BUTCH AND THE KIDS IN TROUBLE REACHBACK TEAM AT UNION STATION: RAISING FUNDS AND CLOTHES FOR THE FLOOD VICTIMS IN PINETOP, NORTH CAROLINA 1999.

L-R BAD NEWS BARNES-GEORGE NOCK-LAMONT JORDAN-?-ROY JEFFERSON

BACK ROW: BUTCH-BERT SUGAR-SAM JONES-HB AND LENNY MOORE

On Sunday evening June 20, 2024 a former member of the Harrison Playground sandbox crew, Danny Lewis called. I was not surprised. He is one of a handful of young men who have be in and out of my life, and stayed in touch for the past 55 years.

This call was a little different, he started the conversation saying, “You are not going to believe what I am getting ready to tell you.” My response, “What’s up Danny?” It seem like he wanted me to guess what he was going to say, but instead he blurted out, “Butch McAdams is dead.”

I hollered, “Oh no man.” I held my cell phone silently for several seconds before telling Danny, “Man I will call you later.” I hung up the phone without asking where and when? My thoughts went to his wife Cathy.

Hattie and I were getting ready to have dinner. The time was close to 7:00 pm, on Sundays, we like to have dinner just before ’60 Minutes’ aired. She was in the bathroom and never heard the exchange between me and Danny. I was left trying to figure out how I was going to break the bad news to her. She was very fond of Butch, like many others who had the chance to meet and get to know him.

I made the decision to tell her before we sat down to have dinner. She screamed and said, “Oh no.” She started asking me questions about where and when–I could not answer. I don’t recall what was on “60 Minutes” or what we had for dinner.

I did remembered I left home on Thursday morning around 9:00 am to have my car checked out by my mechanic. Julius lived off of route 202 in District Heights. I arrived at his home around 9:30 am. He checked my air-condition, the oil and the thump I was hearing when I put my 1997 Mercedes in reverse. His advice–don’t spend any more money in this car.

It was around 10:30 am when I started to head back home when I remembered the homegoing services for basketball coach A. B. Williamson was being held at First Baptist Church of Highland Park on Sheriff Road. I was less than 15 minutes away from the church. I decided to pay my respects.

A. B. was a native Washingtonian, a graduate of Spingarn HS, he coached at Eastern HS and Howard Univesity. I was thinking this might be a good time for me to run into Butch, since many of his colleagues in the coaching fraternity might be in attendance. I saw a few familiar faces, but not Butch.

I waited in the lobby talking to Ron Harris, Freddy Howell, Carlton Calloway, Earl Mayor, Allan Chin and Cheese Holloway until service started. The last familiar face I greeted coming to pay his respects was George ‘Dee’ Williams. Dee was a graduate of Spingarn and a playground basketball legend in DC. He was a frequent guest on Butch’s sports talk show on W-O-L, “Inside & Outside of Sports.”

The weekend was uneventful except for the 100 degree heat. Then came Sunday, and the call from Danny Lewis. I was up until the wee hours of Monday morning trying to write some on my relationship with Butch. I went to bed without writing a word.

When I finally woke up on Monday, I went out to my car to add the two quarts of oil my mechanic, Julius had advised me to add before I hit the road again. While trying to wrestle with unscrewing the top to add the oil, my cell phone rang. It was James ‘Mac’ Alsobrooks.

I started not to answer, but Mac was one my guys from back in the day, and we don’t get to talk as much anymore. I figured he was calling about Butch.

Our conversation would leave me saying, “All the Glory Goes to God.” Mac would tell me he had spoken with Butch on Friday for about an hour. He had never met Butch’s wife Cathy. He introduced her to him over the phone. This was the day after I left the church looking for him. I found a shady spot in the parking lot and took a seat on the payment.

Our conversation was something out of the Twilght Zone. The definition says the twilight zone is an indefinitely boundary between fantasy and reality. That is exactly how I felt during my conversation with Mac.

He said, “I was on the phone with Butch for over an hour. I had never met his wife Cathy. He introduced us over the phone. We must have talked for about 15 minutes. He asked me, went had I talked with you? I told him not lately because of doctor’s appointments and helping my daughter with her campaign.

“I then asked, what was up?” His respose, “We have not talked in a minute.” What is the problem?” “Nothing just over some B. S.”

He was right on the money. The bottom-line, I had people calling me or stopping at Wizards’ games asking me questions about the format of his show? I would tell them since he had a call-in show to call-in and ask him what was going on–it was his show and not mine.

There was one of his shows he had a group of Spingarn players as his guest. I received several calls asking me to check-out the show. Since I was familiar with the guest-I tuned in.

One of the guest was Dave Bing a Spingarn grad and All-American (NBA Hall of Fame). He had several of his cheerleaders from back in the day. It was hard to tell since it was on the radio whether they had pom-poms and were wearing short skirts.

I was surprised to hear the outlandish lies they were telling about their status as playground basketball legends. I think they must had forgotten I was still alive. They were taking advantage of Butch because he didn’t know and he had never seen them play, but I had.

Dave Bing, Bernard Levi, John Thompson, Fatty Taylor, Ollie Johnson, Donald Hicks, some were legends in their own time and others were legends in their own minds. If they played on the basketball courts of Brown, Blow and Kelley Miller I was there.

The next time I saw Butch I told him some of his guests on his shows were lying about their legendary status when it came to playground basketball. I reminded him he had my number if he had any questions about certain guest regarding their legendary status. There was nothing wrong with saying, “I don’t know.”

Every radio and television sports talk show format seen or heard today is a copy of THE ORIGINAL INSIDE SPORTS!

I met Butch when he was a young teenager and I was Roving Leader for the Department of Recreation and Parks. One of my domains was Cardozo/Shaw and the U Street corridor. Harrison Elementary, Garnett Patterson, Cardozo HS, Harrison Playground and St. Paul & Agustine Parish were hideouts for me.

I found Kids In Trouble, Inc in 1968 shortly after the riots: Out of the ashes came, The Hillcrest Children’s Center Satrday Program.

John Thompson and Officer Friendly at Hillcrest Saturday Program

NFL Films video Redskins’ RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton teach water safety to Hillcrest Saturday Program participants.