Story on 7-2 John Flippen from Evant, TX going to Baylor
WalkSports
Small-town big man
By JOHN WERNER, Tribune-Herald staff writer
EVANT - On a sun-drenched Wednesday afternoon, the ranchers gather for lunch at
the Cow Poke Cafe where they chow down on Texas size chicken fried steak and
talk about the deer they've killed.
Men wearing cowboy hats and hunting caps pull up in pickups to buy feed for
livestock from Ina Beth Wall at M&W Ag Supply. A few visitors passing along
U.S. Highway 281 stop by Bernice's Antiques or mill around Cowboys and Indians
Western Wear.
It's a routinely quiet day in Evant, a town of 462 people located 70 miles west
of Waco. There's very little activity in the town square and it's a slow day at
the bank and grocery store.
But late in the afternoon, one event sets the town buzzing: John Flippen, the
Evant Elks' 7-foot-2 senior center, shatters a backboard before basketball
practice at the high school gym.
Flippen went up for a dunk and tore the rim from the backboard, spraying glass
all over the floor. At first, his teammates looked stunned as they gaped at the
hole in the backboard. Then they let out a collective yell and started giving
Flippen high-fives.
Several teammates gathered pieces of the shattered glass for souvenirs.
"I'm going to keep it in case he ever makes the NBA," said junior wing Clint
Adams.
"This is a once in a lifetime thing," said senior guard Justin Slone. "I saw
(former Texas Tech player) Darvin Ham break a backboard on TV, but I've never
seen it in person."
Within a few minutes, the word had spread that Flippen had shattered a
backboard. Two women came in from the street and gazed at the hole where the
rim once hung.
"The news is already all over town," one of the women said.
Flippen hung his head and looked slightly embarrassed as he grabbed a broom and
started sweeping up the shattered glass. He wondered how he was going to pay
for a new backboard.
"There goes my pickup truck for college," Flippen said.
The shattered backboard added another page to the growing Flippen legend, which
is already larger than life. 7-foot-2 basketball players are as rare as
skyscrapers in rural Texas. It would be hard to find any Class 1A school that
has ever produced a player as tall as Flippen.
Flippen became the tallest player to ever sign with Baylor in November, an
event which signaled a day of rejoicing in Evant. It's been at least 30 years
since the school has produced a NCAA Division I athlete, but it was even more
special because Flippen is everybody's adopted son in Evant.
"I've known John D. since he was a baby," said Evant superintendent Bill
Brister. "He's a real good kid from a real good family. We're real proud of him
and excited for him. He's given this school a lot of exposure."
People stop and stare at Flippen wherever he goes. When he worked at M&W Ag
Supply this fall, the ranchers who trekked into the store often stared in
disbelief when they saw Flippen load a 40-pound bag of feed into their trucks.
"Oh my Lord, people can't believe it when they see him for the first time,"
said Ina Beth Wall, who works at M&W Ag Supply. "You just don't see a boy that
tall every day."
Flippen towers over the players he faces at small schools like Tolar,
Bosqueville and Jonesboro. Sometimes standing a foot taller than the man he's
guarding, Flippen has already pulled off three triple-doubles this year for
points, rebounds and blocked shots. He's averaged 18.7 points, 15.4 rebounds
and 8.5 blocked shots in Evant's first 11 games.
"I blocked 18 shots in one game," said Flippen matter of factly.
Eighteen?
"Yes, sir," Flippen said.
The legend grows.
The first Flippen ancestors settled on land nine miles northwest of Evant
around 1850 and the family has farmed and ranched in the area ever since. The
family has always been known for two things: Hard work and producing the
tallest ranchers in Hamilton County.
Many of the Flippens have stood well over six feet. John's grandfather stood
6-5. John's father, Jimmy, stands 6-10 and played basketball for Evant in the
late 1960s.
When Jimmy married 6-0 Johnafaye Dryman of Goldthwaite in 1972, they were
destined to produce tall children. Jason was born in 1975 and has grown to
6-10. When John Dryman Flippen was born on Jan. 11, 1980, he weighed 11 pounds
and was two feet long.
"When they put John D. in the incubator at the hospital, it was like trying to
squeeze a whale into a fish tank," said Johnafaye, who teaches elementary
school in Hamilton. "They used him as the demo baby for the other mothers in
the hospital to learn how to wash their babies. The doctors knew that if one of
the mothers dropped John D., he wouldn't break. We left with the cleanest baby
in the hospital."
When John was two years old, a pediatrician told his parents that he'd
eventually grow to 7-2 to 7-6.
"We said, `Yeah, right,' " Johnafaye said.
The doctor proved to be prophetic. John has grown nearly three inches in the
last year and expects to grow a few more inches.
The Flippen's grocery bill cost a fortune as Jason and John were growing up. It
wasn't unusual for each of the boys to eat a box of Wheaties and a gallon of
milk for breakfast every morning.
"We got to where we'd mark a gallon of milk for John D. and a gallon for
Jason," Johnafaye said.
