[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 47 (Monday, April 4, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H2273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO LARRY FINCH

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today is many things in different people's 
lives. To many, it's the NCAA final tournament game. To many in my city 
of Memphis, Tennessee, it is a day that 43 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther 
King was assassinated. It's a holiday in my city, and we reflect on his 
great talents and his dream and reflect on all that we've learned since 
then.
  But yesterday, the 3rd of April, a great Memphian named Larry Finch 
died. He put together those two events. He was a basketball player and 
a basketball star like none other in Memphis and maybe like none other 
in the United States of America. And he was a person who brought people 
together in the way that Dr. King dreamed they would. The city of 
Memphis was split and hurt and racially divided in 1968, and because of 
that racial divide, it caused Dr. King to have to come to Memphis to 
stand up for the sanitation workers and the right of employees to have 
bargaining units and a dignity in life. And Memphis was even racially 
hurt more because of that assassination.
  But Larry Finch stayed home in Memphis, a local basketball player who 
really was the first great basketball star of African American descent 
to play at Memphis State. He took our team to the national finals in 
1973, and he ignited the city like never before. Whites and blacks came 
together to cheer for Memphis State and for Larry Finch. He spent his 
entire life in Memphis and was our head coach for 11 years, winning 
more games at Memphis State than any coach in history.
  He was a beloved individual who brought people together and didn't 
know race. He died Saturday. He will have his homegoing this coming 
Saturday.
  I show you the Memphis Commercial Appeal from the day after he died: 
``The Greatest.'' The entire first section is nothing but Larry Finch 
and his story from Orange Mound, Tennessee, and Melrose High School to 
Memphis State and the Final Four, where he had 29 points--and we would 
have won but for Bill Walton having the game of his life.
  I mourn my friend Larry Finch. The city of Memphis mourns Larry 
Finch. Sports can be more than winning and losing. Larry Finch did 
that. He was a great American. We're lucky he came this way for the 
people of Memphis and our Nation.

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