As the DHS basketball teams gear up to play their last game at the Rec tonight (girl’s game starts at 5p), principal Lauri McKain-Fernandez sends along this recent interview with Decatur’s legendary basketball coach Bob Reinhart, where he talks about his career in Decatur, great games at the Rec, and his anticipation for the new, on-campus facility.

Article and interview by sports writer Billy Banks…

When we moved to Atlanta in 1981 there was one word we heard more than any other, a word uttered on nearly a daily basis — “Sherman.” As in “Sherman burned this,” or “Sherman left us nothing but a dang chimney,” or “we had to bury the silverware so that rascal Sherman wouldn’t take it” and so forth. It was simply amazing to us, raised as we were in a distant border state, how many people talked about W.T. Sherman some 120 years after he left Georgia. When we moved to Decatur in 1987 we had a similar experience, and still do, every time we attend a game at the Legendary Decatur Rec Center. There’s hardly a game where someone doesn’t mention the name “Reinhart,” as in “this is the way we did things back in Reinhart’s day” (although no one’s ever claimed that Reinhart took their silverware).

In many ways Bob Reinhart is a real-life embodiment of the Gene Hackman character in “Hoosiers.” He was a renowned Indiana schoolboy player, a tough disciplinarian as a coach, worshipped by many of his players and certainly respected by all. Current Decatur coach Carter Wilson who played for Reinhart in the early 1970s, and was later his assistant at both Decatur and Georgia State, has said, “There aren’t too many men who’ve had better offensive minds than Bob. I think without question he’s an offensive genius. He knows more plays than anyone living and maybe anyone dead, and I think I have most of them in my files at home. Here I am, 55 years old, and I’m still reaching into my files and pulling out something I learned from him.”

Reinhart was raised in tiny Dale, Ind., where he played on Dale High’s fiercely-competitive teams in the mid 1950s (about the same time period as “Hoosiers”) alongside Roger Kaiser, his best friend since sixth grade. “I called Roger up not long ago when he turned 70,” Reinhart told us recently. “I told him, ‘doggone Roger, my arm’s still sore from spending my whole life feeding you. I fed you more than a mother feeds her baby.’ ” Kaiser went on to Georgia Tech where he remains one of that school’s iconic players and all-time leading scorers (he’d find others to feed him) while Reinhart played for basketball Hall-of-Famer Branch McCracken at Indiana University from 1957 to 1961. In 1965, at age 27, he moved south, reuniting with Kaiser at Decatur High where they coached basketball and baseball together. In basketball, Kaiser was head coach, Reinhart assistant, with the pair reversing roles on the diamond.

That first Kaiser/Reinhart team was also Decatur’s first integrated team with guard Richard Wilson, Carter Wilson’s older brother. The star players were Herb White — probably Decatur’s best player ever, who later played for Georgia and the Atlanta Hawks — and Jack Williams who would later play quarterback for Georgia Tech. Kaiser left after three years and would eventually win national collegiate championships at West Georgia College (Division III) and Life College (Division II). Reinhart remained as head coach from 1969 until 1983, where he won three state championships, went to the state final three other times and, during one sublime stretch from 1981 to 1983 won 57 consecutive games. Reinhart left Decatur to spend two years on Mike Fratello’s staff with the Atlanta Hawks (making him one of only a handful of coaches to go directly from high school to the NBA), before serving eight years as Georgia State’s head coach. He’s now been an
NBA scout for the last 16 years, currently scouting college players for the Miami Heat.

Without question Reinhart’s coached (and won) more games than anyone else at the Legendary Rec, which hosts its final regular-season basketball game tonight. Now 70 himself, Reinhart will attend tonight’s game against Blessed Trinity along with a number of other ex players and coaches (unfortunately Kaiser can’t attend — he’s back in Indiana visiting relatives), for whom there’s a reception in the hospitality room between the girl’s and boy’s game. “You know, I had a radio interview earlier this season during halftime of a game at Tennessee,” he told us. “The announcer said, ‘Well, you’ve done about everything there is to do in basketball. What part of your career have you enjoyed the most?’ I told that fella the most fun I ever had in my life was at Decatur High School.”

WE HAVE DESCRIBED YOU SEVERAL TIMES IN OUR REPORTS AS THE “CIGAR-CHOMPING BOB REINHART.” SO OUR FIRST QUESTION, DO YOU STILL SMOKE CIGARS?

I never smoked ‘em. Always chewed on ‘em — it helped relieve pressure. I still chew on ‘em some when I play golf. But I’ve never lit up a cigar in my life.

WE HAVE TO PLEAD GUILTY TO THE MISSPELLIG YOUR NAME SEVERAL TIMES. WE ALSO KNOW THAT YOU’VE TAKEN MORE THAN ONE SPORTSWRITER TO TASK FOR A SIMILAR OFFENSE.

Not just sportswriters. I once had a principal who sent a memo about this, that or another thing and it was addressed to “Bob Reinhardt.” I sent it back saying, “there’s no one here by that name.”

I’M GLAD WE’VE GOT THAT OUT OF THE WAY. THE NEXT THING WE NEED TO ASK: BESIDES YOU AND ROGER KAISER, DALE, IND., CAN BOAST ONE OTHER CELEBRITY NATIVE; FROM ABOUT AGE SEVEN THROUGH ADOLESCENCE, ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS RAISED ON A FARM NEAR DALE AND HIS MOTHER NANCY HANKS LINCOLN, IS BURIED ON THE ORIGINAL FARM. DO YOU HAVE ANY ABE LINCOLN STORIES?

Never knew him — he was a little before my time. But you’re right, he grew up in a place now called Lincoln Park which is about four miles from where I grew up.

