Earl Strom Stories
 

For those who are interested and have access to Facebook, I have posted 25 of 50 stories about my late father, Earl Strom's career. These were originally posted from 1997 - 2001 on a site named onhoops.com, but I figured there might be a new audience after 10 years. My facebook page is open to anyone, and I just noticed that whoever started a page on my father as a "public figure" has been copying the stories there too. The stories are each fairly short, and are in chronological order. Some co-incide with stories in his book, "Calling The Shots", but most are from events I witnessed at games during his career. I'll put the rest of them on Facebook in the coming days.

I figured the participants of this board would be a good audience to notify. Hope you enjoy them and feel free to comment on my Facebook page.

Eric Strom

What's the URL to read these stories?

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You have to be registered with facebook to view the stories....sorry. There are probably too many stories for me to post them on this board.

Eric Strom

How about a link to the Facebook page?

Try this :

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That is the basic facebook page. What is your page called?

The second link he posted takes you to his profile.

Eric, thanks for the stories. I really enjoyed your dad's book. My condolences on the passing of your mother.

Prayers for Mrs. Strom...

I enjoyed Earl's book so much that when I lost my original copy and it got mentioned here a few years ago, I decided I needed to track down a copy from a used bookstore and make sure that it stays on my shelf. Matter of fact, I think that it's time to take it out and read it again.

But you have to be ready to click quickly or it goes to your friends' links.

I didn't have the problem. I'm using Safari on a Mac.

Me neither, and I'm using IE.

IE is what I used to finally get there. [Now I gotta run a virus scan] Stories are great.

All 50 stories about my father's career are now on Facebook.

+50

The Basketball Hall of Fame recently started posting acceptance speeches on youtube. I thought the folks on this forum would enjoy my speech from May 1995 for my father's induction.

Earl Strom's Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech - YouTube

I was also interviewed by HBO for their upcoming documentary "Sport In America" which should air sometime in the summer of 2013. I talked about my memories of Game 4 of the 1987 Finals and my father's history in the Celtics/Lakers rivalry. We'll see if I make it on screen, or end up on the cutting room floor.

How about Game seven of the 1988 Finals -- Strom and O'Donnell, probably the two greatest NBA officials ever. I've always wondered how many other Game seven's in the 1980's he would have worked had there been more (besides 1984).

I am also wondering who the alternate official was for Game seven of the 1988 Finals?

Thanks for the compliment about my father and Jake. I believe Ed Rush was the alternate in 1988 for Game 7.

A few things about Game 7's in the finals. I read an article about Joey Crawford in the NY Times which said he has worked 3 of these games (true) and that this is a record (false). Mendy Rudolph worked six Game 7's in the finals which is the record. My father worked five in the NBA (1966, 1969, 1978, 1984 and 1988) and one in the ABA (1971) so he sort of is tied with Mendy. Plus I can make the case that if my father hadn't jumped to the ABA he would have worked the Game 7's in 1970 and 1974 with Mendy instead of Richie Powers.

Thanks for posting these ... looking forward to reading them. For a long time (since I joined Facebook 5+ years ago, actually) I've had a quote attributed to your dad under my Favorite Quotations section:

"If you ever stop to say 'What's going to happen to me if I make this call', you might as well take your whistle and shove it because that's all the respect you're giving it." — Earl Strom

BTW, I got the quote from his book, Calling the Shots, which was a great read ... still have it, but haven't read it since I purchased it 10 years ago or so ... need to go back and reread -- some great stories in there!