Twenty-four years ago this week, I received a phone call from someone who wanted to educate me on Granby High boys basketball history.
The Comets were preparing to play for the 2000 Group AAA state title. The person on the other line, with his booming Southern drawl, wanted me to know that this team wasn’t the first Granby team to be playing for a state title.
He told me that Granby won a state title on March 12, 1950.
How did he know? He was the star of that team.
That caller was Charles Grice Driesell, better known to most as “Lefty.”
When he first told me who he was, I thought it was a prank.
Growing up in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, I knew all about Driesell. He and Georgetown coach John Thompson were my two favorite coaches. Both men were legendary coaches with incredible personalities.
I thought about Driesell this week when I attended his funeral.
More than 200 people braved the rain to honor, share stories and celebrate the life of one of the legendary figures of college basketball, who passed away on Feb. 17.
In 2000, as we talked about that Comets team that won the state title, Driesell told me, “That’s still one of my greatest thrills in athletics.”
Driesell, who at the time was the head coach at Georgia State, scored 59 points in three games during the tournament to lead the Comets to the state title.
“I actually think (the tournament) helped me get my scholarship to Duke,” he said. “I really played well in the tournament, but I don’t know if I would have gotten that scholarship if we hadn’t won.”
The phone calls and conversation with Driesell didn’t stop there.
I caught up with him many more times, including when he was finally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
The class included two-time NBA champion Ray Allen, four-time NBA all-star Maurice Cheeks, seven-time NBA all-star Grant Hill, 10-time NBA all-star Jason Kidd, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, three-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Smith and four-time WNBA champion Tina Thompson. Also selected was Charlie Scott from the Veterans Committee.
Driesell recruited Scott when he was coaching at Davidson.
Scott, who was from New York City, never envisioned going to a school in the South before that. After all, it was the 1960s.
“He really brought me to the spotlight for all of the other coaches to recruit me,” Scott said earlier this week. “He was the first coach who offered me a scholarship. Really, I had committed to going to Davidson College with him being there, but I just hadn’t signed a letter. But my high school coach, who was my guardian at the time, understood the importance of being the first Black scholarship athlete at the University of North Carolina.”
Scott went to North Carolina and was a two-time All-American and a three-time All-ACC selection. He led the Tar Heels to their second and third consecutive NCAA Final Four appearances.
And even though he never played for Driesell, they formed a lifetime friendship that lasted nearly 60 years.
“Lefty was always special to me. He set me in the direction that I ended up going,” Scott said. “If it wasn’t for Lefty, I don’t think the University of North Carolina or any of those other schools would have known about me at the time that they did. And he really was the first one to give me the attitude that I could go to a white school in the South.
“I going to miss him,” he added. “I’m just thankful to have been a part of his life.”
So are so many others.
At his funeral, many of his former players came to pay their respects, including Tom McMillen and John Lucas, who were chosen to give their remembrances about Driesell.
There were some great stories, too. Other speakers included Ann Holland, the wife of former Virginia coach Terry, who passed away in 2023, and Driesell’s son, Chuck.
Driesell’s daughter, Pam, a minister, led the services. And she did an incredible job in remembering her father.
What many may not know about Driesell was his heart for God.
His former pastor, Reverend Dr. John Sloop, traveled from Harrisonburg to be at the service.
“Lefty and his wife, Joyce, were significant members of the congregation. Lefty actually picked the church before Joyce moved to town, and we struck it off great,” he said about Driesell when he coached at James Madison. “So I’ve had a close relationship with him and his family, and I thought, ‘I can’t not come.’ I just love Lefty.”
Sloop said he remembers when Driesell invited him to his team’s basketball camp to do a weekend Bible study.
“People don’t know about Lefty and his commitment to Christ,” he said. “He was a genuine believer.”
Sloop also remembers some funny occasions, including when he attended games.
“I had seats right behind his bench. And he would take his coat off and throw it down on the floor and stomp on it, and then he’d look at me,” Sloop said, bursting into laughter.
One of Driesell’s proudest moments was when former player Len Bias was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
He was a two-time ACC Player of the Year, a first-team All-American selection and finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer.
In 1986, the Boston Celtics drafted him with the No. 2 overall pick, but two days later he died from cardiac arrest related to a cocaine overdose.
When I called Driesell in December of 2020 and told him the news about Bias being inducted, he responded, “You are the first reporter to call me about it. It shocks me.”
“He deserves it,” Driesell added. “He should have been in there a long time ago.”
That was Lefty.
The last time I saw Driesell was in 2022.
Charlie Hatcher, the executive director of Sports Inside and Out Black Legends of Sports, and actor and filmmaker Tim Reid helped produce a 30-minute documentary featuring Driesell that highlighted his Hall of Fame induction and basketball career.
I got to sit with Driesell as he watched the documentary.
“It was one of the greatest points of my life,” Hatcher told me earlier this week. “He was one of the winningest NCAA coaches in history and probably one of the most impactful coaches in integrating college basketball. To have him see how much he meant to everyone he touched meant everything to me.”
Driesell loved the documentary. His only regret was his wife wasn’t there to enjoy it with him. Pam Driesell told The Baltimore Sun her father’s health had been declining since his wife’s death in 2021.
“I still haven’t gotten over that,” Driesell told me then. “I wish my wife could have been here to see it. She would have loved it. “
My last question to him was, “How do you want to be remembered?”
“I’m just proud of the people that I coached,” he told me. “I had a nice life. I’ve been fortunate.”
Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com
Local News
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