If hoops didn't work out Calvin could've held a few belts in the ring, that Cat was a Golden Gloves champ and pound for pound the baddest man who ever played in the NBA, if not for Willis Reed I would say at any weight ever in the NBA but Willis had the entire Lakers squad, with Wilt on that team mind you, back down, but Cal beat the shit out of Sidney Wicks who was 6'9 245 and an avid weight lifter (look at the clip out there it's hilarious) and when Kermit Washington broke Tomjanovich's face Calvin came looking for him in their locker room but Washington knew what was up and bounced with out even showering and Kermit was built like Karl Malone. Calvin Murphy was like Wilt or Bo Jackson, he could've been a HOFer in almost any sport, football, tennis, boxing and obviously hoops. Just an incredible athlete and from interviews a great guy too. Awesome clip.
I grew up in Norwalk with Calvin Murphy and his mother. He attended Norwalk HS and I was at Brien McMahon HS--- BUT : he was physically active and I was the school's photographer and journalist. Many stories. My mom was an assistant teacher in the other schools in Norwalk and the county, Fairfield County. Around me- I called him Cal. Cal liked that nd thought it was me prazing him. Cal was good to me and I had met his mom a couple years before being friends with Cal - Calvin Murphy - the Pocket Rocket. I was a ham radio operator and Cal wanted to use my radio and did, with me controlling things. I also had a two-wheel drive International Harvester Scout. I drove the blue Scout around where Norwalk High School is. Cal wanted to rive it; I let him but only with me in the seat next to him or behind him. He liked the Morse Code I used to communicate. I liked his baton action. And I really went crazy to photographic his short dribbles in the game and at time-outs. He was the shorted team member. and he was the strongest and hardest to catch. The tall, great players could never bend low enough to out pace; steal the ball from Cal. Cal went to a radio club meeting with me; it was centered inside the American Red Cross building, a converted family house where meeting were always in the basement and our radio transmitters and receivers were in the clock tower - a very high and special room. II will post more about Cal- but now I have to head to lunch. -------I was Class of 1967 at Brien McMahon. After WW II and in Hawaii he and my mom came home looking for work where their families were on the east coast. My dad decided to work for Teleregister Corp (in NYC, then they moved to Stamford, CT) and got bought out by Bunker Ramo. He and they were the beginning of the internet and created the NASDAQ in Trumbull, Connecticut. Automated warehousing, and a lot of projects brought to make life easier. A lot of good stories there too. Long, late night, cigarette smoke filled kitchen meeting were at our home in Norwalk, adjacent to Kendall Elementary school, on Eagle Road. The men that came to my Dad were all very highly educated and needed his common sense on the projects they invented. He and they changed my life; for good times, and working hard all the time. --- Ralphie is what Cal called me. oops its 2:16- got to go.
