Then & Now: Gerard Myrthil

Then & Now: Gerard Myrthil

Compiled By Dave Brandon (Photo Courtesy NU Media

Relations)

Gerard

Myrthil played for Nebraska from 1978-1979, and came to

Nebraska from the famed Laurinburg (NC) Institute.

Myrthil

saw his teams go 36-21 during his two years on the

hardwood in Lincoln, and played for the late Joe

Cipriano.

The 6'2"

guard is our latest interviewee in this Sunday's edition

of "Then & Now."

HHC: Thanks

for joining us. How long has it been since you talked

about Husker Hoops?

GM: Actually,

it’s been awhile because while I’ve been following them,

I don’t even know who the coaches are anymore.

I was

there with Moe Iba and Joe Cipriano, but after my

sophomore year, I got pushed out, and was basically told

they’d no longer honor my scholarship.

So, I

have mixed feelings about that, you know, I really do.

It wasn’t the best thing that happened for a brother,

being a Converse All-American my sophomore year (of high

school). So I barely ever talk about their basketball

program. I should have went with Tom Osborne when he

asked me to come out and play defensive back.

HHC: Sorry to

hear all that. You are originally from New York City,

New York, but attended Laurinburg (NC) Institute, where

you were captain of the basketball team as a senior and

averaged 24.0 PPG, 10.0 APG, and 7.0 RPG while leading

the team to a record of 18-2. What was that experience

like?

GM: It was the best times of my life, man.

The BEST. Those were three years that put my life back

on track, because before then, I was just a plain old

thug, idiot, with no schooling. I went to Laurinburg and

I developed a sense of integrity. I played baseball,

basketball, football, I was school chaplain, I was

second in my class in graduating, and it was the best

thing.

I would

refer that (place) to anyone, to go to Laurinburg.

HHC: What made you end up at Nebraska?

GM: Well, I didn’t know where I wanted to go,

and they didn’t know where they could get me, but they

knew my grades were good enough to go anywhere. As I

look back on it now, I probably would have preferred to

stay in the south, but I had no choice but to go to

Nebraska, so I took what they gave me. 

Laurinburg’s philosophy was to open doors. If you hadn’t

sent someone to a particular school, open the door and

send someone there. And I was the first one to come to

Nebraska. And from there, its history, but I really

didn’t have too much to say about where I wanted to go,

I just knew I wanted to go somewhere and not pay for it.

HHC: How big

of a shock was it to head to Lincoln from New York City

and North Carolina?

GM: Oh, it was pretty much a big shock. I

never, ever dreamed that dorms were that big, and that

so many people lived in so close quarters with no

privacy. It was just like living in a club. There was

noise 24 hours a day, and it wasn’t easy, especially

considering that I never really ever, at that point in

life, had ever been outside of New York but to North

Carolina.

So it

was a cultural shock, and to me, people that had only

seen black people on TV or whatever, made things weird.

There were times that people even came up and asked to

touch me. I thought it was a myth that farm guys had

never seen a black man or interacted with one, so that

was a cultural shock.

I felt

special, and that I had obligations to let them know not

to believe what you see on TV or radio. I thought that

was opening a door for others, and they loved me for

that.

Most of

my friends were from off the farms. They invited me to

their houses, they let me drive their cars to get

around, which wasn’t easy. My social life was

non-existent, so it was hard.

That

first year was the hardest year of my life, considering

the shock of a big school, and being away from home like

that. Most of all, just being out of your element, so to

speak, ya know?

HHC: Yeah, but

not in the same context as you, for sure. How was the

basketball aspect of it?

GM: The

basketball was good – Moe Iba was nice to me, and Joe

Cipriano was very nice to me. But the transition was

about to go down with coaches, and the year we went to

the NIT (1977-1978) was the best year, so that was nice.

I played a role in that, but I was very shocked to find

out that if I stayed, which I could, then I might not

play, so I just transferred right away.

HHC: What was

your relationship like with both Coach Cipriano and Iba?

GM: Cipriano liked me because I had

rawness about me. Moe Iba was more of a disciplinarian

and wanted the offense to go slow, and the ball needed

to pass around, and the offense needed to go through

certain people who were there for awhile, which I could

understand. But then there were times when you needed to

push it, and there would be conflicts between the

coaches about me.

So, I

just thought it was a good experience, because actually,

when I got over to Europe later and played in Sweden, it

all paid off. The exposure of living with different

cultures, different languages, it really paid off. And I

must admit that the Nebraska experience opened my eyes.

I had never seen big football like that in my life. If I

would have had a football scholarship, I might have been

in the pros, and you might have been talking to a Hall

of Famer right now, you really might have been.

There

was one guy who didn’t come there for football that

didn’t make it, a walk on. And that’s the only thing I

regret, is not taking that offer from (Tom) Osborne to

walk on. Some of the alumni told me that if you get hurt

playing football, you lose your basketball scholarship,

so I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

HHC: You were

in Lincoln for the second year of the NU Sports Complex

(now Bob Devaney Sports Center). How nice of an arena

was it in its day, and what was it like playing there?

GM: Oh, that complex was the bomb. The

showers, the dressing rooms, the training rooms, the

affiliated indoor track where we got our speed and

timings down. It was gorgeous, it was big time, and it

was Big 8 big time, believe me.

That

complex was just smokin’ yo, it was very, very nice, and

you felt good to come and go to practice and play in a

place like that with 14,000 people there. It was

something else man.

It’s

rare that I talk about it, because usually I don’t try

to, because I have issues about that. But I can open up

with you and tell you that I’m a recovering drug addict

at this point. And there’s a lot of things I never

recovered from, and Nebraska was one of them. And it

took me awhile to understand why I was trying to kill

myself on drugs, because I couldn’t talk to anybody

about what happened to me at Nebraska. And things I knew

I should have been a part of I couldn’t, and it took me

like 20 years to talk about it and to forgive myself, to

tell myself that it wasn’t my fault. I had no control or

power over that, but at the time I didn’t know that, so

the next 10 years I just felt like I was psychologically

disturbed.

As a

city kid, you come home for two summer’s and people are

like, “Hey, he’s at Nebraska, that’s huge, he’s big

time.” Then you come home a third year around Rucker

Park, and people are like, “Oh, he’s not there anymore,

he could have had it, but he didn’t.” And for me to come

home, it was really psychologically damaging.

God is

good though, and he got me back on the right track. I’m

a grandfather now with two grown sons, and I’m going on

four years clean, and I was homeless not to long ago,

about two years ago. And the lord gave me a place in

Brooklyn with a good job, and when I get the chance, I

work with kids and tell them my story, my testimony. I

tell them my story, where I’ve been, why I’ve lost it,

and I talk about my feelings.

You

should always talk about your feelings and not hold them

in. I didn’t have a father, so my Mother really raised

me. When she died about nine years ago, I just had to

smack myself and tell myself this is reality now. But

she was my main enforcer in life – she sent me to

Laurinburg, and she prepared me for college at Nebraska.

You know, it was a hardship to lose her, but sometimes

God closes doors to open others, and he talks to you all

the time. Sometimes you don’t pay any attention to it,

but sometimes he just closes a door to wake you up in

order for you to get your life straight, and to get off

the street corners. And ever since, I’ve been walking

straight and narrow.

HHC: I am glad you are doing better and

able to talk about it now.

GM: Yeah, me too. 

HHC: Your

freshman year on the court at Nebraska was 1977-1978,

and the team went 22-8 (9-5, 2nd) while reaching the

second round of the NIT. You guys were also the only Big

8 team to defeat Kansas that year. Are those the moments

that stick out most about that first year?

GM: Yeah, I remember that Kansas game. It

was a good feeling, and I believe they were ranked very

high and leading the conference. So it was a good

feeling.

We had a

good nucleus, with some guys from California, the wheat

lands of the Midwest, and then you had a couple of kids

from Chicago and New York. It was a crazy combination,

and I don’t know how we did it, but we did. It was

really a blessing.

I think

we were ranked 19^th that year for awhile, and

I felt good about the program. It’s always good to be a

ranked team and a potential NCAA Tournament competitor,

and it was something that I’ll cherish all my life.

HHC: Your second year was 1978-1979, and

the team went 14-13 (7-7, 5th). As a team, you guys were

first in the Big 8 in team defense and ninth nationally.

How much of that was a credit to Moe Iba, and what made

the team so good defensively?

GM: Basically, most of that was attributed

to Moe Iba. The offense was mostly Joe Cipriano, but we

would work just as equally hard on the defensive end. He

would teach us the man-to-man, help and recover, that is

what he would call it. The man-to-man, help and recover,

I remember that. And we lost games, not because teams

outscored us, but we lost games that second year just

because we were in an abyss to score ourselves. We would

hold teams that were scoring 80 and 90 points to 40 and

50 points, but it doesn’t make a difference if you can’t

score yourself. And I think that’s where the problem

was; there wasn’t enough time in practice to do the

offense. We needed to be more creative on offense.

I felt

the tension that second year, I really did. I saw the

tension in Moe Iba. His defense would work, but the

inability in the offense would be like, “Wow.” It wasn’t

a program to get up and down the court. We were fast,

and we had a fast team, but we were so often slowed down

that it was a cardinal sin to really run on a fast

break.

When I

had played basketball in Harlem, you went down and

forced the action, no matter the numbers. You’d make

them foul you and put you on the line. I saw a lot of

tension between Iba and Cipraino. One wanted to run, and

one wanted to slow it down. But, it was what you had to

do, and I wasn’t complaining at all because I got a

chance to travel around the country. Who am I? I’m

blessed. I was blessed just to be there for two years, I

really was.

