Gilroy’s respected boys’ basketball coach Bud Ogden knows about
competition
– NBA style
There aren’t too many high school coaches in the country that
can say they have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Not even auto racing legend Richard Petty can lay claim to
that.
But Gilroy High’s boys’ varsity basketball coach Carlos
”
Bud
”
Ogden has graced the cover of America’s most prestigious sports
magazine. It was back on Feb. 10, 1969. At the time Ogden was an
All-American senior forward at Santa Clara University who was on
his way to signing his first professional contract with the
Philadelphia 76ers.
Gilroy’s respected boys’ basketball coach Bud Ogden knows about competition – NBA style
There aren’t too many high school coaches in the country that can say they have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. Not even auto racing legend Richard Petty can lay claim to that.
But Gilroy High’s boys’ varsity basketball coach Carlos “Bud” Ogden has graced the cover of America’s most prestigious sports magazine. It was back on Feb. 10, 1969. At the time Ogden was an All-American senior forward at Santa Clara University who was on his way to signing his first professional contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I remember my contract. They offered me $75,000 each year for three years, plus a $5,000 signing bonus,” said Ogden, who grew up in San Jose. “I was ready to sign right away. I think my dad was making about $12,000 a year at the time. But I still counter offered with $100,000 for two years – and it was guaranteed. I was only 22-years old and I was flying high.”
Today, the 59-year-old coach has his Mustangs flying high and is focused on guiding his team to a Tri County Athletic League title and making a run at a Central Coast Section championship.
Although he’s far removed from those days in the NBA and stories about playing against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then named Lou Alcindor) in the NCAA tournament, Ogden and his former teammates from Santa Clara will be honored tonight for being a part of the school’s unbelievable run from 1967 to 1971 that posted a 70-10 record during the stretch. Ogden was the only All-American from Santa Clara during those years.
During his junior year at Santa Clara, the Broncos went 24-6. As a senior, they went 25-1, losing only to San Jose State that year in overtime.
His fondest memories during his years at Santa Clara come from the NCAA playoff appearances.
“Back then, only the league champs went to the NCAAs, which meant that there were only 16 teams in it,” Ogden said. “There was a North, South, East and West Regional. At the time we were the No. 2 team in the nation behind UCLA. They won the Pac-10. It was the Pac-8 then. We beat the University of New Mexico in the first round my junior year and were in the ‘elite 8’ right away. I tell people now that we were only one win away from the Final Four because you only had to win two games to get there back then.”
In the next round that same year, Ogden and his team lost to UCLA by 25 points, which was led at the time by Lou Alcindor.
He has a lot of fond memories of those years and a lot of stories to tell – like the night he scored 55 points for the Broncos as a sophomore.
“I thought that was a ton,” said Ogden. “But Wilt (Chamberlain) had 100 one night. And this week Kobe Bryant had 81. When I went to Philly I ended up playing with the guy who had to guard Wilt that night. His name was Darrall Imhof. To tell you something about the kind of player that he was, he was 6-foot-10 and they named him ‘The Axe.’ He came from U.C. Berkeley. I remember a story about the next time he had to go up against Wilt. Imhof held him to 45 points and got a standing ovation. Wilt had the fade away and the dipper dunk. But I’ve got to believe that Kobe’s 81 seems to be a lot more difficult because the game is so different now.”
Although he never played with Chamberlain, he did meet the NBA legend during his rookie year in Philadelphia.
“I was sitting at the table across from Billy Cunningham at some dinner and this long arm came over my shoulder that just stretched and stretched and stretched. It was Wilt shaking hands with Billy,” said Ogden, who played in the NBA for two seasons beginning in 1969.
That year Ogden was drafted 13th overall in the first round by the 76ers. By then, “Wilt the Stilt” had left the 76ers for Los Angles where he finished out his career with the Lakers.
Although Ogden had a big power game, his play in Philadelphia was limited as he was the backup to 6-foot-7 NBA Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham.
“My take on it is that I was a power forward in a 6-foot-6 body,” said Ogden. “If I was 6-foot-8 or 6-foot-9, things might have been different – or if I was quicker. My second year they tried to make me a guard. Well, I had never handled the ball my whole life.”
Ogden’s love for the game was rooted in the driveway of his childhood home in San Jose. There he and his brothers Jim (6-foot-5), Ralph (6-foot-5) and Fred (6-foot-4) learned the game from their dad Carlos, who also stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 250 pounds.
“Dad was a big man. He coached us in everything,” said Ogden of Carlos Sr., who was a decorated World War II combat veteran and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. “He was the competitive influence in all of our lives. You should have seen some of the games that we had. He didn’t give us anything; we earned everything we got.”
All three Ogden brothers would continue to play the game all the way through their four years at Lincoln High School in San Jose.
Bud and his younger brother Ralph went on to play at Santa Clara. A year after Bud was drafted by the 76ers, his brother Ralph was selected by the Golden State Warriors in the fourth round of the 1970 NBA draft and wound up playing one season for them.
As a child Ogden remembers watching the NBA on TV and wanting to play there some day.
“It was on once a week or on Sundays,” Ogden said. “It seemed like it was always Boston and Philly. I remember watching Billy Cunningham going up against Bill Russell. I think that when I actually got there I was kind of in awe of it all. It took me a long time to believe that I could play with those guys. It might have been a different story if Billy Cunningham wasn’t there I don’t know.”
After leaving the NBA after the 1971 season Ogden “tried a few different businesses” and got into real estate. He also settled in the Almaden Valley where he coached his two children in a number of different sports, including soccer and Little League. Even when his own children had stopped playing sports, Ogden continued to coach in the Almaden Valley for some 30 years.
Three years ago after remarrying, he moved to Gilroy. In addition to having a 37-year-old daughter and 35-year-old son Ogden now has a 2-year-old daughter.
At 59 years old he’s back doing what he loves most: coaching basketball to area youth.
“I love the community down here,” Ogden said. “I love Gilroy. Here, you go to the store and see some friends. In San Jose, you may not see anybody for months. The support down here is great.”
Since heading the Mustangs varsity basketball program his teams have improved every season.
“The first year we went 4-20, but we played hard every game. They did all that I asked of them. The only thing that they didn’t do was win,” Ogden said. “We were just tiny, tiny that year. Our power forward was 5-foot-10 that year. Last year we went 16-12 but lost in the first round of CCS to Piedmont Hills.”
This year Ogden believes that his team has the potential to go along way in the post season.
“We’re 14-6 right now and 5-0 in league,” said Ogden on Tuesday. “Three of our six loses were to Valley Christian, Bellarmine and (Archbishop) Mitty. I purposely scheduled it that way. This year we have height and our seniors have played together since they were in the seventh grade.”
The last time Gilroy High won a league title was in 2002.
Gilroy High has never won a CCS basketball title. But that could change in the coming weeks.
“I try to bring with me what my dad taught me and what I learned at Santa Clara. I try to teach the kids tough, hard-nosed basketball, good fundamentals, defense, relentless pursuit and blocking out. We’ve got to take it one game at a time. I think a league championship is well within our reach. I’ve also started looking at all of the Division I teams in CCS already. I think that we can play with any one of them.”
And that’s coming from a coach who knows what he’s talking about.
