Saint Francis University Athletics

 

	One of the Best – Ever   Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee Namesake of the NBA's Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award Number 12 retired by the Sacramento Kings (formerly the Rochester/Cincinnati Royals) Three-time NBA All-Star NBA Rookie of the Year NBA First Round Draft Pick 1955 NIT Most Valuable Player 1955 All-America Selection Holds the Saint Francis career rebounding record with 1,819 in three seasons* Second all-time at SFU with 2,282 career points * Rebounds weren't an official NCAA statistic until Stokes' sophomore season
	Quotable Red Auerbach “He reminded you a lot of Magic Johnson….Maurice could bring the ball down, Actually he’s one of the few guys that could play five positions.” “He was the complete player, he really was.” Oscar Robertson "He was a very athletic individual, really good around the basket, quick for his size, and (he) really overwhelmed people with his jumping ability and his quickness.” Regarding how Stokes reacted to his illness... “He was very courageous.” Regarding the Maurice/Jack relationship... “I think we live in a selfish society. People don’t really go out of their way to really help their fellow man or woman. This is why what Jack did was so tremendous. “ Jack Twyman Regarding his family’s relationship with Maurice... "We were very close to Maurice. We probably emotionally benefitted more from the relationship than Maurice benefitted.” “I never, ever saw him feel sorry for himself. I never, ever in twelve years saw him have a bad day; never, ever not have a smile on his face; not be more interested in you than he was in himself. (He) never pitied the situation he was in. And that’s the uniqueness of the individual.” Mark Kutsher “Nobody was paid to do anything. Everybody who was involved in the game volunteered their time and efforts, so that all of the money that was there went directly to Maurice, which was really the way a charity type of thing should be.” Maurice Stokes Regarding his therapy... “I always tried to bear down in competition, but I’ve never had to put out quite as hard as I do on this exercising. In a way, this is competition, too. It’s more important than ever for me to win.”

Maurice opened the tournament by scoring 29 points in an 89-78 victory over Seton Hall and came back to notch 21 points in a 68-64 victory over Holy Cross.  In what many basketball historians consider one of the finest games in NIT history, Stokes poured in a career-high 43 points in a 79-73 overtime loss to the University of Dayton.  Maurice then closed out his career at Saint Francis with a 31-point performance against future National Basketball Association (NBA) teammate Jack Twyman and the Cincinnati Bearcats, a game the Flash would lose, 96-91.  Despite playing on a fourth-place team, Maurice was selected the tournament’s most valuable player (MVP), becoming the only player from a fourth-place team to ever win the award.  He also capped off his senior year by being named second-team All-America.

Maurice will always be known for his incredible athletic skills--he is the University’s second all-time leading scorer with 2,282 points and all-time leading rebounder with 1,819 - but he was more than just a basketball player to his classmates.  He was a member of the Omega Phi Chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon social fraternity, where he served as president of the pledge class.  He was also a member of the Varsity F and Economics clubs and played intramural softball and football.  In the balloting for the prestigious Mr. Frankie Award, which is bestowed upon the outstanding male of the senior class and voted upon by members of the faculty and student body, Maurice finished second behind his dear friend Ray Berner, who served as the Red Flash student sports information director at the time.

“Although (people) always talk about what I have done for Saint Francis, people forget what Saint Francis has done for me,” Maurice wrote in his autobiography, The Making of One Professional Basketball Player.  “I will only mention a few of them:  1) I acquired many friends. 2) I received a good education. 3) I learned to live with all kinds of people.”
 

“Although [people] always talk about what I have done for Saint Francis, people forget what Saint Francis has done for me." Maurice Stokes

Maurice’s performance in the 1955 NIT would propel him to a professional career in the NBA.  Drafted by the then Rochester Royals in the first round, he immediately served notice with a 32-point, 20-rebound, 8-assist performance in a 100-98 overtime loss to the New York Knicks on November 5, 1955, in his first pro game.   Selected to play in the league’s all-star game in Rochester, he concluded his first season by being named the NBA Rookie of the Year and was an All-NBA second-team selection.

