In January 1985, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a story on the career of Fred Amos, the first superstar of the Coach Edwards era.
Here is the Post-Dispatch story in full with a few updates at the end.
Wash. U.’s Scoring-King-T0-Be Once Quit Club For—All The Right Reasons
By Jerry Stack
Very soon, Fred Amos will become the leading scorer in the history of intercollegiate basketball at Washington University. Amos is just 12 points shy of the career scoring mark.
The thing is, he could have broken the record last season. But last season, in the middle of his junior year, he quit the team.
The story of Fred Amos is unlike those usually heard when discontented college basketball players announce they’ve had enough.
We’re not talking about a reserve looking for more playing time. We’re not talking about academic problems. We’re not talking about disciplinary problems. We’re talking about the star of the team quitting. And, eventually, returning.
As a sophomore, Amos had averaged 21.2 points a game, was named to the NCAA Division III Region team and had, great expectations for his junior season. However, in the season opener, Amos suffered a broken wrist. Great expectations turned into mounting frustrations.
He missed six games. Wearing a soft cast, he played sparingly the next three. After semester break, he rejoined the team on a full-time basis. But while Amos’ wrist was getting better, the team was, too. “When Fred came back and rejoined the team, the team had a new direction,” Washington U. Coach Mark Edwards said.
During his freshman and sophomore seasons, the forward had been the focal point of the Washington U. offense. When the Bears needed to score, they looked to him. With Amos out of the lineup, that was no longer the case.
“We gained a lot of confidence in each other,” Edwards said. “They realized they didn’t need Fred to score points.” Said Amos, “I think they learned to play well without me.” The problem was they didn’t play as well when Amos returned. Amos didn’t seem to fit in.
“The team had been winning without me,” Amos said. “When I came back we started losing real bad. I could only attribute that to me. I had lost that chemistry with the team. I didn’t like playing anymore. My enthusiasm was gone. I could never make the right pass or the right shot.” Frustration be thy game.
“You could tell he was frustrated, the team was frustrated, You could see it building,” Edwards said. “We’d be playing Wabash and there were three entities on the court: Wabash, Washington U. and Fred Amos.
“He finally came to me and said, ‘Hey Coach, I’m just holding everyone else back. I’m just going to step away.’ “Fred’s very intelligent and very much his own man. He’s able to sit down and decide what he’s going to do and do it Still, it was a very traumatic decision for him.” Though he was no longer a team member, Amos remained close to the team. He went to all the home games. “My teammates were still my friends,” he said. “I still went to games as a fan.”
So the team’s leading scorer and rebounder quits midway in his junior season and life goes on. “It’s an unusual situation,” Edwards said. “People say it can’t happen. But If there’s any place it can happen, it’s here. These guys have different priorities.”
So does Edwards. “My reaction was if this is going to make Fred happy, then fine,” Edwards said. “As for the team, we were in a state of flux, vacillating between being independent and dependent on him. I’m not saying Fred’s leaving was anything positive, but by Fred not playing, we grew quicker. Don’t forget, Fred’s not going to play next year.
“As for me, I don’t have to worry about reading attendance figures. I don’t have to worry about revenue.”
And the players don’t have to worry about athletic scholarships, getting them, keeping them or losing them. In the Division that is III in the NCAA, priorities are different. The emphasis is on academics, not athletics. In Division III, there are athletes on scholarship, but there are no athletic scholarships.
“My main priority is to get a degree,” Amos said. “Basketball is just a distraction from my books.” Still, the distraction tugged strongly on Amos’ sense of being.
“He missed it” Edwards said. “He missed the players, the team, basketball in general.
He knew this likely would be his last year of organized ball.” There were other reasons Amos returned for his senior season. “I had put a lot of time into the program. I wanted the opportunity to play on an above .500 team,” said. “I also have a very close tie with my coach. He had a lot of perseverance with me when I was a less likable person.”
Amos less likable? To the casual observer, Amos has always appeared a most pleasant person. Pleasantness was a facade his freshman year, Amos said.
“When I was a freshman, I came straight off the streets of Chicago to where the majority of the players were white. It wasn’t my natural environment It took me a long time to adjust I had a lot of the street in me. I was a harsh person. But I eventually found out it’s not necessary to be harsh in this environment”
Edwards feels Amos may be judging himself a bit harshly. “I don’t think I ever had to put up with anything from Fred,” Edwards said. “He was just like any other freshman, a different kid, with different needs, different expectations.”
He came from St. Ignatius Prep in Chicago where he led the Catholic League in scoring his senior year. “I think I had the talent to go to a Division I school and develop,” Amos said. “But if I would have gone to a school like, say, Georgetown, I would have majored in phys ed.”
