When Freddie Howell was preparing to leave home in Brooklyn, N.Y., to play basketball for the University of Denver, he asked at a family gathering, “Where’s Denver?”
According to Howell, his father said, “Denver’s way out there past California. It’s way out there.”
Howell not only found Denver, but he became one of the city’s most cherished characters.
He always had a story and it was never told without his New York mannerisms.
Howell, 81, died Tuesday at his home in southeast Denver.
“He was a pack rat,” his daughter Lisa Towner said. “We found a lot of golf equipment. He always gave golf equipment away to kids and invited them to learn how to play the game.”
Howell never strayed too far from basketball. He played at DU in the days of Vince Boryla. He later coached at Denver’s Machebeuf High School.
And in 1954, he became a permanent fixture in running the game clock at all of the city’s basketball venues. Howell was involved in one of the all-time great stories from Denver’s basketball past that has gone down in folklore.
Official scorer Pinky Flood insisted on using a starter’s pistol to signal the end of the half and the game. He got anxious one night and blew off the end of his finger.
“Everybody was jumping around and we called Dr. Garland (Dave Garland),” Howell said. “Pinky didn’t care about his finger, but he wanted the stone back from his ring.”
A visitation and rosary service are scheduled Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Horan and McConaty Chapel, 11150 E. Dartmouth Ave., Aurora.
A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday at Church of the Risen Christ, 3060 S. Monaco Parkway.
Howell’s family has scheduled a memorial golf tournament for Sept. 19 at Kennedy Golf Course. The tournament will benefit the Open Fairways program for disadvantaged children.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
