Jimmy King Reminisces About the Fab Five
Jimmy King on lostlettermen.com reminisces about the Fab Five. Podcast and transcript available at the link.
[Lost Lettermen:] Now everyone knows that you guys started the black socks, the baggy shorts, the shaved heads. Who can we credit? Which one of you five guys can we credit for coming up with that image? Or was that a collaborative effort? Jimmy King: It was absolutely like how we played. It was a collaborative effort. I can’t pin it on one particular. I think Ray was the brainchild for the black socks and we all kind of extended that with the black shoes into the shorts and eventually to the bald heads. The bald heads was the last thing. I think the order went shorts, socks and then the bald head. So it was a collaborative effort on all five of us to agree upon something to show that we were all one.The interview has six more Qs&As for your listening and/or reading pleasure. IME, Jimmy's most interesting comment is his answer to: "What would you say you[r] best memory of your playing days was?"
March 31st, 2010 at 12:42 PM ^
I think Brian Dutcher (assistant coach) was credited with the lengthening of the shorts. Watching highlights from that year is hilarious because most of the other teams have much shorter seams.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:51 PM ^
My understanding of the baggy shorts origin (as I recall from the Fab Five book) was that when uniforms were handed out, Jalen grabbed a pair of shorts from one of the club trillion big men.
That, and the equipment manager had done such a great job with his order that several of the players (I think Rob Pelinka might have been one of them) didn't get longer shorts like the rest of the guys, and had to go out there with their old short shorts for Media Day.
We could use another Fab Five for next year.
Minus the guy taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a booster and the whole can't-finish-in-the-tournament thing, of course.
Oh god, not this shit again...
The long shorts were a lasting contribution to society. The last thing I need to see at the gym is a bunch of fat dudes squatting with excessive under-boob.