The RoundHouse | 11/29/2018 2:14:00 PM

In 1966, a burly Wichita State center with bad ankles decided to quit basketball and go home to Pennsylvania.
 
"Sitting on the bench was driving me crazy," Bob Powers said. "I'm competitive."
 
Coach Gary Thompson told Powers to stay in Wichita, that things were going too well for him to return to Washington, Pa. When Powers said his family couldn't afford tuition without the basketball scholarship, Thompson told him not to worry. He found a way to keep Powers on scholarship for the three semesters he needed to graduate with a degree in education. 
 
"It was Gary Thompson who made my life all come together," Powers said. "His family didn't know what that meant to me. That's why I'm so involved in this project. I know what that man did for my life."
 
Fifty-two years later, Bob Powers, 73, is happy he stayed in Wichita, where he and wife JoAnn built a life with eight children and 23 grandchildren. 
 
Fifty-two years later, Bob Powers is paying back Thompson's kindness while sitting in his 2005 tan Suburban on a cold morning outside Koch Arena. He is with sculptor Ann LaRose, watching a life-size, bronzed, statue of Shocker star Dave Stallworth placed on a granite pedestal. In 2017, after Stallworth's death, Powers and teammates raised money and planned for this weekend.
 
For Stallworth's teammates from those early 1960's teams and his fans, it is a fitting recognition for the greatest Shocker. For Powers, it is a tribute to his teammates and coaches and his way of filling a vital role after his playing days ended.
 
"He wasn't a key player on that team," said Todd Powers, one of his four sons. "Yet, in retrospect, he's really been kind of the glue that's kept everybody together. He really does love those guys."
 
At 11 a.m. Saturday, the Stallworth statue will be unveiled in a public ceremony. The 1965 Final Four team will be recognized during Saturday's game against Baylor. All but one living member of the team is expected to return for the festivities, which include a dinner on Friday.
 
Stallworth, a consensus All-American in 1964 and 1965, died at 75 in March 2017. His No. 42 jersey is retired in Koch Arena after a career that included a scoring average of 24.2 points. He starred on the 1964 and 1965 Missouri Valley Conference title and NCAA Tournament teams, the first and biggest splashes as a nationally prominent program.
 
"David Stallworth meant so much to this school and town, to have him honored in front of that arena will be monumental," Powers said. "The team is so excited."
 
Powers, along with other members of the 1965 team, led a $200,000 fund-raising effort for the statue and the WSU David Stallworth Memorial Scholarship for undergraduate students majoring in elementary or secondary education.
 
He played in eight varsity games over two seasons at Wichita State, two during the 1965 season. On the freshman team, he averaged 7.2 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds in 1963-64. When he thinks about his playing days, he thinks about the torn ligaments and sprains in both ankles that limited his playing time. 
 
"I played on bad ankles most of the time in high school and college," he said. "(Trainer) Tom Reeves iced me up and kept the salt tablets coming."
 
Former Shocker Lanny Van Eman, then an assistant coach, recruited Powers out of Pennsylvania, charming his mother while eating her lemon meringue pie during home visits. 
 
"He would come in there and the first words out of his mouth – 'Mrs. Powers. I smell pie,'" Bob Powers said. "My folks loved him."
 
John Criss hosted Powers on his recruiting visit to Wichita and remembers Powers fitting in right away and telling his parents he found the right place. That remained true for the rest of his life, in part thanks to Thompson, who coached the Shockers from 1964-1971.
 
Powers spent most of his career in financial planning. The Strategic Financial Center building in downtown Wichita serves as the headquarters for the Stallworth statue planning. His office, filled with Shocker memorabilia and family pictures, is where he organizes, emails – many, many emails, his teammates say - phones and meets to keep the project moving. 
 
"Anything he does, he does 100 percent," JoAnn Powers said. "I told him I should have had him plan our wedding."
 
Throughout his life, Powers moved from project to project, always with someone else in mind. He taught, coached Special Olympics and raised money for special needs students in Wichita in his first career after graduating from Wichita State. He raises money to dig water wells and build churches for two Catholic parishes in Uganda. 
 
"I've become enchanted with helping," he said. "Helping others in whatever way is needed."
 
When the 1965 team reunites in Wichita, it is with Powers making arrangements. The job of host fell to Powers in part because he lives in Wichita and in larger part because he thrives on the organizing and connecting.
 
"Dad has a way of seeing through all the talk that's going on to see a problem for what it is, and a confidence in his ability to solve it," said Austin Powers, his son. 
 
Teammate Manny Zafiros calls Bob Powers the Most Valuable Planner. Powers selected the menu and booked the hotel banquet room and a block of rooms. He designed placemats with a Shocker basketball theme, organized the speakers, hired a photographer and coordinated the events with Wichita State.  To help the sculptor recreate Stallworth's face and body, he requested dozens of Stallworth photos from Wichita State media relations to make every angle available to LaRose.
 
"Bob's done it all," Criss said. "I wish there was a way we could honor him."
 
When teammate Larry Nosich hesitated to return for the 50^threunion in 2014, Powers suggested Shocker coach Gregg Marshall call. Nosich came.
 
"(Powers) likes to do everything on a grand scale," teammate Dave Leach said. "There's a lot of work there and he did the lion's share. I think he sees this as his legacy, as far as the team is concerned."
 
Other members of the team pitched in over the years. Powers remembers a call from Leach prompting the first reunion. Teammates Melvin Reed and Mohamed Sharif talked to Powers after Stallworth's memorial service in 2017 at Koch Arena to discuss ways to honor Stallworth, starting the idea for the statue. Last spring, Powers and Sharif traveled to Loveland, Colo., to approve the final version of the statue.
 
While the years and miles scattered the Shockers, they say they remain close and they united around the idea of educating younger generations about Stallworth's influence and life.
 
"This is about that group of men and what they did for the university and this city at a very pivotal time," Wichita State athletic director Darron Boatright said. "You're talking about the Civil Rights era of the early 1960s. The way these guys came together – you have Vietnam going on, you had Civil Rights issues and this group of men from all over the United States came together."

Powers leaned on former teammates and others for the statue fund-raising project. The team appreciates the full support of Marshall, who spoke at the 50^threunion and helped kick off fund-raising for the statue in the fall of 2017.
 
Boatright looks at his phone and chuckles at a 1:28 a.m. text from Powers, checking on arrangements for the statue ceremonies. Boatright also worked with Powers and other members of the team on the 50^threunion. When a project starts, Powers considers everyone a member of the planning team, adds them to his email list and is never afraid to request help or donations.
 
"Bob is a gruff humorist," Boatright said. "He loves shock value. He will ask anything to anybody. But his heart is as big as his Suburban."
 
Stallworth exhausted his eligibility in January 1965, leaving a short-handed team to defeat SMU and Oklahoma State to advance to the Final Four in Portland, Ore. In the Midwest Regional championship win over OSU, the five Shocker starters – Jamie Thompson, Vernon Smith, Leach, Criss and Sharif (then Kelly Pete) - played the entire game.
 
Powers didn't know it at the time, but his contributions to the 1965 Final Four grew later and became meaningful in a different and lasting way.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.