Ex-Rebels head for new heights

Steve Carp

Friday, Dec. 26, 1997 | 10:29 a.m.

They played together. They partied together. They roomed together.

And Saturday, at halftime of the UCLA-UNLV game, they will share the ultimate honor an athlete can have bestowed upon him.

Yes, there's symbolism in the fact Glen Gondrezick's No. 25 and Reggie Theus' No. 23 will hang from the rafters of the Thomas & Mack Center. Both hoped if the opportunity to be honored ever came about, it could be done in unison.

But it's more than just being honored together that has the two UNLV greats and former NBAers feeling touched. It's how their friendship has endured over 20-some years.

"I think when you have a history with someone, time, space and distance can never be taken away," Theus said. "Glen was my roommate on the road. That either breaks you up or brings you closer together."

Gondrezick said: "Our closeness carried over to the court. We watched each other's back."

First to Final Four

The duo, part of UNLV's "Hardway Eight" team that went to the 1977 Final Four, put Rebel basketball on the map. That team went 29-3, scored 100 or more points in 23 games, including 12 straight, and averaged 107 points a game, setting 15 NCAA scoring records at that time.

Gondrezick, currently the team's television and radio color analyst, was a member of Jerry Tarkanian's first UNLV recruiting class in 1973. The four-year letterman led the Rebels in rebounding in 1976-77 with 347 and is UNLV's No. 7 career rebounder with 831 boards and the school's No. 13 career scorer with 1,311 points.

Theus, who is also in the broadcasting business as an analyst and studio co-host for Turner Network Television's NBA coverage and Fox Sports West's college basketball as well as a star of a teenage TV sitcom "Hang Time," played three seasons at UNLV before turning pro in 1978 and being a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls.

Theus is the school's No. 19 career scoring leader with 1,177 points. He is second in career free-throw percentage, having made 81 percent of his tries from the stripe and is No. 8 on UNLV's career assists leaders with 401.

Both players say the individual accomplishments pale in comparison to what it was like playing on such a talented team that included Eddie Owens, the school's all-time scoring leader, Robert Smith, who many believe is still the finest point guard to ever play at UNLV, Sam Smith, arguably the best pure shooter to play for the Rebels as well as the athletic and talented Larry Moffett, the multi-dimensional Tony Smith and the rugged Lew Brown.

"It was an incredible team to be a part of," said Theus of the '77 Rebels. "I was only a sophomore, but that team was so close. We took a lot of pride in kicking butt.

"There was a real camaraderie on that team. We pulled for each other."

Close and crazy

Yet, there was a special kinship between Theus, a young black player who grew up in Inglewood, Calif., and Gondrezick, a white player two years older who was from Boulder, Colo. Through basketball, they found a common ground and built a friendship that remains strong today.

"Don't let him fool you," Theus said of Gondrezick. "Glen has more ghetto in him than I do. He was a crazy white boy."

Crazy is right. Gondrezick was always a prankster and he was famous for the "neck slap" where he'd come up behind you and give you a friendly slap to the back of your neck.

"That was the big thing with the team," Theus said. "We'd always be giving each other the neck slap. But when Glen did it, man, it hurt. He's a strong guy. He'd give you a playful punch in the arm and it would hurt."

The craziest thing Theus remembered Gondrezick doing was swinging from the railing of a balcony.

Big deal, you say. But the balcony was 30 stories up.

"We're in Hawaii and I walk in the room and there's Gondo on the balcony," Theus said. "But he's not on the balcony, he's hanging onto the rail on the other side, just dangling.

"I'm freaking out. I was begging him to come off the balcony and come inside and he's trying to talk me into joining him. He's saying, 'C'mon, you're a wimp.'

"Finally, he came back in. But it scared the crap out of me."

Gondrezick remembers another road trip where it was Theus who acted weird.

"Not many people know this, but Reggie's scared of the dark," he said. "He'd have to leave the light on the room when he slept.

"I remember going to get a soda and the machine was outside in the parking lot. And Reggie went out with me because he was afraid of being left alone in the dark."

Theus laughed.

"Yeah, that's true," he said. "I hate the dark."

Hanging together

Of course, when there were other people around, the dark was no problem. They would hit the clubs together and the action didn't start until well past midnight and wouldn't finish until dawn's first light.

"We partied hard," Theus said.

"But neither of us used drugs," Gondrezick added. "We just liked to have a good time. It's like we got along so well naturally, we enjoyed doing things together."

Theus said: "We did everything together. We lived in the same apartment complex. When Gondo ate, I ate. When he went to the store, I went to the store. When I went to the movies, he went to the movies.

And there were plenty of good times for the two to share, especially on the basketball court.

"Reggie was a player who you always had to be alert when he was on the floor," Gondrezick said. "He could find you anywhere on the court, so you always had to have your hands up, or you might get hit in the head with the ball.

"He could no-look pass. he could thread the needle. He was a very gifted player."

And if Theus was gifted, Gondrezick was driven by a great work ethic.

"He played like a man possessed every time he was on the floor," Theus said. "He'd literally run through a brick wall for Tark. There was no way possible this man wouldn't give 150 percent."

Both say their individual honor represents the entire 1977 Final Four team and several members from that team are expected to attend Saturday's ceremonies. Tarkanian won't be able to make it because his Fresno State team has a game that night against Wisconsin.

They will join Tarkanian (No. 2), Larry Johnson (No. 4), Sidney Green (No. 21) and Stacey Augmon (No. 32) as members of the UNLV basketball family to have their numbers retired.

"It's hard to believe they're able to single a couple of guys out," Gondrezick said. "Never, never could I have imagined getting an individual honor like this."

Theus said: "It goes along with the theme of our lives. You can't separate people who have been together."