At Washington U., Amos is majoring in economics. “I’m interested in who controls the wealth,” he said. “I’m interested in current affairs. All that excites me.”
On the basketball court, Amos does the exciting. “Fred has an ability to score in a variety of ways facing the basket with his back to the basket, going to the basket” Edwards said. “Coupled with his jumping ability, he becomes a power.”
Among the Washington U. players, Amos is famous for his jumping ability. How high can Amos jump? “We’ve never measured if Edwards said. “All I know is he can get above the rim. And once you get above the rim, everything else is academic.”
His 465 rebounds place him fourth on the university’s career rebounding list. His 1,203 points trail only Jim Barton’s 1,215 points at the top of the career scoring list. Barton played from 1953-1957. Amos also holds the record for most field goals in a game (17) and in a season (222).
The only major scoring record that does not belong to Amos is the single-season scoring mark of 580 points by Sandy Pomerantz In the 1962-1963 season.
Rich Meckfessel, basketball coach at Division II rival University of Missouri-St. Louis, has nothing but praise for Amos. “He jumps well, rebounds well and has a good short jumper. He’s by far the best Division III player we’ve played against,” Meckfessel said. “Their team revolves around his scoring and rebounding.” There’s little question that Amos could be playing at a higher level. Certainly, Amos has raised the level of basketball at Washington U. during his four years.
That Amos’ career and the rebirth of basketball at the university coincide makes for a nice touch and an ironic one. When Amos arrived at Washington U., he hadn’t even checked out the basketball team. He just assumed that there was one and that he would walk on.
He was mildly surprised to discover the university was just starting varsity basketball after a one-year absence. Edwards was pleasantly surprised to discover Amos among the motley crew that first season. “I didn’t put a timetable on the development of the program,”
Edwards said. “The first thing you have to do is create credibility. Fred helped with that immediately. What we needed to do was build on that.”
That they have. Playing an abbreviated schedule that first season, the Bears went 2-16. The second season, they finished 6-20. Last season the record was 8-18. So far this season, they are 7-4, having pulled off back-to-back upsets in the Trinity Classic in San Antonio over the weekend.
Amos scored 29 points and hit a 12-foot turnaround jumper with five seconds left as the Bears beat the host school in Saturday night’s championship game, 70-68. The addition of freshman guard Kevin Suiter from DeSmet has given the Bears two bona fide scoring threats, thereby eliminating the double-teaming Amos faced his first three seasons.
Amos is averaging 18.3 points a game this season and Suiter 13.5. “Some games he gets so hot it’s unbelievable,” Amos said of the long-range shooting of Suiter. “One game he missed his first shot and made 12 of his next 12.”
In Saturday night’s final, Suiter was eight of eight from the field as he scored 20 points. The starting point guard is senior Scott Allen, who along with junior forward Mark Sparrow were teammates on Quincy High’s 1981 Illinois Class 2A state championship team. Lending more experience are seniors, Joe Mayberger and Tom Weeks, who along with Amos are the only three Bears to have played in each of the four seasons since basketball was brought back .
Next up for the Bears are home games this weekend with Wabash and DePauw. Amos should get his 12 points. “To be honest, I don’t know how many points I need,” Amos said last week. “Coach said I’m getting close. I didn’t even want to hear about it. Now that you bring it up, I’m a little curious. It’ll be a nice achievement.
But there’s more satisfaction in being a part of the rebuilding of basketball at Washington University. “I’ll tell you, we’re gonna raise a lot of eyebrows this season.” Amos already has.
A few more facts about Fred Amos worth mentioning:
Amos scored 16 points in his first collegiate game in a 86-72 road loss to Maryville (MO).
In 1982, Amos scored 32 points in the Bear’s first ever game against Case Western Reserve University.
Amos chose to miss the game against Grinnell to study for an exam. His team won the game 60-59.
In the Fall 1983, Amos broke his wrist in a game against Principia. Amos would return in December before quitting the team in January.
Amos returned in 1984 for his senior season and scored 29 points in his first game back against MacMurray.
In 1984, Amos was named the Most Valuable Player in the first-ever Lopata Classic. Amos led the Bears to wins over Cal Tech and Johns Hopkins in a tournament that also featured MIT and was nicknamed the “Battle of the Brains.”
Amos rewrote the record books, leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots each season. His record-setting 17 field goals scored against Blackburn still stands.
Amos set the then all-time scoring record and currently ranks 10th overall with 1,388 points scored. Amos played just 76 games, averaging 18.3 points per game.
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