Former R.I. college basketball star known for 1946 'shot heard round the world'

10:12 AM EDT on Tuesday, October 21, 2003

BY BILL REYNOLDS
Journal Sports Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Ernest Calverley, 79, of South Kingstown, Rhode Island's first basketball superstar, died yesterday at Rhode Island Hospital after a brief illness.

Playing for the University of Rhode Island, the 5-foot-9 1/2-inch Calverley was one of the highest scorers in the history of college basketball. He became known as the player who fired "the shot heard round the world" when he hit a basket from 62 feet at Madison Square Garden in the final seconds of a 1946 National Invitational Tournament game.

Later, in 11 years as URI basketball coach, he took URI to the NCAA tournament twice and compiled a record of wins surpassed only by that of his own coach, Frank Keaney.

Fifty-seven years after he played, he's still the fifth all-time scorer in URI history.

Mr. Calverley found national fame at a time when Keaney was revolutionizing basketball with his fast, racehorse style for the team known as the Running Rams. Ernie Calverley, a short, skinny kid from Pawtucket, became his centerpiece, able to shoot and pass and run all day.

He grew up in a three-story apartment building, owned by his family, virtually aross the street from Slater Park. His father, who worked as a lace weaver, had put a basketball hoop in the backyard, and it became the shrine to Mr. Calverley's youth. At Pawtucket High School, he was both All-State and All-New England by his sophomore year. To this day, he still is one of the few players in the history of the Interscholastic League to be All-State three consecutive years.

AP files HERO: Ernie Calverley is mobbed after Rhode Island's 82-79 overtime win over Bowling Green in the 1946 National Invitationl Tournament.

But it was at URI -- then called Rhode Island State College -- where Mr. Calverley would make his name, at a time when college basketball was growing in popularity. Keaney, one of the game's true visionaries, believed in fast-break basketball, and to a player as skilled as Mr. Calverley, it was the perfect style.

"Keaney's philosophy was very simple," Mr. Calverley once said. "Get up more shots than the other guy."

One particular shot gave Mr. Calverley his sliver of basketball immortality.

It was March 1946, and Rhode Island State was playing in the NIT in New York City's Madison Square Garden. It was then the most prestigious college basketball tournament in the country. The Rams had been the last team invited; they were a huge underdog against Bowling Green. But with eight seconds to play, they trailed by two points.

The Rams had the ball out of bounds. Mr. Calverley got the ball in the backcourt on the left side of the court, 62 feet from the basket, and let it go through the smoky air.

"I can still see it very clearly," Mr. Calverley said in 1995. "I knew I had to throw up a hoper, and I knew I had to go to the left so I could avoid the scoreboard that was hanging over center court. I shot it two-handed, and I knew it was on line. But I never thought it was going to go in."

It did. The shot tied the game, and URI won in overtime.

One newspaper called it the "shot heard round the world." Newspapers around the country carried headlines about it. Marty Glickman, the famed basketball broadcaster who covered games for more than 50 years, said that shot was the most exciting moment in his broadcast career. Dick Young, then in the early days of his sportswriting career in New York, called Mr. Calverley "the boney Sinatra of the court."

Named the most valuable player, Mr. Calverley was carried off the court in pandemonium.

The next day, a film company tried to reenact the shot for posterity and Calverley didn't come close to making it again.

When the Rams returned by train from New York, after losing to powerful Kentucky by one point, they were met by about 700 students at Kingston Station. Mr. Calverley was carried off the platform on the shoulders of adoring students. There was a 200-car procession to the URI campus, where there was another celebration.

The following year, he was named the state's athlete of the year, by Words Unlimited.

"People remember Ernie Calverley," said the late Bill Woodward, whose book Keaney, chronicled Mr. Calverley's college career. "His name is ingrained in old-timers, even if they never heard of URI. People remember Ernie, and they remember that shot."

It wasn't just that one shot that made Mr. Calverley famous as a player. Twice, he was an All-American. One year, he led the country in scoring. His career total was 1,868, which at the time was the most points scored by an individual in college basketball history. To this day, he is on the NIT's 50-year team, honored as one of the five best players in 50 years.

"When he lays hand on the ball and starts moving," Red Smith once wrote, "he is a whole troop of Calverley, including the pretty white horses. This guy is terrific, colossal, and also very good."

He was the first player signed by the Providence Steamrollers, a newly formed pro team that played in the old Rhode Island Auditorium, on North Main Street, in Providence, in a league that eventually was to become the National Basketball Association. But before that happened, the Steamrollers folded, and after a short stint with the Boston Celtics, Mr. Calverly became a teacher in Pawtucket.

He coached a Pawtucket junior high team, at Bryant College, a semipro team in Connecticut, and the Providence College freshmen.

In 1957, he became the coach at URI.

He coached at URI for 11 years, and it was a good era for the Rams. Two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Big crowds at Keaney Gym. Under Mr. Calverley, URI compiled a 139-114 record, the most wins of any URI basketball coach except Keaney.

He stayed at URI as an associate athletic director until he retired in 1985, and for years afterward remained a visible presence at both football and basketball games at URI.

"Everything worked out fine for me," he said in 1995. "I've been very lucky. I think I came along in the right era."

URI started a scholarship in his name 10 years ago, to help student athletes.

Mr. Calverley was inducted into the URI Hall of Fame, the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Rhode Island Sports Hall of Fame. His jersey, No. 3, was retired from URI and now hangs in the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

He was the husband of Jeanne (Laity) Calverley; they lived on Hillside Road, in the Wakefield section of South Kingstown. Born in Pawtucket, he was the son of the late Ernest C. and Lillian (Ahmuty) Calverley.

A graduate of Pawtucket High School, he was a 1947 graduate of URI, where he earned a bachelor of science in liberal arts and was president of his class.

Mr. Calverley was a member of Point Judith Country Club. He enjoyed gardening.

Besides his wife, he leaves a son, Ernest A. Calverley Jr. of Andover, Mass.; a daughter, Lynne E. Hunter of Stuart, Fla.; two stepsons, Curtis Eaton of Narragansett and Howard Eaton of Orlando, Fla.; three stepdaughters, Andrea Phelps of Middletown, Sally Polland of South Kingstown and Linda Brown of North Attleboro; 17 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. He was the brother of the late Lillian Quine.

The funeral will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. in Peace Dale Congregational Church, 261 Columbia St., South Kingstown. Burial will be private.