Danny Shedwin, sports star, man of many worlds

by The Sports Paper on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 1:29pm

Part I of II

By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper

Danny Shedwin has lived in Seattle for so long now he practically keeps several Starbucks’ Cafes in business all by himself. The 1964 graduate of West Bremerton High School is comfortable sipping a latte and living quietly in downtown Seattle near the Pike Street Market, although his connections to this side of the water and to others around the globe runs deep.

The 6-foot-3 Shedwin, dusted now with gray hair, does not own a car since his last one was stolen. He gets around by light rail or bus, and when he comes back to Bremerton, as he frequently does, he takes the ferry and walks to where he wants to go.

Since being a staring act in basketball, football and baseball at West High, Shedwin has served in the Army, mingled among some of the famous and rich, played a little basketball in Europe, had lock combinations to Army secrets, married and divorced twice, fathered a daughter, been a member of the media, both radio and print, and attracted some well-known professional athletes to his humble living quarters for R&R as the sweet jazz sounds of legendary music men drifted around them.

A towering African-American with deep roots in black culture locally, Shedwin is the first number many fellow African-Americans punch into their cell phones when they want to find out what is going on or just want to hear the gentle voice of the man who some say may have been one of the best athletes to come out of Bremerton.

Shedwin doesn’t wear that label well. He would prefer to glide past such remarks, much as he slides in and out of gyms without much fanfare. But he is well known for suddenly appearing where the basketball action is, whether it is the Seattle Metro area, in the Tacoma Dome during the high school postseason, or in the gym at Bremerton where he used to be an assistant basketball coach.

It wasn’t but a few years ago Shedwin was the Western Washington recruiter for Seton Hall, a mid-major East Coast school in South Orange, N.J. that once was a major power and still occasionally dribbles into the top 25 rankings.

As a West High senior, Shedwin was all-league in three sports in two leagues – Capitol and Olympic – and all-state first team centerfielder in baseball and honorable mention all state in basketball.

As a youngster, Cleveland “Cleve” Williams, among others, inspired Shedwin. It was Williams, who for years was front and center in recreational leagues in Bremerton, who found a tree in the city’s Westpark area where he put up a basketball hoop so that kids would be lured to it and not to trouble.

“Johnny Jackson lived right across the street (from the hoop),” says Shedwin of a man who went on to get his doctorate degree and is retired as principal at Franklin High School in Seattle. “I’m not sure he graduated from West High because his dad lived in Tacoma and his mother in Bremerton. John would have graduated in 1965. He played football, ran track and played on the basketball team.”

In recent times, Shedwin has sought – quietly, as is his nature – to get that tree, that site, to be placed on the list of local historical locations. His effort, while not successful, is typical of Shedwin, who continues to believe in helping youngsters have the best chances to succeed as possible while they search for their place in society.

It is not uncommon for Shedwin to appear in Bremerton to help some youngster with his basketball skills while creating an open lifeline should that be needed at some time down the line.

When Shedwin graduated he moved across the street to Olympic College intending to keep alive his basketball career. It didn’t quite work out that way. He rode the bench for the first six games before coach Don Cooley suddenly started him.

“I had 11 points the first half and then I was pulled,” says Shedwin. “I never played another minute for OC.”

His class work wasn’t up to snuff, so Shedwin in January of 1965 left OC and joined the Army. It was at Fort Leonard In Missouri in the south-central Ozarks while under going basic training that Shedwin picked up the basketball again. He was named to the all-military all star basketball team.

His army service lasted three years and took him to Germany and to Monaco where he would play on a Europe League Division 3 team sponsored by Prince Rainier and Princess Grace (Kelly). Married for the first time, Shedwin’s wife’s grandfather knew Prince Rainier and that led to him being asked to play.

While playing basketball there Shedwin discovered something about himself that led him to being one of the better shot-blockers in the league.

“There is no goal-tending in international basketball,” says Shedwin. “When I found that out all I cared for was blocking shots.”

Shedwin said the grandfather ran the gambling tables that were underneath the Monaco casino owned by the prince. Not many people knew of the basement gambling rooms because they were reserved for only the highest of the high rollers. It took, Shedwin said, the price of a Chevy Corvette (about $6,500 then) to get into the games.

“I was a party animal in those days,” says Shedwin, “and when I was in Monte Carlo I was to a restaurant that only one other American, JFK, had ever been invited to.”

While in Germany, Shedwin held jobs that had, he said, a little “edge” to them. In one of them he held the combinations to 26 locks in his head. Four of the combinations were for locks on doors that led to a room with 22 safes. In those safes were the Army’s most secret files. He was the only one with the lock combinations, and all of them he had to be memorized.

He also was the Army paymaster for 400 soldiers. He had to individually count out from $65,000 in cash the correct amount for each solider.

One day while counting a one-dollar bill got away from him and slowly floated to the floor underneath the table he was sitting at. He bent over to retrieve the runaway dollar and as he sat back up in his chair he felt the barrel of a shotgun press against his head. A guard with a shotgun was not amused.

“I was 19 and my whole life flashed in front of me,” says Shedwin. “I knew the guy could literally blow me away if he wanted to and justify it. It was a very bizarre experience.”

His job in the Army led him to a brief job with Aristotle Onassis, one of the world’s richest men, who would marry Jackie Kennedy. Onassis owned a fleet of ships and Shedwin’s job was to codify inventory on those ships.

His high-flying life in the Army came to a close when he mustered out of the Army in January of 1969. He was back in Bremerton with his wife and one day, while still in uniform, he went to a store to purchase some beer.

“The guy wouldn’t sell it to me,” says Shedwin. “My driver’s license was expired. Of course it was I was in the service for three years. Then he sold it to my wife, who had been in the country for two days. I was pissed. I just lost it. I was born and raised here (Bremerton) and served in the military. That pissed me and I jumped him and ran him into the backroom. If the cops would have come I would have jumped them too.”

Shedwin worked with former West High teammate Ron Burley in the insurance business in Portland, Ore. for a while, then came back to Bremerton and enrolled in the fall of 1970 at Olympic College once again.

He went out for basketball, also again, but it didn’t take. He didn’t get to play much and finally gave it all up and moved on to the next chapter in his life.

“When the season started I told (coach Larry) Sampson I would give him 40 – points, rebounds and assists,” Shedwin said. “The first time around (the NWAACC schedule) we slaughtered everybody. We had some outstanding talent. It was probably the best team I played on. We had Dave Pyles, (Marvelous) Marvin Buckley, and William Woods.

“The second time around we were getting slaughtered. Teams were using a sunken zone on us. We played Yakima and I played 29 seconds. I got a rebound, was pulled from the game, and as I sat down I was told, ‘nice rebound.’

“That was it. I quit.”

So Shedwin moved on. He had first modeled when he was 12 and going to junior high at Coontz. Now he became the first African-American model in Seattle. Almost as quickly, he became part of the media as an advertising salesman for KYAC Radio and quickly got in the swing of the entertainment business as well as going on air as a color man for Seattle Metro League high school basketball games.

His radio gig came in the 1973-74 season. His duty was not only to provide color for the broadcasts, but also to do half-time interviews. He had people like Jack Sikma and Dick Balch, a local Chevrolet dealer who did ads where he smashed cars with a sledgehammer.

Before one game at Inglemoor High School Shedwin became so busy at the radio station he had not the time to get a half-court interview set up. But it so happened that the Main Ingredient singing group that was led by lead singer Cuba Gooding Sr. was on a promotional tour and showed up at the station.

The group, which produced the hit single “Everybody Plays The Fool”, was asked if they would sing the National Anthem at the game and they accepted.

“So they come out and sing the National Anthem,” says Shedwin. “It’s an all-black group and Inglemoor is an all-white school. When they got done singing the anthem the stands just emptied. Fans just stormed the group they were so excited. And the stands were full. The fans just went crazy.”

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