By BRIAN NIELSEN
Sports Editor
Even as an opponent, Kevin Duckworth made a nice impression.
“He was a really an absolutely huge kid,” said Charlie Spoonhour, the basketball coach at the school that then went by the name of Southwest Missouri State when playing against Duckworth’s Eastern Illinois basketball teams in the Mid-Continent Conference in the 1980s. “But he was never . . . he just played. The thing I remembered is we could not guard him. We spent all our time running around trying to guard him.
“You’d think with his size he’d bang people around but he was just a nice player. It was never one of those deals where you thought he’d get banged around by him. He would pin you but in a nice way.”
Memories of the former EIU star center who went on to play in two NBA Finals for the Portland Trail Blazers were plenty following the stunning news that Duckworth had died at age 44 Monday night of causes still to be determined.
“Shocking,” former EIU coach Rick Samuels said. “Kevin was a guy who I think most people who knew him loved him. Certainly the Eastern contacts did. I’ll have a family who will be greatly saddened.
“As I recall Kevin obviously was one of my first really good players, a guy who I think helped our program transition to Division I.”
Along with setting EIU’s career rebounding record with 867 in 1983-86 and becoming a second-round pick by the San Antonio Spurs in the 1986 NBA draft, Duckworth made plenty of friends.
“He lived in a residence hall all four years,” Samuels said. “He was obviously the most recognizable guys on campus but he would talk to you. It was unbelievable the guys he’d talk to.
“He went from being paranoid of his size to being proud of his size, from being afraid to sit in a classroom because everybody looked at him to liking going to a classroom because everybody talked to him.”
A 7-footer from Thornridge High School, Duckworth came to Eastern as a basketball project.
His college debut as a freshman was far from a success in a loss at Purdue.
“He played against Russell Cross,” Samuels said. “I think on court time he might have totaled five minutes before getting his fifth foul.”
From the start, Duckworth was a target of opposing fans.
“Oh boy. I remember we made that trip to Missouri,” former EIU teammate Kevin Jones said. “Mizzou fans were really harsh on him. They had signs that said ‘How much does a Duck weigh?’ He was really conscious of his weight but he worked at it and became an NBA All-Star.”
Maybe it started with that game at Missouri against another future NBA center Steve Stipanovich
“I think Kevin had a double-double,” Samuels said. “That was his coming out game. I think that was when Kevin realized his potential. Stipanovich’s statement was ‘that’s the biggest guy I’ve ever seen.’ ”
Duckworth averaged 9.6 points as a freshman for Eastern’s 17-18 team, 11.6 as a sophomore for a 15-13 team, 11.8 when the Panthers won the Mid-Continent Conference tournament finishing 20-10 and 19.5 as 19-13 senior season when EIU lost the Mid-Con tourney final to a Cleveland State team that reached the NCAA Sweet 16.
“He got better each year he played,” Spoonhour said. “He turned into a really good player. And he was a very nice young man.”
Through most of his college career, Duckworth was not even Eastern’s leading player.
Classmate Jon Collins was the Mid-Con Player of the Year leading averaging 18.6 points as a junior and 19.7 as a senior setting Eastern’s career scoring record that was later broken by Jay Taylor and then Henry Domercant.
But by the end of his senior year, Duckworth was developing into the EIU star and an NBA prospect.
“That senior year there wasn’t any question but that he emerged as a potential NBA draft choice, which was certainly new to us,” former EIU Sports Information Director Dave Kidwell said. “But to be honest I don’t think the media caught on until the end of his career. He got the CBS Most Underrated Player Award. He went to the pre-draft camp at Portsmouth, Va., and that was when the year was over so once he got drafted that’s when everybody started calling and said ‘who is this?’ So really the attention came after his career was over.
“But nonetheless once he got drafted. then Eastern Illinois’ name was on the forefront and it certainly continued throughout his NBA career. It was a genuine American success story: somewhat unheralded out of high school and ending up a two-time NBA All-Star.”
Even before his stardom, Duckworth was well liked on campus and by media.
Waldo Grigeroff, Eastern’s play-by-play radio announcer during the Duckworth era, remembers the big center sneaking up behind him and jokingly saying ‘You better announce my name tonight.’
“Kevin was just an all-around good guy,” Grigeroff said. “Just a good friend.”
The center with the natural ‘Duck’ nickname could make fun of himself.
“One of my favorite sayings was ‘if we don’t get over those screens we’re a dead duck,’ ” Samuels said. “After a couple of weeks he said to me, ‘Coach, could you think of some other term?’ I used to say he went from an ugly duckling to a swan.”
Kidwell said: “Kevin was that proverbial gentle giant that everybody warmed to and I think that probably continued throughout. It sounded like even at his death he was doing a basketball clinic for the Trail Blazers that I’m sure involved youth.”
This week Duckworth was on the Oregon Coast representing the Trail Blazers as a Heritage Ambassador on the team’s 19-city Statewide Summer Tour.
“It’s unfortunate that we lost a good person at such an early age,” Jones said. “He was like a little brother to me. I hosted him at his (EIU recruiting) visit.
“I remember when he made the NBA All-Star game he called and said he couldn’t believe he was sitting on the bench with me. Duck was the nicest guy anyone could have met. He will be truly missed.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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Lori M wrote on Aug 26, 2008 8:28 PM: