Earl "The Pearl" Monroe Reflects - Clarence "Big House" Gaines Memorial Celebration 4/22/05

Earl Monroe's game defied description. My father was blessed to be able to coach a talent like Earl & the bond they had as coach & player endured over the course of their lives. Earl led Winston-Salem Sate College (now WSSU) with a record of 31-1 to the NCAA College Division team championship in 1967, averaging 41.5 points per game. He was selected with the #2 pick in the NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets and was later traded to the New York Knicks where he ended his Hall of Fame basketball career.
I've heard Earl speak about my father several times in a public forum. One of his favorite stories that he likes to tell that he didn't share in this venue centers around a quote that my dad would share in crucial situations - “Opportunity does knock at every door, but it's never been known to pick the lock.”
Here's a passage from an article on Earl in "The Undefeated:"
"Winston-Salem was a teachers college. We had 16 women for every man there, you know so it was a great college to go to. It taught me the importance of friendship. It taught me the importance of being myself, being a real man. My college coach “Big House” Gaines was, I guess, responsible for that because everything he said was a metaphor for things we should know. One of the things I live by is something he said to us is that every door is locked, and you have to be the one to be able to break that lock. And nobody’s going to do that but you. His whole phrase is, ‘Opportunity at every door doth knock, but it’s never been known to break a lock.’"
theundefeated.com/features/ea...
I created a youtube video on Earl's impact during his Senior Season at WSSU - • Earl "The Pearl" Monro... .
I've also written couple of blogs that focus on Earls exploits in basketball:
"Earl "The Pearl" Monroe's Sacrifice - From the Bullets to the Knicks" cgscoutperspective.blogspot.co...
Small College Basketball in the 1960's - Not so SMALL! cgscoutperspective.blogspot.co...