The Paducah Sun from Paducah, Kentucky • 21

The Paducah Sun 7B Fulks 'jumpin Joe' invention made Hall of Fame a lock Sunday, February 25, 1996 Clipping along Joe Fulks turned scoring Into an art in the NBA's early days and set records that lasted for nearly 40 years. At right, he prepares for one of his patented jump 6bots against Boston (far right) and enjoys a few laughs with teammates below (Fulks in the middle). Fulks died in a shooting incident in Eddyville in 1976. SpKMtottKSun way, from any place." As much fanfare as Joe received in the "City of Brotherly Love" and elsewhere, Joe never lost his love for his native west Kentucky. He would return to the land of his birth in the off season.

Once, some of his old high school friends traveled to St. Louis to watch him play. After the game he threatened to go home with them. That was Joe. Sensational, and yet simple with his heart always close to home.

The name of Joseph Franklin Fulks has now been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. At the 1971 NBA all -star game in San Diego, Joe was recognized for being selected as one of the 10 members of the Silver Anniversary Team of the National Basketball Association. The others were Paul Arizin, Bob Davies, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Bill Russell, George Mi-kan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, and Sam Jones. On the early morning of March 21, 1976, Joe Fulks died in Eddyville, just two miles from the site of the old Kuttawa gym. How would he fare in today's game of muscled titans, three-point lines, and shot clocks? Not as well probably.

Too thin, too slow, and too polite. But the giants of today may not have fared well in Joe's day. Too powerful, undisciplined, and erratic. Greatness must be judged in the context of the times. Lincoln may not have made a great television president.

FDR would have been severely wounded without the radio. Suffice it to say, there was a time, and there was a place, when Joe Fulks was the best basketball Continued from 1 erased from the face of the earth. Like the legendary continent of Atlantis, little Birmingham, has sunk beneath the waters. Only "Birmingham Island" can be seen today arising out of Kentucky Lake. Most of the dead, who once slumbered there, have been removed from their resting places to Birmingham Cemetery several miles away.

Birmingham was in Marshall County, on the Tennessee River some 12 miles from the county seat of Benton. A ferry ran back and forth, connecting the community with Lyon County, and the towns of Eddyville and Kuttawa, It was here that Joe was born to Leonard and Mattie Fulks on Oct. 26, 1921. The small river town of less than 400 residents did have a high school a substantial brick building in the middle of town. And the high school had a basketball team.

Joseph Franklin Fulks fell in love with basketball early in his life. On cold winter nights, this dreary little shanty town would brighten as the lights at the high school gym would glow through the darkness generated by the school's own gasoline dynamo generator. Old cars, pickup trucks, and even a few mule drawn wagons from up and down the valley, surrounded the school on ball game nights, as crowds packed the cozy gymnasium. Joe gazed upon it all through the wide young eyes of wonderment. He went to the games and silently admired the older boys who performed under the bright lights on the shiny hardwood floor.

It was a fantasy land, where young, strong athletes mere mortals by day transformed into something heroic at night, under the thunderous approval of the friendly crowd and adoration of pretty girls. But in the early impoverished years of Joe Fulks, a basketball was a rare luxury one which he had to do without. So he improvised. The high school varsity team practiced on an outside court when the weather allowed. But they found that each day the nets on the goals were mysteriously riddled to pieces.

The coach of the little school, Robert Goheen, was baffled by the disappearing nets. One evening after practice, Goheen decided to solve the mystery ly hiding in the weeds beside the ball court and watching. Around dark, a tall, ambling youngster tf XL. r. zJsj.

Joe Louis were at their peak. Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals and who performed just a few same hands that shredded the nets with a half brick in tiny Birmingham came an incredible barrage of baskets. Before the night was over Joe had scored a whopping 63 points in the final quarter. Five men guarding him throughout the game accumulated a total of 20 fouls.

The single quarter scoring record stood until Isiah Thomas broke it 41 years later. During his first season in the pros Fulks hit 49 free throws in a row. He missed, and then hit 49 more in a row. The Warriors gave Joe a brand new Buick as a bonus for leading the league in scoring. That summer he proudly drove it home to Kuttawa to snow it off to his friends.

But Joe was the same old Joe quiet, friendly and unassuming. Success did not go to his head. For three straight years Joe was the leading scorer in the NBA. On the cold winter night of Feb. 10, 1949, in Philadelphia, the few fans who had braved the raging blizzard were rewarded with an epoch-making performance.

From the ft. points a NBA record until broken by Elgin Baylor in 1959, and after the advent of the shot clock. Joe left the game with two minutes to play. This modest boy from Kentucky with the winning ways took Philadelphia by storm. Fans adored him, and he was the toast of the town.

The Kuttawa Clipper was hailed as the "Babe Ruth of basketball." In 1948 the prestigious Sporting News acclaimed him as "Athlete of the Year." To place this honor in proper perspective, it should be noted that Joe beat out some heavy timber. Such names as Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Doak Walker, Ben Hogari, Pancho Gonzales, and get open more for better shots. Reported the World Book Encyclopedia years later, "The one-handed shot was the most popular shot in basketball until Joe Fulks popularized the jump became the most popular shot in basketball and greatly increased scoring." Legendary Coach Ed Diddle of Western Kentucky practically spent the summer of 1940 with Joe Fulks. Diddle was competing with Kentucky's Adolph Rupp, and Indiana coach Branch McCracken, in the recruiting war for the Kuttawa Clipper, as Fulks was now being called. He fooled them all and decided to go to Murray State.

