They started connecting. Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.
I still can't explain it.". "My mom had season tickets for me and her and she took me to all the home basketball games (at Southport) and some of the away games when I was little," Dampier said. She had died in the hospital recovering from surgery. Dampier, known as Little Louie because of his frail build, averaged 24 points a game his senior year and led Southport to both county and sectional titles. And Dampier – who will be the first Indianapolis-born player enshrined Friday into a hallowed place every athlete dreams of – despises the spotlight. They altered him deep within.
High School: Southport in Indianapolis, Indiana. When a teenage kid is heartbroken, he doesn't eat much. On the court, it didn't show. Dampier isn't rude or aloof. In each of the ABA's first three seasons, both Dampier and Carrier averaged at least 20 points per game. Louie Dampier # 10 Hometown: Indianapolis, IN (Southport) ... Return to statistics, team schedules, team rosters, opponents, players, coaches, opposing coaches, games, officials, assistance, Kentucky Basketball Page or search this site. (Lou, Little Louie) Position: Point Guard Shoots: Right. He looked up to Dampier, his basketball career running five years behind Dampier's. College: Kentucky. And as he takes the stage to be inducted this weekend, the photos may show him smiling. But at least his dad was there. People who knew him back in Southport, teammates who played with him at the University of Kentucky and with the Colonels say Dampier would give anyone the shirt off his back. Under Rupp, Dampier, Tommy Kron and Pat Riley led the Wildcats to the 1966 NCAA championship game, where they lost to Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso). Dampier made 199 of them by himself. "We were the kings of room service," Issel said. "It couldn't happen to a better human being," said Darel Carrier, of Dampier's Hall of Fame induction. "The happiest that Louie is is when he's out riding his lawnmower and doesn't have to talk to anybody," said Dan Issel, who played on the ABA's Kentucky Colonels with Dampier for five years and was his roommate when the team traveled. His mom, a woman he was intensely close to, was gone. He did it by battling through grief that most people watching him on the court never knew. Carrier played with Dampier on the Colonels. We're committed to doing so many other things, press conferences, interviews. "I became introverted and it changed my personality quite a bit.".
Louie Dampier. "He's pretty much of an introvert.
"And sometimes he doesn't call me back.". Don't be mistaken.
Get the ball and score filled every page. "We very seldom went out. A speech from Dampier. His NBA years : from 1977 to 1979 Louie Dampier NBA Stats Summary : His three sisters were older than him by 11, 12 and 13 years; his brother older by 9. Issel may be right. Dampier picked Issel to be his Hall of Fame presenter. "It's not so much that," he said.
"One hundred percent, he is the ABA player that comes to mind when you think of the Hall of Fame," said Scott Tarter, a co-founder of Dropping Dimes Foundation, an Indianapolis-based non-profit that helps struggling former ABA players. We weren't very social.". Dampier, known as Little Louie because of his frail build, averaged 24 points a game his senior year and led Southport to both county and sectional titles. Dampier set a sectional scoring record, 40 points in one game, and a tourney record, 114 points. And Dampier was the baby – by a long shot. "After my mom, of course, I was demoralized," Dampier said from his La Grange, Ky., home this week.
The flurry of a Hall of Fame enshrinement in Springfield, Mass., this weekend includes three days of fanfare beginning Thursday, sprinkled with photo opportunities, scheduled appearances, required time with the media and a speech. "Let me tell you something, I consider Louie the best friend I have," he said. "He was not really interested," Dampier said. After his mom died, he started coming to Dampier's games. That's what my dream was then, to play high school ball.". But as the crowd cheered at those high school games for a player they thought had it all, Dampier looked up into the bleachers and longed to see his mom. After all, he knows Dampier better than anyone, except Dampier's wife of 32 years, Judy; his two children, Danielle and Nick; and stepson, Rob, who will all be at the enshrinement. Dampier was one of the greatest to play in the ABA. He appeared in the most career regular-season games (728) in the ABA, all for the Kentucky Colonels, and was the league's all-time leading … A basketball superstar. The two met when Dampier was a senior, Issel a freshman, at the University of Kentucky playing for Adolph Rupp.
Not only does he not like the spotlight, he does everything possible to stay out it.". Dampier was lucky to play basketball when he did. Dampier was filling the void left by his mother. He knows exactly who Dampier is. "We really complemented each other," Carrier said, "because you could try to guard him and then leave me open or you could try and guard me and leave him open. Then one day, sitting in class – he doesn't remember whether it was math or English or history because everything in life suddenly became a blur – Dampier was called out. Please send all corrections/additions to . Two years before the photo was taken, Dampier was an outgoing, 16-year-old, happy-go-lucky kid attending Southport High School. He was a superstar. And Louie Dampier, 6-0, 165 pounds, was heartbroken. The grief. May 3, 1967 - The Cincinnati Royals selected Louie Dampier in Round 4 with Pick 7 in the 1967 NBA Draft. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. When he graduated from Kentucky in 1967, Dampier had scored 1,575 points, the third-most in school history at the time. Dampier eventually signed with the Kentucky Colonels of the fledgling ABA and teamed with Darel Carrier to form the most explosive backcourt duo in the league. That means, for that entire season, Dampier made 13.1 percent of … He was the heart and soul of Rupp's guard-oriented attack, a … Draft: Cincinnati Royals, 4th round (7th pick, 38th overall), 1967 NBA Draft.
Dampier set a sectional scoring record… A 6-foot playmaker on Adolph Rupp's famed "Rupp's Runts" team at the University of Kentucky, Dampier averaged 21 points per game as the Wildcats raced all the way to the 1966 NCAA national championship game. The black-and-white photo bleeds sadness.
The game is famous: Texas Western was the first team with an all-black starting lineup to win an NCAA title. He and his dad would babysit Dampier's nieces and nephews, his dad's grandchildren, together a couple nights a week while his brother and sisters were out playing in bowling leagues. Issel said Dampier was one of the few seniors who would give a freshman, not allowed in those days to play, the time of day. And sweet. "Those were my first heroes. He came before the days when players had media swarming the locker rooms asking them questions. In 1967 the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) selected Dampier in the fourth round of the NBA Draft and the Kentucky Colonels selected him in the ABA draft. "It's something you might start thinking about because other people started talking to me about it, saying, 'It's your turn.
"Except me," he said, laughing, "because she knew mine wouldn't be too long.". The Louie Dampier Book of Basketball was straightforward, concise, and fun to read. "Dampier would kill you with that shot," Carrier said.
He was the hometown hero at a time when basketball stars at Indiana high schools were icons. It's in his tensed-up jaw. His mother was dead.