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Tom Rowe

Contributor

NORWICH – Unlike Gale Sayers who would juke his way around or vault over his would-be tacklers like a spirited steed on an open Western range, or a pirouetting Jerry Rice saving an errant aerial with a one-handed catch that was so soft to the touch you’d feel safe with your two-day-old baby in his hands, or Tony Dorsett displaying the grace of a fast-charging cheetah en route to an antelope entrée – none of these gridiron visions would ever be confused for Tim Whitney.

And, on the hardwoods, you’d never mistake the 6-foot-1; 215-pound barrel-chested Whitney for a soaring Michael Jordan who donned butterfly wings whenever he needed to hover over the rim, or foolishly think that the pinpoint accuracy and deft ball handling of point guard John Stockton mirrored Whitney while he was playing the same position.

Whitney’s style of play on the football field and the basketball court was more like the opening line in the 1971 Ike & Tina Turner classic “Proud Mary.” There the St. Louis duo warbled “You know, every now and then I think you might like to hear something from us nice and easy. But there’s just one thing you see, we never do nothing nice and easy. We always do it rough.”

Whether you thought Whitney’s athletic style was rough and tough or full of finesse, there’s no mistaking that it was great enough to earn him a place among the inductees to the seventh annual Norwich High School Sports Hall of Fame.

“Tim was a big, strong quarterback. He was a great passer, but he reminds me most of Ben Roethlisberger (present day Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback) in both his physical stature and style of play,” recalled former Norwich football coach Dan Chrisman, who mentored Whitney during his first season (1977) as the Tornado signal caller when he was only a sophomore.

And, if he mirrored Roethlisberger while on the gridiron, he was more than a carbon copy of Charles Barkley when he was tearing up the hardwoods. Sir Charles known predominantly for his bruising play under the nets, could also tickle the twines from the outer regions, too.

“Tim had a good jump shot, but he had the ability to put it on the floor and take it to the rim,” noted Corey Wolford, who was the Norwich junior varsity coach when Whitney played varsity under the late Bill Carson and late Ken Stewart Sr. for three seasons (1977-80). “On defense he had great anticipation and that enabled him to steal a lot of passes. He was just very athletic; a great competitor.”

Tom Seary, who as a junior played with Whitney during his senior year and who tabulated 414 career points during his two varsity seasons, remembers his combativeness well. “Tim, known to many as ‘Whit’ or ‘Moose’ because of his large stature, had the uncanny ability to score even when being double teamed. Although traditional players of the shooting guard position are often shorter, leaner and quicker than forwards, he had the desire, determination and physical attributes to seemingly score at will. Whit was more than a shooter, he was a scorer. At times it seemed as if he was a man playing amongst boys. In an era before the three-point arc, opposing coaches often were of the mindset ‘you know Whitney’s going to get his 20-25 points, we just need to contain the rest of their team’.”

Whether it was his fierce competitiveness, God-given athleticism or keen anticipation, Whitney used a concentrated mixture of all three in becoming one of Norwich’s greatest basketball players. Despite playing his last game seven years before the advent of the three-point field goal, he ranks in the top 10 in almost every pertinent Tornado cage category.

At the apex of that register is his 23.2 points per game average during his senior campaign of 1979-80, a figure more than a full point better than runner-up Bobby Lazor. That all-time best Norwich scoring average enabled Whitney, who was elected to the Section IV Hall of Fame in 2007, to lead the Southern Tier Athletic Conference (STAC) and all Chenango County cagers in scoring. Playing in all 20 of the Purple’s outings, Whitney finished in double digits in each of those contests, with respective highs of 36 and 32 coming in a 63-52 victory at Oneonta on Dec. 29, 1979 and a 68-58 loss at Seton Catholic Central two days prior. In all, he topped 20 points or more 15 times, with a most-respectable low of 16 coming on two occasions. Those 36 markers versus the Yellowjackets rank ninth in game scoring as do his 14 free throws made in that same Oneonta fray.

“I remember that Oneonta game really well,” recalled Whitney. “While we were warming up, the door to the gym opens and in walks Mark May. That kind of pumped me up and I had a pretty good game (11 field goals and 14-for-17 in free throws).”

May, who graduated from Oneonta in 1977, was probably home on Christmas break from the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned All-American status his senior year (1980). The recipient of the Outland Trophy, signifying the top collegiate lineman in the country, following his senior year, May later went on to star as part of the “Hogs” on the Washington Redskins offensive line. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Whitney’s 463 points for the year rank fourth all-time in season scoring as he netted 162 field goals, while amassing a hefty 139-for-186 (.747) total from the charity stripe, a season-made sum that ranks third in NHS history. When added to his respective junior and sophomore totals of 385 and 99, Whitney finished his Tornado career with 947 points, which ranks fifth all-time. He also places fourth in career two-point field goals with 356, and is sixth and seventh, respectively, with 162 and 154 season two-point baskets in 1979-80 and 1978-79.

“Whit was a hard worker on the court. His points never came easy,” noted 1977-78 teammate Denny Walker. “He was the hero of the three-point game – not the three-point line, because it didn’t exist. He knew how to get the offensive rebound, put back the shot, get fouled and make the foul shot – the three-point game in the ‘70s.

“I only played one year of varsity ball with him. He was a sophomore my senior year. One game that season solidified that Whit knew his role with our team and could help us win a few more games,” recalled Walker, who was the NHS MVP in both 1977 and 1978 in addition to scoring 531 career points in his own right. “We were playing against a very good and big Binghamton North team (Feb. 8, 1978) at their gym, which was like playing in a medieval-type dungeon. Everything, including the odds of us winning the game, was against us. With nine seconds left in the game we were down by one point. Whit grabbed the rebound of a missed Binghamton shot and he and I took off for the other end of the court. Whit had the ball coming into a two-on-two situation, but knew his place on the court – being a sophomore – and dished it off to me – a senior – for the last ‘do or die’ shot. We won by one point (45-44), and as we ran directly to the bus through a hostile crowd, I could only think how unselfish his play was that night. Whit’s time would definitely come.”

As a three-year starter on the Norwich cage unit, Whitney played in 53 of the Tornado’s 59 outings, a torn ligament injury in his ankle during his sophomore season necessitating him to miss six games. And, like Walker so aptly noted, Whitney’s time did indeed come. All told, he finished with those aforementioned 947 points – fifth all-time – and a 17.9 ppg. average for his career. Twice named to both the STAC Division II and All-County first teams, he was a Norwich Christmas Tournament all-star as a sophomore and junior as scheduling conflicts negated the tourney his senior season.

“A lot of people said Coach Carson couldn’t relate or he was past his prime years, but he was a big influence on me,” pointed out Whitney, whose sophomore and junior seasons represented Carson’s final two during his 15-year run. “He was always very direct and didn’t expect any lofty expectations from any of us. He was a humble man.”

Although Whitney produced historic numbers during his three-year Purple career, Norwich was mired in a vicious 15-44 slump during that same time frame as he and the Purple were forced to match up against some literally tall competition. As a junior, Whitney reached 30 points for the first time in his career during a 77-65 home loss to Susquehanna Valley on Jan. 9, 1979. In that game 6-foot-7 Rob Garbade – a 2009 Section IV Hall of Famer – scored 28 points, a feat he surpassed two months later when he tabulated 36 in a 90-71 triumph over the Tornado in a Section IV Class A quarterfinal on March 3. The Sabers went on to finish runner-up by two points to sectional champions Elmira Notre Dame.