Not having a father figure in the household with the mother could possibly have a impact on a child’s life.
Growing up without a father didn’t stop former Kentucky forward Jack Givens from becoming a basketball legend in the state of Kentucky. Givens was recently inducted into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame at the State Theater in Elizabethtown.
Givens was born on Sept. 21, 1956 in Lexington, KY. He spent his younger days in Lexington with his six brothers and three sisters.
As a child, Givens spent majority of his free time playing baseball. He didn’t start to play basketball full-time until his freshman year at Bryan Station.
“The summer between my ninth and 10th grade year, I grew from about 5-foot-7 to about 6-3,”Givens said. “I grew a lot in one summer and after I grew that one summer, I primarily started playing basketball.”
Givens didn’t have a favorite player in basketball growing up. He and his friends would go to the park and shoot around.
“We were just always in the park, that’s what we did,” Givens said. “We went to the park just about everyday. It was just the thing to do. We didn’t have a whole lot of options back in the day in the neighborhood where I grew up.”
High School Years
Givens and his family lived in the Ashton Dale Complex on the eastside of Lexington. He only had two options on where to attend high school. It was either Bryan Station or Henry Clay.
His basketball skills decided the outcome. Givens spent two days trying out for the basketball team at Henry Clay where he had the opportunity to play alongside future University of Kentucky basketball player James Lee.
The school would eventually be moved to the same district as Bryan Station. Givens tried out and made for the team.
“We really had some really, really good teams at Bryan Station,” Givens said. “The whole team was getting a lot of interest from a lot of high schools from around the state and from colleges when it came to recruiting and scouting and watching us play.”
Givens was in a comfortable position with his teammates as they lived in the same area as he did. Givens mentioned he never had an issue with his teammates.
“We spent a lot of time together, even away from basketball,” Givens said. “If one guy did something, you can bet two or three other guys would be tagging along with him. We always played in the Dirt Bowl at Douglas Park.”
Givens’ favorite moment with the team was when they beat Lee and Henry Clay. In that game, Givens scored 45 points and grabbed over 20 rebounds.
Givens led the Defenders to the state tournament in 1972 and 1974. He was named to the All-State Tournament Team in both years. At the end of his senior season, Givens was named Mr. Basketball.
After a stellar career in high school, some of the top programs in the country were after Givens. He had offers from schools such as UCLA, Louisville, Indiana and Ohio State.
“There was hardly ever a day that went by from the time I was a sophomore that I didn’t get recruiting letters from schools throughout the country,” Givens said.
Goose Time
It didn’t take long for Givens to make a commitment to a school of his choice. He ended up accepting a basketball scholarship to play for the Wildcats. He wanted to stay home and give his family an opportunity to see him play in person. By his junior year, Givens knew where he wanted to go.
“The university recruited me hard,” Givens said. “All of the fans of Kentucky would show up at my games. They would cheer and would say ‘You need to come to Kentucky, don’t go anywhere else.’ It’s hard to turn that down when you see every game is full with people who have University of Kentucky gear on and they’re screaming for you, because they want you to go there.”
As soon as Givens stepped onto the University of Kentucky campus, people knew who he was. Givens was able to adjust to the college life very quickly. He didn’t allow the stardom to go to his head.
“My mom did a great job of raising me and making sure I always remembered who I was and where I came from,” Givens said. “I didn’t think about the bigness of the program. I just tried to be as normal as possible.”
In order to get away from the Hollywood lifestyle the fans placed him in, he normally went to dinner with his mom and other family members. He would also go to church every Sunday.
In the transition from high school to college, Givens’ mother and grandmother were his primary support system since his father wasn’t physically present in his upbringing. His mom wanted him close to home so, she could keep an eye on him.
Givens has two children of his own. Both of them played basketball at the collegiate level. His daughter, Jaimie, played at Florida Atlantic University while his son, Jeremy, played at Bryan College in Dayton, TN.
