All-College trophy. Both men came to WU from
McKeesport, Pa.
Longtime Shocker basketball fans were surprised and delighted to hear the familiar voice of Ronald B. "Ron" Heller '63 in broadcasts of last season's away games. Heller, an inductee in the Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, returned to provide color commentary alongside broadcaster Mike Kennedy '71 after an absence of nearly 25 years.
"I've always said that basketball kind of sought me out," says Heller. "And once it got me hooked, I stayed with it."
That's almost an understatement. Heller's close association with the sport goes back to the late 1950s, when he suited up for legendary Shocker basketball coach Ralph Miller. After an impressive stint as a player, he played two years in the National Industrial Basketball League, then came back to WSU as an assistant coach, a position he held until 1976.
"Then I became a banker for a while, for about eight-and-a-half years," Heller recalls. "And that's when I was on the staff at KAKE TV and radio with Mike Kennedy and Bill Land."
In 1980, KAKE's radio and television divisions split, and Heller found himself being squeezed out of the broadcasts. "But I was still connected with basketball, coaching high-school all-star teams throughout the state," he says. Heller also provided his special insight to players participating in the short-lived Kansas-Illinois Basketball Classic.
When Friends University announced in 1984 that it was in need of a new athletic director, Heller jumped on the chance; he got the job and kept it until his retirement in 2003. During his tenure there, in 1989, he was tapped for induction into the Shocker Sports Hall of Fame. "I was thrilled because I never really felt like I deserved that," he says. "I just played and was able to play in a style that agreed with my physical abilities. But I was going in with a close friend of mine, Lanny VanEman ('62/65). It was a special time for me."
After retiring from Friends, Heller occupied his time with working in his yard and doing odd jobs. What he didn't know was that Shocker color man Steve Shogren was about to give up his position commentating on away games, leaving Kennedy in need of a suitable replacement.
"Steve said, ‘I hate to tell you this, but my job has gotten to the point where traveling to do the basketball games is hurting my business and I need to give it up,'" Kennedy explains. "Before I had a chance to start thinking about possible replacements, he said, ‘I thought of someone great to take my place: Ron Heller.' As soon as he said it, I knew Ron would be the right choice. I called him up the next day to see if he'd be interested."
"The phone rang, and it was Mike and he wanted to know if I'd be interested in doing this," recalls Heller. "I said, ‘Just give me 24 hours to think about it, but I'm 98 percent sure I'll say yes.' I asked my wife, ‘What do you think?' And she said, ‘What are you waiting for?'"
Though Heller is thrilled to once again be part of Shocker basketball's extended family, he has been preoccupied much of this year with his health. In February he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Aggressive treatment with chemotherapy and radiation has been intermittently successful; in July his doctors informed him that his lungs were clear of the disease, but his condition has degraded slightly since then. Through it all, he remains the stoic, scrappy sportsman he has always been. "I've spiraled down," he admits, "but I'm back on chemo, and I'm spiraling upward again. And that's the way it's gonna be. There's gonna be good days, gonna be bad days. I'm willing to work with that."
Today he looks forward to the coming season of Shocker basketball and back on a life spent doing what he loves most. "I was fortunate to be a coach for 31 years. I never considered myself that good, but I got lucky. I met the right people, pushed the right buttons. A lot of people would love to coach college basketball. I have been very fortunate. I have been blessed."
