“Old Dead Heads and Aging Hoopsters in the Haight Ashbury”
By David E. Smith, M.D., Founder and President,
Haight Ashbury Free Clinics
Olympic Club Basketball ‘66
Bill Walton, former NBA and college basketball great, stood at
the corner of Haight and Ashbury- just two blocks from 710 Ashbury- the original
home of his favorite band, The Grateful Dead. The purpose of the visit was an
ESPN special on his storied life, but it gave me a chance to visit with him and
to have the above picture taken. My fascination and admiration of Bill Walton
stretches back many decades. Initially, it was because I am a basketball junkie
having played in the Olympic Club League since 1966.
During the 1970-74 period, when Olympic of the year Kevin
Restani played Varsity Basketball for USF, a group of we Olympic hoopsters
ventured to the NCAA tournament, rooting for Kevin and admiring Bill as he lead
a John Wooden coached UCLA Basketball Dynasty (winners of 88 consecutive games)
and knocked our home town team out of the NCAA tournament twice .
Later during the Rick Barry era of the Golden State Warrior
Basketball, following our games at the Olympic Club, a group of us (including
legendary Olympic Aging Hoopster Rudy Vasquez) would travel to the East Bay
where in 1975 (the year the Warriors won the NBA Championship) the Warriors
actually beat the Walton-lead Portland Trailblazers. Starting in 1977, the
competitive tide turned and the Walton- led Trailblazers not only beat the
Warriors, but went on to win the NBA Championship.
Although I had long admired Bill Walton, my first interaction
with him occurred in the 1980’s not at the basketball court, but at a Grateful
Dead rock concert. We both were wearing the standard dress of the time (a
tie-dyed t-shirt) but mine said “Rock Medicine” as our Haight Ashbury Free
Clinics Rock Medicine delivered all of the medical service to Bill Graham
Presents Rock concerts, including the Grateful Dead who at the time were the
biggest grossing rock group in the United States. The Grateful Dead began in the
Haight Ashbury in 1965 and I started the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics in 1967.
Our early financial support was from rock concert benefits including Janis
Joplin (Big Brother and the Holding Company), Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane),
Carlos Santana and the Grateful Dead. Federal Aid arrived for our Clinic during
the 1970’s Vietnam era and our Clinic has expanded twenty-two sites throughout
the Bay Area, seeing 50,000 client visits per year. We still deliver Medical
services to the rock concerts including venerable old time groups such as the
Rolling Stones but when Jerry Garcia (founder and lead guitarist for the
Grateful Dead) died in 1995, the band disbanded and an era ended.
When I saw Bill Walton in January of 2003 at the corner of
Haight and Ashbury- just two blocks form both the original Grateful Dead house
and the original site of our Haight Ashbury Free Clinics at 558 Clayton- it
brought back many memories. He was standing tall at seven feet wearing a tie-dye
t-shirt with a big smile on his face. He said, “Hey Doc” and we proceeded to
talk briefly about the Grateful Dead in days long past and I welcomed him back
to the Haight Ashbury. Two Old Deadheads and Aging Hoopsters recalling the past
at the corner of Haight and Ashbury.
I hope this article brings back memories for other Olympic Club
members of this bygone era. However, as I was writing this article in the
Olympic club Grill Room, a young twenty-year old walked in to order lunch. He
had a basketball under his arm and was wearing a Grateful dead T-shirt! Maybe
there will be a new generation of Olympic Club hoopster-Dead Heads. One can only
dream!
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