“He reminded you a lot of Magic Johnson...Maurice Stokes could bring the ball down (court),” said former Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach in a documentary about Maurice. “Actually he’s one of the few guys that could play five positions.  He was the complete player, he really was.”
 

What could have been... NBA Career Rebounds-per-Game leaders
Player	Gms	Reb.	RPG
Wilt Chamberlain	1,045	23,924	22.9
Bill Russell	963	21,620	22.5
MAURICE STOKES	203	3,507	17.3

Maurice would continue his storybook career over the next two years as the franchise moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.  He would earn a spot on the 1957 and 1958 NBA all-star teams before his life changed dramatically and forever.  On March 12, 1958, Maurice fell and hit his head against the floor in a 96-89 season-ending victory over the Minneapolis Lakers.  Three days later, following a 100-93 loss to the Detroit Pistons, he collapsed on the plane trip back to Cincinnati and was rushed to Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Covington, Kentucky.  There he was later diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy, a form of “sleeping sickness.”

“One day last year I woke up for a few minutes from the longest sleep of my life,”  said Maurice in an article written with Harry T. Paxson of  the Saturday Evening Post of March 14, 1959.  “I opened my eyes and saw three people near my bed.  I recognized my sister, my father and my old friend Ed Fleming, of the Minneapolis Lakers, who played basketball with me at Westinghouse High School and then in the pro league.  I started to say hello--and found I couldn’t talk.  I couldn’t move.”

Maurice remained bedridden until his death on April 6, 1970.  Yet, during his 12-year hospitalization,  he remained upbeat and courageous, even after a regime that often included five grueling hours of physical therapy daily.
 

ABOVE – Jack Twyman presents Stokes for posthumous induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. BELOW – First presented in 2013, the NBA's Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year trophy poetically depicts Twyman helping Stokes to his feet. .

“I never, ever saw him feel sorry for himself,” said Twyman, his teammate on the Cincinnati Royals and a native of Pittsburgh, in a documentary on Maurice.  “I never, ever in twelve years saw him have a bad day; never, ever not have a smile on his face; not be more interested in you than he was in himself.  (He) never pitied the situation he was in.  And that’s the uniqueness of the individual.”

The same could be said of Twyman.  Upon a suggestion by his friend, Judge Chase Davies, Jack became Maurice’s legal guardian and took over the responsibilities of Stokes’ affairs.  Jack went to Walter Beall, an industrial-compensation lawyer, in an attempt to apply for workman’s compensation for Maurice, which Maurice was eventually awarded.

“Maurice was a member of the family,” said Carol Twyman.  “Our children loved him like a member of the family.  Maurice had a wonderful sense of humor and Jack does also, and to hear the bantering back and forth between them--it was just priceless.”

The Twyman family and the entire Saint Francis community bid farewell to Maurice at his funeral on April 9, 1970.  One of Maurice’s final wishes was to be buried on campus, a wish the Franciscan friars proudly granted.

“We are saddened because we have lost an example,” said the Reverend Vincent R. Negherbon, T.O.R., then president of Saint Francis and the homilist at the service.  “We have lost, as it were, a crutch that we have leaned on, because anyone that knew this man took something from him.  He was sick; he was in bed; but you couldn’t give to him--he gave to you.  It is impossible to relate the tremendous effect that he had with people who came to know him and love him this past decade.”

Today, Maurice Stokes’ name is forever etched at Saint Francis University through the Maurice Stokes Athletics Center, built in 1972 and renovated in 1994, and the Stokes Club, an athletic booster organization that raises money to enhance the University’s 22-sport NCAA Division I program.

On September 10, 2004, Stokes assumed his rightful place among the game’s finest upon his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

While Maurice will be long remembered for his incredible prowess on the basketball court, he taught us more about humanity in the face of personal adversity.

In The Making of One Professional Basketball Player, Maurice shows us what it truly means to be alive.

“The most fascinating thing to me is when the sun peeks over the horizon, everything seems to come alive.  That is why it is beyond my comprehension how anyone could believe that God is dead.  In conclusion, there comes a time when the sun seems to sink into the horizon when almost everything comes to a halt-with most things waiting anxiously for the new day to begin.”