Sports fans from across Edinburgh will gather soon to celebrate a well-kent face on the Scottish basketball scene – Danny Kaye.
Kaye will be fêted by friends and admirers at the Powderhall Arms on Broughton Road as a portrait of him by rising London-based artist James Metcalfe is unveiled to locals for the first time (see below).
The result of over 20 sittings, it depicts the 81-year-old youth in characteristic pose and clothes, with a camera, basketball and cryptic crossword at his side – all clues to the man's distinctive passions over the years.
Stewart Wilson has been largely responsible for organising the event. A long-term basketball enthusiast and the man who commissioned the portrait, he is happy for Friday's event to remain low-key but friendly in a venue once famous for its sporting clientele. Robin 'Dobbin' Hunter, a former top player, policeman and now landlord at the bar, will host.
Postwar rejuvenation
Daniel George Kaye's involvement in basketball dates from the sport's postwar rejuvenation in the capital, Wilson recalls. A Broughton resident at the time, Kaye turned out at first for the Polonia team (largely comprising ex-servicemen and very popular in the then Polish enclave of Broughton Street).
However, in 'the days when it was blood-curdlingly vicious and played in a cage', Kaye lacked the height and bulk to survive. He wisely turned to refereeing before – with fellow legends Jock Kerr Hunter and Borys Szfris – becoming closely involved in establishment of the Amateur Basketball Association of Scotland (ABAS) in 1947.
That organisation – since renamed – for decades had as its spiritual home and a principal arena the former Bellevue School (now Drummond Community High School) where many important club matches and even internationals were staged.
Little by little, Kaye's involvement and hours at ABAS's Frederick Street HQ increased as his encyclopedic knowledge and administrative ability were recognised. Drawing on wartime skills acquired in the RAF as a Rail Traffic Officer, he proved a masterly coordinator, organising match officials' attendance and travel arrangements nationwide.
He rose to become the body's Secretary, and later that of the wide-ranging and influential Edinburgh Sports Council. Meanwhile, he juggled a career as a successful professional photographer – another useful skill-set which he applied to the burgeoning sport of basketball.
Glory days
In 1967, as Manager of a Scottish international side touring in Canada and the US, Kaye appeared on the famous Ed Sullivan Show. With other kilted team members he was invited onto the stage whilst Nancy Sinatra sang 'These Boots are Made for Walking'. Later, he was employed in the States as a (simultaneous) radio and TV commentator – never a happy combination but one he managed, albeit briefly.
The late 1960s to mid-1980s were the glory days of domestic basketball when, with an explosion in popularity across the country, Scotland rose to become a powerhouse for the sport across Europe and further afield. Many forget nowadays how, only a few decades ago, basketball rivalled football in popularity and easily outstripped it in terms of razzmatazz, presentation as a live event and on camera, and in commercial exploitation of marketing opportunities.
As Scottish club teams regularly demolished international opposition, competition grew and talented individuals were attracted from abroad. Athletes who had narrowly failed to make the top tier in the US were brought to Scotland and nurtured at clubs like Edinburgh University, Heriot Watt and Pleasance Boys. In many cases they flourished here, improved, and later returned to further success stateside bearing trend-setting Scottish fashions such as jackets emblazoned with sponsors' names, and the long baggy shorts now inextricably associated with the game.
Recovery
The sport may have lost ground here recently, but there are signs of a recovery, particularly in schools. Wilson senses a revival, and is – he says – immensely proud of basketball as a Scottish success story. The game has its origins in prehistory, but since codification in 1891 by the Ayrshire-born James Naismith, has mushroomed across the globe. It currently boasts over a billion registered players worldwide and is today's biggest participant sport, with stars commanding among the highest wages of sportsmen anywhere.
Innovations, Wilson enthuses, pioneered in Scotland during the 1970s and 1980s about how to market the game went on to influence the whole relationship of Sport, Television and Business, and had significant ramifications also for commercial sponsorship of the Arts and Culture.
Founding figure
In Kaye he has therefore identified a founding figure well worthy of commemoration on canvas.
'For years, Danny has been hugely influential, respected, and the undisputed "go-to" man in Scottish basketball. I'm delighted to have found a guy like James Metcalfe who can really do him justice, and I hope to see the painting on show in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery later this year.'
'Danny Kaye has always brought a professionalism which is unrivalled,' writes another admirer, Grant Gibson. 'However, most people know him for his way with people. While running both a recreational summer league and the highly competitive Lothian League, Danny always has a smile on his face. Without him, the Scottish game would never have reached any of the levels it has in recent years.'
Friends will begin to meet at the Powderhall Arms at 7.30pm on 27 May, with the unveiling scheduled for later that evening at around 9pm. All welcome.
