Substance before style

Fifth in a series profiling the 11 members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame class of 2016. The induction ceremony will be held March 4.

The only thing Almer Lee did more stylishly than play basketball was dress.

"Almer always had on his hat and a nice suit or sport coat," Darrell Walker said. "He loved fashion."

Walker, an All-American guard for Arkansas as a senior in 1983, met Lee two years earlier after the Razorbacks played a game in Little Rock's Barton Coliseum.

"I was just out there mingling on the court talking to people, and this guy I'd never seen before came up to me and said, 'Hey, Walker, Almer Lee. I like your game, your flair and your passion. You remind me a lot of myself,' " Walker said. "I said, 'Thank you, sir,' but I had no idea who he was.

"I just knew he was dressed immaculately."

What Walker found out after asking around was the sharp dressed man was Lee, the first black player to letter in basketball for Arkansas during the 1969-1970 season, when he was the Southwest Conference sophomore of the year.

"Almer and I became great friends," Walker said. "I hope everyone realizes what he did for Arkansas -- the university and the state."

Lee, a Fort Smith native, made it fashionable for other blacks to follow his path to the UA.

"Almer was the big reason I went to Arkansas," said Ron Brewer, part of the famed "Triplets" along with Sidney Moncrief and Marvin Delph who led the Razorbacks to the 1978 Final Four. "Arkansas wasn't my first choice coming out of high school, but I looked up to Almer and I listened when he told me, 'Arkansas is where you need to be because things are changing for the better.'

"I can say that over the years, a lot of the great players at Arkansas being of color were there because of Almer, what he did or said to them directly. We all either knew about Almer or had been mentored by him or had conversations with him."

Lee's legacy as a basketball pioneer will be recognized March 4 when he's posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. He died Nov. 16, 2014, at age 63 of complications from a stroke he suffered a year earlier.

"I think it's long overdue that Almer is going into the Hall of Fame," Walker said. "But it's finally happening, and that's what really counts.

"I just wish he could be alive for this because I know how much it would have meant to him."

Evelyn Lee, Almer's wife of 18 years, said it was "bittersweet" when she learned her husband was being inducted after his death, but it means a lot to his surviving family members, including two children and four grandchildren.

"We're all excited," she said. "It's something we can be very proud about."

Lee, a 6-1 guard, averaged 17.2 points at Arkansas as a sophomore after transferring from Phillips County Junior College in Helena. He averaged 25 points in the national junior college tournament his freshman season.

"I didn't really know how good I was until letters started coming in from all over the country," Lee said in a 1999 interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "I was afraid because I didn't think I was good enough to play at places like UCLA, Michigan, Florida State, Oklahoma and others.

"But all the time, I was getting scholarship offers from those caliber of schools. After I started getting these letters and realized I was good enough, I decided to stick around home.

"Hopefully, I could help basketball in Arkansas come alive. From that point, I wanted to be a Razorback."

Bobby Vint was Lee's Arkansas teammate for two seasons when he broke the color barrier.

"I know it must have been a challenge for him in a lot respects, but I don't think another person alive could have handled it better than Almer," Vint said. "He was a people person with an outgoing personality, and he wasn't at all inhibited by his race and being around predominately white guys.

"He provided an education for a lot of white guys because most of us hadn't played with black guys. He made us realize the only difference between us was our backgrounds.

"Almer was just a great guy, a great player and a great teammate."

Vint said he couldn't recall any racial incidents in Fayetteville that involved Lee playing for Arkansas, but during a road trip in Texas in 1970, a restaurant refused to serve Lee.

"We were either in Dallas or Forth Worth, and the team went out together,and when Almer came through the restaurant door, they wouldn't let him sit down to eat," Vint said. "We said, 'What's the deal?' and some guy said, 'We can't let him in.'

"Well, we all got up and left, and there were some disparaging remarks made to the guy. We didn't even think twice about it, but Almer mentioned to me later that what we did meant a lot to him.

"What you need to understand is how much Almer meant to all of us."

Vint, who came to Arkansas in 1966 from North Little Rock High School, said he never played with anyone with Lee's skill set.

"Almer was ahead of his time with the way he could handle the ball and shoot it," Vint said. "He had a heck of a jump shot, and he could dribble the ball between his legs and behind his back and make behind-the-back passes."

Lee's first season at Arkansas was Duddy Waller's last season as the Razorbacks' coach.

"I think the first time Almer made a behind-the-back pass in practice, Duddy about fainted," Vint said. "But it wasn't showboating for Almer. He'd make a behind-the-back pass because the pass wasn't there to make in front of him.

"I remember Almer would stand next to a wall with a basketball and pass to the wall and catch it repeatedly. It was just part of his game."

Lee, who was inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Honor in 2011, averaged 19.2 points as a junior and was a second-team All-Southwest Conference pick playing for new Razorbacks Coach Lanny Van Eman.

