Kansas City high school boys basketball’s ‘golden era’ captured in documentary
Like nearly everyone, Carrington Harrison had time on his hands a year ago as Kansas City basically shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Because everyone else was in the same boat, Harrison realized he would have time to speak with people for a project that he’d been pondering for a few years. It’s a look back at the glory years of high school boys basketball in Kansas City.
Harrison made a documentary called “From Paseo to Pembroke: Kansas City’s Golden Era,” which will debut Sept. 30 at the Screenland Armour.
“When COVID started I realized that a lot of the key people in the story were in town,” said Harrison, who hosts an afternoon sports talk program on KCSP (610 AM). “People weren’t traveling, people weren’t really moving around, so it felt like a really good time to do it. ...
“I learned a lot over the course of doing it that ... there’s probably a lot of people that are around my age and younger than just have never heard some of these stories before, so it was really important to me to try to bring those to life and kind of put them all into one package.”
The documentary covers an 11-year span (1988-98) when the only three boys players from Kansas City have been chosen as a McDonald’s All-American: Paseo’s Anthony Peeler (1988), Central High’s Derek Hood (1995) and Pembroke Hill’s JaRon Rush (1998).
Others who played in that span include Jevon Crudup (Raytown South), Greg Gurley (Shawnee Mission South), