Writing a book over the past few months was my cure for COVID-19.  If we had to stay at home during the global pandemic, I was going to get something accomplished.  I would write another book, the 30th in my Pittsburgh Proud series.

To write a book you must sit down at your writing space and stay the course.  I found myself getting up earlier and earlier each morning, sometimes as early as 4 and 5 a.m., as I was eager to write.  Writing had become easier for me, I was surprised to learn at age 77, and while my short-term memory isn’t nearly as reliable as it once was, my long-term memory is vivid, and some say remarkable. 

It was a blessing to be able to write a book, to have a purpose each day to do something. My wife Kathie and I both had health challenges during this time and overcoming them made us want to achieve even more.

We are both avid readers, and I continued my education by reading lots of history books.

Beyond the restrictions to combat the coronavirus, our world got even more challenging after a man named George Floyd died in Minneapolis after an overzealous policeman pressed his knee to the neck of Floyd for nearly nine minutes until he could no longer breathe.

This ugly incident created world-wide turmoil and protest and violence in the streets of cities across our county and other parts of the world.  George Floyd became a martyr for the “Black Lives Matter” movement. George Floyd, a husky 6-5 man, had played high school basketball and football, and basketball for two years at a junior college in Florida.  He’d had many run-ins with the law in his life.

I was writing about some remarkable men named George, all rags-to-riches stories, the kind that were called “Horatio Alger stories” in my youth. Horatio Alger was a Harvard-educated author of popular books for young adults in the 19th Century.  They were stories of the American dream, about impoverished boys who rose from challenging circumstances to become successful through hard work, determination, courage and honesty.

My subjects were George Gervin, George McGinnis, George Thompson, and George Tinsley.  They all offer inspiring stories for all young people.  They are all African-Americans.

I had their phone numbers and it was easy to contact them because they all had to stay at home, too, and had time to talk.  I met and talked to George Tinsley for the first time at the 50th year reunions in 2018 of the ABA and then the Kentucky Colonels.

His is a remarkable story.  I called him one day in June 2020 when I meant to call George McGinnis.  The phone number was next to a notation that simply read “George.” I called George Thompson twice when I meant to call George McGinnis.  But I picked up a few gems that misguided way. 

It gave me an opportunity to offer my condolence to George Tinsley about the death of his daughter, Penni, age 44, a beautiful and talented young woman who suffered greatly from a degenerative disease called multiple system atrophy.

This had happened after I had last talked to Tinsley.  It had to be so difficult to deal with by George, his wife Seretha and their son, George II. Yet George Tinsley was talking in his signature upbeat manner.

“I’m positive we’ll come out of all of this stronger than ever,” he said.  “Penni isn’t suffering anymore.   She’s walking with The Lord, and I hope to join her someday and be with her again.”

I thought it was remarkable that George Tinsley was still preaching a positive message.  He had often said “the customer is always right and you have to give them an experience that they will want to come back to your restaurant.”

He went on to tell me that he also had to shut down 20 restaurants that he owned because of the coronavirus.  He was just starting to re-open some at airports.  “But there are few travelers these days, so the traffic has been light so far.”

George Tinsley has had a successful career as a businessman, helped in a considerable way by his wife Seretha.  They met during their student days at Male High School in Louisville, and were among the few African-American students at Kentucky Wesleyan, a Methodist college in Owensboro, Kentucky.

He was a star basketball player and student leader, and she was a cheerleader, and both were involved in many student activities such as student council. They were the first African-American students to be admitted to the school’s prestigious honor society.

Their story reminds me of another ambitious couple, Joy Maxberry and Dwayne Woodruff. The Woodruffs met as students at the University of Louisville, and Joy pushed Dwayne to be a more dedicated student when he was at risk to flunk out of school.

He went on to become an outstanding football player for the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, an attorney and judge in Allegheny County Family Court. They have a model family.  Their three children are all achievers.

I did some more research on George Tinsley and learned some details that I didn’t have in my notebook the first time around.  They enrich his story and that of his wife and family.

His holding company has many restaurants and food and drink outlets, such as Starbucks, Don Shula Steak House, TGI Fridays, at airports in Miami, Tampa, and Louisville.  He got his start in the restaurant business as a training manager for Kentucky Fried Chicken, and he still favors the sort of white or cream-colored suits that Col. Harland Sanders wore when he founded and became the ambassador for the chain of fried chicken franchises.

His wife Seretha had front office positions as a general manager, even a vice-president, of radio stations in Atlanta and Jacksonville.  Then, in 1984, they combined their talents to take the leap into restaurant operations.

