MILWAUKEE — People outside the basketball world who felt, touched by Junior Bridgeman, shared their stories of the Milwaukee legend while mourning his death.
"I remember meeting him at Wendy's and just the way that he is the owner of this restaurant but he's walking around saying hi to everybody," Victor Barnett, executive director and founder of Running Rebels, told TMJ4. "So on the court and off the court, he was a special person and something to have our young people look up to."
"My favorite thing about him was to see the joy that he had in life," Victor Gray, Bridgeman's Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brother said.
Both men were devastated to learn that Bridgeman died on Tuesday after a medical emergency in Kentucky.
Like so many, Gray watched Bridgeman on the Bucks but got to know him after joining the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity's Milwaukee chapter Delta Chi Lambda in the late 1970s.
"You could've taken me off of the floor after they assigned him as my sponsor," Gray recalled. "My favorite was that first pledge session to see him there snickering at us, fumbling our words and stumbling over our bad memories and the joy that he had for the fraternity."
Watch: People across the Milwaukee area remember Junior Bridgeman
Gray says they grew close through the fraternity but lost touch over the years. He expressed regret that the two did not get to reconnect.
Gray admired the NBA star's kindness and humble attitude.
"The thing that he offered was his word. He put his word and his name out there for me. He didn't have to," Gray stated.
"Junior Bridgeman is a perfect example of what we would want our young people to strive to be," Barnett said.
Barnett has spent decades working to empower Milwaukee's youth through activities such as basketball.
"He played hard, but some of the players that played with him were more known and recognized, but he was valuable to the team. I never saw a problem or attitude out of him like, 'Give me the ball or I want this.' He was a perfect teammate," Barnett explained.
Bridgeman was 71.
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