Osceola to retire Ford’s No. 40

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Osceola to retire Ford’s No. 40

Sports

Friday, 29 January 2010 08:39

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
Nearly 30 years and hundreds of players later, no one has played basketball at Osceola High School like Frank Ford. Probably, no-body ever will.
Part of a record-setting tandem with guard Jimmy McCrimon, Ford was the inside muscle for Coach Ed Kershner’s unbeaten (37-0) Class 3A state champions in 1983.
Ford, a 6-4 wide body, dominated the glass through a combination of instinct and hunger.
“It was all of those years playing against my brother, and over at Jimmy’s house playing against him and his older brother,” Ford said Tuesday in a phone interview from his office in Archer. “You learn after all those shots where the ball is going to go.”
Not that McCrimon, one of the deadliest shooters in Florida High school history, missed often.
Ford averaged 26 points and 21 rebounds over his varsity career, earning him high school All-America status and a scholarship to Auburn University, where he played swing guard for Sonny Smith.
Ford has a big week ahead. Today, he will be at Auburn to join Smith and former teammates to celebrate the school’s 1985 SEC Tournament championship and NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance. They will also preside at a closing ceremony for the Tigers’ gym.
Then, Tuesday, Ford returns to Kissimmee where Kowboys Coach Steve Mason will formally retire his jersey, No. 40, in the last OHS game played in the gym where Ford, McCrimon and their teammates sent fans into a frenzy three decades ago.
“How do I feel? Old!” Ford, 44, said with a chuckle. “First, I’m going to Auburn, where they’re closing that gym; then, they’re closing the gym at Osceola. It seems like that’s all I’m doing, closing gyms. That’s why I say, ‘Man, I feel old.’”
Kowboys basketball games were events when McCrimon, Ford and their teammates took the floor under Kershner. What Ford remembers, more than the games, were those boisterous crowds.
“It was packed, a lot of noise and a lot of enthusiasm. It seemed like everyone in Kissimmee was there. It gave everyone a sense of community,” Ford, a 1987 seventh-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers, said. “More than being an All-American and the individual awards, that’s what I really remember about those days.”
Mason was a middle school student when Ford and McCrimon reigned at OHS, and like everyone else who watched, he remains impressed.
“I didn’t know much about the game, I just knew I was seeing some great basketball and it was fun,” he said.
Mason said an official at a recent OHS home game chastised the school for not honoring Ford, not knowing that plans for doing just that were under way.
“He told me Frank Ford’s jersey should be hanging in the gym, and that it was a travesty that it wasn’t,” Mason said. “He said that he runs a high school basketball Web site that ranks players, and according to the statistics they use, that Frank was the third-best player in Florida high school history.”
Ford, the father of three, works in human resources as a youth guidance counselor. He coached briefly at Osceola High after he graduated from Auburn, and he later coached under Sonny Smith at Virginia Commonwealth University. But, he doesn’t spend much time with a basketball anymore.
“I’m done with all of that, now,” Ford said. “I’ll work with the kids if they ask me, but with three kids of my own, it’s hard to find the time.”
Ford will be at the Osceola gym for the 7:30 p.m. game Tuesday against Harmony.