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An apology to poster 'LongTimeFan'-re Tim Robinson Parade AA

C

capecod

New member
Poster LongTimeFan has twice corrected me and posted that Tim 'the Rim' Robinson was a HS Parade AA.

He was correcting my claim that Willie Betts and LC Bowen were the only 2 Bradley players who had been Parade High School All Americans

As it turns out, Tim Robinson's real first name was 'James'. Robinson was listed on the 1959 Parade AA team as 'James Robinson'.

I simply missed it-I was looking for 'Tim'.

The post below is to a article after Tim died. When I recently came across this article, it was the first time that I noticed that Robinson's first name was really 'James'. I immediately went back searching for 'James Robinson' on the Parade teams-and found him: 1st team Parade AA in 1959

http://www.csnchicago.com/chinewshs/remembering-cranes-tim-robinson


The Parade HS AA 1st team of 1959 was:

James 'Tim' Robinson 6'6 Chicago Crane Tech
Art Heyman 6'4 Oceanside NY
Tom Hoover 6'9 Washington DC Archbishop Carroll
Bill Raferty 6'4 Kearney NJ St Cecilia(yes that Bill Raferty)
Bernie Butts 6'0 Hialeah Fla

and an apology to the Board for continuing to post this 'old' Bradley basketball stuff
 
No need to apologize to us. I may not be quite old enough to remember the early 1960's stuff, but many of us enjoy reading about those glory days of Bradley Basketball.
 
Don't apologize. Us old timers who even remember the Armory days appreciate it. We could probably add a few facts.
 
No need to apologize to me. At my age I would not say anything as absolute fact anymore. It was a very long time ago and I sure could have been wrong. I still could be on this issue. Heck, my wife would tell you I am wrong as lot.
 
Willie Betts was 6'5", wore #33 and as from River Rouge, Michigan. He was an incredible leaper, that many said "could take a dime off the top of the backboard". He had a happy go luck personality and was often introduced at the game as "W.W. Wonderful Willie Betts". The word was the only player that ever played at Bradley, that could jump as high as Willie, was Tim "The Rim" Robinson. Unfortunately Willie had a difficult time finding his way to the classroom. He was declared academically ineligible after the first semester of his sophomore year (freshmen were not allowed to play then). He transferred to Pasadena Junior College in California for the second semester and returned to Bradley the following year. Once again he was declared academically ineligible after the first semester and never played again for Bradley.

This was the era when southern schools were not integrated and many northern schools would not accept black people as well.

At this time Bradley could get just about any great high school basketball player out of the state of Michigan. During this time they got Chet Walker, Willie Betts, Alex McNutt, L.C. Bowen and Sam Simmons, just to mention a few. Now those same players would be at Michigan and Michigan State.
 
I seriously doubt it. Willie would be around 70.

Another great player from Michigan in that era was 6'3" Ernie Thompson from Saginaw.
 
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