Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Here’s a story of a Christmas — one past, one present — and what a difference 34 years, a Hall of Fame career and a bunch of plates of soul food can make.
Back in 1984 — as his dad was taking him to the railway station at the end of his Christmas break — Scott Nagy remembers not wanting to get on the train to Memphis, the first leg of his journey from Illinois back to college in the Deep South.
It was far different than growing up in Champaign, home of the University of Illinois, where his dad was an assistant basketball coach on Lou Henson’s staff.
Nagy — who had starred at Centennial High School — was comfortable at home. He had a girlfriend, lot of pals and family there.
In Cleveland – a town of 12,000 in the Mississippi Delta – he found different social customs, different racial views and even a dialect that sometimes was hard to understand, especially to his untrained teenage ear.
“At first it was really strange for me,” he said. “I was a Yankee. That’s what they called me.”
Now fade to three days before Christmas this year when Nagy and the Wright State Raiders he coaches meet No. 17 Mississippi State in a special holiday game being played Saturday night at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, rather than at “The Hump,” as the Bulldogs call their home court in Starkville.
As Nagy talked about his return to the Magnolia State, his whole countenance seemed to brighten.
“I’m going to see a lot of friends,” he said.
He’ll rekindle some of the memories of Delta State, a school he now calls “a wonderful place…a great place for me.”
Over the years he’s stayed connected to the state, especially with his son Nick — now an administrative assistant on the WSU staff — graduating from Ole Miss two years ago.
And, of course, there’s the challenge of facing MSU, a veteran team with three stellar guards — Quinndary Weatherspoon, his brother, Nick, and Lamar Peters – that already has beaten the Cincinnati Bearcats, Clemson, St. Mary’s and the Dayton Flyers, 65-58, at UD Arena three weeks ago.
While the Bulldogs present a daunting challenge for the 6-6 Raiders, the trip also provides a delightful opportunity for Nagy to share some time with one of his closest friends, Jason Case, a former Delta State teammate from the tiny Mississippi town of Bogue Chitto, which back in the late 1980s had a population of about 500.
“He’s one of my best friends and he doesn’t live too far from Jackson,” Nagy said. “He’s coming to the game with a girls team he coaches.”
As he thought about Case, he grinned:
“He was just a country kid. I had a great time going home with him, but I absolutely could not understand his dad. He had that Deep Southern accent…and he chewed…so he just kind of mumbled.
“And I remember they had a dog.
“They named him Big Dog.”
As it turned out, Nagy was something of a big dog himself at Delta State.
He started every game in his four years there and still holds the record for career games (122) played.
He also holds school records in assists for a career (549), a season (234) and a game (15.)
He was named the Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Year and senior year was honored as the conference’s Athlete of the Year.
During his career from 1984-88, Delta State made three (Division II) NCAA tournaments and one Final Four.
Yet, when asked about this at the end of his press conference following the Raiders 78-67 victory over Morehead State at the Nutter Center Tuesday night, Nagy tried to downplay his efforts.
“I led the program in turnovers, too,” he claimed.
And when he was talking about the talented athletes Delta State had back then, he made it sound like he was just another guy on the team.
But just like with Jason Case’s dad, you couldn’t quite understand what he was saying.
After all, he was a two-time CoSida Academic All American and in 2001 was enshrined in the Delta State University Athletic Hall of Fame.
