Subject matter for a possible Hot Rod Hundley movie would be limitless, of course.

Stories on Hundley, the Charleston and West Virginia basketball great, date back more than 50 years and are part of West Virginia folklore, appealing to all ages. The only problem? How to convince theatergoers that what they're seeing is the truth and not Hollywood fabrication.

There was the time in the Southern Conference basketball tournament in which Hundley, needing two points to equal the tournament scoring record, stepped to the foul line in the game's final seconds with the Mountaineers comfortably ahead. But instead of trying to convert both opportunities, he unleashed a hook shot on the first attempt and a behind-the-back toss on the second.

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As a West Virginia Mountaineer, Hot Rod Hundley (right) earned first-team All-America honors and the distinction as college basketball’s “clown prince.’’

"If the NCAA had investigators the way they do now,'' Rene Henry said recently, "they probably would have sent a whole team in to West Virginia to see if this was true.''

Henry, a Charleston native, worked as the Mountaineers' sports information director in the mid-1950s, developed a lifelong friendship with Hundley and promoted his All-America candidacy. Not that Hundley needed promotion.

After attracting about 100 college scholarship offers following his 1953 graduation from Charleston High, he earned first-team All-America honors at WVU and the distinction as college basketball's "clown prince.'' He was the first player selected in the 1957 NBA draft and spent six uneventful years as a Minneapolis-Los Angeles Laker.

Henry, who now lives in Seattle, has stayed in touch with Hundley since their WVU days and, in cooperation with current and former state residents, is working on a movie in which he plans to chronicle Hot Rod's life.

The movie is expected to focus primarily on his childhood as an orphan on the streets of Charleston and on his Mountaineer career and will be filmed mostly in Charleston and Morgantown. It will include scenes at the Strand poolroom on Hale Street, the Reynolds Street playground where the Civic Center now stands and the old YMCA on Capitol and Lee streets.

In the movie, Henry plans to recreate at least three of Hundley's high school games, including the 1953 West Virginia-Kentucky all-star game in which Rod scored a record 45 points, a feat that intensified the recruiting frenzy.

Hundley, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a play-by-play broadcaster, was abandoned by his parents shortly after birth. His father preferred the good times and spirits available at the Strand to the responsibilities of parenthood. His mother left for Washington in search of a job.

In one of their conversations, Hundley told Henry of the mistreatment he received from one of the families that adopted him. "When he was about 4 years old,'' Henry recalled, "the family would punish him by holding him by his ankles upside down out the window.''

But he was often treated with kindness. For a while, he lived with George and Mamie Sharp, an elderly couple who lived near where the Charleston Marriott is now located. Later, Ida Crutchfield, the mother of one of his high school teammates, Tom Crutchfield, let him stay at the Alderson Hotel, which was located across the street from the Woodrum building on Virginia Street.

Subject matter for a possible Hot Rod Hundley movie would be limitless, of course.

Stories on Hundley, the Charleston and West Virginia basketball great, date back more than 50 years and are part of West Virginia folklore, appealing to all ages. The only problem? How to convince theatergoers that what they're seeing is the truth and not Hollywood fabrication.

There was the time in the Southern Conference basketball tournament in which Hundley, needing two points to equal the tournament scoring record, stepped to the foul line in the game's final seconds with the Mountaineers comfortably ahead. But instead of trying to convert both opportunities, he unleashed a hook shot on the first attempt and a behind-the-back toss on the second.

After an Orange Bowl tournament game in Miami, he regaled reporters by telling them he was studying pre-med at West Virginia and earning $500 a week in under-the-table payments. His eventual move to the NBA, he told the reporters, would mean a pay cut.

"If the NCAA had investigators the way they do now,'' Rene Henry said recently, "they probably would have sent a whole team in to West Virginia to see if this was true.''

Henry, a Charleston native, worked as the Mountaineers' sports information director in the mid-1950s, developed a lifelong friendship with Hundley and promoted his All-America candidacy. Not that Hundley needed promotion.

After attracting about 100 college scholarship offers following his 1953 graduation from Charleston High, he earned first-team All-America honors at WVU and the distinction as college basketball's "clown prince.'' He was the first player selected in the 1957 NBA draft and spent six uneventful years as a Minneapolis-Los Angeles Laker.

Henry, who now lives in Seattle, has stayed in touch with Hundley since their WVU days and, in cooperation with current and former state residents, is working on a movie in which he plans to chronicle Hot Rod's life.

The movie is expected to focus primarily on his childhood as an orphan on the streets of Charleston and on his Mountaineer career and will be filmed mostly in Charleston and Morgantown. It will include scenes at the Strand poolroom on Hale Street, the Reynolds Street playground where the Civic Center now stands and the old YMCA on Capitol and Lee streets.

In the movie, Henry plans to recreate at least three of Hundley's high school games, including the 1953 West Virginia-Kentucky all-star game in which Rod scored a record 45 points, a feat that intensified the recruiting frenzy.

Hundley, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a play-by-play broadcaster, was abandoned by his parents shortly after birth. His father preferred the good times and spirits available at the Strand to the responsibilities of parenthood. His mother left for Washington in search of a job.

In one of their conversations, Hundley told Henry of the mistreatment he received from one of the families that adopted him. "When he was about 4 years old,'' Henry recalled, "the family would punish him by holding him by his ankles upside down out the window.''

But he was often treated with kindness. For a while, he lived with George and Mamie Sharp, an elderly couple who lived near where the Charleston Marriott is now located. Later, Ida Crutchfield, the mother of one of his high school teammates, Tom Crutchfield, let him stay at the Alderson Hotel, which was located across the street from the Woodrum building on Virginia Street.

In compiling material for his movie script, Henry has spent time reminiscing with Hundley and interviewing former Mountaineer player and coach Joedy Gardner. He's consulted Nemo Nearman, a former North Carolina player who in the late 1940s and 1950s joined Hundley for pick-up games at the YMCA. He's talked with Sam Huff, a Mountaineer football great and classmate of Hundley, and Eddie Barrett, a former West Virginia sports information director who now lives in Huntington. He's spoken with Pete White, a Kanawha County native and former Hundley teammate.

"We're working on the script, talking to a lot of people, getting input, anecdotes and such,'' Henry said from his home in Seattle.

On a recent visit with Hundley, the two discussed the movie idea in depth. "I said let's put it on paper,'' Henry related, "and see what we can come up with.''

With the help of WVU associate athletic director Mike Parsons, Henry has tried to unearth old newsreels of Hundley's games but has found none. He suspects theft by memorabilia purveyors.

He's also worked with Gov. Joe Manchin's office and with the West Virginia Film Department. If all goes well, production will begin next year.

Henry, a William & Mary graduate, has written seven books, including one on the NFL officiating career of WVU alumnus Fred Wyant, and has worked in public relations and sports marketing. A former Los Angeles resident, he's a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Assisting him is Gabor Nagy of Los Angeles, who was nominated for an Oscar as a producer by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has collected honors at international film festivals. Nagy is doing most of the writing and will produce the film.

Henry still needs money for the project, has not decided on a name for the movie and soon will begin looking for two accomplished actors to portray Hundley at different stages of his life.

He's already settled on a theme, however. In a conversation with Huff, the football great summed it up nicely.

"I thought I had it tough growing up in a coal-mining town,'' Huff told Henry, referring his youth in Farmington, Marion County. "I had a great life because I had family. I never realized how poor he was and what he had to overcome to get where he is today.''

Said Henry, "That's the story we want to tell more of.''

Reach Mike Whiteford at 348-7948 or mikewhitef...@wvgazette.com.