HHC: During

your times on the court at Nebraska, you played with

some great players like Andre Smith, Brian Banks, and

Carl McPipe. What do you remember about those guys, and

do you stay in touch with any former teammates?

GM: No, I really didn’t. I don’t even know

whatever happened to a lot of those guys. I always

wished I’d run into Carl McPipe or Brian Banks overseas.

I ended up running into other guys from the Golden State

Warriors and guys who had NBA rings on their fingers,

but never those guys. I’ve wondered at times if they

were okay, what they were doing, etc.

Andre

was the backbone and turned out to be quite a player

after it was all said and done. He turned out to be the

real glue. I think McPipe was hurt for a minute, and we

had a nice little run without him. But no, I’ve never

seen them, but like I’ve said, a lot are from the

Midwest or still out there.

HHC: What are

your favorite memories of Nebraska, both on and off the

court?

GM: The snowstorm one day. I woke up, and

we couldn’t leave the building. And I never knew they

had tunnels underneath the building

(Harper-Schramm-Smith complex), and I was walking down

there, and just couldn’t believe they had tunnels from

one building to another. And we had the little

cafeteria. I don’t know, the weather was awesome out

there man. I mean, I saw everything from lightning

storms to tornadoes, from electrical storms to wind

blasts. The weather was so unpredictable.

Another

thing that caught my eye in Nebraska is that I must say

that the Lincolnites, and the Nebraska people, they were

pretty decent people, I have to admit. I’m not a racist

and I’m not prejudiced, but I stayed to myself at first,

and I never got a raw deal from anyone that lived there.

The people were the salt of the earth. Never was there a

time that they didn’t give you the shirt off of their

back if they had it. This is from old men to homeowners,

to children, to everyone. There wasn’t any racism in

Nebraska, because they never had a black friend or

something like that, it wasn’t like you find in the

south, you know? It’s not like in the south.

They

(the people of Nebraska) would go to the end of the

earth with you, as far as I’m concerned. And I should

know, since I am from Harlem, where they raise you as

racist. It’s all “cracker this, cracker that.” I didn’t

detect that at all at Nebraska, and I take my hats off

to everyone there. They really made you feel at home,

regardless of the situation.

HHC: Have you been back to Lincoln since

you left?

GM: No. Never have.

HHC: Finally, what has Gerard Myrthil been

up to the last thirty years, and what are you doing

today?

GM: I went to Stockholm, Sweden after

Nebraska, and played in a Division

II pro

league over there. I have family there, with two

brothers and a sister, and my brother is now playing

over there in the Division I League. My father called me

the other day and told me he just scored 40 something

points. He’s about 6’9”, and he’s only 24.

My

oldest brother was a professional soccer player in

Stockholm, and my sister works for IBM in Sweden at the

international corporation. And my Father and his wife

have a sun tan lotion business, where he creates the

product and they make it, bottle it, and send it off.

I went

there just to visit back in the late 1980’s, but they

offered me a contract just to play against their players

in practice. There were things I’d do in the layup line,

in the games, or things I passed at the schoolyard, and

I just passed it on to them, and I was able to send

money home to my Mom before she passed away. I did that

until the year the New York Giants won the Super Bowl

(1991).

Today, I

am a bus driver. I subcontract a bus for the city

driving handicapped people through New York City so they

can make their church appointments, make hospital

visits, and most of them hardly ever get a chance to go

out. So, when I’m in the van and driving, I’m usually a

listener, a preacher, a fireman, I’m all things, because

these people are so alone. They don’t have family that

comes to visit them on a daily basis, and when they get

dressed and come on my bus, I’m going to hear whether

they are happy or sad.

So, I’m

just like a father and confessional cabinet, and I’m

just there to get them where they are going and to be

kind and courteous to them. I do that now. I’ll be 50 in

July, I’m a grandfather, and a father of two sons. I’m

not married, but that’s okay.

HHC: If we set you up an e-mail account at

[email protected] , would you be

interested in taking some e-mails from our readers?

GM: I would love to, but I don’t have a

computer. I don’t really understand the Internet and

everything. (EDITORS NOTE: Dave will be happy to call

Gerard with any e-mails/thoughts/wishes you’d like to

send him. The e-mail has been set up for him, so go

ahead and e-mail if you wish)

HHC: Ah, okay. Thanks a lot for your time,

and anything else you'd like to add?

GM: I just want to thank those athletes at

Nebraska who were walk-ons in different sports. There

were those volleyball players, gymnasts, and football

players who were like my family.

I just

want to think everyone for being salt to the earth

people, and don’t change. Stay humble, be humble, and if

you love and respect, you will have love and respect

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