Deidrick, Gary
| Gary Deidrick – (1997) |
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Gary Deidrick was perhaps the most prolific long-range shooter in the illustrious history of the Admiral King High School basketball program.
During the 1970-71 cage season, days before the 3-point shot was allowed, Deidrick led the Lorain and Cuyahoga County area in scoring with 547 points and a 28.8-points-per-game scoring average.
Most of his damage—and it was heavy—came from the 25- to 30-foot range for Coach Elmer Meyers’ gritty underdog team that fought hard for a 11-8 record. Deidrick climbed over the 30-point scoring plateau five times while averaging 43.5 percent and 71.5 percent shooting from the field and foul line.
In the barn-burning victories over Buckeye Conference rival Sandusky that season, Deidrick outscored storied Scott May—and eventual All-American at Indiana University—by 48 to 37 and 44 to 35 points. The 48-point salvo on King’s home floor saw Deidrick mesh 21 of 34 action shots for 62 percent accuracy despite sitting out nearly five minutes of the game because of foul trouble.
“Without the foul trouble he had, Gary might have scored 60 points—he was locked out that night,” said Meyers.
The popular 6-foot-4 Deidrick, a combination guard-forward in basketball and pitcher-first baseman in baseball during his senior year just missed the school’s single game cage scoring record of 51 points set by future Lorain Sports Hall of Famer Jim (Bubbles) Harris during the 1966-67 campaign.
In a dramatic turnabout that displayed work ethic by a student-athlete, the former “freshman flop” was rewarded with the following cage honors in 1970-71: All-Buckeye Conference first team; Cleveland Plain Dealer Dream Team; Cleveland Press Star; Class AA Northeastern Ohio District first team; United Press International All-Ohio second team; and Associated Press All-Ohio third team.
More than 25 years later, Deidrick, who played only two varsity seasons after being cut from the team as an AKHS freshman cager, still ranks fourth and 11th in school annals for season (547) and career points (855), respectively.
In June 1971, Deidrick, an honors student, accepted a full athletic scholarship from Xavier University in Cincinnati. He was slated to play in the Ohio High School North-South Cage Classic before enrolling at Xavier. But he suffered an ankle injury in a North All-Star practice session and was forced to miss the game which was played in Marion.
Although Xavier’s varsity was below .500 against a rugged inter-sectional schedule throughout the early 1970’s, Deidrick enjoyed a solid cage career at the Cincinnati school. He started out by leading the freshman team with a 18.8 point average.
Deidrick, who had a 20-point high game as a sophomore, came into his own during his junior season under Musketeers Head Coach Tay Baker. He averaged 10.6 points with a career high of 30 points against Old Dominion, an 86-83 victor over the upset-minded Musketeers in overtime.
Known as the “Mad Bomber” because of his ability to enter a game and change its complexion with long-distance bombs over taller zone defenses, Deidrick once had two consecutive 16-point games coming off the bench in relief for XU.
While playing Coach Digger Phelps’ heavily favored Notre Dame quintet at South Bend (Ind.), Gary scored 15 points overall and held All-American Adrian Dantley to four points in the second half of a 96-58 loss to the Fighting Irish.
As a senior, Deidrick was in and out of games as a regular swingman. He finished his collegiate career with 10 points as a hardluck 11-15 Xavier team fell to Coach Ray Deringer’s 13-11 Cleveland State University Vikings, 74-68, at Xavier.
Coach Baker said after the CSU game, “We had four seniors who hung in there for a long time and they’re all graduating. You have to give them credit. They have represented Xavier well.”
After college, Deidrick continued his involvement with basketball as an outside layman assistant coach at South Amherst High School (1982-84) and at Elyria West High School (1988-90). Gary’s son, Ray, was a senior student-athlete standout for Amherst Steele High School cagers in 1996-97.
Now an automobile salesman for Joe Firment Chevrolet Inc., Gary and his wife, Joan M., have two other children, daughter Lindsay, 19, a student at Eastern Michigan University, and a son, Kevin.