When Baylor coach Harry Miller came to the Flippen's house for a recruiting
visit last summer, he got a first-hand look at John's hearty appetite.
"We went over to John D.'s grandmother's house and she made chicken fried steak
with all the fixings," Johnafaye said. "Each time John D. would finish a plate,
he'd stack another chicken fried steak and vegetables on his plate. Coach
Miller couldn't believe what he was seeing. Basically, John D. eats until his
jaws get tired."
John has always had trouble finding clothes that will fit. He buys 44-inch
length pants at Cowboys and Indians Western Wear in Evant, but he has to
special order his shirts from Salesman's Sample Outlet in Waco and order his
size 19 shoes from a shoe company catalogue.
For the high school prom last year, John ordered a tuxedo in Gatesville, which
had to make a special order from a sister store in Houston.
"That store in Houston had fit (Houston Rockets' center) Akeem Olajuwon for a
tux," Johnafaye said. "But John D.'s pants were four inches longer than
Akeem's. The people at the store said there was no way that a high school
junior could need pants that long."
John grew up helping his father farm and ranch on the family's 1,200-acre
spread. The Flippens raise goats, sheep and cattle and grow crops like grain,
wheat and oats.
"See that fence?" said Jimmy Flippen, pointing to a wire fence extending far
into the horizon. "We probably put up seven or eight miles of fence by hand.
Both John D. and Jason are real good hands. This family has always believed in
hard work."
"We do anything from feeding cattle to hauling hay to putting up fences," John
said. "It's not unusual for me to sit on a tractor all day and plow. I plowed
about a hundred acres of oats one day this summer."
When John wasn't working on the ranch, he always played basketball and
football. He started playing basketball in Little Dribblers in third grade and
kept getting better and taller every year. By the time he started playing high
school basketball as a freshman for Evant coach Tim Perkins, he stood 6-6.
Despite his height and a soft shooting touch, he never dreamed that he'd sign a
scholarship with a Division I college out of high school. Evant just isn't a
hot spot for college recruiters.
"I thought that maybe I could walk on at McLennan Community College," said
Flippen, who averaged 14 points and 10.1 rebounds as a junior at Evant last
season. "I didn't get any attention at all from Division I schools last year."
Johnafaye told Jimmy's brother, Gene, of John's plans to walk on at MCC. But
Gene, who played basketball at Ranger Junior College, had bigger plans for
John.
"He told us that John was a D-1 player," Johnafaye said. "The first thing I
asked was, `What's a D-1?' He explained it to me. Then Gene had a friend of the
family, Ron Tremper, make a web page on John last spring."
Flippen got his first national exposure when Bill Litton of Waco added him to
his AAU team last spring. He played for Litton's teams in several tournaments
across Texas. Flippen also attended the Big Man's Camp for high school players
in Nashville and the BCI Nationals at Colorado Springs during the summer.
Soon letters began pouring in from Division I schools across the country. On
the first day that coaches could contact recruits, the Flippen's phone rang all
day.
"My mom just sat there like a secretary taking all the calls," John said. "I
eventually got calls from 28 colleges. I couldn't believe all the attention I
was getting."
At the BCI Nationals in Colorado Springs, Johnafaye said that the Air Force
coaches made a hard sell to sign John.
"The Air Force Academy dogged us like crazy," Johnafaye said. "John D. asked
them, `If I signed with you, wouldn't I have to give the Air Force four years
of my life after I graduate?' He couldn't have squeezed into an airplane, any
way."
The Baylor coaches began sending letters to Flippen last spring, but they
really got a jump on the other schools when he attended Harry Miller's
basketball camp in June. Miller noticed that Flippen had skills to go with his
size and offered him a scholarship.
"I saw John's potential," Miller said. "You could tell that he had a good work
ethic and real good feet and hands. John was playing against (Baylor center)
Brian Skinner and he really improved as the camp progressed."
Flippen liked the Baylor coaches immediately and verbally committed to Baylor
in August before signing in November. Flippen admits that it will be tough to
make the jump from Class 1A high school basketball to NCAA Division I.
"It's probably going to be 10 to 20 times harder at that level," Flippen said.
"But if I keep working, I'll be okay. I've been lifting weights a lot during
the off-season and I've gotten stronger. I'm up to 230 pounds and my skills are
getting better all the time."
"People who expect John to set the world on fire when he first gets here might
be disappointed," Miller said. "He's really got no players to push him to
another level right now. But once he gains weight and experience, he'll be a
good player at this level."
Flippen currently drives a 1977 Ford truck which he calls his "Dukes of
Hazzard" pickup. When Miller visited Evant, Flippen took him for a ride.
"I got my 270 air conditioning fixed," Flippen told Miller.
"What's that?" Miller said.
"I roll down both windows and go 70 miles an hour," Flippen said before zooming
down the highway.
Flippen hopes to have a new truck by the time he enrolls at Baylor next fall,
but first there is that little matter of paying for the shattered backboard at
the Evant gym.
"Do you think our insurance will cover a shattered backboard?" Jimmy Flippen
said.