FARMVILLE, Va. -- Before Jerome Kersey set foot on Longwood's campus, there was another band of trailblazers already in Farmville. Kenny Ford and his teammates never made it to the NBA, but they set the standard for Longwood basketball, in just the fourth year of the program's existence.
Ford was Longwood's first All-American in men's basketball and a guard/forward for the team that racked up a 28-3 record and advanced to the 1980 NCAA Division III Final Four.
His path as a basketball pioneer almost hit a roadblock when former Longwood head coach Ron Bash saw him play in the summer of 1978.
"He (Coach Bash) had recruited his own players that were coming, so he knew what he had and knew what he wanted," said Ford. "I wasn't anybody that he ever laid eyes on."
Ford, 54, spent a year at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and found that it was not a good fit. He faced a decision - transfer or enlist in the military.
Jimmy Huskey, a long-time friend and teammate from Crest High School (N.C.), encouraged Ford to visit Longwood. Huskey preceded
Ford to the Farmville campus and talked up his former teammate to Bash.
Ford worked construction during the summer and hadn't played basketball in months. He was in good condition, but rusty and out of shape for basketball.
Ford played pick-up games for about 30 minutes and Bash gave him an assessment.
"So I go back into his office and he was laid back in his rocking chair with his feet on the desk. Coach Bash said 'Ken, you will be lucky if you even make my team.'"
Ford was insulted. He knew his skill set and high school coach prepared him for the college game. David Thompson, former NC State and NBA standout, also graduated from Crest High.
"I'll never forget it. I told him as he rose up in his chair. 'If you get four other players as good as I am, you will go the final four.' I had no idea about the final four, but I told him that. He said 'Yeah, we will see.'
Ford worked hard getting into basketball condition before enrolling at Longwood in the fall of 1978, the college's first year of Division III basketball.
One of the first guys he met was Shack Leonard, a point guard and Bash recruit from Palm Beach Junior College in Florida.
"From Riviera Beach Florida, he had never seen the snow," said Ford.
Ford made the team, but he had to work his way into the starting lineup. After coming off the bench in the first game, he earned a spot as a primary starter for the rest of the season.
He averaged 14.1 points per game in the 1978-79 season, as the Lancers finished a respectable 19-8 in their first year of Division III.
With a strong recruiting class, Ford and Longwood were poised for a breakout year in 1979-80. In the pre-season media guide, Bash predicted this team could make a name for themselves in the state and on the East Coast.
The Lancers reeled off winning streaks of 12 and 13 games, finishing the regular season at 25-1 and convincing the selection committee that they belonged in the Division III NCAA Tournament. As an independent, a strong body of work was vital to get an at-large bid.
"It was team basketball," said Ford. "We weren't selfish. All we wanted to do was win. I never looked at the box score at the end of the night. If we won, we won, that is all we were looking for."
With no shot clock and no three-point line, he remembers running a structured and disciplined offense.
"Everything was off plays," Ford continued. "We never got into one-on-one basketball. If the first option broke down, you run the second option. If the second option broke down, you look for the third option. If it did not work, you pulled it back out and set it up again, set up another play. We looked for the easy shot."
Ford thrived on Bash's system that emphasized balanced scoring. The 6-2 swingman boasted a 62% field goal percentage and averaged 15.9 points per game. A great leaper with a quick release, he could shoot off screens in the corner. He still smiles when he thinks of how many points he would have scored with the three-point line. He also led the team in free-thrown percentage at 77%.
"He was aggressive," said Shack Leonard, 55, who now lives in Palm Beach, Florida. "He was an accurate shooter that had the unique ability to jump high for his size, and finish strong and powerful. He liked to drive, but he took a few shots from the outside."
The Lancers' first stop in postseason was the Northeast Regional where they beat Framingham State (MA) and host Clark (MA) by ten points each, respectively. Ford and his teammates relished the underdog role.
"We were a no name basketball team a long way from home and it was just us," remembers Ford. "Nobody expected us to win. They had never heard of Farmville, Virginia or Longwood College."
What the Lancers lacked in fan support on the road, they made up for in confidence and an inner drive.
"We knew we were on a mission," said Ford. "Each team we played did not think we had a chance to beat them. But as a team, we never doubted it. We played together and we played with a lot of heart."
The wins in the regional earned a "home" game for the Northeast Quarterfinal. The Lancers hosted Potsdam State (NY) at the recently completed Fleet Gymnasium on the campus of Hampden-Sydney College. Longwood, who usually played their home games in the quaint, but cramped French Gymnasium, would move into the new Lancer Hall (now Willett Hall) in the fall of 1980.
