Kendrick Moore paced behind the Hartford Public boys basketball bench Friday night as the Owls played Weaver.
There was a missed free throw. Two missed shots, in the final seconds of the game. Moore’s face fell and he walked around some more.
It’s been 30 years since Moore helped lead Hartford Public to two state basketball championships. But the pull of the rivalry between the two Hartford schools – Weaver and Hartford Public – brought him to Friday night’s game and even though he hadn’t put on a Owls uniform in three decades, the 74-69 loss to Weaver hurt as much as it did when he played.
“It’s worse,” said Moore, shaking his head. “It’s a heartache, watching the ‘Green’ win. Even now. The feeling never goes away.”
The rivalry between the two schools is in its 100th year. Hartford Public is the second oldest public secondary school in the country, founded in 1638. Weaver came into existence in the fall of 1924 and the two schools played their first boys basketball game in January 1925.
Hartford Public won, 14-13.
Clik here to view.
“In one of the fastest and most exciting high school games ever witnessed in Hartford, Weaver High School bowed to Hartford High 14 to 13,” the story in The Courant read. “The tilt was marked by sensational teamwork with a background of clever guarding and brilliant shooting.
“The game had the spectators in a continual roar because of the closeness of the fray between these local rivals.”
The scores may have changed, but the intensity of the rivalry – Weaver now leads the series, 99-98 – carried on through the years. There were times in the 1970s and ’80s when there were so many fans coming to the games, if you didn’t arrive at the junior varsity game by halftime, you weren’t going to get in. Regular-season games were moved to the Hartford Civic Center because of the crowds of people that wanted to watch the teams play.
“Any time Hartford played Weaver, it was always a big game, no matter what sport it was in,” said Marcus Camby, who graduated from Hartford Public in 1993, after winning a state title, and who went on to play in the NBA for 19 years. “Those games were fun to play. The whole city came out. During the summer, we played with a lot of Weaver High kids on our summer league team. It was big back in the day.”
But things have changed. The talent in the three public high schools in the city has been diluted as magnet schools have proliferated.
“We’re so watered down,” said Weaver coach Shawn Bell, who graduated from Weaver in 1980. “We don’t have 2,000 kids anymore. We have 600. We don’t have high schools where you could walk in the hallway and handpick a state championship team.
“When I played, it was about 120 kids for 15 spots. Now you got 30 kids.”
Still a magical feel
Still, Friday night captured a little of that magic. Hartford Public was 9-5 and first-year coach Leo Ramirez, who graduated in 2006, was optimistic the Owls had a chance even though they hadn’t beaten Weaver in five years. Weaver was 6-9 but Bell was confident the Beavers had the upper hand because they had played a difficult schedule. Instead of talking on the street corners before the game, the kids were talking on social media.
“They came into this game talking real crazy,” Weaver junior Nasir Wright said. “So we just came and we did what we had to do.”
Clik here to view.
There were about 500 fans, the biggest crowd of the season, and they were loud and enthusiastic. Weaver cheerleaders stomped and chanted in the stands and Ramirez had his kids on the bench yelling “De-Fense, De-Fense” every time Weaver had the ball.
“It doesn’t matter about records – throw the records out the door,” Bell said after the game. “It’s about inner-city pride. That’s what it came down to. Young kids playing their hearts out.
“It had that fever of yesteryear, with the crowd. They were all in it, feet stomping – “Let’s go, Weaver, Let’s go, Hartford.’ That’s what it’s all about.”
George “Shorty” Davis and Robert Lee sat next to each other in the bleachers watching the game Friday night. Davis, who grew up in Stowe Village in Hartford, graduated from Weaver in 1976. Lee, who grew up in Bellevue Square, graduated from Hartford Public the same year. They grew up together, played against each other for four years in high school and 60 years later, are still good friends.
“He could shoot the lights out,” Lee said of Davis. “He was my nemesis. He was one of my friends and we did a lot together.
“But when it came to playing against him, he was radar. Serious radar.”
The stands were always filled when they played, with people spilling out of the doorways and sitting in the aisles, which caused the fire marshal to have the schools move the games to a bigger venue, the Civic Center.
Clik here to view.
“Everybody came out and we would put on a show,” Lee said. “They beat us my junior year, but we beat Weaver at the Civic Center my senior year.
“Whoo boy, we tore ‘em up, 93-78. We had them 58-26 at halftime.”
On Friday, when Hartford Public’s Eli Rivera blocked Avonnye Womack’s shot in the second half, Lee banged on Davis’ shoulder in glee.
“We are the Owls, the mighty, mighty Owls,” he sang, laughing at Davis.
“You can tell he like to talk,” Davis said. “I’m the type that don’t talk, I just do what I gotta do. I used to let my game speak for itself; he’d be talking junk. To this day, you can tell, that’s all he do is talk.”
He laughed.
Historical programs, plenty of titles
Weaver may have lost to Hartford Public in the first game of the 1975-76 season when Lee and Davis were going at it on the court, but the Beavers beat the Owls in the second game and then went all the way to the Class LL state final, where they lost to Lee High School of New Haven, 80-77.
Hartford Public won three state titles in 1962, 1993 and 1994. Weaver won seven, the first in 1956 and the last in 2015. The two teams played each other only once in the state championship, in 1971. Weaver won the Class LL title, 88-86. Bell remembered being at that game, watching his uncle Keith Morgan play.
“He was a star at Weaver, he shot the lights out,” Bell said. “He was a sophomore when he electrified that game.”
Camby, who played in the NBA for 1996-2013 for the Knicks, Toronto and Denver among other teams, played one year at Hartford Public. His senior year, he averaged 27 points, 11 rebounds, eight blocks and eight assists and his Owls team went 27-0 and won the Class LL championship.
Clik here to view.
Mike Williams, a Weaver alum who died in 2021, was a teammate of Camby’s at UMass.
“We used to have a lot of banter back and forth between him and myself during our college years,” Camby said.
Michael Adams, who played in the NBA from 1985-96, graduated from Hartford Public in 1981. His senior year, the Owls won all three games they played against Weaver.
Joe Adams, Michael’s older brother and a 1979 Hartford Public graduate, was at the game Friday night, sitting behind Davis and Lee and wearing an Owls jacket.
He remembered it cost 50 cents to get into a game back in the day and also recalled the legendary crowds.
“It was like a college atmosphere,” Adams said. “The cheerleaders were going at it, the players talked about each other all game long but at the end of the day, we all went to the same gym, we went to the Y, we played in local leagues, and we were friends. But when we got on that court, we just went at it for bragging rights.”
Michael had heard about Friday’s game and told Joe.
“I’m glad I showed up,” Joe said. “It’s always good to see all the old guys.”