Ron Baxter’s podcast and article with Ron’s introduction by Professor Carlson

WHO’S THE FAT KID, ABE?
 by Larry Carlson   https://texaslsn.org
 
I was pretty damn fired up when I found out that I was gonna get to interview Ron Baxter for a TLSN podcast last month, thanks to the site’s contacts with John Carsey, one of Baxter’s old basketball teammates at Texas.  As a sportscaster for Austin’s KVET Radio, I had a courtside seat for numerous games Baxter played in, plus post-game access to the locker room after all those contests.  Ron had always been easygoing, humble, insightful and honest about all questions.
 
When Ron Baxter finished his four seasons of Longhorn basketball some 45 years ago in 1980, the unassuming 6-4 forward had made his mark on the UT record book in boldface, deeply etching his name into the ledger as the Horns’ most prolific scorer and rebounder ever.
 
The Californian came to Austin at the heels of a less than encouraging situation.
Coach Leon Black recruited him out of Dorsey High in Los Angeles.  But when Black’s ninth season on the Forty Acres became his worst —  producing only nine victories, just two years removed from his second Southwest Conference championship — the reserved, gentlemanly 44-year-old UT grad resigned his post.
 
Black was replaced by a wise-cracking, flamboyant maverick of a coach named Abe Lemons.  Baxter shrugged off the coaching switcheroo and headed east.  In our podcast he confided not knowing at all if or how he would mesh with the leftovers and new guys at cozy Gregory Gym on the sprawling Texas campus.  Team MVP Dan Krueger, a clutch performer who had earned back-to-back All-SWC honors for two less than stellar units, had graduated.  That’s about all anybody knew about what Lemons and Baxter were getting into.
 
Texas showed modest but steady improvement, regardless of the absence of a big man, going 13-13 and jumping to fourth in the conference standings from an eighth place finish in ’76.  Baxter — chided early on for not shooting often enough — led his team in rebounding and was impressive across the board, averaging 16.7 points and 8.5 rebounds.
That freshman season was a preview of who Baxter always was on the hardwood.  For four full seasons he was going to play good defense, make the right passes, play almost a full forty minutes and deliver roughly those same first-rate stats, game by game, year after year.  
 
Those who closely observed Baxter’s feats of consistent excellent never failed to notice that — while he lacked height as a 6-4 rebounder, what was more curious was the readily noticeable fact that there was no dearth of girth on a dude who ran the floor tirelessly.  
 
This reporter still has never forgotten when somebody in the regular pool of journalists who covered Texas, one day wondered aloud — with Lemons in ready earshot — how Baxter could cover so much basketball mileage daily and still sport the belly of a middle-aged couch potato.  Lemons smirked and asked us, “Didja ever see him eat?”  He then provided a most colorful mental picture of a man either blessed or cursed with seven, er, outlets.
 
Baxter wasn’t the only unlikely looking Longhorn hero.  Sharpshooting guard Jim Krivacs was a skinny gym rat and “big man” Gary Goodner, at center, was only 6-7.  Baxter’s fellow forward, Tyrone Branyan, a juco transfer, was the original poster boy for the “white men can’t jump” taunt, and actually fired his “jumper” from his chest.
Only point guard Johnny  “Junior” Moore, a slick, sleek athlete who went on to have his jersey retired by the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, looked the part of a championship basketball player.  All those guys did was win.  But Baxter consistently looked excellent in the box scores as well as in the win column.
 
Under the tutelage of Lemons, Baxter and the Longhorns morphed into a force in college basketball in the late 1970s when Texas was overwhelmingly known as a football (not to mention baseball) school.  In November ’77, UT moved into the classy, cushy, roomy surroundings of the Special Events Center (aka “The Superdrum” and perhaps presciently referred to as the SEC before taking on “Erwin Center” as its monicker).  It was but one year into Lemons’s — and Baxter’s — tenure at Texas, and the burnt orange basketeers became the Cinderella darlings of collegiate roundball.  They were unbeaten at home, and split a pair of games with highly-ranked Arkansas to share the Southwest Conference championship with the Hogs.  But Texas fell, 92-90, to third-place Houston in the conference tourney.  The Cougars took the automatic NCAA dance bid, Arkansas was invited and Texas was left holding a consolation ticket to the National Invitation Tournament.  The Horns refused to pout, crushed two NIT foes in Austin, then stormed the Big Apple.  Spinning his folksy and wiseacre aphorisms and anecdotes, Lemons charmed and bewitched the Manhattan media while the Longhorns prepared to win two bouts for the biggest national prize a UT squad had ever hoisted.  
 
