Then & Now: Tom Scantlebury

Then & Now: Tom Scantlebury

Compiled By Dave Brandon

(Photo Courtesy NU Media Relations)

Nebraska

Basketball Hall of Famer Tom Scantlebury played for

Nebraska from 1968-1970, and is 27^th on the

school's all-time scoring list (965 points). An

excellent free throw shooter out of the guard position,

Scantlebury led the 1969-1970 Huskers in scoring average

at 14.5 PPG, and played with Nebraska Basketball Hall of

Famers Chuck Jura, Marvin Stewart, Stuart Lantz, and Tom

Baack, as well as under Husker Hall of Famer Joe

Cipriano.

Scantlebury is our latest guest in this Sunday’s edition

of "Then & Now."

HHC: Before we

talk about your career at Nebraska, walk us through your

background. Where did you play high school ball at, and

what brought you to Lincoln?

TS: I grew up in Oakland, California, and I was

All-City in high school, and All-Bay Area in Northern

California. And, I was recruited quite a few places, and

I chose Nebraska because at the time, they were rated 11^th

in the nation, and they were at some point 7^th

when they beat Kansas that season, but then Kansas ended

up beating them and won the Big 8 that year, which was

1966, or the year of the Glory Road movie. 

HHC: Aw, right on. Tell us what the

perception of Nebraska basketball was like back then to

a high school kid like you?

TS: They were out there, and they played

Cal Berkley two games in a row, and I saw one of the

games and that’s when they had Stu Lantz, Nate Branch,

and Willie Campbell. And, I think they split, but they

played a high jumping, fast breaking game, and that was

the type of game that was suited for me.

HHC: Describe "Slippery Joe" Cipriano,

both as a coach and a person?

TS: I think as

a person, he was definitely a character. He was always

doing the practical jokes. I remember playing the

Mexican National Team down in Mexico City after my

freshman year, and him shooting off the halftime gun,

which was an actual starter’s pistol, and then chasing

the referees with a towel and swatting at them. (Laughs)

So just a total character.

As a

coach, he was very well organized and had very good

assistant coaches. He knew how to win, and he knew how

to get the results that he needed to get. I did feel

that my senior year especially, we had three people lost

to academics, but I thought we had a good chance to be

Top 10 that year otherwise. 

HHC: What was

your relationship like with Coach?

TS: Up and down. When I first got there

and was a freshman, I was in a Sports Illustrated

article as the top freshman in the country. And it

seemed like after that, that he didn’t want me to get a

big head for a brief time, so he was always trying to

keep me in check, so to speak. So it was up and down

until my senior year, and about then, that’s when I

think his true personality came out.

I think

if we were the same age we would have been best buddies.

I think I matured a lot at the time of my senior year,

and he had more confidence in me. I really enjoyed that

year.

HHC: Since most of our readers don't know

much about you as a player, describe Tom Scantlebury in

your own words.

TS: I was 6’3 and a ½, 190 pounds, played guard,

and occasionally forward. I was a running type of

player, a good jumper, hanging in the air, that type of

thing. I liked to drive and shoot from the outside, kind

of a slasher and outside jump shooter.

HHC: Your first season at Nebraska was

1967-1968, and the team finished 15-10 with a 3rd place

Big 8 finish. You played with some great players that

year, but before we get to that, tell us what it meant

to win the Big 8 Holiday Title?

TS: Back then, and I don’t know when the Big 8

post-season tournament started, but back then, they had

a Christmas tournament. So, we’d have our pre-season

games, and we’d play about 8 or 9, and then we’d play

the Big 8 tournament, which would be three games. There

was a game for 5^th, 3^rd, 1^st,

etc.

I

remember we beat Oklahoma the first game that season,

and then Oklahoma State when Henry Iba coached, and he

ran his passing game and there was no shot clock, so

they took about 2 minutes off of the clock every

possession, and we beat them in a very close game. And

we beat Kansas State for the championship.

It was

just a wonderful thing. I don’t think we were rated in

the Top 20, but we got to the point where it said “also

receiving votes”. And then we started off the Big 8, and

I know we lost our first two games, which were on the

road. But then we won our next six in a row and it

looked like we were heading toward the championship, and

then we just kind of floundered. We were 8-4 and ended

up 8-6 after losing our last two games, so we ended up 3^rd.

I wouldn’t say it was a failure of a year, but we could

have done better.

HHC: Now, onto

the great players you played with your first season.

Stuart Lantz and Tom Baack were both on that team, and

that marked the first time in NU history that two 1,000

point scorers were on the team at the same time. What

was it like playing with them, and what did you learn?

