Former Denver stars grace The Hutch

 

On Monday night at Hutchison Fieldhouse, there was Denver Basketball Royalty on hand to witness the Cherry Creek-Mullen Centennial League matchup.

Former Denver Rockets ABA player Julian Hammond Sr. was in the stands along with Chuck Williams, a Denver East High School and University of Colorado legend who played professionally in both the ABA and NBA.

“I’ve known them for years, so we were playing against Cherry Creek (Monday), and there were actually going to be other ABA guys if we had played Friday (but was postponed because of the snowstorm),” Mustangs head coach Bob Caton said. “Once in a while, (former Nuggets assistant coach) Bill Ficke has a luncheon (at his Big Bill’s Pizza in the southern metropolitan area) and I thought, ‘Let’s have these guys to a game. They can see each other and having them here is great.’”

Hammond, who starred at Tulsa and was one of the program’s first African-American players, led the NCAA in field-goal percentage (65.9 percent in 1965-66) and was with the Rockets from 1967-72. His son, Julian II, led the now-defunct Aurora Christian to a Colorado prep championship. His grandson, Julian III, quarterbacked Cherry Creek to the Class 5A football championship in December and put 34 points on the Mustangs on Monday in an 81-66 victory.

Williams won Colorado prep titles in both football and basketball with Denver East before centering on basketball at the University of Colorado (where he was all-Big Eight Conference) under revered coach Sox Walseth. He played in both the ABA and NBA, including with Denver’s Rockets and Nuggets, and was a sixth-round selection in the 1968 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He played eight professional seasons.

Caton also had Williams in the Mustangs locker room.

“Sports is all about the relationships you build,”Caton said, “and basketball is a tool.”