RIP Howard Garfinkel
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
Truly one of the finest and most generous human beings I have ever met. I had the honour of meeting him the summer of 1983 when I brought 4 kids from Montreal to his Five Star Camp in Honesdale PA. He truly cared about the kids.
May he rest in peace and his family be spared further sorrow.
May he rest in peace and his family be spared further sorrow.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Understand there will be a major gathering of Garf's friends and coaches to celebrate his life and contribution to a game we all love. It will be held at Clyde Frazier's Restaurant later this month.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
MIKE VACCARO / New York Post
I have been caught in a rabbit hole all week. I’m nostalgic by nature, absorbed by history, and so when a friend sent me this link — well, I was gone.
If you are a basketball junkie as I am, click at your own risk. This is the 50th anniversary of Five-Star Basketball Camp — the summer showcase that for years has been the place to be for coaches, for players, for anyone in the basketball culture who still believed that drilling and scrimmaging were of equal value.
To commemorate that anniversary, they posted some 14,000 pictures going back to 1966. Most of them, honestly, are unspectacular — a lot of suburban kids unwittingly taking part in their first fantasy camp (I would know; I was one of those suburban kids once upon a time, sneaking peeks at the above-the-rim games bordering our decidedly under-the-rim contests).
Some of them are gold. If you have time, take a look.
But all of them speak to the eternal appeal of basketball, specifically basketball in its summer form. Basketball season may take place officially when it’s cold outside and there’s snow on the ground and gymnasiums have the heat cranked up to keep everyone from freezing to death. But the game’s soul, forever, has been located outdoors.
And a huge chunk of that soul vanished forever Saturday.
That’s when Howard Garfinkel passed away at 86.
Five-Star was Garfinkel’s brainchild and his shining joy. He had been running a scouting service when, in ’66, he teamed with Will Klein to found Five-Star, which inhabited various parts of Pennsylvania through the years — mostly Pittsburgh and Honesdale — and through which so many of the sport’s bold-faced names passed — often playing alongside its no-shot dreamers. The ultimate basketball democracy.
I met Garf once, at a Final Four about 10 years ago. A coaching friend making the introduction — “Garf, here’s one of your former campers” and Garf responding thusly: “I never had negative ratings. Now I’m thinking I should have.”
But I’ve known Garf far longer and far better because just about everyone I’ve known in the basketball portion of my life — players, mostly coaches — had been touched by him. The outpouring of grief Saturday was indicative of that.
But a few days earlier, something else touched me. There are few more polarizing figures in the sport than John Calipari. But even his detractors must always concede two things about Cal: First, he’s a damned good coach. And second, few — if any — ever have outworked him.
That goes back to 1976, when he was a camper at Five-Star, and later as a player at UNC-Wilmington and Clarion State, and later as a counselor and a coach. On his website earlier this week, Calipari posted a wonderful tribute to Garf, and it illustrated why so many in the basketball community are hurting today. Give it a read. It ends this way:
“Without him, I’m not the coach at Kentucky and I’m not able to pay it forward to the kids who I coach. The things that have happened in my life you can trace back all the way to Five-Star, where I was a camper in 1976. It all started when a bespectacled Garf looked at me and said, ‘What’s your name, kid? Where are you from?’ I love you, Garf.”
Basketball has moved well beyond the woods of Pennsylvania in many ways — it’s ruled by the AAU teams and by sophisticated recruiting. The notion of making pilgrimages to Five-Star almost seems quaint and unnecessary now. But it’s not. Howard Garfinkel made it that way, because you were forced to learn the game at Five-Star. You got better. Even suburban fantasy-campers like me. What a basketball life. What a life. Godspeed, Garf.
I have been caught in a rabbit hole all week. I’m nostalgic by nature, absorbed by history, and so when a friend sent me this link — well, I was gone.
