Article On Jersey Red

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Media seeing Red 

But Pitino pal eats up bad press



By Howard Manly, Globe Staff, 08/02/98 







Jersey Red has heard the criticisms, the stuff about him being a jock sniffer, a coat holder for Rick Pitino. 







He laughs. 







Jersey has heard that some people don't think he has any business going on television or radio, talking about his views on anything, much less sports, a topic so holy in this tribal town that only the annointed can expound. His appearance last week on Channel 4's ''Sports Final'' caused a round of snickers, and when he was introduced by Bob Lobel as ''the last man to talk with Mo Vaughn,'' the snickers turned to laughter. 







Jersey doesn't care. He likes being hated. In fact, he has two words for his Boston critics: ''Bill Buckner.''







Ouch. 







His real name is Kenneth Ford, and he was born in 1941 and grew up hard in a project in Jersey City. He wasn't much of an athlete but loved the Yankees and the Giants. He wasn't much of a student, either, dropping out of high school after about five weeks. At age 17, he was in the service, stationed at Otis Air Force Base in Falmouth. He loved the Cape. 







After stints in Iceland and Idaho, he received an honorable discharge shortly before the Cuban Missile Crisis. He had a pocketful of money with no place to go. He ended up in a New York City bar with some buddies, drunk, and when he returned home at 5 a.m., his parents unloaded on him. He was at Port Authority an hour later, heading back to New England. 







He ended up in Brockton, working odd jobs as a cook, places like Friendly's and the Blue Hill Country Club. It wasn't a bad life. He spent winters in Fort Lauderdale, summers in New England. Not bad at all for a guy with a GED earned while in the service. 







One day he was at the University of Massachusetts hanging out with some friends when he met a kid named Rick Pitino, a star basketball player and member of the Lamba Chi Alpha fraternity. They got along, two New Yorkers in a sea of Red Sox fans. 







Even then Pitino was a hustler. As Jersey tells the story, Pitino asked him to work as cook at the fraternity, offering to make him the highest-paid fraternity cook in the country - at $100 a week. Jersey said no, explaining that he was headed to Fort Lauderdale, where he would make about $500 a week. 







Pitino went off to meet with his fraternity brothers and came back with a final offer: $135 a week and the room of the frat's president. Jersey accepted, cooked for about a week, then informed the Lamba Chi boys that they would have to fend for themselves. ''I told them to order pizza or something,'' Jersey recalled. ''I wasn't cooking for those nuts.''







Lamba Chi loved him, making him a frat brother. When Pitino became fraternity president, Jersey became vice president. Their friendship has remained intact ever since. Pitino still calls him two or three times a day, and has mentioned their friendship in his 1988 book, ''Born to Coach.''







Jersey's telephone never stops ringing. Anybody could be on the other end of the line. John Calipari. Lesley Visser. Greg Minor. Mo Vaughn. Anybody. 







They talk. He listens. He tries to solve their problem. Tickets one day, access to Pitino the next. 







When whispers spread around that Pitino was in line to become Celtics coach, Jersey was on every media outlet's guest list. He went on the air and told everyone that Pitino wasn't coming to town. ''The chances are slim and none,'' Jersey Red said. ''And slim just left town.''







To his credit, Lobel has asked Jersey, whom he characterized as a ''gadfly,'' what had changed to bring Pitino to Boston. Jersey went on about how Pitino's wife likes the city, how Pitino welcomed the challenge of restoring the Celtics. He didn't answer directly. 







Soon afterward, on WEEI's ''Big Show,'' Glenn Ordway pressed him further. Jersey Red's response: ''If I knew, do you think I would tell you?''







Jersey's disdain for the local sports media is palpable. He ridicules WEEI as ''sophomoric.''







Jersey Red has his own radio show in Providence and also writes a column once a week for the Fall River Herald News. During basketball season, he routinely is on about a dozen radio shows around the country. 







His shtick is to be anti-Boston teams. He hates the Red Sox and the Patriots. He is merciless when they lose. ''It's so easy crucifying these New England nerds,'' he laughed. 







Underneath that shtick, however, is a heart. Jersey is a standup guy, which in this world of wanna-bes and backstabbers is the only true measurement one can apply. 







When his wife told him she was pregnant, he stopped drinking, cold turkey. He had been putting away Jack Daniels like water. 







He has been teaching culinary arts at Durfee High School for the last 19 years, teaching students about cooking and life. 







He also taught Bible class at a Fall River church for nine years. ''It was the Bible according to Jersey,'' he said. ''I told them to get rid of their books and listen to me on the differences between right and wrong in the real world.''







Character matters. ''Look, I know full well that people criticize me,'' he said. ''But I'm perfectly willing to put my finger in any truth-o-meter. I'm not out here to destroy people with venom or malice.''







Last year, Jersey Red participated in a fund-raiser for cancer research. Jersey, decked out in Yankees regalia, manned the dunk tank. 







People paid $500 to get Jersey. They wanted Jersey to die. The money was pouring in. 







Eventually up stepped a kid, no more than 12 years old, wearing a Drew Bledsoe jersey. He could not hit the target, and Jersey taunted him the entire time. 







The kid's father wanted to leave, but Jersey convinced the dunk tank operator to let the kid have a few more balls. The kid eventually hit, dunking Jersey. But Jersey Red had to have the last word. 







''You feel better now?'' he snarled. 







This story ran on page D07 of the Boston Globe on 08/02/98. 
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.