IT’S TOO BAD ROGER KAISER CAN’T BE AT THE REC CENTER TONIGHT. YOU AND HE MUST’VE BEEN PRETTY CLOSE.

Still are. We grew up closer than brothers. He was a great shooter, and I passed him the ball a lot, which was basically the nature of our relationship [laughs]. But don’t get me wrong, I could shoot the doggone ball myself.

You know, I sure am glad Decatur’s getting their own on-campus gym. I’ll tell you a funny story. Back when Roger and I came there in 1965, one of the booster club fellows told us, “You’all won’t have to play in the Rec Center much longer because we’re gonna build a new gym on campus. That was 1965! I’m glad they’re finally following through on that promise.

YOU TOOK OVER THE TEAM IN 1969-70 AND WON A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP. THAT’S NOT A BAD WAY TO START.

Well, I had good players. On that team I had Charlie Gresham, a great player. I had an all-state point guard named Jerry McNeil, and another all-stater named Mike Dickerson who scored 54 one night against Stone Mountain. Then I had Lee Robinson who was 6-6 and went to Vandy, and my other starter was Frank Gibson. It’s amazing I can remember all those guys when I can’t even remember what I’m supposed to buy at the grocery.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COACHING STYLE?

My basic style was to get good players [laughs]. It’s amazing how many of these young coaches today think they can be geniuses without good players. You know, when I was at Decatur there weren’t nearly as many sports, no soccer, no lacrosse, things like that. It was football and basketball, and we had plenty of good players in both. We had one middle school, six elementary schools, and I pretty much knew who my players were five or six years ahead of time. I’d plan that far ahead.

Well, I liked a running, up-tempo type of game. We got the job done on the defensive end, but yeah, I guess you’d have to say I’m more of an offensive guy. I come from the school that says you win games by scoring, preferably by scoring one more point than your opponent. Because we ran a lot in games, we [therefore] ran a lot in practices. We had discipline, we ran a tight ship, we had good parents, and we didn’t put up with a lot of foolishness. I don’t think I could put up with all the things these kids wear today, the rings on their noses, bells on their toes.

OF COURSE THE CLASSIC DECATUR TEAMS COME FROM THE 1979-83 PERIOD WHICH INCLUDES TWO STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND THE 57-GAME WINNING STREAK. THE TWO STATE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS REGARDED AMONG THE TOP 10 IN GEORGIA HISTORY

We won [the state championship] in 1979-80 when we beat Peach County and 1981-82 when we beat that great Gainesville team. We had Darryl Gresham, we had Xavier Mann, Pookie Benton and Hollywood Howard and Roland Shelton. Carter was my assistant. These were good players, who worked hard and listened to everything we told them. They don’t make teams like that anymore. As a coach, you can do about anything you want with players like that. I hope all those guys are all there on Friday.

I’M ASSUMING THAT BACK THEN, LIKE NOW, DECATUR HAD GREAT COMMUNITY SUPPORT.

Are you kidding me? We had a booster club that raised enough money, they’d feed the kids before every game. They also raised enough money to send our kids to the Kingdom of the Sun tournament in 1980, down in Ocala, Florida, and we won that thing. And I’m telling you, in those years the gym was packed every game. If you didn’t get there by 5 o’ clock, when the girls game started, you didn’t get in. I think, if we’d had a gym that sat 4,000 in those days, we would’ve packed it. For years almost all our home games were standing-room only.

WE’RE GUESSING YOU HAVE PRETTY FOND MEMORIES OF THE DECATUR REC CENTER

I love the Rec Center. I can’t even pick out one game [that stands out] because we had so many great battles in there with major teams. Back in the early days, when it was Roger and me, we had real poor lighting in there, and it would really throw our opponents off. That dark lighting was like a sixth man. So then, in the late 60s the lighting was changed, and doggone if it wasn‘t so dang bright in there, we had trouble shooting ourselves. But, like I said, we always had good players, and good players adjust.

The Rec was very intimidating for our opponents. The fans were right on top of you. Well, here’s what I remember about coaching at The Rec — we’d have fans walking through the huddle, climbing all over you during timeouts. Some would offer coaching advice. Well, that’s what The Rec was all about. I loved it, but it really threw our opponents off. I’d see these other teams walk in there, and already the place was packed, and those kids would be scared to death. Then, along about the fourth quarter, our student body would start chanting toward the opposing team, “Crank up the bus, crank up the bus.”

IT’S GOING TO BE BITTERSWEET SEEING THE REC FINALLY LAID TO REST

The Rec Center served it’s purpose. This new arena’s gonna be something else. I can’t wait to see it. I was there for the dedication of the football stadium, and I’ve never seen a better facility. This new [basketball] area’s going to be a showcase.

DO YOU SEE DECATUR PLAY VERY OFTEN

No. I’m almost always gone [scouting] on Fridays and Saturdays. Usually when I’m home, the last thing I want to do is see another basketball game.

YOU’VE BEEN SCOUTING A LONG TIME. YOU MUST REALLY ENJOY IT?

I do. I can stay active in the game, but I don’t have the pressure I had in coaching. It’s also something I can keep doing as long as I stay healthy, and it’s 6-7 month-a-year job. That gives me some time to play a little golf [laughs].

YOUR SON, BOBBY JR., PLAYED ON THOSE GREAT DECATUR TEAMS WE WERE TALKING ABOUT, PLUS HE COACHED HERE IN THE EARLY 90s. HOW’S HE DOING?

He’s doing great. He’s coaching high school ball down in Tampa. His team’s 20-5 going into the sub-regions this weekend. He’s doing a great job.

COACH, WE APPRECIATE YOUR TIME

Can’t wait to see everybody on Friday.