When The History of Longhorn Sports connected with Baxter via Zoom from San Francisco, visiting family and friends, the longtime Austinite was still gregarious and prone to laughing and inducing laughs.  He sported an amazing penchant for detailed story-telling from his playing days and dealt credit after credit to the teammates with whom he built lifelong memories and friendships.  We talked about a variety of topics, including his high school alma mater.  Baxter is just one notable alumnus.  Dorsey grads include MLB Hall of Famer Sparky Anderson, Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love, OJ attorney Robert Kardashian and football great, Keyshawn Johnson.  And Baxter had recollections of Jody Watley, who went on to a Grammy Award-winning career as a pop/R&B singer and songwriter.
 
Ron, looking youthful and seemingly slimmer than in his halcyon days at Texas, had a heap of colorful tales for TLSN.  One was related to the oft-discussed midsection of his playing days.  Baxter leaned in and smiled as he recalled a shootaround that was open to the media and other insiders at Madison Square Garden for the NIT.
Seems that John Thompson, the legendary Georgetown coach sidled up to the Longhorn herd.  
“Who’s the fat kid, Abe?,” the imposing, 6-10, 270-pound Hoyas boss cracked.
In our podcast, Baxter relates more of the footnotes attached to Thompson’s inquiry and laughs heartily.  Let it be known that the journalists present then dutifully noted that Lemons smiled at his friend and replied, “My best player.”
 
Longhorn fans know the follow-up.  Texas won the NIT championship, drumming the touted North Carolina State Wolfpack of the vaunted Atlantic Coast Conference in the title contest.  Baxter shared the tourney’s MVP award with teammate Jim Krivacs.   And the player imported from California kept up the heroics for two more years at UT, was an honorable mention All-America honoree and two-time All-SWC selection.  As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, Baxter ended his career as the Horns’ all-time leading scorer and rebounder.
One of the basketball pathfinders and trailblazers in The History of Longhorn Sports, Ron Baxter remains in the school’s top six in both categories.
 
And he remains unmatched when it comes to re-conjuring the fun and excitement of UT hoops, explaining the underrated genius of his head coach and dishing out high praise for his teammates.  You see, just as Abe noticed early on, “the fat kid” never was a ball hog.  But he sure knew how to eat his opponents’ lunch.
 
(Listen in first-hand Longhorn lore from UT basketball great, Ron Baxter by….
   FILL IN NECESSARY INFO, BILLY
 
(TLSN’s Larry Carlson is a member of the Football Writers Association of America.  He teaches sports media at Texas State University and lives in San Antonio.
Write to him at lc13@txstate.edu)
 
 
 

The link to Ron’s podcast is in the red font.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/cdogg/TLSNS04E07.mp3

Ron Baxter is a former basketball player who played as a shooting guard. He was born on June 18, 1958, in Los Angeles, California1. He played for the University of Texas men’s basketball team from 1976 to 1980. During his time there, he helped lead the Longhorns to the 1978 NIT championship1. He also set records for the most rebounds (916) and points (1,897) in Texas history at the time.
After college, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980 NBA Draft, but he didn’t make it to the NBA. Instead, he played for the Reno Bighorns in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA)1.
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Two-time first-team All-Southwest Conference pick (1978, 1980)
Voted team MVP in 1977 and 1980
Member of the 1978 NIT championship team
Averaged double-digits in scoring in each of his four years
Fourth in UT history in career points (1,897) and rebounds (919)
Third in school history with 40 career double-doubles
Inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor in 2001

The 1977–78 Texas Longhorns men’s basketball team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 1977–78 NCAA Division I men’s basketball season as a member of the Southwest Conference. They finished the season 26-5 overall, tied for the SWC regular season title with a 14–2 record and won the 1978 National Invitation Tournament. They were coached by Abe Lemons in his second season as head coach of the Longhorns. They played their home games at the Special Events Center in Austin, Texas.^[1]

Baxter hit the ground running at Texas. He started all 26 games as a freshman (while averaging 16.7 points and 8.5 rebounds), and all but four of 116 during those four standout seasons for the Longhorns. A two-time All-SWC performer, Baxter averaged career highs with 19.0 points and 8.9 rebounds during Texas’ run to the NIT title during that 1977-78 campaign. Baxter’s 1,897 career points and 916 rebounds each rank among the school’s all-time top 10. He also registered 40 doubles-doubles while starring for the Longhorns.