“I needed to do this,” said Swift, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma in the summer of 2009 and was undergoing a round of chemotherapy at the time. In 2011, he organized a multi-school athletic reunion at GW Middle School that drew close to 500 attendees, including past players and coaches, to celebrate the heyday of high school sports in Northern Virginia. In 2010, Swift was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and in 2014 was part of the inaugural class of inductees in the ACPS Athletic Hall of Fame at T.C. Swift was drafted by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks but opted to play for the ABA expansion New Orleans Buccaneers, eventually retiring with the original San Antonio Spurs. At ETSU, he was a three-time all-Ohio valley conference selection and 1968 player of the year. He was the lone Virginian and non-African American to be named All-Met in both his junior and senior year, graduating from GW in 1965. He played three varsity seasons at GW and in his junior year led the Presidents (20-3) to the league title and state semifinals. “Skeeter was always exciting to watch - no one missed many games in those days.”īut basketball is where Swift exceled. “I still remember that game,” said Maria Evans, one of Swift’s classmates. Sports provided a refuge for Swift, who is still remembered for drop-kicking a 28-yard field goal in the opening game of the 1963 football season against Annandale. He was immensely helped by the coaching staff, some good teachers and a family that eventually took him into their house and gave him some stability. “His father had not been in the household for years and the family situation was simply dysfunctional. “Skeeter had to overcome some difficult family and community disadvantages,” said Sam Campbell, one of Swift’s former coaches at GW, in a Facebook post. ![]() and Alene Campbell Robey, divorced before Swift entered elementary school. in Alexandria on June 19, 1946, Swift’s parents, Harley Sr. He was 70 years old.īorn Harley Edward Swift Jr. died at Indian Path Hospital in Kingsport, Tenn. On April 20, the man noted as only the second Alexandrian to play professional basketball in the U.S. A third-round NBA draft pick in 1969, Swift played professionally in the ABA, ending his career with the original San Antonio Spurs. I dribbled that ball everywhere and played on every playground I could find from Alexandria to D.C.”Ī star athlete in football and basketball at what was then George Washington High School, Swift would go on to lead his unheralded East Tennessee State University team to a stunning upset of the Florida State Seminoles to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1968. “Ever since I can remember, I had a basketball in my hand. ![]() “Alexandria is where it all started for me,” said Swift during a recent interview with the Gazette Packet. His name was Harley Swift, a chubby kid from the wrong side of the tracks who was known simply as “Skeeter.” ![]() He was larger than life - a 6-foot-3, 230-pound athlete celebrated as one of the greatest legends of high school sports in Alexandria in the 1960s. Skeeter Swift in the GW band in 1961 at the age of 15.
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