If you are a basketball junkie as I am, click at your own risk. This is the 50th anniversary of Five-Star Basketball Camp — the summer showcase that for years has been the place to be for coaches, for players, for anyone in the basketball culture who still believed that drilling and scrimmaging were of equal value.
To commemorate that anniversary, they posted some 14,000 pictures going back to 1966. Most of them, honestly, are unspectacular — a lot of suburban kids unwittingly taking part in their first fantasy camp (I would know; I was one of those suburban kids once upon a time, sneaking peeks at the above-the-rim games bordering our decidedly under-the-rim contests).
Some of them are gold. If you have time, take a look.
But all of them speak to the eternal appeal of basketball, specifically basketball in its summer form. Basketball season may take place officially when it’s cold outside and there’s snow on the ground and gymnasiums have the heat cranked up to keep everyone from freezing to death. But the game’s soul, forever, has been located outdoors.
And a huge chunk of that soul vanished forever Saturday.
That’s when Howard Garfinkel passed away at 86.
Five-Star was Garfinkel’s brainchild and his shining joy. He had been running a scouting service when, in ’66, he teamed with Will Klein to found Five-Star, which inhabited various parts of Pennsylvania through the years — mostly Pittsburgh and Honesdale — and through which so many of the sport’s bold-faced names passed — often playing alongside its no-shot dreamers. The ultimate basketball democracy.
I met Garf once, at a Final Four about 10 years ago. A coaching friend making the introduction — “Garf, here’s one of your former campers” and Garf responding thusly: “I never had negative ratings. Now I’m thinking I should have.”
But I’ve known Garf far longer and far better because just about everyone I’ve known in the basketball portion of my life — players, mostly coaches — had been touched by him. The outpouring of grief Saturday was indicative of that.
But a few days earlier, something else touched me. There are few more polarizing figures in the sport than John Calipari. But even his detractors must always concede two things about Cal: First, he’s a damned good coach. And second, few — if any — ever have outworked him.
That goes back to 1976, when he was a camper at Five-Star, and later as a player at UNC-Wilmington and Clarion State, and later as a counselor and a coach. On his website earlier this week, Calipari posted a wonderful tribute to Garf, and it illustrated why so many in the basketball community are hurting today. Give it a read. It ends this way:
“Without him, I’m not the coach at Kentucky and I’m not able to pay it forward to the kids who I coach. The things that have happened in my life you can trace back all the way to Five-Star, where I was a camper in 1976. It all started when a bespectacled Garf looked at me and said, ‘What’s your name, kid? Where are you from?’ I love you, Garf.”
Basketball has moved well beyond the woods of Pennsylvania in many ways — it’s ruled by the AAU teams and by sophisticated recruiting. The notion of making pilgrimages to Five-Star almost seems quaint and unnecessary now. But it’s not. Howard Garfinkel made it that way, because you were forced to learn the game at Five-Star. You got better. Even suburban fantasy-campers like me. What a basketball life. What a life. Godspeed, Garf.
JackofVirginia
Active member
I had the pleasure in 1955 of coaching and also playing in the Flushing Tournament against his Mama Leone's team. My team was the St. Stan's All Stars. We were fortunate to defeat a squad made up of Bayside High School in the first round. Now we faced a Alan Seiden loaded team coached by Garfinkel. Since I was able to recruit some guy named Lenny Wilkens from Holy Rosary Parish in Bedford Stuyvesant and another excellent backcourt player named Ray Paprocky we went on to easily defeat their loaded team. Scouts were unaware of Wilkens at this time since he hadn't played at Boys High yet. One of my basketball teammates in high school played on weekends at Holy Rosary parish with Wilkens. We challenged them several games without winning, of course Lenny was outstanding. BTW, I was thrilled to watch the outstanding defensive job Wilkens did on Seiden even though we were both about to begin our education at St.John's.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Garfinkel. RIP.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Garfinkel. RIP.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Cal with Michael Kay re Garf on ESPN radio in a couple of minutes