I already knew that George grew up under difficult circumstances in the Louisville inner-city community called Smoketown, the same section of the city that produced Cassius Clay, later to be known as Muhammad Ali.

But I learned some more details that flesh out his story.  He was abandoned by his mother as an infant, just six months old, turned over to a widow named Willie Tinsley who looked after other children in a single room with a small kitchen.  She had one leg – the other had been amputated -- and required a crutch to get around.  She managed to get by on $65 a month Social Security.

She died when George was 13 and her son Clarence took George into his home.  That didn’t work out as well.  But George got a basketball scholarship to Kentucky Wesleyan and made the most of the opportunity. He belongs to many business associations and he and Seretha have served in Chamber of Commerce leadership roles.

George does a lot of motivational speaking, simply telling his own story the same way former Notre Dame and Steelers star Rocky Bleier has been telling his story all these years.  “We are all selling hope,” as Bleier puts it.

“I’ve tried to let people know you can really achieve and have success by being positive,” says George Tinsley. “I love people and I love to be involved.”        

Then, too, on another occasion, George Tinsley has said, “Don’t be a prisoner of your own mind.  If I can do it, you can, too.”

My book – Looking Up Once Again -- is full of stories of men who lifted themselves to great heights, many escaping the ghettos of their childhood, to succeed in sports and, more importantly, in life.

Some remain challenged, as senior citizens after the bright lights of basketball arenas no longer shine on them.  I enjoyed reconnecting with them, getting to know them better, getting their stories beyond the basketball courts.

They all started, as I did, shooting baskets in their backyard or in the front of their home, and we all found a way to make it in the world of sports.

One of my longtime friends, a retired neurological physician named Dr. Marvin Zelkowitz, who read my stories in advance of publication, sent me an e-mail “You lend dignity to these men you write about.  People need to know about them.”   

When I was a student at the University of Pittsburgh, I befriended Dr. H.C. “Doc” Carlson, the director of the student health service.  He removed a wart from my finger on one visit.

Doc Carlson counseled me about a lot of things, and I listened because he had been an All-America football player at Pitt, a basketball coach of a national championship team at Pitt, and he and one of his players, Charlie Hyatt of Uniontown, were honored in the charter class of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Doc Carlson was big on charts and he drew one over a message he wrote above his signature in a book he gave me that had been written by Grantland Rice.  It was called The Tumult and the Shouting (1954).  Doc’s hand-written message had an arrow pointing upward and an arrow pointing downward.  With the upward arrow he wrote, “Positive like Grantland Rice.”  The downward arrow said, “Negative like the muckraker Westbrook Pegler.”  And he added, “Which direction will you follow?”

I think Doc Carlson would like this book.  I hope you do, too.  I loved Doc Carlson, but I must tell you that the wart came back.

A letter from Jim O’Brien:

Dear Reader:

I want you to be among the first to know about my newest book, Looking Up Once Again, the second book in a trilogy of basketball memoirs, with a strong Pittsburgh connection.

This will be a limited edition.  Because of the shut-down of so many book signing opportunities by the coronavirus pandemic, I am printing only 1,500 copies at RR Donnelley in Pittsburgh.  I used to print about 15,000 copies of each of the books in my Pittsburgh Proud series.

I will be satisfied to recoup the cost of the printing and typesetting, and the photographs and artwork.  At 78, I am happy to be able to continue to write my books, and I want to share my stories with readers like you.  I hope you will help spread the word about my latest effort, as well as the series itself.  My books cost $33.70, which includes shipping and handling, and I will be pleased to sign to your request.  The book is once again 480 pages, with over 200 vintage photos, reproduced signatures, and behind-the-scenes stories culled from a long career of covering basketball on every level.

You can write in the name of the new book where it says “Other” on the order form of the accompanying flyer. Thank you.

Best wishes,

Jim O’Brien

Holiday season specials:

Christmas and Hanukkah will soon be here.  This one will also be a limited edition (1500 copies).  Those who buy the second book in the trilogy will get first chance to buy the third book.

You can also get signed copies of the following for $20, plus $4 shipping charge.  If you order more than one book, just add an additional $1 each book over the $4 initial shipping charge.

Hometown Heroes - Glory Years- Golden Arms-Lambert

         From A to Z: A Boxing Memoir – Fantasy Camp

Call 412-221-3580 to inquire about possible availability of hard to get copies of Remember Roberto * Doing It Right * Whatever It Takes * Steelers Forever * Maz and the ’60 Bucs * Dare To Dream * We Had ‘Em All the Way – Bob Prince book  * Penguin Profiles * Keep the Faith (Jerome Bettis on the cover)