Lenny Wilkens Interview (page: 3 / 7) Basketball Hall of Fame	Print Interview

Were you a good student?

Lenny Wilkens: Well, in high school my studies were easy. Things came easy to me. When I got to college it was much more of a challenge. At Providence College I had to take four years of theology and three years of philosophy in addition to whatever my major was. That's the way it was back then.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I'll never forget my first day in logic my first year, and we had this professor named Father Heath -- Dominican Fathers taught at Providence College at that time I was there -- and he was about six-three, six-four, big commanding guy. And we had to fill out these attendance cards and turn them in the first day. And so he went through them and finally he said, "Mr. Wilkens, Mr. Whalen." There was a kid named Dick Whalen who was also a freshman on the basketball team. "Would you please stand up, gentlemen?" And we both stood up and he said, "I want you to know that I don't like athletes, and in particular I don't like basketball players, so don't ever cut my class without a good reason." So right then and there he made us understand that we were there for an education, no matter what we thought, and I was always prepared. I mean, I had my logic book with me on trips and stuff, and I guess I impressed him because I never asked out of an exam. I was always there, and I had a B average all the way through college so, you know, I think, hopefully, I changed his attitude towards athletes.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

I hope I showed him we weren't all just jocks, so to speak. When I was in college I began to see that athletes were stigmatized. We were supposed to be jocks who weren't very smart and were only there because of our athletic ability.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I was in my economics class, it was a theory class, and the professor was this Dominican Father named Father Kirk, who was a wonderful guy. And being "W," Wilkens, I was always in the back somewhere. And so I'm watching him as he's asking questions, and I see him skip over this one student, and he goes asking questions, and he skips over another student. And so he's doing this, and so he gets to the back row and there's a kid named Ray Weber who was a great baseball player sitting next to me, and he skips over Ray, and he skips over me. And I stood up and I said, "Wait a minute. What's going on?" I said, "Don't we get a chance to answer questions?" You know? And he started laughing, you know. I guess maybe I was the first one to do that. But I had studied. I knew those answers. I wanted to answer the questions. So, I began to realize that "athletes were great athletes but they weren't very smart." And so I was going to prove them wrong. And, you know, they posted the dean's list, guys who made the dean's list, and everybody saw it. And so I made sure that I made the dean's list every year and that I was in the top third of my class. You know, I took it as a challenge but I felt very strongly about it. "We're students, too, and we need to be treated that way." So, I made sure I could compete in the classroom as well as on the basketball court.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

In your first year, the freshman team was 23-0. Is that right?

Lenny Wilkens: We had a freshman team that was really outstanding. Very talented. Providence College was just starting to emerge as a basketball power. The school was known for academics and hockey. Hockey was the big sport. But our freshman team won 23 straight games that year and it was incredible.

In fact, midway through the year we scrimmaged the varsity and it became a very physical scrimmage because we were playing well. And the coach, Joe Mullaney, wouldn't let us scrimmage them again. For our last game, we sold out the place. People came to see the freshman team. They didn't come to see the varsity.

Providence was still a very tough school academically, and we lost about three or four of those players. When we became sophomores they were booted out of school because of academics. But we won some incredible games. Some games we were way behind and they held the ball on us and stuff like that, but we had enough talent that we overcame it.

Tell us about making that leap to the NBA.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Lenny Wilkens: I had been drafted, number one, by the St. Louis Hawks but I hadn't gone out to see them. I hadn't even talked to them. You know, I really thought I was going to go on to get my master's and then I saw that game. And they were trying to wine and dine me and talk to me, and they offered me a contract for -- I think it was $8,500 with a $1,500 signing bonus. The thing that I knew was that economists at that time were getting $6,000 and I knew that accountants were getting $6,600. So I figured I was way ahead of them if I were to sign a contract, but I also knew that everybody didn't make the professional leagues, and I'd ask them for -- my terminology at the time was I asked them for a "no cut" contract and they said, "What do you mean by that? No cut?" And they didn't understand. And really what I wanted was a guaranteed contract.

That you would play?

Lenny Wilkens: No, that I'd get paid even if they cut me. So they agreed to that. I graduated from college in 1960. I played one year and I had a good year but I was in ROTC in college and I had to go on active duty. I was in the military for a year and a half, and then I came back to the Hawks to play.

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