McGinnis was the real deal and then some all his career

I’ll never forget the first time l saw the great George McGinnis in person. My late father and l were seated way up high at Hinkle Fieldhouse and l watched him run out on to the floor in the Indiana High School Basketball tournament as he prepared to lead the George Washington Continentals to the title in 1969. I was just ten years old but clearly remember asking my father why number forty-five was so much bigger and faster than anyone else on the court? Three years later my late mother, a devout Pacers fan in the ABA era, would take yours truly to the State Fairgrounds Coliseum regularly and once again l would repeatedly witness the incredible combination of size, strength, and speed that was “Big Mac,” who at this juncture had been immortalized by me with an autographed black and white publicity photo of him on my bedroom door and a rubber red, white, and blue basketball that was free when one filled up at a local gas station in the greater lndianapolis metro area. There can be no doubt that one of the darkest moments in my younger days was when the greatest basketball player l had...