Finch tribute has been long overdue
Memphis hoops star will be honored with a statue and a park in his name
When Vickie Finch first heard the news Thursday, that her late husband would be immortalized on the University of Memphis campus with a park and a statue in his honor, she initially thought about the sign that hung over Larry Finch’s bed during his three years starring for the Memphis State men’s basketball team. “Make it happen,” the sign read. And in Vickie’s mind, those words resonated each time her husband chose Memphis as a player, an assistant and a head coach.
He always seemed to make it happen for this city and this university.
Finally, though, Memphis will make it happen for Finch.
“Larry would have been elated because this is something that’s really special and doesn’t happen too often,” Vickie Finch said. “This is something his children can visually see, and his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. Larry won’t be forgotten.”
Why Finch matters so much to Memphis
Larry Finch, of course, will always have a place in this city’s history, even if no statue was ever erected, even if there remain some wounds from how his time as the Tigers’ head coach ended.
As Finch’s younger brother, Ron, put it: “What Larry did for this city is more than just basketball.”
Larry Finch and his teammates on the 1973 Memphis State team that lost to UCLA in the national championship game helped bridge the racial divide in this city after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
No matter the color of your skin, you rooted for the Tigers and you rooted for Finch, the Orange Mound all-American who, along with Ronnie Robinson, decided to stay home to play his college basketball.
Then he became Memphis State’s first African-American men’s basketball coach, coming to rescue his alma mater in the midst of NCAA sanctions.
Over the next 11 years, Finch compiled more wins than anybody else in school history. He recruited and molded some of the greatest basketball players to ever come through Memphis, leading the program from Elliot Perry to Penny Hardaway to Lorenzen Wright.
But his tenure ended, unceremoniously, in 1996, when the university forced him out moments after the final game of the season, when he infamously signed a resignation agreement on the counter of an empty concession stand at The Pyramid.
Why this tribute is long overdue
This idea, of a statue to honor one of the city’s revered native sons, was borne from these unsavory circumstances.
It began with a column written by Memphis Magazine managing editor Frank Murtaugh more than 10 years ago, when Memphis was in the midst of its 2008 run to the national championship and Finch was battling the health issues that ultimately caused his death in 2011 at the age of 60.
It didn't resonate then, but Murtaugh kept writing.
He published another column earlier this year, and then another one after that about a month ago. The last time caught Rudd’s attention, and he met with Murtaugh and several other members of what became the Larry Finch Memorial Park committee last week.
“I think this city got to a point where we took Larry Finch for granted,” Murtaugh said Thursday. “Yes, he’s part of the family. He’s touched the lives of anyone who has lived here since the 70’s. But we needed to honor this guy in the right way.”
Memphis president M. David Rudd estimated the park, which is expected to be located near the basketball program’s Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center on the university’s Park Avenue campus, will cost between $250,000 and $500,000.
But it should do countless amounts of good in terms of repairing the school’s relationship with the Finch family. Because this day feels long overdue. Because, even now, with one of Finch’s most beloved former players serving as the school’s head coach, “A lot of people are real cautious,” said Leonard Draper, Finch’s close friend and the man credited with helping convince Finch to play for Memphis State.
“They hope this doesn’t happen to Penny Hardaway," he added.
Because, once Rudd announced plans to create Larry Finch Memorial Park and commission a statue of Finch Thursday, the Finch family felt mixed emotions.
"It hadn't happened and at a certain point, you're like, 'It may not happen'," Larry Finch Jr. said. "I'm glad they're doing it. It's a sign of how the community embraced my dad and his values."
“It was a moment of joy, but at the same time, it was a moment of disappointment,” Ron Finch added. “All the things Larry Finch did for this city, this was something that could’ve been already done. But this statue, as well as (Hardaway) being involved, I think you’re about to get everybody back on the same page. I think this will help heal the wounds and we can move on to the next chapter.”
Why Finch's legacy is coming full circle
The next chapter, of course, is one right out of the Finch playbook.
A native son who chose to stay home to play college basketball and then returned to coach his alma mater when it needed him to rescue the program.
Vickie Finch feels like this story is coming full circle, with Hardaway, Tony Madlock and Dwight Boyd all now returning to Memphis to work for the Tigers’ men’s basketball program.
They each played for her husband, a man who never forgot where he came from and will never be forgotten.
“I know Larry would be smiling earto-ear,” Vickie Finch said. “It was worth the wait.”