Ford poured in 21 points and the Lancers won convincingly, 78-61, earning their ticket to the Division III Final Four. He didn't know it at the time, but he left an impression on a wide-eyed recruit from Bluestone High School in Mecklenburg County Virginia - Jerome Kersey.
"Kenny was one of the big reasons I wanted to attend Longwood," Kersey noted in an interview with former Longwood sports information director, Hoke Currie. "I could compliment that guy. He was just so smooth."
The "no-name" Lancers faced two-time defending national champion North Park (IL) in the semifinals on the campus of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.
Kenny and the team heard the hype. They had an All-American seven footer (Michael Harper), a legitimate NBA prospect and 6-8 All-American forward (Modzell Greer). North Park was loaded.
Faced with long odds again, the Lancers nearly pulled off a giant upset on the national stage. ESPN, a relatively unknown sports network at the time, broadcast the game with play-by-play announcer Paul Brown and Dick Vitale, a recently fired NBA coach, providing the color commentary.
Longwood was not intimidated by the size and tradition of the North Park College Vikings from Chicago.
The Lancers trailed 30-28 at halftime before North Park went ahead 42-36 midway through the second half. Longwood battled back to tie the contest at 45, and then led 53-52 with just 39 seconds left.
The Vikings took advantage of a pair of controversial traveling calls against the Lancers to take a 56-53 lead at :13. Longwood's Joe Remar converted on a layup to trim the lead to 56-55 at :06. North Park then made one of two free throws at :05. Remar's final layup attempt at the buzzer was blocked by the 6-8 Keith French and the Lancers' Cinderella season came to an end 57-55. The game continues to leave a bad after taste.
"We were robbed," Coach Ron Bash recently noted from his home in Pompano Beach Florida.
"That is the only bitter taste that I really have about that (game)," said Ford. "We just didn't win and should have. It was taken from us. But there was nothing we could do about it."
Despite the disheartening loss to North Park in the semifinals, the Lancers competed hard in the third place game, falling to Wittenberg (OH) 48-47 in overtime.
The success in their last year in Division III set the stage for Longwood's transition to Division II. They could now offer athletic scholarships. Jerome Kersey, who Ford took under his wing, was one of the first recipients.
Ford remembers the first time he met Jerome. They faced off in a friendly pick-up game on Kersey's visit to Longwood.
"He was eager to learn, but Jerome at that time was probably 6-6, 180 pounds," said Ford." He was wiry and he had no weight. We had players that had bulk; size and they beat him up pretty good. I took to him real quick because he worked so hard."
Jerome quickly realized that this height would only get him so far.
"He did not understand that because he was four inches taller than me that he could just go over the top," Ford continued. "I would block him two or three times a game, but it made him tougher. He could not just go over; he had to get in position."
The duo forged a long-time friendship and played together just 19 games in the 1980-81 season. Ford sat out the first semester for academic reasons. But, it did not take long to see that the freshman from Clarksville was something special.
"I will never forget when we went to Alaska and we played four games over there," Ford recalls. "We were playing in Fairbanks and I went down for a layup and I got undercut. I remember looking; twisting back, and all I could see was him and his body, twisting in the air, dunking the ball backwards. I told my teammates 'He will play in the NBA.'
"I saw him do things over there that the ACC players were not able to do," Ford added. "Jerome did not understand that he wasn't supposed to do that. That is what a little man did. A big man isn't supposed to do that."
Ford is proud of the friendships with his teammates, fraternity brothers and classmates from Longwood. He appreciates those who eased his transition to college. He understands his team's role as true pioneers, on several fronts.
"At that time, they were just starting to allow guys there and they (the college) did everything they could to make it a success for them there, especially the black guys. They brought guys down from New York, DC, Boston. It was like a culture shock to them. But, most of them fought through it and the college helped them succeed."
Ford majored in business management at Longwood and is closing in on 30 years with Nestle Foods in Gaffney, South Carolina. His twin daughters, Tiffany and Tayla, are recent graduates of UNC Greensboro.
Players and coaches from the Final Four team will be inducted into the
Longwood Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 1. They are: Thomas Alston '82, Byron Bracey '81, Ken Ford '82, Joe Goydish '82, Darrell Jenkins '84, Randy Johnson '83, Shack Leonard '82, Larry Meyer '82, Kevin Newton '81, Ron Orr '84, Joe Remar '83, Jim Sixsmith '83, Orlando Turner '84 and Michael Wills '83. Ron Bash was the head coach, assisted by Mo Schoepfer.
Editor's Note: Please see these
individual and game statistics (PDF) from the 1979-1980 men's basketball season.
Rohn Brown is a free-lance writer and an avid sport enthusiast. He graduated from Longwood College in 1984 and lives in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
