Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
"I've always heard that one of the first sure signs of old age is that your back starts to go," said Radford University's Ron Shelburne, elderly only by college basketball standards.
Then, of course, there is the bane of many aging athletes: the knees.
"They hurt like heck," said Shelburne, 22 and Radford's only senior.
One knee went under a doctor's scalpel after his sophomore year in high school. That one - his right - has felt pretty good since then. It's the other one that seems to throb continually.
"It's pretty much shot," he said.
No cause for alarm, though, says the most esteemed hoops basketball ever from the Pulaski County burg of Snowville. In fact, he would be worried if such were not the case.
"If I feel fine after a game, I don't feel right," he said. "That's the way I want to feel. If I'm not banged up and bruised, I don't feel as though I've given it a good effort. That's the way you're supposed to feel."
As the end draws nigh on this distinguished career, the question is whether Shelburne is going to miss all the glaciers of ice, oceans of epsom salts and steaming currents of the whirlpool waters that soothe his aching joints.
Probably not.
"I hate to say it, but my body is telling me that it's time to try something else," Shelburne said.
Now, though, there's still some work to do. There's a Big South Conference Tournament starting Thursday at the Civic Center of Anderson, S.C., where Shelburne will lead the 21-6 and second-seeded Highlanders into a 7 p.m. opening-round match with No. 7 Charleston Southern.
Shelburne will be there. He always has been. Forget the bum back. Overlook the balky knees. Shelburne's never missed a game. Not in college, not at Pulaski County High School.
Nor has he begged out of a practice.
Ever.
Not that he hasn't wanted to. Why, there was that time when he was playing football. Didn't know Shelburne played football? Of course he did, back in those rugged Pulaski County sandlots that produced so many players who went on to be scourges of the Roanoke Valley District.
Shelburne was not among them.
"I absolutely hated football," he said. "I wanted to quit."
Parents Rodney and Nancy Shelburne would have none of that. They didn't make a successful go of raising beef cattle on 700 acres of Pulaski County paradise by quitting on the job. Ron stuck with it.
Nothing unusual about that. Ron - a church-going, non-smoking, non-drinking, non-snuff dipping, non-partying young man - was always the kind of kid who wanted to see something through to the end.
"If he's not the hardest working kid I ever coached, then he's certainly one of them," said Pulaski County High coach Pat Burns, 16 years a head coach.
Rodney Shelburne said basketball wasn't the only thing Ron worked hard at.
"He's the type of boy who never complains about anything," Rodney said. "That is, as long as you don't get him up too early in the morning."
Ron would bring former Radford teammates such as Aswan Wainwright and Tim Blassingame to visit the farm. Before long, they'd all be working at some chore, such as putting up hay.
"They used to tickle me," Rodney Shelburne said. "After awhile, they'd be giving out, but Ron would keep right on going making hay. Really, Tim would do pretty good. Swanny [Wainwright, a big-city black from Cleveland, Ohio] used to say that now he knew what the slaves felt like picking cotton."
Ron has kept on going, all right. Entering the tournament, he has played 114 games and made 102 starts, both Radford records. He has scored 1,306 points, eight shy of breaking the school record. He has 532 rebounds, fifth on the all-time list. For his career, his averages read: 11.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 51.8 field goal accuracy.
"I had no idea he'd have that kind of impact as a college player," said former Highlanders boss Joe Davis, who recruited Shelburne. "He didn't jump that well, he wasn't that quick, and, at 6-7, he was at an in-between size for a Division I post man."
Shelburne started as a freshman.
It was a lot like that when, as a ninth grader, he told his parents that he was going to go out for the varsity at Pulaski County. His mother, who didn't want to see him disappointed, suggested he seek a more modest objective.
"You know Ron, he doesn't have a lot of ability," said Nancy Shelburne, who ought to know how to evaluate basketball talent. She was one of the locally famous five Morris sisters of Auburn High, all fine players in their day.
"Ron got his basketball from Nancy's side of the family," Rodney Shelburne said. "She was really some player."
As it turned out, Ron had inherited more basketball from his mother than she thought. When he made the junior varsity at Pulaski County, his mother warned him that he was likely to be a bench-warmer.
Instead he was a starter.
"He made a liar out of me," she said.
She wasn't the only one that happened to.
As a sophomore, Shelburne started for Allen Wiley at Pulaski County. Now retired from coaching, Wiley was a member of the old school, the type who appreciated grit and hustle above all else. He admired Shelburne.
"He's a self-made basketball player," Wiley said. "There was no ability there at all. He's done all he's done by hard work. After practice was over, he'd want to hang around and work some more."
Burns inherited Shelburne as a senior.
"When I came here, I asked Ron what his future plans were, where he'd like to play in college," Burns said. "He indicated that he didn't think he could play in college but that he may try to walk on at Radford or something. He had very little confidence in his own ability."
Burns instructed Shelburne to work on his post moves and prepare to be the focus of the offense. Shelburne was all-Timesland and all-state after averaging over 27 points per game with better than 70 percent field goal accuracy.
Davis, who didn't seem very interested when Shelburne was a junior, was now very interested. So were others, mostly scouts from Southern and Big South conference schools.
To the surprise of nobody, Shelburne opted for Radford to be close to home.
After his freshman year, a good one, Oliver Purnell replaced Davis as coach. Purnell brought an up-tempo, pressing, attacking style to the program, the sort of game it was assumed wouldn't suit Shelburne.
Still, Shelburne continued to start in the pivot for the Highlanders. However, he had one of the worst years of his career, averaging eight points and five rebounds per game. And he was having second thoughts about his future at Radford.
"I knew there were a lot of places that I could play that would be better suited to my style of play," Shelburne said. "After having a good freshman season and a dismal sophomore season, it was probably natural to think about transferring. I really did think about it."
Shelburne met with Purnell.
"He told me what I wanted to hear," Shelburne said.
There seems to be no regrets on either of their parts.
"Ronnie's been one of the blocks on which I've built my program," Purnell said. "Even though I didn't recruit him, he's one of my guys. He's a good, old-fashioned country boy who is going to give you a good day's work. He's played well. This year, I think he's a very solid candidate for all-league."
Which brings up another point about Shelburne - his flexibility.
"That's one thing about Ron, he's played for four different coaches - two in high school and two in college," Wiley said. "That would set a lot of players back. Not Ron."
When Shelburne graduates - on time, incidentally - this spring, going to work won't mean on the family farm. He's majoring in marketing and seems to have many of the tools that will help him as a businessman.
"I wish I had his personality," Rodney Shelburne said. "He'll talk to anybody. He's never met a stranger."
Shelburne said he would like to stay in the area. He's looking into his options with the idea of working for awhile then going back to school to get his master's degree.
Don't expect Shelburne to start taking himself too seriously for the first time in his life, even after he starts wearing tailored suits and assumes a role of a prominent man of business.
"All that is just in case I don't get drafted by the NBA," he said.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB