![\"Gator](\"http:\/\/lamp1.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Gator-Rivers-144.jpg\")
<\/a>Rivers, a native of Savannah, Ga., was a 14 year-old outstanding ball handler (already known as \u201cGator\u201d) when he caught the attention of Russell Ellington, Savannah\u2019s Alfred Ely Beach High School coach. He wanted Rivers to play on his high school team, but Rivers had other ideas. \u201cI was just as good at pool as I was at basketball, so I quit school and was running a pool room,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\nThe coach convinced Rivers\u2019 mom to let the youth live with him for his high school years, and Ellington got him back in school and on the basketball team. \u201cHe changed my life,\u201d Rivers says today.<\/p>\n
Rivers was a star player at Moberly Junior College in Moberly, Mo., a national basketball championship contender, when Gary Filbert was hired as men\u2019s basketball coach for the new four-year Missouri Western. The coach wanted to make a name for the new college and thought Rivers would be a good addition to the team.<\/p>\n
But again, Rivers had other ideas. \u201cI did not want to go to Missouri Western; in my mind it was still a junior college,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I got something in the mail from Missouri Western, I threw it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filbert didn\u2019t give up. He found out that, from the time Rivers saw the Harlem Globetrotters perform when he was 7 years old, his dream was to play for the team. When Rivers finally came for a campus visit, Filbert introduced him to the man who promoted the Harlem Globetrotters in the Midwest. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Gary (Filbert) tells me you\u2019re one of the best ball handlers he\u2019s ever seen. If you come to Missouri Western, I\u2019ll do everything in my power to get you a tryout with the Harlem Globetrotters,\u2019\u201d Rivers said.<\/p>\n
He transferred to Missouri Western in the spring of 1971 and got invited to the Globetrotters summer camp before he had even dribbled a basketball for the Griffons. But Rivers had two more years of college eligibility and he wanted to use them, so he stayed and helped the Griffons make a name for the new four-year college.<\/p>\n
The team went 27-2 in the 1972-73 season. \u201cIt was fun experience. We all got along extremely well,\u201d Rivers says. \u201cWe had a tremendous team \u2013 the tallest team in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers says the sweetest victory in his Missouri Western career was beating Loyola University in Chicago by one point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will always hold Missouri Western in my heart,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helped me reach my goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Harlem Globetrotters\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Rivers played two years at Missouri Western, although the Globetrotters again invited him to try out after his first year as a Griffon. He finally joined the famous team in 1973.<\/p>\n
After two years, he was cut from the Globetrotters and returned to Missouri Western to work. Then the Globetrotters called again, and Rivers played with them another 14 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the greatest experience I ever had; it was a dream come true,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s no greater education than touring the world. God blessed me with that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
He traveled all over the United States, including Madison Square Garden in New York City and even to China; and he appeared on several television shows with the team.<\/p>\n
Rivers moved back to St. Joseph after he retired from the Globetrotters and coached at area high schools for several years before moving to his hometown in 2008.<\/p>\n
While in St. Joseph, he began Gatorball Academy, where he gave lessons in both basketball and life. He continues to mentor and coach youth at Gatorball Academy in Savannah, Ga. today.\u00a0 Rivers says he does it to keep himself sharp in ball handling, but he also enjoys being a mentor for the youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cLegacy Forgotten\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n
His love of the game led him to his latest project \u2013 he is executive producer of a documentary about his high school, Alfred Ely Beach High School, a black high school that opened its doors in 1867. Rivers is working with Miller Bargeron Jr., of We Came to Conquer Entertainment and also an alumnus of Beach, on the film that has a working title of \u201cLegacy Forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bargeron said they wanted to tell the story of Beach because of all the prominent alumni, including the last two mayors of Savannah, a university president, and several doctors, lawyers and ministers. Throughout most of its history, the school was the center of the Black community, and many of the teachers there were alumni.<\/p>\n
The documentary is about the school environment that produced the successful alumni, and Bargeron and Rivers decided that its basketball history made a great focal point for the film. \u201cAt the heart of it, is the basketball story,\u201d Bargeron said.<\/p>\n
And what a story it is.<\/p>\n
Beach had always had great basketball teams, even making it to the black high schools\u2019 national tournament many years. But in the 1966-67 school year, the white high school state basketball tournament in Georgia became integrated, and black high schools now competed for the championship with the white high schools.<\/p>\n
When the state tournament was down to the championship game, the two teams playing were from black high schools, both from Savannah. One was Beach, and Rivers was a sophomore on the team. The Beach team that year, which Rivers calls \u201cthe greatest high school team in Georgia history,\u201d finished with a 29-1 record and took home the trophy with a 39-point win over the second-place team.<\/p>\n
It was the first time in 20 years that a team from Savannah had won the state championship. Beach was even featured in a \u201cSports Illustrated\u201d article.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a great place to start the documentary,\u201d Bargeron said. \u201cGator\u2019s team stood on the shoulders of all teams before them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The documentary is scheduled for release this summer. \u201cIt\u2019s been great working with Gator,\u201d Bargeron said. \u201cHe has so many stories, and he has turned his life experiences into helping others.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Rivers\u2019 plans for the future? He hopes to open a Gullah restaurant and continue to expand the community garden that was started several years ago. He is also involved in a neighborhood renovation project. Oh, and play basketball. Every day.<\/p>\n
After our interview, Rivers walked me to my car and we visited a little more. Then he turned around and walked back to his office. Dribbling and handlin\u2019 the round ball the entire way.<\/p>\n
Gary Filbert: Four-year Missouri Western\u2019s First Basketball Coach\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
When Gary Filbert was hired as the first basketball coach for the four-year Missouri Western College, he had to work extra hard to make Missouri Western known.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one knew who we were and we had to recruit,\u201d said Athletic Director Charlie Burri \u201955. \u201cEven the conferences didn\u2019t know us.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Burri hired Filbert, a St. Joseph native who had played basketball for the University of Missouri-Columbia and was currently coaching high school basketball in Mexico, Mo. \u201cHe was well known in the state, active in basketball organizations, and we knew he could recruit in the area and the state,\u201d Burri said.<\/p>\n
At the end of the first season as a four-year college, 1969-70, the team had compiled an 11-14 record, but the next season, the team finished 14-13 and earned a berth in the NAIA regional.<\/p>\n
Filbert coached at Missouri Western until he was hired as assistant coach at University of Missouri-Columbia in 1981. He compiled a 196-174 record.<\/p>\n
\u201cGary did a tremendous job; he was a good coach,\u201d Burri said. \u201cHe was our first coach at the four-year level, and that is a tough row to hoe.\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving Missouri Western, Filbert became known for his role in starting the Show-Me State Games and the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association. He also helped start the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, and he was inducted into the Hall and has an award named in his honor.<\/p>\n
Larry \u201cGator\u201d Rivers, who played for Filbert in the early 1970s, said one of the things the coach taught him was that basketball could be a lifetime sport. Indeed, Filbert played the game his entire life, even being named Senior All-American in 2000. He passed away in April 2011 at the age of 81.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Filbert did a lot for us,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cHe worked hard to get Missouri Western on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n
-end-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To know Larry \u201cGator\u201d Rivers \u201973 is to know basketball. From the time he was an eighth-grader playing on a high school varsity team, to a college standout, to a 16-year career with the Harlem Globetrotters, to serving as a coach and a mentor; for Rivers, it\u2019s always been about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4130,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions\/4130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}