“I just like being a dad,” Givens said. “I have a son who is now 28 and my daughter is 25. I had the opportunity to coach the both of them in AAU and summer league ball. It was my goal to spend as much time as I could with my kids.”
In the beginning, Givens’ mother wasn’t sure if she wanted her son to play basketball. He had to show his skills on the basketball court before she became comfortable with him playing. Once she saw how good he was, she decided to jump on board with everyone else.
“I had brothers who were athletes and they would look after me and make sure I played hard and worked at it,” Givens said. “It was all good.”
Some of the people in the community weren’t comfortable with his decision to play for the Wildcats because, it wasn’t known for African Americans to play at Kentucky. Coach Adolph Rupp didn’t care to recruit black players.
At Texas-Western University, coach Don Haskins broke the cycle and started five black players in the 1966 NCAA championship game against Rupp’s Wildcats. In his first season as head coach, Haskins came away with the win in a 72-65 thriller.
Center Tom Payne from Louisville ultimately became the first black player Rupp recruited. He played two seasons under coach Rupp before calling it quits after the 1971-72 season.
In his first season at Kentucky, Givens averaged 9.4 points a game and was a part of a run to the NCAA championship game where his team lost 92-85 to UCLA.
In the next three seasons, the Wildcats won the NIT championship , advanced to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament, and won the NCAA championship.
“After our junior year, we made up our mind we were going to try our best to not let anything get in the way of us winning the national championship,” Givens said. “We were very dedicated and very focused in our senior year. On the first day of practice, we established how we were going to play. We didn’t have one bad practice that whole year.”
Kentucky fans didn’t always call Givens by his real name. They would sometimes call him “Goose”.
The name came from former Harlem Globetrotter Reece “Goose” Tatum, who played for the Globetrotters from 1941-54.
“They (Defender teammates) said I resembled him and his style of play,” Givens said. “It’s one of those things that I didn’t like when it first started. That kind of made them call me “Goose” even more. It just kind of stuck and it’s been with me since that time.”
In the 1977-78 season, Kentucky had five players to average double figures in scoring: Givens (18.1), Rick Robey (14.4), Kyle Macy (12.5), James Lee (11. 3) and Mike Phillips (10.2).
In 123 games at Kentucky, Givens averaged 16.6 points and 6.4 rebounds a game.
Life After Kentucky
Givens pro career began shortly after his Kentucky years in the 1978 NBA Draft when the Atlanta Hawks drafted him 16th overall. He spent two seasons with the team playing a total of 156 games. He averaged 6.7 points and 2.9 rebounds a game in those two years. He continued his professional career with stints in Italy, Belgium and Japan.
With years of playing basketball behind him, Givens still keeps up with the Wildcats and attend games when he has the time to do but he’s not a fan of the one-and-done system in college basketball.
“It’s part of the scene in college basketball nowadays,” Givens said. “I like to watch the players. I would like to get to know the players and it’s hard to do that sometimes in one year.”
Givens mentioned that he loves the job coach John Calipari has done at Kentucky. He also said that if players aren’t good enough to go to the NBA, then they should stay and work on their game.
“Coach Cal says it is a players first program and if that’s part of the landscape and it’s what college basketball is all about, then I’m glad we can use that to our advantage. The players are happy to be a part of it.”
Givens, 57, is now the Vice President of Business Development and External Affairs at Bowlin Group. The company specializes in the following: power transmission and distribution, sub-stations, renewable power/smart grid deployment, cellular towers, wireless networks, broadband and fiber infrastructure, generator installation and repair, and storm and disaster recovery.
Givens is enjoying life away from basketball with his family and friends from his childhood. He has no regrets on how his life turned out.
“I enjoy doing what I am doing,” Givens said. “I have been blessed. I have done a lot of stuff. I got to travel a lot. I coached basketball off and on. I am truly thankful for what I have been able to experience in basketball and outside of basketball. I couldn’t ask for much more.”
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