"Almer was so creative, and he could do more than just score and handle the ball," Van Eman said. "He could steal passes, and he rebounded better than most guards.

"When Almer was healthy, there was no one else I would have wanted on any team I ever coached."

Lee played in just five games his senior season at Arkansas after suffering a knee injury. He also had two knee injuries in high school.

"If doctors could do for knee injuries back then what they can do now, there's no doubt in my mind Almer would have played in the NBA," said Walker, a longtime NBA player and coach. "He was that good."

Walker got to see Lee's moves at Arkansas when he watched old game film.

"I was visiting Almer one time, and he pulled out this reel-to-reel film and put it on a projector, and he was doing some 'Pistol' Pete Maravich moves," said Walker, comparing Lee with the former LSU and NBA star. "It was incredible to watch.

"Back then, some people called that hot-dogging, but to me, it was just great basketball.

"If Almer played at Arkansas now doing the things he did, he'd be a fan favorite. He played with a lot of flair."

Brewer said he idolized Lee while growing up in Fort Smith.

"We lived in the same neighborhood, and that's where I really got acquainted with Almer," Brewer said. "He was a mentor for me. He got me excited about playing basketball and taught me the dos and the don'ts.

"He was very instrumental in letting me realize what it took to take your game to a high level."

Lee taught Brewer about practicing in the dark at a nearby outdoor court that didn't have lights.

"Almer would dribble the ball and shoot in the dark -- and still make the shot," Brewer said. "He used to say, 'Even if you can't see the ball or see the rim, you've got to feel where they are.'

"I practiced in the dark, too, but it was tough to be as good at it as Almer."

Houston Nutt, who played football and basketball at Arkansas and later was the Razorbacks' football coach, first saw Lee play in the state tournament in Little Rock in 1968 during Lee's senior year. His father, Houston Nutt Sr. -- who played basketball at Oklahoma State and Kentucky -- was a longtime coach at the Arkansas School for the Deaf and wanted his son to see Lee.

The younger Nutt said he was enthralled watching Lee lead Fort Smith Northside to the state championship.

"I loved how Almer played, how smooth he was, and how he could handle the ball so well and shoot with either hand," Nutt said. "He was doing things I'd only seen my dad do."

Nutt said he used to play pickup games with Lee in the summer at the School for the Deaf, and the two developed a lasting friendship.

"One day Almer said, 'You need to get your license,' " Nutt said. "I told him I was still too young to drive, and he said, 'No, I'm talking about your license to handle the basketball.'

"Almer would say, 'I'm so sweet I make sugar ashamed.' He just had a personality you loved."

Nutt said he called Lee "the godfather of Arkansas basketball" for being the first black letterman.

"Almer was the pioneer," Nutt said. "He was the guy that said, 'Hey, I'm staying here in my state. This is my home, and I'm going to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks.'

"He did so much to open the doors for a lot of other young men and did a lot for the state of Arkansas and for the Razorbacks."

Lee's knee injury his senior season prevented him from getting any NBA tryouts, but he played professionally in Holland for two seasons, averaging 28 points and making the All-European team before suffering another knee injury, which ended his career.

Van Eman said when he coached a touring U.S. team in Holland several years ago, fans still remembered Lee.

"This was more than 20 years after Almer played in Holland, but when I mentioned his name everybody knew about him," Van Eman said. "That's how big of a star he was there."

Walker said Lee never expressed bitterness about his knee injuries keeping him from playing in the NBA or that his pro career in Holland was cut short.

"He enjoyed his time over in Europe," Walker said. "He had a lot of fun playing and seeing the world. He was fine about how it all turned out."

Lee returned to Arkansas and worked at a bank in Little Rock and later for the Department of Human Services, where he met his wife.

"When I first met Almer, I had no idea that he'd played basketball for anybody," Evelyn Lee said. "He never really talked about basketball, never bragged about himself at all.

"Somebody else finally told me about his basketball career, and then I found out he'd been a great player."

Evelyn Lee said her husband was proud of his place in Arkansas basketball history as a high school and college player.

"He never had anything bad to say about being up on the Hill in Fayetteville," she said. "He loved the Razorbacks."

Lee attended many Arkansas basketball and football games over the years and stood out in the crowd with his hat and suit.

"I hope the people of the state of Arkansas enjoyed watching me play as much as I enjoyed playing for them," Lee told the Democrat-Gazette in 1999. "I think [coaches] Nolan Richardson and Eddie Sutton brought a winning tradition to basketball at Arkansas, but the style of play that is out there now is exactly what we were trying to do back in the '60s."

Nutt and Walker will appear on a video about Lee that will be shown when he's inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

"I really miss Almer," Walker said. "Whenever I see somebody in a nice suit and tie, I think about him."

Sports on 02/19/2016