Donnie had a tendency to exaggerate for sure. I really hate that he turned so bitter about UH but can understand to some extent.
1 Like
Like lowebehold, I was close to the Lewis family and was especially close to coach Pate. Patrick is right. We were after Chaney initially. He had more exposure being in Baton Rogue. Elvin was leaning toward Minnesota because his sister was there. He wanted to stay closer to Rayville and coach Pate convinced him to come with Chaney
I did an article several years ago for a local newspaper. Donnie still looked great and was still working on old Corvettes.
He still had a bunch of Coog stuff in his house, pictures, newspaper clippings, autographs and much more.
But the bottom line was that he felt he took the bulk of the blame for the Tito Horford episode. What Donnie did was really nothing, but it allowed the LSU coach to come in with a suitcase full of money.
Ironically LSU got their hands slapped also and Horford went to Miami.
It wasnāt long after that Guy V. stepped down as head coach and Pat Foster took over the program.
Donnie felt slighted because he was never considered for the openingā¦at least that is what I remembered him sayingā¦
3 Likes
Coach Pate was a super recruiter and knew talentā¦I lost contact with him when he retired with coach Lewisā¦but Donnie told me several years back he was still alive. Does anyone know if he still with usā¦Lordy, I remember a lot of great Harvey Pate storiesā¦
He used to walk around with a big fold out picture of Melvin Bell after we signed himā¦he was a monster recruit and would have been a top five draft pick had he not bummed that knee.
Buck Bell once had me get out of cab in New Orleans despite Mars Evans begging him to let me get in to go back to the hotel on that rainy night LOLā¦boy those were the days
2 Likes
Coach Pate died in October of 2010 at age 92.
2 Likes
This.
Wow, I canāt remember when I interviewed Donnie, but he gave me Harveyās phone number because I wanted to write a book about Guy V and wanted his feedbackā¦that had to have been around 2010, maybe a year earlier.
Oh well, the book fell through as Guyās wife didnāt feel he could hold up to the multiple interviews. I respected that and sadly backed offā¦
I have utmost respect for lowbehold and in no way meant to ridicule or make him mad. He is a great Cougar from some of our most memorable yearsā¦
4 Likes
Well this thread has went off the rails for sure.
4 Likes
Right. All I know is weāre about to get a commit from one of two guys named Hayes and Chaney.
13 Likes
Kinda lost the plotā¦
1 Like
There was an article in the paper, I donāt remember if it was the Post or the Chronicle, saying that Guy had lost touch with the youth of the day wasting a scholarship on a player like Clyde Drexler, who was obviously not division one caliber.
1 Like
Yes! I remember that article! The local media was trying to get Guy V. fired bigtime after we were blown out in the 78ā Midwest Regional by Notre Dame. We had a stretch of not getting top local talent from 73ā to 78ā. Getting Rob Williams in 79ā was a major breakthrough for Guy to say the least.
2 Likes
Actually Harvey Pate and Lewis went to scout Don Cheney. The team he was playing had a guy named Hayes on it.
He looks interesting and pretty good.
Rest is history.
1 Like
Hayes and Chaney never played against each other in high school. Rayville, where Hayes was from, was a class 2A school, while McKinley High School in Baton Rouge, where Chaney went, was Class 3A.
2 Likes
No doubt signing Rob Williams turned everything around and made Phi Slama Jama possibleā¦Rob was the best high school guard I ever saw in person. I know he had some off the court problems, but geez he was like a Harlem Globetrotter coming out of Milby. He could have gone just about anywhere he wanted, but I am pretty sure it came down to Houston, Texas and San Franciscoā¦
3 Likes
At the time Chaney was a prep All-America and Big E was an unknownā¦he aināt no more LOLā¦and Chaney turned into a defensive stud at UH and helped the Boston Celtics win a few titlesā¦Pretty sure the first time the two met was when they came to UHā¦
I know they came to UH together on a recruiting visit in the spring of 1964. Iām pretty sure thatās the first time they met.
I heard this version from Harvey Pate during an interview with a local tv person.
I took it at face value.
I like how weāve gone from impending BOOM. To booms that occurred so long ago their craters are half way filled up with water by this point.
7 Likes
Watching two seƱior citizens argue online is priceless, doe.
5 Likes