TS: When I started playing, the freshman

were ineligible, so I was kind of used to practicing and

playing against them my freshman year. But being on

there team was an extreme honor. Both of them were

averaging 18, 19 points a game. They were very

consistent.

Stu

Lantz was very athletic, and I know we used to have

jumping contests, and he could get 11 and a ½, 11 and 10

inches up there, and he was about my height, about 6’3”.

Stu was a very good shooter, very athletic, and played

pro for ten years.

Baack

was one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen, and was out

of Indiana.

It had

its ups and downs playing with them, because I was kind

of a 3^rd option, but I did learn a lot from

playing with those guys.

HHC: Who were

some other players back then that were great in the Big

8?

TS: Oh, Jojo White played at Kansas, right

when I started my sophomore year. Colorado had Pat

Frank, and then you had Don Smith from Iowa State,

Garfield Heard from Oklahoma, and I also played later on

against Clifford Ray, who was a star center for Golden

State. There were a lot of great players.

On our

team alone, we had Chuck Jura, who was the best center

to come out and in my opinion, could have played in the

NBA for a long time but chose instead to go to Italy.

HHC: Talk more about having your picture

in Sports Illustrated with the "outstanding

freshman playing college basketball", especially since

you were honored alongside a couple of half-way decent

players in Calvin Murphy and Pete Maravich. 

TS: Well, I did have a chance to play in three

college All-Star Games, averaging 24 points per game in

those three, and played for the Midwest

All-Stars at the end of my senior year. I got to play

against Nate Archibald, Dave Cowens, Rudy Tomjanovich,

and Pete Maravich was supposed to show up to that

tournament, but he didn’t, although his father was the

coach. There were a lot of great players that year.

HHC: (Laughs)

Was your hair really as wild and crazy back then as

everyone says?

TS: They said that? (Laughs)

HHC: Someone

did, I think it was (Chuck) Jura.

TS: Really?

Well, I didn’t have a lot of money to get a haircut back

then (Laughs).

But

really, I don’t remember that so much. The 70’s, people

were wearing their hair longer with sideburns and stuff,

man, but I never wore and never would wear a pony tail

or anything like that.

HHC: (Laughs)

Hey, we have to ask the tough questions! Speaking of

which, 1968-1969 saw a disappointing finish of 12-14 for

your team, although you finished strong in Big 8 play,

going 5-5 after beginning 0-4. What was the problem that

season?

TS: First of all, we didn’t have one senior on

the team. It was kind of chaotic, because we started off

the non-conference 5-1. We beat Michigan State, and then

we went off to Phoenix to play in the Sun Devil Classic,

and we played Cal and Arizona State, but we lost two

close games there. And then we went to the Big 8

Tournament and we lost the first game to Kansas, and if

I remember correctly, Coach Cipriano wanted us to stall

because Kansas had this 1-3-1 that they called the

“Jayhawker regular zone defense”, so there was no shot

clock. 

So,

Marvin Stewart and I were guards, and we were playing in

front of 15,000 people, and I think we got the jump

ball, and I just had the ball under my arm until

everyone started booing so loud, and I threw it to

Marvin and we just started to play catch. And the final

score was super low, and they beat us, and that was the

worst game I can remember being in, as far as

embarrassing goes.

After

that, we won the next two games in the Big 8 tournament,

and ended up in 5^th place, and then we were

just inconsistent. We beat Oklahoma, we beat some good

teams, and then we’d be silly and lose close games. We

just didn’t have any seniors or leadership.

HHC: What was it like playing in the

Coliseum back then?

TS: Oh, I loved it. Everybody was up close

and personal. I think it held 8,500 people, and it was

extremely loud when games were close. It was a good

floor, and it was a lot of fun.

HHC: Your last

season was 1969-1970, and you led the team in scoring at

14.5 PPG, while the team finished in a 3rd place Big 8

tie at 16-9. What sticks out about your senior season?

TS: That was a year that I felt we could

have been a Top 10 team, as I mentioned earlier. We had

Marvin Stewart, who was later an All-Big 8 player, and a

great player. He and Cliff Moller from New York City,

and Jim Brooks from Akron Ohio, they all got the

academic bad grades, and were ineligible. And I think if

we would have had them, we would have won 20 games and

gone over the top, and maybe won the Big 8 and gone to

the NCAA’s.

