He was a hell of a Stuy guy
The “Mayor” of Stuyvesant Town will be laid to rest on Friday.
John “Butch” Purcell, a playground basketball legend who once coached a young Julius Erving and who was one of the most beloved residents of the apartment complex, died last weekend at age 74, The Post has learned.
Purcell, who worked as a drug counselor for 45 years at Beth Israel Hospital, moved into Stuyvesant Town in 1968 among the first wave of black families to call the then-newly desegregated development home. He would become known as the “Mayor of Stuy Town.”
“He earned that title for his always gregarious nature and his friendships with so many residents,” recalled former New York State Assemblyman Steve Sanders in an article in the local Town & Village newspaper. “He helped dozens of young men and women escape drug dependency through his work at Beth Israel Hospital. He also excelled on the basketball courts, much to the chagrin of his opponents.”
An impromptu memorial grew around Playground 9 in Stuy Town this week as news spread of his sudden passing on Jan. 12, a few weeks shy of his 75th birthday.
The playground had been renamed in his honor by the current owners of Stuy Town last year.
“When I first got here four years ago, someone asked me if I had met the mayor,” recalled Rick Hayduk, general manager of Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village, at the playground dedication four months ago. Hayduk said he thought the questioner was referring to Mayor de Blasio. “And they said, ‘No, the real mayor.’ ”
Retired Post columnist Peter Vecsey, a lifelong friend, recalled Purcell starting pickup basketball games at the YMCA on East 14th Street and drafting neighborhood pro basketball players from the Knicks, including Dean Meminger and Dick Barnett, for the grueling weekday games.
“We had everyone there,
NBA players, lawyers, firemen, cops. Everyone played,” recalled Vecsey.
Knicks great Earl “the Pearl” Monroe was among those who spoke of his lifelong friendship with Purcell when the playground was dedicated.
Purcell recalled at the time that Monroe had joked he could still outplay his old friend on the basketball court. “Want to go one on one? I can still beat you,” Purcell recalled Monroe had joked.
Monroe told The Post he was devastated by the news of Purcell’s passing.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
During his years coaching in the Rucker League in Harlem, Purcell once estimated he coached 75 players who went on to the NBA. Among them was a young player named Julius Erving, who had just signed as an undrafted free agent with the Virginia Squires in the old ABA and who would carry the Nets to the last ABA championship in 1976 before joining the Philadelphia 76ers.
Purcell is survived by his wife, Mary, and son, John Jr., a director at YES.
“My father was a wonderful man who touched many lives on and off the basketball court,” John Jr. said. “His legacy will live on through me, his loving family and an abundance of friends.”