Make It Count: The Life and Times of Basketball Great Jojo White

Copyright © 2012, 2014 by Mark C. Bodanza

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ISBN: 978-1-9389-0844-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-5593-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9389-0845-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013911583

iUniverse rev. date: 12/8/2014

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Interviews

Introduction

1. Rival Leagues Compete for Talent

2. Youngest of Seven

3. A Talent Recognized

4. Becoming a Jayhawk

5. The Shot That Helped Make History

6. Tournament Play

7. International Play and Competing in the NIT

8. The 1968 Olympics, Uncertain Times

9. A Time of Transition

10. Rookie Season

11. Building the New Celtics

12. Hoisting a Banner

13. The Greatest Game Ever Played

14. Epilogue

Outline

Statistics as of October 2011

Bibliography

Also by Mark C. Bodanza:

A Game That Forged Rivals:

How Competition between Two New England High Schools Created One of the Greatest Traditions in Football

and

1933

Football at the Depth of the Great Depression

To Annunziata and Calogero,

and all who came after.

Have you made someone happy

or have you made someone sad?

What have you done

with the day that you had?

God gave it to you

to do just as you would.

Did you do something wicked

or did you do something good?

Did you hand out a smile

or just give out a frown?

Did you pick someone up

or push someone down?

What have you done

with your beautiful day?

God gave it to you;

don’t throw it away!

Elizabeth White

September 11, 1912–July 26, 2009

Preface

I first met JoJo White in my Leominster, Massachusetts, law office during February of 2010. The lanky former Celtic settled into the chair across from my desk with a graceful ease. Despite his departure from professional basketball nearly three decades earlier, he still retained that unmistakable look of an athlete. His gestures and words were measured and polite and made with great candor and openness. It was readily apparent that JoJo White was a true gentleman in every sense of the word. It was not difficult, even at that early juncture, to start building a rapport with him.

During our meeting I couldn’t help but recall some distant memories. My mind wandered back to June 1976. I had just finished my sophomore year of college and had swapped my textbooks for a paintbrush and a summer of house painting. One particular day had my focus: a warm day in early June that my buddy and I had spent in the hot sun plying our summer trade. With a full day of labor behind us we cleaned up, bought some beer, and settled in at a friend’s house to watch game five of the NBA finals.

That game, pitting the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics, captured my imagination more that any basketball game ever has. Today, most fans recall with relative ease that the Boston Celtics defeated the Suns that night in triple overtime. Some still refer to that game as the greatest game ever played. JoJo White put on a dominating performance that night, scoring 33 points and playing a record sixty minutes of the sixty-three it took to decide the epic battle. His efforts in that game helped earn White MVP honors for the finals on Boston’s way to its thirteenth NBA championship.

I had one inescapable thought as JoJo and I conversed that winter day nearly thirty-four years after that memorable contest. In 1976, as I watched that historic game, I could never have imagined that the player who helped spark the Celtics that night might be sitting in my office more than three decades later. Life is unpredictable, and in that moment I felt compelled to share my thoughts with JoJo. He flashed the warm grin I have come to know and with a glint in his eye took off his championship ring from that year. As he handed it to me to examine, I felt the weight of all that it symbolized.

A good sports story has always appealed to Americans, and the best chronicles from the sporting world always reveal the importance of values central to all of us as human beings. Our nation was coming of age and in the throes of becoming a superpower when James Naismith tacked up a couple of peach baskets and invented the game of basketball at Springfield College in Massachusetts during December of 1891. There is something about sports that connects us to each other, and this is especially true in a nation built on the premise that individuals bound to a common cause can accomplish the unimagined. It is no wonder that athletic drama so often captures our attention and hearts. More often than not, the common thread in a saga from the field or arena is the triumph of hard work and dedication, often against all odds.

Even before meeting JoJo White, I knew enough about his story to comprehend that his basketball career was worthy of telling, but I completely underestimated the breadth of the story. What time disclosed, as I got to know him, was how much his basketball career was the product of genuine values. He has always conducted himself, both on and off the basketball court, with dignity and determination.

While his basketball days, which so frequently intersected with many historic moments, are a worthy topic all alone, they tell the smaller part of his story. In an age dominated by overhyped athletes sometimes short on character, JoJo White’s story is a refreshing look back. As the years go by and seasons fade into history, the point guard from St. Louis will leave a lasting legacy. That legacy is as important for what it means to the young people, for whom he serves as an example, as it is for the sport he loves so much. An examination of JoJo’s playing days is replete with a lot of great basketball history that fans of the game will enjoy. All of that aside, there are many reasons to admire JoJo White, and when you have the opportunity to read this book, I’m confident that you will appreciate his story even more.

Acknowledgments

It has been my privilege to have the assistance of many wonderful people in the research and writing of this book. It is no great surprise that a book about such a fine person as JoJo White would provide many opportunities to meet and interview many good people.

All of JoJo’s teammates and friends have been gracious in relating the story of his basketball career and times. I wish to sincerely thank John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Charlie Scott, Paul Silas, Cedric Maxwell, Tom Satch Sanders, and Isaac Bud Stallworth. I am also indebted to Ted Owens, JoJo’s coach at Kansas, who generously related so many recollections of his college basketball career. Tom Heinsohn, JoJo’s coach during his years with the Celtics, himself a former Celtics player and today a talented broadcaster, helped focus the story as only he could.

I am thankful to Dana Aks, a 2010 graduate of Kansas University (and my daughter Kathryn’s law-school roommate), who taught me the meaning of rock chalk.

Many members of JoJo’s family have been supportive and happy to provide some wonderful recollections of JoJo’s childhood. I particularly want to thank JoJo’s sister Adlean Foster. I also owe a debt of gratitude to JoJo’s son, Brian White, who gave me some valuable and heartfelt insight about his dad.

I am grateful to my friend Nancy Bell who, as she has done so many times before, challenged me to improve the earliest drafts of the manuscript. My friend and mentor, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, was a great inspiration, and I am thankful for her insight and support. Kathi Wittkamper, my editorial consultant, has given freely of her time, and I am fortunate to have been guided by her great dedication.

My law-office staff always gets leaned on a bit with each book I write. Each time they respond as the dedicated professionals they are, for which I give many thanks to Kathleen Welch, Gabriella Goodale and Diane Downey. My brother and law partner, David Bodanza, is always my most valuable sounding board, and I’m beyond blessed to be able to work with him each day.

I will be forever grateful that Joseph JoJo White trusted me to tell his story. JoJo and his wife, Deborah, are two of the finest people I have ever met. It became evident early on in this project that this wasn’t a book about a basketball career so much as it was the story of a humble, dedicated man with a warm and generous heart. With each passing month of research, interviews, and writing, I have become closer to JoJo and Deborah. I am very proud to call them my friends.

To my wife, Adele; children, Melissa, Kathryn, and Nicholas; and grandson, Brody, too: thank you for always being there, for understanding, and most of all, for your unending love and support.

Interviews

JoJo White

Deborah White

Brian White

Adlean Foster

Dave Cowens

John Havlicek

Tom Heinsohn

Cedric Maxwell

Ted Owens

Tom Satch Sanders

Charlie Scott

Paul Silas

Isaac Bud Stallworth

Introduction

Deborah White was parked on the roadside. Her trip home was interrupted by a cell phone call from her husband’s doctor. He asked her to pull over before they talked. It didn’t take a whole lot of instinct to know that the news wasn’t good. The doctor had a diagnosis for what had been plaguing her husband, JoJo White, a former basketball player for the NBA’s Boston Celtics. It was early May of 2010, and JoJo had been sick for more than six months. Originally the doctors thought his twenty-pound weight loss and an inability to hold food down was the result of a gastrointestinal virus. Mrs. White was not prepared for the news she was about to hear.

JoJo had a brain tumor. The doctor’s words hit with a thud and echoed long after the call ended. Deborah sat alone and prayed. She asked God to help him. The tumor was walnut sized. An athletic body, well conditioned even after retirement, helped compensate for deficits caused by the growing tumor. There wasn’t any time to delay surgery, which was scheduled for a week later. The doctor suspected that the tumor was not cancerous, and his theory proved correct.

While his beloved Celtics were on