Jerry Lucas scored 2,463 points during his illustrious three-year high school career in Middletown.

That’s about the number of stories told this past weekend when Lucas was honored by having the courts at Wade E. Miller and Sunset Park named in his honor.

In 1956, which started the Middies’ 76-game winning streak and the first of their consecutive state championships, the Middies played Cincinnati Hughes, which was led by Ray Apple.

Middletown’s Bob Cole, nicknamed “Hicks,” begged Coach Paul Walker to let him guard Apple. There was only one problem with that strategy: Cole “couldn’t guard the floor,” Lucas told the crowd Saturday night at Miami University Middletown.

During warmups, Cole pulled an apple out of his pants, stared at Apple, then took a giant bite, trying to intimidate him. But Cole guarded Apple for only two possessions and both ended with baskets.

Cole passed away last year, and many of the old-timers in town still call him the “best pure shooter” this city ever produced. Even in his later years, Cole would routinely make 100 consecutive free throws at the Middletown Area YMCA.

Basketball auction benefits scholarship

As part of the fund-raising effort for the Jerry Lucas Scholarship fund, two basketballs were auctioned after the Jerry Lucas Court Dedication Dinner: a white panel ball and the game ball from Friday’s win over Hamilton. The white panel ball was purchased by Cynthia Walker for $275. She said the ball will be given to the descendants of Paul Walker, who led the Middies to five state championships. The game ball was purchased for $525 by Mike Miller, who said it will be given to the family of Wade E. Miller, the former Middletown principal and superintendent.

No shoes, no play

Greg Johnson, whose father, Warren, was the voice of the Middies on WPFB radio for decades, played football and basketball at Bishop Fenwick High School. In fact, he was the school’s first football player to make first-team all-state. When the Falcons were playing in the basketball tournament at the UD Fieldhouse, Johnson said he got dressed, then reached into his gym bag.

There were no shoes.

When he anxiously asked Coach John “Butch” Rossi what he should do without gym shoes, Rossi told him to sit in the stands.

Jerry Lucas, the preacher

On Sunday night, when some of the greatest NBA players of all time were in Houston for the NBA All-Star Game, Lucas was in Germantown, preaching and lecturing at a small church. When Lucas retired from the NBA, he said he devoted his life to Christ and his goal is simple: “Make a difference in the lives of other people.”

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980 and was named a member of the NBA’s Best 50 Players.

A ‘once-in-a-lifetime player’

Paul Walker Jr. said his father, after seeing Lucas play for the first time, said: “I got a once-in-a-lifetime player on my hands.”

More than 50 years after his high school career, Lucas holds numerous state and state tournament records, and considering he played for three seasons, not four, and before the 3-point shot, makes it even more amazing.

When the Middies’ 76-game win streak was snapped in the 1958 state championship game, Walker said that showed Lucas was “human, not super human.”

Older than ESPN

Bill Hosket, one of the keynote speakers Saturday night, looked at the Middletown High School basketball team, and said those sitting at the head table were older than ESPN. That drew several laughs.

Lucas, he said, “put the exclamation point on everything.”