Price was right for Bobcats

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2022 (825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tom Price receives no shortage of reminders of his glory days.

The former Brandon University Bobcat men’s basketball player hardly misses a home game. He also misses almost all the action as he’s busy selling Booster Juice smoothies since he purchased the franchise on 18th Street in 2011.

But as he sits as his perch above the Healthy Living Centre hardcourt, he sees the string of Bobcats all-Canadians in front of him, a handful of which he played with and coached to national success in the 1980s. While it’s not the old gym (now Henry Champ Gymnasium), the memories frequently flood back.

“I have such fond memories because the crowd was right there, especially when they put the bleachers behind the benches. I don’t know how many points it was an advantage to us. The place was packed, noisy,” said Price. “But the HLC … what a fantastic facility. It’s modern, it’s in a lot of ways long overdue but it’s a great facility. When I’m sitting there selling product, it’s neat looking out there, seeing the pictures of the guys, all-Canadians that played for the Bobcats.”

Price never experienced the displeasure of losing a Great Plains Athletic Conference title. His rookie year was Brandon’s first in 1979-80 and he captured four straight, reaching the national podium three times.

The six-foot-five forward’s basketball journey started at Harrison School in Grade 7, under BU Wall of Famer (2014) Larry Rodenbush. He made a seamless leap to Crocus Plains, cracking the varsity squad in Grade 10. Coaches Jim Mackey and Dwight Kearns — who would soon become Bobcat coach Jerry Hemmings’ assistant — instilled the importance of work ethic on the path to success.

He also learned a few lessons the hard way. Price’s Plainsmen squad in 1979 was terrific, with future Bobcats Grant Coulter and Don Thomson guiding them to a provincial semifinal clash with Fort Richmond.

The game went down to the wire. Down 58-57, Price — who finished with a game-high 21 points — hoisted the would-be game-winner at the buzzer and watched it roll around the rim and fall, mesh untouched. Season over.

“It’s devastating in a lot of ways,” Price said softly. “The thing that bugged me was I let the team down. Unfortunately, it happened and it’s something the guys kid me about. ‘You just had one simple job. All you had to do was hit that.

“The guy that was guarding me … I had my way with him for most of the game … but it just didn’t go.”

Fortunately for the six-foot-five forward, that wasn’t his final shot. Price garnered interest from a couple of university programs but his choice was simple: “The dream was to play for BU.”

The Bobcats were on the cusp of major success. Future all-Canadians Keith Strieter and Jerry Abernathy arrived from the United States in 1978, leading Brandon to its first-ever winning season with an 11-5 record.

Fuelled in the fall of 1979 by a first-round upset and the likes of New York native Fred Lee and UPEI transfer Jude Kelly, BU was set to soar.

Price felt the intensity from his first day of training camp.

“Everything happens so much faster,” Price said, comparing the experience to high school. “Bigger, stronger men. I was playing with teammates that were 24, 25, 27 years of age. Here you are, skinny little kid … ‘weight training, what’s that crap?’ Until you realize you got to do it, because otherwise, you can’t compete.”

If that wasn’t enough of a wake-up call, a pre-season tournament in South Dakota did the trick. Price squared up to an opponent flying down the lane and drew a charge. In those days, offensive fouls gave the defender free throws if the offender’s team had seven or more fouls. The Bobcat, laying on the floor, still paid the biggest price.

“I couldn’t even get my breath,” Price said.

Price injured his left ankle in warmup for the final of McMaster University’s tournament in November, landing on a ball after a layup.

He made his debut the following month, however, and helped the Bobcats to their first GPAC crown.

“We knew we were probably going get a wildcard if we didn’t win GPAC. That being said, there was no way Fred, Keith, Jerry Abernathy, Don Jackson … Jude … not winning GPAC wasn’t in the cards,” Price said.

In their first trip to nationals, the Bobcats edged the York Yeomen 81-80, then snuck past their provincial rival Winnipeg Wesmen 85-81 to reach the final against Victoria.

