Detroit Flanagan reminiscence - September 18, 2022

well I guess I got married my third year at Loyola to my high school sweetheart, I'm a good baptist. And so we got married and actually that senior year I lived off campus. Um, so the overall experience at Loyola was excellent. Father Merrifield. In fact to

think about it now when I got out of the military uh Father Merrifield called me and uh Patty and Jack who was a Nigerian student and I became very good friends after we graduated. Uh he called us to help him with the students at the time.

They had about 40 african american students compared to the five or six, well five or six ahead when I was here. And so they were taking over the administration buildings and protesting and doing things. So Father Merrifield called us to ask to ask us if we

could come and assist them in working with the african american students which patty and I did and uh we became honorary members of the black student union. And I remember meeting with Irma Brown who later became a Superior Court judge and uh Bill Strickland who played

ball on scholarship also out of the same high school that I was, but he became a big time uh attorney, sports attorney. And uh Wallace was the last name of the last name of the other young man who became a senior VP and the Red cross.

So all three of them became very prominent uh in business. And uh, but they were, they were tough here. And so I met with them. The only thing I had to say to them was just make sure you don't leave here without your piece of paper,

that's what you came for, so don't leave without that. And so that seemed to work out well. So we formed a good friendship over the years and see what happened after that. I don't know, I'm running out of, I'm trying to remember remember where else I

went. I think I promised nothing else is coming to mind. I think I think I'm all done. Oh I mentioned was the first american. Yeah. And the reason I mentioned that was because I came to a meeting here once. Uh african american association had a meeting

and they had a, it was a dinner and they went around each table and asked to stand up and tell what we did and why we're here such and I stood up and said, you know, played by all the math and all that business. Then I

said I was the first african american president of the alumni association and the young lady was sharing the meeting, she said, I thought I was the first, I almost fell on the floor. I mean unbelievable. I mean, as young as she was, I mean she thought

you that was 20 years before. Yeah, so you just never know. Yeah, that's why it's important to keep it because you really lose it fast. It's amazing. In fact I saw a magazine called profiles in courage I've had on my coffee table for years. I bought

it from a friend and I decided, well maybe I'm looking to see who's in there. Darn if I didn't open up the very first page. And the guy, it was dedicated to the whole book. It was a black guy from Loyola. He would have been here

before me. Yeah, it's amazing. Oh, got slippery stuff in the wind. That's not good. It doesn't work well. So yeah, so I mean you can lose your history just like that. It's just amazing. So, but you know, I still support the university and I go to

the games when I can I live in sacramento trying to get back to L. A. Uh but I go, when they come up there I go, yeah, always support the coaches. You know, we got the first black coach and I met him and uh, but I

met the other coaches as well, but I like him. I think he's gonna do well. Yeah, yeah. So we're overdue for a turnaround. That's for sure. Yeah, we have, Well, in fact I didn't mention I was on the selection committee that hired paul West head. I

was, there was five of us that did the selection thing. I was one of them. Yeah. In fact, we, the first guy, Jim, what was that Rascal's name? He was he was the coach of the Philadelphia 76 Jim because we asked him point blank and said

now if we give you the job, you're not gonna go back to the pros, are you? He said no, no, no, I'm done with that. And I mean it was probably a month later, we picked him as the head coach and it was about a month

later, I'm in my car and I hear the news coach jim whatever he is, is going, going back to the 70 sixes. I said that a lion scumbag, I couldn't believe it. And so then we can that we had to meet again I was gonna do.

And they were saying, well, you know, we started to search again. I said, well wait a minute, we interviewed the top five we could find. And he took the first place. I said paul West said was the second, he was the second, so you don't start

all over, take number two if it was gone. So that's how we got him. The only difference with him and the and the guy other, the first guy uh was that he was more outgoing, paul's really kind of, real introspective guy, you know, as an english

teacher and that kind of stuff. You can't keep putting it there, It's gonna be blowing down. There you go, we're supposed to learn from our mistakes and so yeah, that's what we just took him. Yeah, we became pretty good friends too. Oh yeah, we were we

were season ticket holders while they were here, we had them over the house for dinner, I met with several times afterwards. We had some really nice kids, remember Forest Mackenzie and nice guys, all of them. And there's one Enoch Simmons who played, he went on to

play, he started playing with Oakland A's pro baseball of all things, but he played basketball. He was good at basketball, but better baseball. So he was there and we just missed some wonderful young men And we have them over the house. And my wife, you know,

they all loved my wife. She she was I loved her too. She was a wonderful person. She passed away. Uh it's a year last month. Yeah, she had a 44 bouts with cancer over 20 years. The one in fact that when she died from was the

amyloidosis, which is the same one that Colin Powell died of, but there's no cure for that one. Yeah, she had breast cancer and they got that and uterine cancer, they got that. But yeah, that was my girl. Yeah, we got married my third year. They saw

all the guys, all the boys and they all knew her because there weren't any girls on the campus, you know, So I'd have her up here all the time. So uh yeah, that was fun. That was good days. Anyway, okay