“Any time you can ride down these roads and come through the woods and the cornfields and see this beautiful place, it’s definitely a reward.
“I always tell (people), there’s this one part, you get to the top of this hill and you see the university that sits down there. That just sold me on the place.
“It was just a beautiful place … A special place.”
And down there where things were most special Saturday — at Millett Hall on the edge of the Miami University campus — RedHawks’ basketball coach Travis Steele knew all about Harper:
“When I first got here (four years ago), everybody would always reminisce about Ron Harper. Every fan would come up and say ‘When Ron Harper was here, this place was sold out!’
“They always talked about him, honestly, as this mythical legend here at Miami.”
And Saturday myth gave way to reality as Dr. Ron Harper — he was awarded an honorary doctorate in an impressive on-court ceremony before the game — sat courtside as Steele’s RedHawks overpowered Northern Illinois, 85-61, in front of a crowd of 10,640, an all-time Miami record.
Miami, ranked No. 24 in the AP poll last week, is now 22-0. It’s one of only two unbeaten Division I teams in the nation. The other is No. 1 Arizona, also 22-0.
The RedHawks have the best start to a season in Mid-American Conference history and their 28-game winning streak at home is a program record.
The euphoria surrounding this team harkens back to those glory days in the mid-1980s when Harper led three straight Miami teams to the NCAA Tournament and in the process did become legendary at Millett.
After coming out of Dayton’s Kiser High, he was named the MAC Freshman of the Year and won All-MAC first team honors each of his four years at Miami. Twice he was named the MAC Player of the Year.
He remains Miami’s all-time leading scorer with 2,377 points and the all-time rebounder with 1,119.
His number 34 jersey now hangs from the top of the arena along with those of seven other Miami standouts. He was so revered back then, his jersey was retired before he’d finished his senior season.
Saturday — in a move that was “long overdue” said athletics director David Sayler — the university awarded Harper the honorary doctorate between the Miami women’s game — they topped Ohio University, 90-70, for their 11th straight victory in what’s now an 18-4 season – and the men’s game.
As Harper awaited his call to the podium, he had his arm around his former coach, Darrell Hedric.
Hedric recruited Harper — or more so Harper’s mom Gloreatha who raised her six kids as a single parent while working several jobs, including factory work at Frigidaire and the truck and bus plant.
Hedric helped hone Harper’s talents — as did the next head coach, Jerry Pierson — and then another Miami legend, Wayne Embry, the new general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, made him a first round pick in 1986 NBA draft.
That began a 15-year NBA career that included five NBA championship rings, three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Harper is 62 now and his embrace of his 92-year-old coach seemed to be an act of appreciation, affection, even protection from the crush of the crowd.
Later when they were apart, each praised the other.
“He could do it all,” Hedric said. “The thing that set him apart was that he could play defense. He changed our program a lot and with him here, it enabled us to get better players.”
Harper called Hedric “a feisty basketball coach who wanted to have a good basketball team.”
Before Harper’s arrival, Miami had had four straight losing seasons.
That’s why Hedric put on the full court press when he recruited Harper and his mom.
‘It was her choice’
Gloreatha raised her kids on Home Avenue. Along with the factory line jobs, she worked at Edison School and Good Samaritan Hospital.
She wanted her son to get an education and once told me how, if he got a D on his report card, he wasn’t going to play sports.
As it turned out, it wasn’t grades that got him bounced from the Belmont High team as a freshman. He was cut because coaches said he wasn’t good enough.
He didn’t play again as a sophomore.
Finally, he transferred to Kiser and senior year he averaged 20.5 points, 13.4 rebounds and six blocked shots a game and won All-Ohio first team honors.
Credit: JEREMY MILLER
Credit: JEREMY MILLER
Saturday he said he grew up as a Dayton Flyers fan, but it was the RedHawks — then called the Redskins — that focused their recruitment on him.
“When the (Miami) basketball staff came over to my house my mom really got used to them,” Harper said. “One day me and my mom had a discussion. As a young kid you think you know everything. But I didn’t know anything.
“I told her what school I thought of and she told me Miami. It was her choice.”
He didn’t balk:
“I always wanted to be close to her and give her the opportunity to come to every home game here. And she did. She came to every home game I had.”
‘Love and Honor, Baby’
When Harper was in the heyday of his career Skyline Chili featured a Harper hotdog and there was a bar in Oxford — Lottie Moon’s on Beech Street — that offered a Ron Harper All Star cheeseburger topped with a fried egg.
The late rapper Big L mentioned him by name in his song Deadly Combination and Nickelodeon’s Kenan & Kel ran an entire episode on him.
In 2006 Kiser — which is now an elementary school — named its gym after him.
Over the years he’s won several awards in the NBA — not to mention those five championship rings — and he’s in several halls of fame.
Saturday’s ceremony was special to him, in part because it was so long in coming.
He said Wayne Embry has made a push for this honorary degree for him for a long time.
Earlier this year he said he met Miami’s President Gregory Crawford who told him he was going to make the doctorate happen this year.
“I was like. ‘Yeah, I’ve heard it before,’” he said. “But he was like ‘No … No it’s going to happen.’”
Crawford grew up in Elyria outside of Cleveland and was a teenager when Harper was drafted.
He followed the Cavs and was impressed by Harper
So was Sayler:
“I was a student in Dayton at the Miami Valley School when Miami played Maryland in the NCAA Tournament at UD Arena. I went to that game and I’ll never forget it. Ron Harper was electric.”
Harper battled Len Bias and finished with a game-high 26 points in Miami’s 69-68 overtime loss.
With so many connections working on Harper’s behalf, it was fitting that it happened now when Miami basketball is suddenly riding a wave of excellence and popularity.
Before Miami came alive last season and finished 25-9, it had had just one winning season in 15 years.
“Love and Honor, Baby,” Harper said when he made some brief remarks to the press Saturday. “Love and Honor to see Miami basketball back to where it should be. I think Travis Steele and his staff are doing a terrific job.”
He praised Miami’s players, both for the way they can shoot and the way they play together. He said if they keep it up he can foresee some having a pro future.
He knows plenty about that. His two sons are in the NBA.
Ron Jr. is with the Boston Celtics organization and Dylan is a point guard with the San Antonio Spurs.
Harper lives in New Jersey now. He has a daughter who is a cheerleader and three stepchildren in sports.
He works as an ambassador for the NBA and over the past three years has travelled the world — especially Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa — promoting the sport to young players.
Whether it’s his own sons or kids across Africa, he said he tries to encourage them to pursue their own dreams. He told his sons not to use him as a benchmark: “Do you, not me. Put your stamp on your dream.”
He said you never know what you may find until you go try it.
That’s the way he did it the first time he was on top of that hill looking down on the Miami campus.
He came in a West Dayton teen. Saturday he left with a doctorate.
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