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Jefferson Manor Park

GPS Coordinates: 38.7918020, -77.0827217
Closest Address: 2909 Farmington Drive, Alexandria, VA 22303

Jefferson Manor Park

Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2020 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

ARCHIE TALLEY, SMALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL GREAT, PLAYS IN HUNTINGTON
Written by Don Hakenson

On Sunday morning, May 17, 2020, I was reading The Washington Post when I saw that Archie Talley, a legendary guard at Central High in Prince George’s County in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was among the new 2020 class of inductees into the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame. Archie had gone on to star at Salem (West Virginia) College, where he scored 50 points in four consecutive games, and averaged over 40 points a game his senior season ending in 1976. Additionally, Archie was named the 1976 Associated Press College Division Basketball Player of the Year and First Team All-American by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). A ninth-round pick of the New York Knicks in the 1976 NBA draft, Talley joined the Harlem Globetrotters instead and later enjoyed a decade-long professional career abroad.

While reading this story it brought me back forty-three years before to an old outside playground in a small community in Huntington, just outside of Alexandria, in Fairfax County. At that time, I had already served four years in the U.S. Air Force and had played four years of squadron basketball at Dover Air Force Base, in Dover, Delaware, and at Fort Belvoir, in Fairfax County.

After leaving active duty in 1976, I started working in the Hoffman Building in Alexandria for the Department of the Army as a records reference clerk converting hard copy records to microfiche. Sometime in early 1976, many of the young men working at the conversion site, including yours truly, started congregating at Jefferson Manor park for pickup games at their outside basketball court. These games, which became a weekly ritual, were quite fun and also very competitive.

One of the employees working for the Army that participated in these pick-up contests was Tommy Hartley, a former high school basketball player from Central High, in Prince Georges County. Tommy was a pretty good player. He had played high school basketball with Archie Talley and also grew up with former Olympic Boxing Gold Medalist Sugar Ray Leonard.

I’m not sure how it happened, but Tommy received a challenge to play a basketball game against a group of basketball players that either lived in the Huntington neighborhood, or played there regularly. This contest was scheduled to be played on a Saturday, at around 10 o’clock in the morning, sometime in the spring of 1977.

Tommy had asked me to play with him and be a part of his starting five. Tommy also informed me that he was bringing with him Archie Talley and Sugar Ray Leonard to play for us. I was really jacked up to meet Archie and Sugar Ray because they were already well known by me.

When I arrived that morning, there were about 50 to 70 Huntington residents that had already showed up to witness this event. But it was obvious to me this was more than your usual pick-up game. It was bragging rights for the winner, and I could plainly see this was going to be a very contested game.

When I showed up I had brought with me my brother, Chuckie, and another Franconian, John Branick. They both played round ball and I thought they would like to see and meet Archie Talley and Sugar Ray. If I remember correctly, Archie had been one of the final cuts by the New York Nets, and had already played overseas in Europe, averaging over 50 points a game.

When we walked to the playing area, Tommy was already there with two other guys. One of them was a slim, relatively short and wiry guy who was warming up taking random practice shots. This man was Archie Talley. I didn’t think he was even 6-feet tall and he definitely did not impress me at first glance. This can’t be the Archie Talley who had averaged over 40 points a game in the NAIA.

While we were introducing ourselves to each other on our end of the court, on the other side the Huntington team was highly organized, and the guys were performing pre-game prepared drills with their family and friends cheering their every movement. We were definitely a very motley looking crew, and it did not look good for the visiting team!

My first thought was we were really over-matched and were going to get murdered out on the court, but Tommy kept telling me, “Don’t worry…we have Archie and he was the best round baller we had ever seen.” Coming from Tommy, who was very good himself, that was very comforting to hear.

Our side only had four players that showed up; Tommy, myself, Archie, and one of Tommy’s friends, about whom I remember very little today. Unfortunately, I had already been informed by Tommy that Sugar Ray was unable to make it. So we grabbed John Branick from the sidelines to give us five players. John would go on to play varsity basketball for Edison High in 1978, so he had some game, but he was only 16 years old.

Starting from the first jump ball the Huntington five scored fast and often, building a 15 to 9 lead with Tommy and me combining to score 7 baskets, and young Branick doing his part by chipping in with a hoop. But Archie had only hit for one basket and was basically letting us play. The Huntington fans were cheering their team and I must admit, they were laughing at us. But I also have to say we were playing hard and doing our best, which was not good enough. Then everything changed.

At that moment Tommy yelled out to me to let Archie take over, and boy did he. From that point on Archie scored from thirty feet away countless times and scored the next nine baskets while we held Huntington scoreless. The Huntington team couldn’t get the ball past half court without Archie reaching in and stealing the ball or intercepting an errant Huntington pass.

Once Archie came down the court guarded by two Huntington players, who were both well over six-foot-two, were both well-schooled in defense, with Archie dribbling the ball behind his back the whole way, and never putting the ball in front of him. Archie then stopped on a dime and drilled a thirty footer with two of the opposing players jumping as high as they could to no avail. I had never seen anything like it before that day, and have never seen anything quite like it since.

With the score now 18-15, if I remember it correctly, I scored on an offensive rebound and Tommy got an assist from Archie to go up 20-15. The Huntington five was using almost their entire team attempting to stop Archie, which gave Tommy and me some opportunities to score.

You could see the frustration developing on the faces of the opposite team. The last nail in the coffin was Archie swishing another thirty-footer to end the contest. The final score was us 21 and Huntington 15. The Huntington fans were not laughing at us now.

When the game ended every member of the other team quickly gathered around Archie Talley clapping their hands on his back and asking him his name. They had never seen anyone that impressive or that skillful with a basketball, and I have to admit neither had I. This little outside challenge basketball game, played on an outside court in Huntington while playing with Archie Talley was something that I will never forget. But can you imagine what it would have been like if Sugar Ray had showed up at Huntington.

When I left to go home, I was so glad that I had the opportunity to play alongside such a talented and gifted superstar! It is one of my biggest highlights concerning my so-called mediocre basketball career -- if you could call it a career.

Archie Talley, as far as I know, never played a single National Basketball Association (NBA) game, but was without a doubt the best basketball player I had ever played with in my lifetime.

ABOUT ME

Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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