T1B

I just found out that "Dinner Bell Mel" committed suicide at the age of 49. http://www.kentucky.com/2010/07/10/1343 ... sweet.html

Kentucky was the first regular-season opponent on ND's schedule my freshman year at ND, and ND-Kentucky was the very first DI college basketball game I ever saw in person. Turpin looked like a man among boys in that game.

RIP.

that's far out. i remember melvin turpin. he was kind of poor man's Wes Unseld.

Great college player but was he ever a dud in the NBA. When he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he and Keith Lee would stage a nightly "lazy off" to see who could cover the least amount of ground during the game.

the first NBA game i ever went to was in '86 - Utah-Cleveland at the old Richfield Coliseum. I think Karl Malone ended up w/ 38 that night, almost all of them getting the ball at the elbow and driving the lane right past Turpin. Then Turpin later became Malone's teammate and earned the nickname The Mealman.

I think Sam Bowie, Turpin and Kenny Walker were forever scarred when Kentucky got their shit pushed in vs. G'Town in the '84 NCAAs.

Ahhh Richfield Coliseum...memories of the Ted Stepien era...of 1500 or so fans Edgar Jones, Ben Pouqette, Lloyd Free, John Bagley and a host of other misfits that played for that cheap bastard...of course once the Gunds took over and injected some life in the form of actual talent (sup Mark Price, Brad D, Larry Nance, etc) the place was rocking...

I gave up on Cleveland sports a long time ago...I want them to do well if they reach a championship...but too many fucking years of frugal owners and shitty players turned me off...