Part 2 of a two-part story
Tom Hoover was having a hard time battling Connie Hawkins, Roger Brown, and Jackie Jackson under the boards, playing in a New York City game, when a deep voice boomed.
“‘Hey Tom, come on man! You gotta be better than that! Tougher than that!’” recalls Hoover, now 85, the former Knick and seventh pick overall (1963) by the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers).
He’s president of the New York chapter of The Legends of Basketball (formerly the National Basketball Retired Players Association). “That was the first time I knew Wilt Chamberlain knew who I was, and he kept giving me that kind of encouragement.”
How did you play after that?
“Oh, much harder,” says Hoover with a chuckle.
They became buddies to the point Chamberlain would drive Hoover back to his Villanova campus when he came to New York to watch the Philadelphia Warriors play the Knicks.
An aide to Mayor John Lindsay, Hoover then went through the ranks as an inspector and commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission for the sport of boxing.
How is boxing today?
“I think it’s horrible,” remarks Hoover.
And if that wasn’t enough, he was the road manager for The Spinners, Natalie Cole, and Richard Pryor.
He walked away from the funny man between performances because he didn’t like the way he was being treated.
“I’m here to do a job, but I’m not gonna kiss your ass. It’s a tedious job where you have no life,” reveals Hoover, who was traded to the Lakers for Dick Barnett, where he roomed with Hall of Famer Jerry West and played golf with him regularly. “Your life becomes their life.”
Then there was his friendship with the Big Dipper — Chamberlain.
“I always called him Dippy or Dip,” reveals Hoover, who survived their forays into Atlantic City. From New York City, most reasonable drivers can make it in three hours. Wilt did it in 90 minutes.
Those trips became a regular occurrence for the two, though Hoover’s first journey with Wilt was a doozy.
“Before we left, we were drinking champagne and Old Grand-Dad shots. He kept laughing at me because I was drinking it like water,” exclaims Hoover with a smile. “The last thing I remember, I was sitting in the middle of Kentucky Ave. in Atlantic City. Cars are going around me, and Wilt was laughing at me.
“I don’t remember anything from that point on until I woke up in my bed back in New York. Wilt picked me up, put me in the car, and drove me home.”
There’s that booming laugh, but it goes silent when the topic turns serious.
Like the time a distinguished gentleman came to see Wilt at his club, “Small’s Paradise.”
“The club was closed, and Malcom X came in to talk to Wilt,” remembers Hoover. “He would come in the back door. We’d sit in the back and talk. Malcolm, [former Knick and broadcaster] Cal Ramsey, myself, and Dip.”
What’d you all talk about?
“Life and the importance of being Black in America … hints of wisdom,” remembers Hoover with Malcom stating, “‘It’s a struggle out here. Don’t give up the struggle because you gotta fight every day. Every morning your feet hit the ground, it’s a fight. They don’t respect us. They never have and they never will.’”
Hoover is still battling for kids like he did in the paint years ago.
“You need an education in this world to learn how to manage your money and to learn how to take care of yourself,” stresses Hoover, married 54 years to Sandra. Their son Jason was a Manhattan College basketball star in the ‘90s. “You came into this world by yourself, you’re gonna leave here by yourself. When you’re broke, everybody is gonna say that’s a shame and that it’s your fault.
“So, yeah, that’s why I still work with kids,” states old head Hoover.