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Bonus Mark Acres stories: Larry Bird, Kenny Rogers and Dwight 'The Flight' McGhee
Published: 1/24/2013 12:06 PM
Last Modified: 1/24/2013 12:06 PM

Mark Acres will soon become the third Oral Roberts basketball player to get his jersey retired by the university.

His jersey will be raised to the rafters at halftime of ORU's Thursday night home game against Lamar.

You can read about Acres in today’s Tulsa World, but here are three Acres-related tales you won’t find in that story:

1. Acres played two seasons in the late 1980s with the Larry Bird-era Boston Celtics.

I asked Acres for his best Bird story. He mentioned the 1988 NBA Eastern Conference semifinals, when Bird confidently predicted a game seven victory immediately after a game six road win over the Atlanta Hawks. Then Bird backed up the boast with one of the most memorable superstar shootouts in NBA playoff history.

Dominique Wilkins scored 47 points and was 19-of-23 from the field. Bird scored 34 points, including 20 in the fourth quarter to secure a 118-116 Celtics victory.

Acres, recalling the moment during a telephone interview this week, said, “Afterward, when we were going in the tunnel to the locker room, I said ‘Larry, man, that was unbelievable. Was that the best half of basketball you ever played?” And he kind of thought for a minute and said ‘yep, I think it is.’ ”

Celtics players returned to a happy locker room and Acres said Bird made this comment -- in front of everybody -- to teammate Bill Walton: “Bill, I bet you thought you were the best white boy ever to play this game.”

Acres said Bird’s jab at Walton “brought down the roof.”

2, Acres said in the newspaper story that he counted Mabee Center concerts among the highlights of his college years. He said he saw Kenny Loggins, Kenny Rogers, Neil Diamond and Olivia Newton-John at the Mabee Center and he was particularly wowed by Rogers.

That led to Acres telling another Rogers story and it involved Bird. The singer invited Bird and other celebrities to participate in a “Kenny Rogers Classic Weekend.” Video footage of Rogers playing pick-up ball with NBA players like Bird and Jordan exists on the Internet. (Theory: Maybe watching the bearded singer shoot hoops is what inspired a young James Harden to opt for a hairy chin. Or not.)

Bird came back from the shindig and told teammates they were in the wrong business, according to Acres.

“He was so impressed with Kenny Rogers’ estate and everything he had going and his 18-hole golf course. You go out the front door and you are on hole No. 1. And you go out the back and you are on hole No. 10. Larry thought that was the greatest.”

3, Acres was regarded as the second-best college prospect in California when he signed with ORU. The first-best prospect? Nigel Miguel.

Being a sucker for where-are-they-know, I wondered whatever became of Miguel.

This is what happened to him: Miguel played at UCLA and was a third-round NBA draft pick in 1985. He gave the NBA and Continental Basketball Association a try before an injury led him to look for another career.

Miguel chose acting and appeared as Dwight "The Flight" McGhee in “White Men Can’t Jump.” Movie credits include parts in “Colors,” “The Air Up There,” “Forget Paris,” “Blue Chips,” “Elizabethtown” and “American History X.” He also has guested on TV shows like “Martin,” “21 Jump Street” and “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper.”


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ORU Sports

Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. Since 2001, he has been honored more than 30 times in Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists contests for sports reporting, sports columns and sports features. He is the Oklahoma State football beat writer and the Oral Roberts basketball beat writer. In 2007, he wrote a book about OSU football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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