Brandon ultimately fell 73-65 in the first of seven straight Vikings gold-medal victories.

Price was named BU’s male rookie of the year but never quite got the chance to build on that season. It turned out the freak warmup accident cost him his left ACL as well. He said he likely partially tore it on the play and fully ruptured it in a pickup game a few months later. Price sat out the 1980-81 season and was never the same afterward. He finished out his four years, attending all four national championship tournaments but admits the injury resulted in an “undistinguished” career.

“You’re not the fastest guy to begin with and you lose another little bit, it really puts you, especially at that level, at a disadvantage,” Price said. “Jerry brought some good, solid athletes in. You’re competing against guys in practice that you’re a small fish at that point.

“There are still lifelong friendships. You’d compete, the practices were in so many ways a lot more competitive than a lot of the game we played because we had some pretty good depth.”

Price was off to Boissevain School with his education degree. He spent four years there before returning to Brandon to teach at Vincent Massey for another four, then King George for the bulk of his career and Meadows for the last few.

Price also returned to the Bobcat bench as an assistant coach for the 1987-88 season. Brandon finally captured that elusive CIAU gold medal in March and expectations were sky-high.

Brandon lost to Acadia in a tournament early in the year but had to face the Axemen again in the championship final in front of essentially a home crowd in Halifax.

Price already knew Hemmings came prepared for games like this but gained a deeper appreciation for the steps he took while sitting beside the bench boss during the title defence.

“I knew we were going to win. Acadia was a good team, a very good team,” Price said, adding the game plan was precise. “Here’s all the cylinders we’re going to be firing on, here’s what Acadia’s going to do. He knew exactly what they were going to do on their offence.

“(Hemmings) didn’t take anything for granted. I remember thinking ‘Halifax is a beautiful city,’ they told me back then. But we didn’t leave our rooms. We were watching tape, every little thing you need to do to make sure you had the best chance to win.”

Of course, BU captured its second of three straight golds, 81-68 in a game New Orleans native Whitney Dabney dominated in the first half.

Price started coaching during his Bobcat days, at Earl Oxford and with the Crocus Plains JV team. In Boissevain, he coached “everything,” and continued to take on whatever team he could over the years.

“I look at what guys like Dwight did, Bob Hamilton for us in high school volleyball, Larry Rodenbush in junior high, Larry Pilling also in junior high and all the time they put in,” Price said. “If they hadn’t put that time in we’d have had nothing so I thought to myself, ‘Sure, you give back.’”

He retired from teaching in 2016, already well into his next venture. Price purchased the Booster Juice franchise in 2011, then added another piece of real estate with The Chopped Leaf a few blocks down 18th Street in 2018. A friend and fellow Booster Juice franchisee in Regina also had a Chopped Leaf store, which offers healthy bowls, salads and wraps.

“That was right when recreational marijuana licenses were being given and I’m like ‘What are you talking about? I’m not opening a dope store,’” Price said with a chuckle. “We checked it out and thought the food was fantastic so said ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Price tackled a steep learning curve from the start. While franchises are bound by company policies that restrict but help the business run smoothly, a lot of the learning comes from experience. Unlike the basketball court, it’s not as easy as stealing the ball back to make up for a turnover.

“Every mistake costs you money,” Price said. “… It’s not a ‘my bad,’ do-over or ‘get the next one,’ it’s going to cost. but it’s been good.”

He’s grateful for the doors BU and the Bobcats opened for him in his teaching career and hopes he paid it forward for the students he taught.

“The biggest thing I think every teacher will say is knowing the kids have turned out OK,” Price said. “Hopefully some life lessons you’re trying to pass on … I need to work hard in life, I need to have good manners, I need to have a work ethic, I need to be punctual. To me it doesn’t matter what your gray matter is, there’s a job for everyone and it’s just a matter of making students realize that.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen