Western Kentucky basketball star Jim McDaniels left a lasting mark | Tim Sullivan

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Tim Riley remembers his mother pulling up to an intersection on Center Street in a white station wagon that averaged about six miles per gallon, and spotting Jim McDaniels in an adjoining lane.

“My brother and I just started jumping,” Riley said. “This was the day before seat belts. We start jumping over seats, firing our faces up against the window. I can take you to that light right now.”

The Owensboro Catholic basketball coach was reminiscing from a rostrum Tuesday afternoon at Hillvue Heights Baptist Church, standing a few feet above and just behind the extra-long casket containing his lifelong hero. McDaniels died Sept. 6 at the age of 69.

For almost 50 years – since the day he first saw McDaniels dunk – Riley has regarded the late Western Kentucky University star with child-like awe and, eventually, grown-up appreciation.

“He was my hero,” Riley said. “He was my Batman, my Superman. Later on, we became friends.”

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Generations have been born and grown into middle age since McDaniels led the Hilltoppers to their only Final Four in 1971. But for those old enough to recall the basketball brilliance of "Big Mac", the impact he made on a campus and a community and his gift for making ordinary people feel special, the days since is death have been a time to make time for tributes.

So many people spoke at such length during McDaniels’ funeral service Tuesday that his widow, Carolyn, said her public goodbyes as if the hearse were double-parked. The portrait they painted was of an extraordinary talent with a spirit at least as large as the man himself.

The portrait they painted was of an extraordinary talent with a spirit and presence at least as large as the 7-footer himself. Former pro wrestler Jim “Hillbilly” Morris recounted accompanying McDaniels to a correctional institution and the inmates being so attentive "you could hear their hearts beat."

Eskias McDaniels remembered losing a two-on-two pickup game with his father and being frustrated that his 7-foot dad had not exerted himself in a game he could have dominated. Jim McDaniels explained that the game would mean more to their opponents, and that winning was not always the most critical consideration.

Some athletes reach the point where it is no longer necessary or important to prove themselves. No one who witnessed Western Kentucky basketball during the McDaniels era could doubt that point was reached several decades ago.

“This guy made my career for me,” said former WKU coach Jim Richards. “If the good Lord has a basketball team, he just got a great shooter on his side.”

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Then an assistant to John Oldham, Richards recalled suggesting that McDaniels be deployed closer to the basket, where his size and skill could create foul problems for opponents. Oldham replied that McDaniels might incur some fouls of his own that way, and that his jump shot was plenty deadly from longer range.

Forty-six years since his last collegiate basket, McDaniels remains Western’s career leader in field goals made (935) and scoring average (27.6), despite playing in an era before the 3-point shot and when the dunk shot was forbidden.

“He’s the best offensive player I ever saw,” said Richards, who coached against McDaniels’ Allen County High School team at Glasgow. “He hit 19 of 21 in the (high school) district tournament against us, and one of them was in the lane. That was an accident because they threw it up high to him and it hit his hand and it went in the basket.

“We played a man in front of him and a man behind him and he just went out to the corner and hit 18 out of 20.”

He was a man at ease in his own skin and with in his own abilities. And why wouldn't he be?

"He was Jim McDaniels," Tim Riley said, by way of explanation.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com or @TimSullivan714 on Twitter.