Thanks for the Memories, Neal Walk

Any good Florida Gators basketball fan can name off a dozen or so basketball players who have starred for the University of Florida on the hardwood. Names of players who have appeared in a Final Four, won a National Championship or played in the NBA.

Not many of those fans would remember Neal Walk. Well, maybe this week because the name Neal Walk has been on the fan sites and message boards because of his passing away on Sunday, October 4. He was 67.

Neal Walk, the original Florida Gators All-American.

To the Gators of my era Walk was an icon in hoops. We would listen to the radio and hear the voice of Otis Boggs call the play from the Alligator Alley or from the opposing arenas that seemed to have all had a star or two of their own.

LSU had their Pistol Pete; the Kentucky Wildcats had stars and more stars, while Florida had Neal Walk. Astonishingly this was the era of a brief time that there were basketball stars all over the state of Florida.

Rick Berry had played in Miami in 1965, but later in the decade there were more future Hall of Fame players in Jacksonville and Tallahassee with Artis Gilmore and Dave Cowens. Florida had their own star in Walk.

Walk came out of college at the same time as Lou Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Alcindor was chosen number one in the NBA draft while the Gators’ Neal Walk was taken number two by the Phoenix Suns. Nearly fifty years later, Neal Walk is still the highest draft pick of any Florida Gator basketball player.

The saga of Neal Walk traveled a very different path over the next four decades. Perhaps it was not one Neal would have chosen, but it was certainly one he traveled well and not only gave credit and honor to himself, but also his family, his faith and Gator Nation.

Neal is a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He is honored there along with many others, including Sandy Koufax.

As several other Florida Gators All-Americans have done upon leaving their alma mater, Neal Walk’s signature was more in what he did in helping others than he did in playing the sport he excelled in.

Walk did play several years in the NBA, highlighted by his 1972-73 season where he set the Suns record as the only Sun to average 20 points and at least twelve rebounds for the season. Charles Barkley now shares that mark with him.

Seems like Neal always kept fast company.

In 1988 the removal of a tumor on his spinal cord placed Neal Walk, a 6’10” tall athlete in a wheel chair for the rest of his life.

Two years later Neal Walk was honored at the White House as the National Wheel Chair Athlete of the Year by President George Bush.

Tomorrow, Lindy Infante.

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David Shepherd has been a member of Gator Country since 1996. He retired from CSX Railroad in 2001 after nearly 30 years of service. Since that time he has worked for Gator Country, Waycross Journal Herald and First Baptist Church in Paris. He loves listening to his grandchildren plqying music. He has been married to Donna for 42 years.