Hot Rod Hundley

[Racer X]

Cannot remember if there was a Hot Rod appreciation thread or not, so I decided to start another.

I am truly going to miss him. He is iconic to my childhood and synonymous with the Utah Jazz with me.

I really started this thread to talk about the hourlong interview that David Locke did with Hot Rod that you can get in their iTunes podcast feed.

Some of the parts I found interesting:
Talking about wanting to play at NC State, but they gave him a bunch of free stuff so he had to go to West Virginia. He later helped recruit Jerry West to West Virginia.
He was drafted #1 overall in 1957.
Talks about going to New Orleans and what it was like there.
His first impressions of SLC and Utah in general.

One of the most interesting things about the interview though was the way he painted John Stockton and Karl Malone. From a fan perspective John Stockton was always sort of this unaccesible guy who never really seemed to want people to get to know him in the least. Grumpy in a lot of ways. Karl Malone was the one who gregarious, wanted people to love him, outspoken, carefree. Hot Rod paints a very different picture. In fact sort of the opposite picture. He spends a lot of time talking about how great and friendly that Stockton was over the years. Of Malone he says that he was hard to get to know, very standoffish, one day he could be friendly, on other days he was downright mean. Hot Rod tells this story about how on a Jazz flight Hot Rod was sitting in a seat and Malone walked onto the plane and literally ordered Hot Rod to get up and move because he wanted that seat. He was dead serious and Hot Rod thought he would beat him down if he said no, so he got up and moved. That was really interesting to me.

[carrottop12]

Here is mine...
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=900422

And here is another one that started like 3 days later...
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=901111

[HolyToledo]

I haved lived in cali all my life but became a Jazz fan as I could hear KSL here and as a kid, Hot Rod made the games exciting. I love Hot Rod because he loved the Jazz. It was not just a job for him. He wanted the Jazz to win like us fans want them to win. I wish him the best!!!

[seejaydeja]

I love Hot Rod because he loved the Jazz. It was not just a job for him. He wanted the Jazz to win like us fans want them to win. I wish him the best!!!

this is what i loved so much about him, i loved hearing him on the radio just getting frustrated as hell with this team during some games in the past few seasons and voicing it. i loved it, all emotion.