First Posted: 3/24/2015
Jim Furlong, affectionately known as “Fuzz” by his many friends, will be honored by the OHSAA at the boys’ basketball state tournament this weekend. Furlong will be featured in a video at halftime of the 2 p.m. Division II semifinal game Friday. Fuzz will be sharing some memories of his many trips to the state tournament. He will then be escorted to center court and introduced to the fans assembled at Ohio State’s Value Center Arena. Chances are pretty good the majority of the fans in the “Schott” already know Fuzz and need no introduction.
Jerry Snodgrass, an assistant commissioner with the OHSAA, explained that, “the association has been looking for opportunities to recognize some of our great long-time fans who have been so important to the tournament’s success over the years.” It’s only fitting that Furlong would be chosen for the honor. In the last 55 years, Fuzz has missed only two state tournaments. He is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the great teams, players, coaches and games played in Columbus for more than a half century.
Furlong’s love for basketball came naturally. His father, James Sr., was a high school basketball coach at Milan High School. “I was carrying towels on the bench for my dad when I was 6 years old,” recalls Furlong. “I became a basketball junkie, it’s in my blood,” he says. When his father went to the state tournament games he brought his young son along. Fuzz learned to see the game through a coach’s eyes.
Furlong has vivid memories of accompanying his father to his first state tournament games as an 11-year-old boy in 1948. “I became a fan of Lima St. Rose because they were a small school like Milan,” remembers Fuzz. “Tom Williams, Johnny Mulcahy and John O’Connor got them to the state championship game but they fell just short,” he recalls. Ironically, several years later the Furlong family moved to Lima in Fuzz’s senior year of high school and he became a starting guard for the Cardinals and graduated from St. Rose. It was then on to Marquette University where he played freshman basketball as a walk-on.
Furlong remembers being at the game when Miller City won their state championship in 1950. A few years later, he traveled to Cleveland to see Delphos St. John’s, under the direction of a very young Bob Arnzen, lose a heartbreaker in the finals. He has seen state tournament games played in Cleveland, Dayton and in three different arenas in Columbus. Fuzz has a remarkable memory and can recall details from games played decades ago.
Eventually, the trips to state became a family affair as Fuzz’s younger brothers Rick, Terry and Dan joined him and his dad on their trips to state. Long time readers of the Lima News may recall Rick Furlong as a very talented and promising sports writer for the Lima News who tragically lost a battle with cancer in 1969 at the tender age of 26.
When asked about the best player he ever watched compete in the state tournament, Furlong pulls no punches. “There have been so many great players. I saw Clark Kellog, Jimmy Jackson and LeBron James, but the best high school player I ever saw was Jerry Lucas,” states Fuzz. In case younger readers are not familiar with Lucas, he led Middletown High School to 76 consecutive wins and two state championships in late 1950s. He scored 53 points against Cleveland East Tech in a state semifinal when he was just 15 years old. The next day Lucas scored 44 in the championship game for a total of 97 points, a record that still stands 58 years later.
Furlong rattled off several teams when I asked him about the best squads he witnessed play at State. “I really liked Dayton Belmont (1964) when they had Bill Hosket and Donny May,” says Fuzz and added, “Columbus East (1968 and 1969), St. Henry (1990 and 1991) and of course those Middletown teams (1956 and 1957) were all pretty special.”
Furlong is not a fan of the state tournament move from St. John Arena to the Schottenstein Center. “St. John Arena had more flavor and the crowd seemed to be more a part of the games,” says Fuzz and added, “It was louder and had a personality. The Schott is a beautiful place but it’s more subdued and even a good crowd can get swallowed up because it’s so big.”
Furlong’s clever wit and caustic sense of humor are legendary. If you’re looking for him in a crowd, just follow the laughter and you will find Fuzz holding court. It’s one of the reasons I invited him to talk to my basketball team every year. He would pace back and forth in front of the players regaling them with stories and planting motivational seeds. My guys were always asking me, “When is the Fuzz coming in to talk to us?”
Furlong, who has battled medical issues recently, says he plans to keep attending games at state, “as long as I can, it’s kept me young.” His brief moment in the spotlight this Friday will provide him with just one more great memory of the state tournament but, according to Furlong, not his most cherished one.
Fuzz claims, “My all-time favorite moment from all my years at state came in 2010 when Lima Central Catholic won their first state championship after all those tough, close losses at state.”
I’ll second that. Congratulations Fuzz.
