by Lisa Reisman The New Haven independent
Hillhouse hoopsters on a fast break in Dec. 28 game against Daniel Hand High School. Credit: Ebony Labrador-Barnes, ABLE Productions
Tournament committee members and award recipients, from left, Joyce Furman, Michele Badger Jones, Sharon Bradford-Fleming, Roslyn Morrison, and Pastor Kevin Hardy; standing, from left, Jon Stewart, Neil Richardson, Leroy Williams, Dwight Ware, and Reggie Hayes. Credit: Lisa Reisman photo
When Joyce Furman was pulling down rebounds and piling up points on the Quinnipiac College hardwoods in the 1980s, there was no name, image, and likeness (NIL) awaiting her; no transfer portal offering splashier options; no dreams of a future in the WNBA. She and Wilbur Cross teammate, the superstar Tracy Claxton, who would lead Old Dominion to a national championship in 1985, toiled in obscurity.
For that reason, it seems, “I never thought I would be remembered,” Furman said at the annual Robert Saulsbury Basketball Invitational at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Sunday.
Evidently, the tournament committee members saw something more in Furman.
They saw a woman who was not just a member of the Quinnipiac College Athletic Hall of Fame, but one who, as emcee and committee member Sharon Bradford-Fleming put it, “has dedicated her life to serving the vulnerable,” including 14 years at the Children’s Center of Hamden; 12 years as a family advocate helping homeless women and children find permanent housing; and currently as lead teacher at Kidde Corner, an award-winning before-and-after school program on Grand Avenue.
In its ninth year, the all-day invitational, which features five marquee games, is “about basketball and a lot more,” said founder Neil Richardson, as shoes squeaked on the state-of-the-court basketball court recently named for New Haven sports titans Bob Laemel and Salvatore “Red” Verderame.
That’s in keeping with Coach Saulsbury’s influence, according to Richardson, his former player at Wilbur Cross in the late 1960s. The first African American to coach in New Haven, Saulsbury, 96, authored a dynasty that included nine state titles, 497 games won, with 10 All-Americans and 18 All-Staters, and a 1974 squad that the Washington Post named “the best high school team in the nation.”
It went well beyond championships, according to Richardson. Saulsbury “was a father figure to his players and a positive role model when that term wasn’t in vogue,” he said, as the Rev. Kevin Hardy, the second award recipient, accepted his plaque.
“Extremely humbled,” said Hardy, the pastor at St. Matthew’s Free Will Baptist Church, as well as an educator for over three decades, who, emcee Bradford-Fleming said, “exemplifies a life of service to both the church and the community at large.”
Committee member Michele Badger Jones, a trustee at St. Matthew’s, lauded Hardy for his community outreach. “He has a health and wellness committee, a food pantry, and a Man Cave Conference,” she said, referring to the annual fellowship event formed by Hardy that draws upwards of 230 participants and focuses on men’s mental health, brotherhood, and spiritual growth.
For Jones, and for fellow committee members Bradford-Fleming and Reggie Hayes, a former coach at Quinnipiac College and West Haven High School, it all goes back to Saulsbury.
“He was a gentleman’s gentleman,” said Bradford-Fleming, as the Hillhouse Academics boys’ basketball team entered the arena through two lines of pom-pom-waving cheerleaders. “He wanted his players to project a positive image for the school and the city, and that meant jacket and tie every game of the season.”
Roslyn Morrison, Saulsbury’s daughter and a committee member, said her father was always in the community, even during summers. “He would go to the Q house, he would talk to his players, check up on them,” she said. That sense of empathy came from his family background. “His mother, Grandma Saulsbury, cared about people, and how they were doing and making sure they were okay, and that’s what my father did too.”
She added that the financial aid scholarships awarded from the ticket-sale proceeds would go “not just to students with A-pluses but students with grit and determination, as well as leadership qualities.”
Coach Saulsbury, who was taking in the Hillhouse-Hand tilt, pronounced satisfaction with the award recipients. “These are people who are concerned with helping youngsters succeed,” he said, the crowd cheering as Tyshawn Menyfield swished a jumper. (Hillhouse would go on to win 87-26 against Madison’s Hand High School.) “They are examples for everyone.”