When Hal Kinard walks by the new junior high school that bears his name, he truly can be thinking “what a country.”
The junior high is in an affluent new area in southeast Fort Collins, a far cry from Kinard’s surroundings as he grew up on Denver’s west side. But with basketball an equalizer, Kinard worked his way through junior and senior high school, Colorado A&M, and on to the Poudre School District where he taught junior high students in Fort Collins for 40 years.
“I had chances to move up to high school and coach, but I stayed at junior high by choice,” Kinard said. “I felt good with the junior high kids. It was rewarding, because they still are so full of life and they still have faith in you if you’re sincere.”
Kinard didn’t come from money. There weren’t many people of money in west Denver in the 1940s. He worked after school while attending Baker Junior High School and Denver West High School, but found time to stop after work to play in pickup basketball games on the playgrounds of Fairmont Elementary.
After dark, the competition moved to the corners of West Fifth Avenue and Elati and Delaware streets where streetlights provided the limelight for the stars in the making. It was under the lights that Kinard developed a trademark jump shot. He had to do something special so his shot wouldn’t be blocked by Marc Ertle, a neighborhood competitor, who was 5 years older and 4 inches taller at 6-feet-4.
“I took a lot of razzing about that shot,” Kinard said. “I faded away as I jumped and arched it over my head so it wouldn’t get blocked. I heard from a lot of people that it was the weirdest shot they had ever seen.”
But Kinard could hit baskets with it and that ability took him to all-city honors while playing for Gaston Santi at Denver West and all-Skyline Conference honors while playing for Bill Strannigan and Jim Williams at Colorado A&M. Kinard started for the Rams as a freshman in 1951 and held his starting assignment all four years.
There were team achievements that Kinard holds most dear. He fondly talks of the 1951 West team that split its games against touted center Ron Shavlik, who went on to All-America honors at North Carolina State, and the East Angels in the Denver Prep League. The Angels went on to win the state championship, with the only loss of the season to the Cowboys. Strannigan’s 1954 team, with Kinard a starting guard, finished 22-7, 12-2 in conference play. His Aggies teammates in 1954 included Bob Betz, Stan Pivic and Bob Cates, and the team won the Skyline Conference title, becoming the first team from Colorado A&M to advance to the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tournament field consisted of 16 teams in those days. The Aggies lost to Santa Clara and Idaho State in the tournament.
Fifty years have passed since he played, but Kinard still gets excited as each basketball season begins. The basketball goal in the driveway just came down two years ago when the jump went out of his jump shot.
He bridges the gap by maintaining ties to the past. He’s not a stranger to his West teammates of Bob Mantooth, Pete Gayton, Mort Zerobnick, Gene Orvis, Stan Luckert and Jim Gose. He visits Williams, who lives in Fort Collins, once or twice a week and sits with his former coach when they attend CSU games.
Ellen Laubhan, communications coordinator for the Poudre School District, remembered that Kinard’s nomination for the new school’s naming honors received more than 60 letters of support from colleagues and former students. He was selected from 25 nominees.
“There was a huge rallying of support for him because of his contributions specifically to junior high students,” said Laubhan, who chaired the nominating committee. “He never gave up on any student. His reach was way beyond the basketball court. This is the ultimate honor for an educator.”
While Kinard found his place in teaching at the junior high level, he didn’t teach his patented jump shot because it was too tough and too unorthodox.
“I’m not very high-powered anymore,” said Kinard, who retired from the classroom seven years ago at 65. “I visit J.J. (Williams) as often as I can. I go fishing in the Poudre River canyon. I’m sure I’ll go by the new school once in a while and I’ll be there the day it opens next fall.
“Most people now wouldn’t think I was a basketball player. But every so often, I see somebody who says they remember seeing me play.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
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COLORADO CLASSICS
Irv Moss,
Denver Post
staff writer