At Murray Joe played varsity ball for two years and was named All American. While there he acquired the label that would follow him the rest of his days "Jumping As good as he was, Joe Fulks was about to enter a phase of his life which would propel him into the superstar range. World War II came along and he was drafted out of college and went into the Marine Corps. He had grown to six-feet-five-inches without losing any of his grace and agility. He was assigned to a Fleet Marine Force basketball team which toured the South Pacific entertaining the troops.

The military rosters were filled with some of the top basketball players of war time America. It was a great recruiting arena for professional teams back home. Eddie Gottlieb, coach and owner of the Philadelphia Warriors, headed out that way on a scouting trip. Gottlieb the premier basketball guru of his day was primarily interested in All American Andy Phillip out of the University of Illinois. But he quickly learned that across the broad South Pacific, the basketball player everyone was talking about was a skinny kid from Kentucky with wavy hair.

Joe was playing circles around them all. Gottlieb was impressed and signed Fulks to the tune of a $10,000 bonus a gargantuan sum in those days. The slender and likable country boy from Kentucky exploded upon the professional scene. In his rookie year of 1946 -47 he led the league in scoring with a 23.2 average. These were the fledgling years of the National Basketball Association when there was no shot clock or three-point line and the game was played at a much slower pace.

Consequently teams scored far fewer points. During his initial year, for instance, the Warriors averaged only 68.6 points Joe scoring a third of them. The New York Knicks had no player to average in double figures. Four of the league's teams couldn't match Fulks' output with their top two scorers. It all makes his performance that much more remarkable.

In short, the shy and soft-spoken eager with the southern drawl was an overnight sensation. He was almost singlehandedly propelling professional basketball into national prominence. His Warrior team was the first to utilize air travel for road games. "If it hadn't been for Joe," Hall of Famer and former Warrior Paul Arizin put it, "I don't think pro basketball would have made it those first few years." Just as he was at Birmingham, Kuttawa, Murray State and in the wide Pacific Jumping Joe was a winner. In that first year he led the Warriors to the championship.

In the first game of the playoffs against Chicago, Joe scored 21 blocks away from the Sporting News office, batted .376, stroked 39 home runs, drove in 131 runs and was selected the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1948 Joe played in the NBA for eight years. But personal problems drinking basically tragically cut his career short and narrowed his heroics to a five-year span. He closed out his career in 1954 with professional basketball in the midst of a dramatic transition he had in-, stigated. Joe amassed a total of 8,003 points an average of 1,000 per year. His career average of 16 Eoints a game is deceptive, since is playing time was severely limited during his final two years.

"He was a great, great player," says Hall 'of Fame coach Red Auer-bach, "He could shoot them any I' player in the world. So during the March madness, think about it. When memory lane beckons at the halftime break, and conversations turn to the legends of the past. When familiar names and teams come tripping off the tongue. Risk the funny looks and incredulous stares.

Especially if you're from the soft, rolling land of west Kentucky. If you know there was once a Birmingham, and can correctly pronounce Kuttawa, you qualify. Put in one good word for Joe. 11 The (Ml OBILN ET ft i more time on The GTE Mobilnet. gallic uisvii wut ovii iiajiuiij ing half of a brick up in the air, and catching it with the greatest of ease when it came back down.

The trespasser then walked onto the court and began shooting the brick through the basketball goal with uncanny accuracy. The coach watched in amazement while one net was demolished, and the hoop-ster moved on to finish off the other one. With both nets in shreds, he nonchalantly walked off the court, still tossing the brick in the air. It was Joe. The next day Coach Goheen gave Joe a basketball and told him to keep it up.

And so he did. Joe became a star at Birmingham High School. But drastic change and upheaval were enveloping the town and the entire lower Tennesee River valley. In 1938 the construction of Kentucky Dam began just a few miles downstream. The village of Birmingham was doomed to be torn down and flooded by Kentucky Lake.

With the town going down the tubes around him, Joe became a star on the Birmingham five. TVinn incK hofnro hie epninr year, he moved with his parents to Kuttawa. For the Lyon County team it was manna from heaven. But it led to allegations against the school for illegal recruiting. A full blown investigation was conducted by the Kentucky High School Association Board of Control.

The school was charged with securing employment in Kuttawa for Joe's father in order to lure the high school star away from Birmingham. The evidence was deemed insufficient to suspend the school, but the final report "deplored a tendency of schools to build up winning teams through the use of imported athletes." A concern that is still with us. Fulks led the Kuttawa Lyons to a brilliant 22-2 record including a trip to the state tournament. They were beaten there by Morganfield in overtime. The slender youngster was a Sure shooter, inside, outside, right and, left hand.

A terrific rebound-er, the 6 -foot-3 center could do it all. In the little river towns of Birmingham and Kuttawa, Joe Fulks developed a shooting technique that would revolutionize the game of basketball. He explained it later, People were shooting on the run during those days. But I discovered that by stopping and jumping I was much more accurate and able to Free weekend calling! Half off access! Or double minutes! any one of these three great deals for' two months! Choose free weekend local calling, half off the access fee or double the minutes of your rate plan. Just come in and sign up.

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