All in

all, regardless of that, I still enjoyed that season. I

was within one vote of making All-Big 8, as I made

second-team All-Big 8, and made the Midwest All Star Team, like

I said. Coach and I were getting along well and had

respect for each other. And I really enjoyed playing

with guys like Chuck Jura, Marvin Stewart, Cliff Moller,

Jim Brooks, etc.

Oh, and

another player who was great was Leroy Chalk, who played

in France for a number of years. He and Jura, Stewart, and Sam

Martin were my best friends, and we all got along great.

HHC: What do

you remember most about your times at Nebraska, and when

was the last time you made it back?

TS: The last time was Veteran’s Day

weekend, I went back to see my good friends Chuck Jura

and Sam Martin. And Janet Jura and Leslie Martin, their

wives, were also great to see. We flew back and stayed

with Sam one day and one night, and Chuck the other two.

And we

went to a couple exhibition games, and we saw Creighton.

Then we saw Chuck’s son play at UNK, and he’s a great

player. Its too bad he didn‘t go to Nebraska, he would

have really helped them, but I think he’s real happy

with where he went. He’s a big strong kid, and he’ll

play somewhere after college.

Then I

saw Nebraska play an exhibition game down there against

Holy Family, and it was not a real pretty game to watch,

but Nebraska’s doing pretty well lately, except when my

wife Gayle and I were in Hawaii, and I know Nebraska had

won their first two and lost to Iowa State. And they

were playing Kansas in a national television game, and I

almost said “let’s go to a bar and watch Nebraska play

Kansas”, and then I thought something might go wrong and

I didn’t wan to embarrass myself, and that was like a 45

point game, so I’m glad I chose like I did.

HHC: (Laughs)

Did you get a chance to play any professional basketball

after your career at Nebraska?

TS: I signed a contact with the Milwaukee

Bucks and went to veteran’s camp, and they had a 14-man

roster, which I was on. And then as the exhibition

season went on, and I got cut after they made a trade

and brought in Lucious Allen, who played at UCLA with

Lew Alcindor, and also Bob Boozer from Omaha. And then

that was it for me.

I played

in the CBA for two years, and we won the CBA

Championship, and I was All-CBA and scored 21 a game.

And then I went to Australia and finished out the year,

and then I wanted to get back over here.

I could

have stayed there for quite awhile, because I was

scoring like 30 points a game, but I wanted to get into

coaching, and I had a family and a daughter. And unless

you were in the NBA back then, I didn’t see that being

that financially beneficial, so I thought I’d just get

on with my life. But I did play three years after

college.

HHC: And, what have you been up to the

past thirty years, and where are you at today?

TS: I coached in Nebraska in a small town

called Fort Calhoun for four years, and then I took a

job with Jostens, which is a yearbook/ring company. I

did that for twenty-five years, and I just kind of

retired early.

It took

three people to take my spot, so I figured I worked

three times as hard as I should have, so I quit early.

And then my wife retired, and we did that a couple years

ago. I won’t tell you our ages now, because my wife’s in

the room, but she’s younger than me, which she just

pointed out. (Laughs)

So I did

all that, and I have never quit playing basketball.

Chuck Jura, Sam Martin and I play for this team out

of Chicago, and we were just up in Edmonton, Canada, and

we won the world championship for over 50, and before

that, we were in Australia. I played with these guys in

Park City and Florida, and Australia, and Sydney again.

And this guy out of Chicago pays for everything and puts

us up in Five Star hotels. It’s great because there are

lots of ex-NBA players that play, and they have World

Games each year, and you can have a team for each group.

I have two kids, Jason and Lisa.

Jason played basketball, and also ran track and cross

country in high school.  Now he's an administrator

of a business.  Lisa ran cross country in her high

school days and now she's an

elementary school teacher, my wife also used to be a

teacher, and Lisa is also the mother of a five-year-old

girl.

HHC: Awesome. Hey, thanks a lot for taking

the time to join us. We've set you up an e-mail account

at

[email protected], and hope you will take

some e-mails from the fans. Are you cool with that?

TS: Yeah, definitely. It might take me

awhile because I’ll have to use my daughters computer,

but most definitely.

HHC: Not a problem,

this interview will be up for a long time! Is there

anything you’d like to add before we let you go?

TS: Well, we go to

Europe once a year, my wife and I, and last time we went

to Paris, we saw Leroy Chalk, and we’ve seen him a

couple of times over there. He’s doing well, and I know

he was the leading rebounder in Nebraska history at one

point, but I know he’s been beaten out since then. But

you’ve got to remember, we weren’t allowed to play as

freshman.

But anyway, thanks a lot for doing this, it’s been nice

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