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Sports talk with … Ken Howard

Sporting News, The, Dec 2, 2005 by Sean Deveney

Howard played Ken Reeves, an NBA journeyman turned Carver High coach on the old-school TV drama The White Shadow, now available on DVD.

TSN: You played college ball at Amherst. How did your career as a player influence the show?

HOWARD: I also played at Manhasset High on Long Island for a wonderful coach named Fritz Mueller. My nickname was "White Shadow." My senior year, I was the only white guy starting. Our colors were orange and blue, like Carver High. There were two brothers named Thorpe and a guy named Jackson who were my teammates. There were guys named Thorpe and Jackson on the show. And, as Ken Reeves, I dressed a lot like Fritz Mueller did.

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TSN: Do players and coaches recognize you today, nearly 25 years later?

HOWARD: It happens at events or charity golf outings. Coaches, especially, are so sweet. Coach K, Bobby Cremins, Tommy Heinsohn, they all call me Coach. So, it's, "Hey, Coach, come here and meet this guy." I have somehow become welcome in that world.

TSN: So, I have to know, could Coolidge really dunk?

HOWARD: Oh, yeah. He's 6-8 1/2. They had to lower the basket for me to dunk, but the actor who played Coolidge, Byron Stewart, he could dunk with no problem. He was a pretty good player.

TSN: My favorite Ken Reeves line: "Let's move it, ladies!" Coaches can't say that anymore.

HOWARD: No, that is an old-school thing, very New York. Someone might get offended now.

TSN: Why is it that Carver never played any road games?

HOWARD: No, no, there were some. One of my favorite scenes was at a high school in Pasadena, where the camera is panning across their side of the bleachers and everyone is white and blond, and their cheerleaders are doing these really tame cheers. Then the camera keeps going and you see the Carver cheerleaders and their side of the stands and it is all black, and there is a whole other rhythm going on. It was a great scene. But, you are right; we played an inordinate number of home games.

TSN: What would Ken Reeves do with some of the more self-centered NBA guys playing today?

HOWARD: Too much one-on-one, that's the problem with the NBA now. But it's a different world. In the NBA, the difference is money and power. Ken Reeves could sit a guy down or kick him off the team until he gets it together. You can't do that in the NBA.

Sports talk with … Ken Howard

Sporting News, The, Dec 2, 2005 by Sean Deveney

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