Gettys was the straw that stirred the drink for one of college basketball’s historic teams.
Reid Gettys comes from a sports family. His father played college basketball for my alma mater, Texas Tech University, and Reid grew up loving the game. He was also good at it; he enrolled at one of the southwest’s power basketball schools, Memorial High School in Houston.
Gettys at UH (photo, Houston Chronicle)
Wanting to stay close to home, Gettys was good enough to earn a scholarship at the University of Houston, and he played during the school’s headline years. It was during the 1980s when a group of players, including future NBA superstars Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, were known as Phi Slama Jamma.
Gettys played from 1981-1985 and became the Cougars’ all-time assist leader. On a team with plenty of big-time scorers, Gettys role was the set-up man, and he performed that role to perfection. Memorable nights came against Rice (17 assists) and Kansas (15 assists).
He was also stellar at the free-throw line. Perhaps his most notable contribution came during the 1982 NCAA Tournament when he sank ten consecutive free throws during the stretch to help Houston beat Boston College and get to that year’s Final Four.
The Chicago Bulls drafted Gettys in the fifth round of the 1985 NBA Draft. Still, he never got to play in the NBA–even though he did spend a year playing in the professional minor leagues, winning the Continental League championship with the Albany Patroons. But he did stay connected to the game in other ways, most notably serving as an assistant coach for the Cougars when former teammate Clyde Drexler was the coach, and working for ESPN and the Houston Rockets as a basketball analyst.
Now 60 years of age, Gettys has made a name for himself as an attorney. Gettys continues to practice in his home state of Texas.
