Kudos to the University City School District, which will honor former basketball coach Ed Crenshaw and former star player Hasan Houston in a special way.
The school’s gym will be renamed in honor of Crenshaw, who spent 17 seasons as U. City’s varsity coach. Crenshaw was also a top basketball coach at St. Dominic in O’Fallon, Mo. from 1960-74. The school named the basketball court in his honor last season in another special dedication.
To have your name dedicated and put on two different schools is quite a special honor. It is also a testament to a great man who has meant so much to so many people. Not only did Mr. Crenshaw enjoy a stellar coaching career, but he also happens to be a very nice man. What people might not know was that Mr. Crenshaw was quite a basketball player at Sumner High in the early 1950’s. He enjoyed a stellar collegiate career at Quincy University where he is in the school’s Hall of Fame. As a coach, he became a mentor and an inspiration to many young people during a career that spanned four decades.
One of Crenshaw’s top players during that time was Hasan Houston, who was a superstar guard in the mid-1970s before moving on to the collegiate level at Kansas and Bradley. The basketball court will be named in honor of Houston. He was a St. Louis Post-Dispatch All-Metro performer in 1976. In 1981, Houston helped lead Bradley to the championship of the National Invitational Tournament.
One of the key people instrumental in making this dedication a reality was former U. City basketball standout Redditt Hudson, who played for Crenshaw in the early 80’s, and is now a Racial Justice Associate of the local ACLU.
“This means everything to me because it’s something that our extended University City alumni family and many friends worked together to do for two men that are beloved in both our school and community history,” Hudson said. “We’re not just enshrining their legacy, we’re enshrining a time and place when we all brought out the best in each other, and we’re giving it to future generations to build their legacies on. There is a lot of love in this.”
The official dedication ceremony for these two men will take place at next year’s homecoming. Congratulations to these two very deserving men on this honor for what they accomplished for University City.
District tournament action
Missouri Class 4 and 5 District Tournament action will conclude with championship games on Friday and Saturday. Here are the times and dates of this weekend’s district championship games.
Class 5
District 2 (at Hazelwood Central)
Boys: Saturday, noon, Girls: Saturday, 2:30 p.m.
District 3 (at Webster Groves)
Boys: Saturday, 3 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 7 p.m.
District 4 (at Lafayette)
Boys: Friday, 7 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 5:30 p.m.
District 5 (at DeSmet)
Boys: Saturday, 4 p.m.; Girls: Saturday, 1 p.m.
District 6 (at Lindbergh)
Boys: Friday, 7 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 5 p.m.
District 7: (at Troy)
Boys: Friday, 7 p.m.: Girls: Friday, 5:30 p.m.
District 8 (at Fort Zumwalt East)
Friday, 7 p.m.; Girls: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Class 4
District 3 (at Hillsboro)
Boys: Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 6 p.m.
District 4 (at St. Mary’s)
Boys: Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Girls: Thursday, 6 p.m.
District 5 (at Beaumont), Gateway Tech
Boys: Friday, 7 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 5:30 p.m.
District 6 (at Clayton)
Boys: Friday, 8 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 5:30 p.m.
District 7 (at Duchesne)
Boys: Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 5:30 p.m.
District 9 (at Union)
Boys: Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Girls: Friday, 6 p.m.
The undefeated
The Chaminade boys and St. Dominic girls were the only two teams in the area to finish the regular season with undefeated records. Both teams finished the regular season with 24-0 records. Chaminade is the No. 1 seed at the Class 5, District 3 tournament at Webster Groves while St. Dominic is the top seed at the Class 4, District 7 tournament at Duchesne.
Heart of Lions
I must extend my congratulations to my college alma mater, Lindenwood University, on winning the Heart of America Athletic Conference championship last week. The Lions also clinched an automatic berth to the upcoming NAIA National Tournament. Lindenwood is currently 26-3, which is a school record for victories. Lindenwood is currently ranked No. 10 in the country. Kudos to LU head coach Brad Soderberg. Nice job, guys.
Mizzou recruits at Logan
My juco peeps have told me that University of Missouri coach Mike Anderson has been to John A. Logan College in Carterville, Ill. to take a look at former Hazelwood Central standout Connell Crossland. The 6’7″ Crossland is a talented sophomore forward who leads Logan in scoring and rebounding. He is a long, athletic combo forward to can really rebound.
Juco Jerome Jones
Interesting. Former Career Academy standout Jerome Jones is the leading scorer at Indian Hills Junior College in Iowa. The 6’5″ Jones has received recruiting interest from Division I schools around the country.
Middle school champs
Congratulations to the Yvetter Younge Middle School 8th grade team on winning the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) state championship last week. Younge defeated Teutopolis 26-24 in the state championship game. One of the coaches on the team is my buddy Maurice Scott, who has done an excellent job of coaching some of the fine up and coming talent on the East Side. The head coach of Young’s team is Don Spencer, a former star player at Hannibal-LaGrange.
