As he grew to a six-foot-eight high school senior, Bob's dreams of
being a great athlete became real. He was the first player from
Southern University in Louisiana to be named to the All-America Team by
the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. After college,
Bob played for the Cincinnati Royals basketball team and was later
traded to the Milwaukee Bucks and then to the Chicago Bulls.
He played with the Chicago Bulls for eight seasons from 1969 to 1976. For seven straight years he was the Bulls leading scorer and is the second highest scorer in Bulls history. (Did you guess that Michael Jordan is the top scorer?)
In spite of all his success as an athlete, Bob was not able to do something that everyone else seemed to do easily. He dreamed of being able to talk without stuttering. All his life, Bob stumbled over words and often couldn't say anything at all. When Bob retired from basketball he tried for seven years to find a steady job and, in 1984, was hired as a dishwasher for $4.45 an hour.
Bob worked as hard on his dream of being able to talk as he had worked on basketball. Finally at the age of 45, he found a speech therapist who helped him learn to speak without struggling. Bob is now the Community Relations Director for his former team, the Chicago Bulls.
"Don't give up and always try to do your best," Bob says. "If you take the first step, someone will help you take the next one."