Memory Lane: Remembering Greg Beckwith
The Fayette County sports community is still reeling from the news of the sudden death of former Laurel Highlands basketball star and Fayette County Sports Hall of Famer Greg Beckwith.
He died at age 60 on Friday May 26 after suffering a heart attack, according to his wife Julie.
Beckwith was a standout at Laurel Highlands High School and then went on to have an outstanding career at the University of Richmond. Beckwith was the subject of several Memory Lane articles. Here is an excerpt from a 2014 article where he spoke of his playing days at LH.
Beckwith was a backcourt star at Laurel Highlands from 1980 to 1982.
“We had a pretty good team and were very competitive,” Beckwith said. “My first year – back then in the 80s high school started as a 10th grader – there wasn’t a freshman team. I was able to start my sophomore year and we had a talented team. I thought we had an opportunity to go pretty far in the playoffs and we stumbled a little, but we had a great team with Mike Tupta as the lead player. He was our captain and a very good player.
“Throughout my career we had really good players, especially a couple of football players that played basketball as well, Dan Bolish and Shawn Braxtonhey were talented and then my senior year we had Rueben Davis who was really talented.”
The Uniontown Red Raiders were the main rivals in a very competitive section.
“Uniontown was always our chief rival. They were pretty good and Belle Vernon had a nice team with Ken Simiril who transferred in from Washington D.C. and was very tough and Connellsville was always good, they had Nate Able and those guys and they were always tough. It was a very competitive section.”
Beckwith had a special night when he broke Wil Robinson’s single game scoring record at Laurel Highlands. Robinson owned the record with 51 points.
“Yeah, I can’t forget that one,” Beckwith offered. “It was against Southmoreland and the guys on my team said to me, ‘We’ll get you 1,000 points, but we also want you to break some other records. It’s going to be your night.’ I was always trying to be a team player, but they wanted me to score a lot of points and Coach Horse Taylor said you have 48 and you have an opportunity to break Wil’s record. I said I don’t need to do that and he said to go in and do it.
“For him to say that was pretty special because he was a very special coach for me. He did a lot for me. I played in the Pittsburgh Ozanam League and at times he even drove me down on weekends and watched me play. I’ll never forget that. He’d come beeping his horn in his little Pinto and we’d go down and he always wanted me to play in those leagues to get better.
“The record was 51 and I scored 52. That’s going to get broken. We’ve had some players come out of there. Someone is going to come along and break it. Kaleb Ramsey had 43 and he’s a next door neighbor and my mom follows him and he could break that record.”
Beckwith was selected for the preliminary game in the 1982 Dapper Dan Roundball Classic and it proved to be a turning point in his basketball career.
“Coach Dick Tarrant and his staff were interested in a kid by the name of Bruce Timko,” Beckwith recalled. “And they happened to see me in one of the practice sessions down at the Roundball Classic and they became interested and Timko ended up going to Youngstown State and I ended up going to Richmond.”
Beckwith had four points and grabbed three rebounds and dished out some nice assists as the Keystone All-Stars lost to the Ohio All-Stars, 99-88.
“I had a decent game,” Beckwith stated. “I was a role player and we had a lot of scorers and so I was basically controlling the game and Coach Tarrant and his staff were looking for a point guard to really run their offense.”
Beckwith had a solid career at Richmond and is the Spiders’ all-time leader in assists and steals.He was named to the University of Richmond men’s basketball all-time team as part of the 100th Season of Spider Basketball Celebration.
“It’s special and it’s humbling in a way,” Beckwith said of the All-Time team honor. “I think that it’s nice to be recognized by your alma mater and the fans and still remembered that you contributed in a positive manner to the university.
“We were the first NCAA tournament team in 1984 – my sophomore year – we were able to go into the NCAA tournament and we faced Auburn with Charles Barkley and Chuck Person and we were able to beat them 72-71 and it really put Richmond on the map. It was the first time they ever received a bid to go to the tournament and then we won a game. It was a big win,” Beckwith said.
Beckwith remains humble as far as his records at Richmond.
“Yeah, all-time assists leader, when you have good shooters around you like Johnny Newman who is the all-time scoring leader and played in the NBA for 17 years, it made my job a little easier,” Beckwith explained. “Also the all-time steals leader, and had a good career. We had a good nucleus and we built on the 1984 team and went to the NIT the following year in 1985 and got to the second round and my senior year we got an at-large NCAA bid. We lost to St. Joseph’s by one point in the first round.”
Following his playing career, Beckwith, who earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master’s degree in Sports Management at Richmond, pursued coaching, serving as a graduate assistant at both Richmond and Virginia Tech. Following coaching, he began a long career in athletic apparel, starting with AJD Cap Company. In 1998, he joined adidas, beginning a 23-year relationship that would see him ascend to Sales Manager of the Eastern Region. Following his retirement from adidas, Beckwith joined S&S Activewear as an Account Executive in 2022.
A Richmond resident who remained close to the Spider Basketball program, Beckwith filled in as the team’s color commentator on occasion before taking over the role full-time prior to the 2003-04 season. He and Bob Black have been on the call for nearly every major Spider moment since, including the team’s run to the Sweet 16 in 2011, its conference tournament championship in 2022, and its Atlantic 10 regular season title, the first in program history, this past year.
“I’m so fortunate to have known Beck for 40 years,” said Black. “We’ve had so many great small point guards over my years, and Greg was the original who set the standard. But it’s the years since that I’ll forever cherish. As my broadcast partner for more than 20 years, Beck was great on the air and even better off the air. His positive, smiling personality, which touched so many people, was an inspiration to me, and we became so close that I think of him not just as a colleague and friend, but as a brother. My heart aches for Greg’s family and for our Spider family. We have lost a true Spider through and through.”
“Our collective heart is broken,” said Spiders basketball head coach Chris Mooney. “Beck represented everything we want our players to be. He was positive, energetic, supportive, and kind. He was the best of us. He was a true friend and we will miss him so much. Our deepest condolences to Julie, Brittany, and BJ.”
Beckwith was a longtime family friend of former LH and Richmond star Julie Jones Venick who is still shaken by the news of his untimely passing.
“He was my brother’s age and I watched him play and he was a pleasure to watch,” Venick said. “He was a class act and a great person. He will be missed, he touched so many people.”
Beckwith’s wife Julie texted me, “We’re devastated, but he’s with his mother, father and brother.”
Beckwith is in the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame (2014), Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame (2003), Atlantic 10 Legend (2017) and Richmond men’s basketball all-time team as part of the 100th Season of Spider Basketball Celebration (2013).
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.