Memory Lane: Darrin another star from the McLee family tree
The McLee family is a storied name in Fayette County athletics. Darrin McLee is another member of the clan who made his mark on the hardwood for the Uniontown Red Raiders.
“I started playing sports at an early age,” McLee reported. “I went to Lafayette Junior High School and I’m from the East End area so I grew up on the local playgrounds. That’s where most of us pretty much started our athletic career.
“I actually played football as well and I was pretty good at football up until junior high and they didn’t want me to play anymore. It was the coaches and my family that wanted me to stop playing football because I was pretty good at basketball. I played up until 10th grade and then I focused on basketball.”
McLee was well aware of his family lineage in athletics.
“My mother is Lavata McLee and she had six boys including Brian, Stuart, Marty, Chris, and Scott,” he said. “My first and second cousins are Reggie and Kevin and all the great athletes from that part of the family, we are all under the same umbrella. Of course I’m related to the great Ernie Davis, I have his picture on my locker at work. It’s a big family and we’ve got a lot of love for one another. Plus we were raised pretty tough with my mother, she was a mother and a father. She focused on respect and dignity.”
McLee was part of a great junior high program at Lafayette.
“My coach was Mr. (Rich) Bierbower and we went undefeated,” McLee recalled. “We didn’t lose a game and I ended up getting the Robert Fee Award. Lafayette was a big part of my life and I actually played baseball as well when I was younger.”
In high school the 5-foot-11, 180-pound McLee was part of Uniontown basketball squad that went 15-1 in Section 3 and finished 20-4 in 1981-82, losiing to Norwin in the WPIAL playoffs 63-57. McLee was the sixth man on that team and scored 154 points.
In 1982-83 the Red Raiders were 18-4 in the regular season and finished 20-6. In the WPIAL tournament they downed Baldwin 59-46 and lost to McKeesport 67-61. In the PIAA tournament they beat Warren in double overtime 82-76. McLee poured in a career high 36 points in that game. Farrell knocked the Raiders out in the next round. McLee tallied 393 points on the season.
During McLee’s senior campaign in 1983-84 he had a monster season scoring 513 points. Uniontown was 19-5 during the regular season. They had a run in the WPIAL playoffs knocking off Penn-Trafford 52-26 and Hempfield 61-52 before losing in the semifinals to Bethel Park 70-68. In the PIAA playoffs they were beaten by Peabody 66-58.
“We played a three-man set and they called us the jet set,” McLee stated. “That was me and Darwin Ramsey and Mike Belt. The three of us would rotate that front and we gave ’em hell up front because we played that full court press.
“I had a great relationship with coach Lash Nesser and assistant coach Willie Bryant. Lash took care of me and he relied on me to take control. I have great memories and it was a great time and we were a very close knit group.”
McLee remembers the rivalry with Laurel Highlands.
“It was always intense and I played against Rueben Davis,” McLee offered. “That game was special and we all knew each other.”
McLee finished with a career total of 1,060 points and that was before the three-point line. He was All-Section as a junior and senior and named to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Terrific 20 as a senior.
When McLee graduated from Uniontown he briefly played basketball at California University of Pennsylvania.
“I went to California, but I didn’t have the mentality of going to school,” McLee explained. “Charlie Henderson helped recruit me. I stayed for about a month and I wasn’t prepared for it. My brothers were already in the military. The military was pushed pretty hard in the 80s. I joined the Navy and served four years. I was on the battleship New Jersey and went to Great Lakes, IL training school and I went to Long Beach and I became a boiler technician and went to the USS New Jersey. I played for their basketball team and we were known as one of the best teams in the 11th Fleet.
“I left the Navy in 1989 and worked for Coca-Cola and then met my wife, her father was a top executive with Xerox and I went to work for Xerox for 10 years. Then I went back to school and I wanted to be an H-Back engineer and I went to UCLA and got my construction engineering degree and I went back and got my Masters. I work for a company called CBRE and I have been there 12 years.”
Now,58, McLee resides in Los Angeles with his wife of 30 years Tamika. They have no children.
Looking back McLee is pleased with what he has accomplished.
“I made the most of my opportunities,” McLee stated. “I had to, we are old school. You have to stand on your own . My mother taught us to have pride and dignity, but be a hard worker.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.