UVa, old teammates embrace Gerard

More than 20 years had passed since Gus Gerard last set foot in Charlottesville.

That’s when his life began to crumble as a result of his addiction to drugs and alcohol - an addiction that cost him his family, friends, and a small fortune accumulated as a pro basketball player. He left Charlottesville in the late 1980s, after his retirement from the game that made him famous and rich beyond his wildest dreams. His secret life of addiction had finally caught up to him and his spiral downward was at full speed.

A lot had changed since Gerard, a star hoopster for Virginia’s Cavaliers, had left. The city he held so dear had grown exponentially in his absence, but some of his favorite parts - such as The Corner, the Lawn and his university - were still familiar. Gerard, who was runner-up to the great David Thompson in ACC scoring his final year here, had changed, too. His addiction led him to a botched suicide attempt in 1993, which sobered him to the point of seeking relief.

Making a new life

Now approaching his 15th anniversary of being clean and sober, Gerard had risen from dramatic depths. He is now the CEO of the very rehabilitation center that saved his life and spends every day trying to save others.

Gerard didn’t return to Charlottesville on vacation, but rather to face the few remaining demons that lingered in the back of his memory. He had made amends with his family and himself. It was time to see old friends and teammates and to discuss the perils of substance abuse with students at his old school.

If you suspect he was nervous, you would be correct.

A nerve-wracking return

“My emotions were all over the place,” Gerard said this week, speaking from his Extended Aftercare rehab center in Houston, Texas. “At times I was happy, at times I was sad because I missed [Charlottesville], and at times I was really nervous.”

That was about a month ago when he spoke to a number of groups at UVa, including 100 student-athletes from various sports, then Joe Gieck and all the athletic trainers and sports medicine people and academic advisors on signs and symptoms to look out for in those athletes. On the second day, he met with 24 deans from the various colleges at the university before he reached the main event, an open meeting to anyone interested in attending. That’s when he told his story again, hoping to inspire someone — anyone — from going down the path he once took.

“I was here to talk about serious stuff, but I was also here because I felt I had to make some public and private amends to a lot of people who I might have harmed during my tornado years … when I was blowing through everybody’s lives,” Gerard said.

The response he received from those old contacts was overwhelming.

“The message I got from everybody there was, ‘Gus, you didn’t burn any bridges here. Don’t feel that way when you come back here. Always feel welcome here,’” Gerard said.

Old teammates and friends were gracious, perhaps even a little curious as to what to expect from a once-freakish athlete who had jumping skills comparable to one Julius Erving.

Andy Boninti, Bob McKeag, Dan Bonner (his freshman roommate) and Steve Morris were all there to greet him. They shared old stories and met Gus’s second wife, whom he met while in recovery. He and his wife toured Virginia’s campus, and was quickly reminded that it was “Grounds,” and not campus. They toured Monticello and all the old spots.

While all of the events meant something special to the former Wahoo, the time that touched him the most was a dinner with a small group, “Hoos in Recovery,” before his keynote address.

“That probably grounded me more than anything on the trip because they were my peers, people suffering from the same thing I was,” Gerard said. “It was people that had cleaned up their act, and to see the spirit in those young underclassmen was awesome. It put me at ease and got me prepared for my talk.”

Prior to hitting the main stage for the trip’s main speech, he was whisked into a media room with TV cameras, flashes, microphones, tape recorders and the like, all interested in his return.

“That was the most attention I’ve had since I went to the Bahamas back in 1974 when the police didn’t find it amusing that I had brought marijuana to their country in my suitcase,” Gerard remembered. “Back in those days, things like that were covered up. And thank goodness there was no ESPN back then, because I had just made the all-rookie team and for sure I would have been scrawling across the bottom of the screen for days.

“All they wanted then was money. I paid my fine, spent the night in jail and got out the next day.”

Those were the beginnings of his aforementioned tornado years, days he has long put behind him.

While visiting, he was impressed that UVa was well ahead of the curve for colleges attempting to deal with various forms of substance abuse, even though many he spoke with felt they weren’t doing enough.

“I told them not to sell themselves short, that they were a lot further along than some of the schools I had spoken to about recognizing substance abuse as a problem,” Gerard said. “Virginia has some good things in place.”

The trip proved to be worthwhile for myriad reasons, but specifically for good news he has since gotten. Gerard said that at least two people who heard his story are trying to work out the details and logistics of getting their kids into his treatment center in Houston.

More good news was that he has been invited to be the keynote speaker at two major conferences this winter, where 60 universities will attend on the West Coast and East Coast. The one in the east is at UVa, which will give him yet another chance to reach out with his experience and helping hand.

“I’m not in this business to make a lot of money. I had a lot of money. Now, I get by,” Gerard said. “What helps keep me clean is helping people turn their lives around. That’s where my reward comes from.”

The fact that he gets to return to Charlottesville in February for the conference is a bonus. It’s also basketball season, and former teammate Barry Parkhill wants Gerard to attend a Cavaliers game in the new arena.

“Next time I’m back there, I’ll be more relaxed, more at ease,” Gerard said. “Barry insists that I come for basketball, and I really want to do that.”

It has been a long time since big Gus has been around his beloved Wahoos. Too long.