podcast series.

1027
01:00:46,120 --> 01:00:51,000
Speaker 7: Bob was the first person to induct len Bias into

1028
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 7: a basketball Hall of Fame. I've known Bob since the

1029
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 7: early nineteen eighties. More recently, he's been very supportive of

1030
01:00:58,520 --> 01:01:01,840
Speaker 7: the book I wrote about lens Lelegacy that inspired this

1031
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:06,920
Speaker 7: podcast series, and he has played a significant role in

1032
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:10,520
Speaker 7: helping preserve the complex legacy of len Bias.

1033
01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:19,040
Speaker 1: Up next on len Bias and Mixed Legacy, Bias and Culture.

1034
01:01:20,320 --> 01:01:26,120
Speaker 28: Gwennolan Brooks was one of the most distinguished poets in

1035
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:29,960
Speaker 28: the country at the time. And to have that person

1036
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:36,480
Speaker 28: who represents the pinnacle of you know, of a literary position.

1037
01:01:39,080 --> 01:01:41,400
Speaker 6: Have a meeting with.

1038
01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:49,720
Speaker 28: Arguably the best college basketball player in the United States

1039
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:52,720
Speaker 28: at the time. I mean, that's remarkable, isn't it.

1040
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:54,000
Speaker 17: It meant to me the coming.

1041
01:01:53,720 --> 01:01:58,480
Speaker 28: Together of two cultures, you know, the literary humanities culture

1042
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:01,720
Speaker 28: and the student athlete culture.

1043
01:02:02,080 --> 01:02:03,360
Speaker 17: And it seemed clear to.

1044
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:09,800
Speaker 28: Me that len Bias recognized the importance of the moment.

1045
01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:18,920
Speaker 40: Think there were these connections, political connections, cultural connections, social connections.

1046
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:24,040
Speaker 40: Do you realize that this may have been the most

1047
01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:27,560
Speaker 40: impactful moment in modern sports history, just because of the

1048
01:02:27,600 --> 01:02:31,240
Speaker 40: impact it had on politics, on culture, on a generation

1049
01:02:31,400 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 40: of African Americans.

1050
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:37,840
Speaker 3: One and more painful, what if in.

1051
01:02:39,600 --> 01:02:42,520
Speaker 16: Pop culture history?

1052
01:02:41,840 --> 01:02:45,880
Speaker 41: It's called Home Court. It's a play about an inner

1053
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:49,400
Speaker 41: city family that's striving to beat the odds, which I

1054
01:02:49,400 --> 01:02:52,720
Speaker 41: should notice based not too loosely on the tragedy of

1055
01:02:52,720 --> 01:02:59,560
Speaker 41: of of Len Bias.

1056
01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:00,360
Speaker 6: What I do.

1057
01:03:03,680 --> 01:03:08,480
Speaker 42: Lynn Bias post nineteen eighty six overwhelms. The narrative of

1058
01:03:08,560 --> 01:03:12,960
Speaker 42: Lynn Bias pre ninety pre overdose and overwhelms is so

1059
01:03:13,040 --> 01:03:17,400
Speaker 42: much so that for me, him as a basketball player,

1060
01:03:17,440 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 42: has to constantly try to compete with his effect on

1061
01:03:20,800 --> 01:03:23,000
Speaker 42: the culture in all of those other ways.

1062
01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:26,240
Speaker 1: This podcast series is based on the book Born Ready,

1063
01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:29,400
Speaker 1: The Mixed Legacy of limb Bias, published by Go Grady Media.

1064
01:03:29,800 --> 01:03:32,360
Speaker 1: The series is produced by Go Grady Media in partnership

1065
01:03:32,360 --> 01:03:36,160
Speaker 1: with Octagon Entertainment. This segment was produced by Daveon Grady

1066
01:03:36,240 --> 01:03:39,080
Speaker 1: and Don Mark. It was written by Davon Grady and

1067
01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:42,920
Speaker 1: edited by Don Marcus. The narrator was Kevin Sheen, with

1068
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:46,440
Speaker 1: additional narration by Jamal Williams. Technical production was provided by

1069
01:03:46,480 --> 01:03:51,160
Speaker 1: Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was produced by Kevin mcnelty, Tino Quagliata,

1070
01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:57,080
Speaker 1: Lauren Ross, Georgia Brown, Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Chelsey Mannox

1071
01:03:57,240 --> 01:04:01,000
Speaker 1: and Enzo al Varna social media assistance. Special thanks to

1072
01:04:01,040 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 1: the University of Maryland and American University for providing inservice.

1073
01:04:04,960 --> 01:04:08,240
Speaker 1: The Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner

1074
01:04:08,240 --> 01:04:12,120
Speaker 1: of this podcast series. For more information, go to gogradingmedia

1075
01:04:12,240 --> 01:04:17,320
Speaker 1: dot com. This has been a production of go grading

1076
01:04:17,360 --> 01:04:18,800
Speaker 1: Media and the Eighth Side Network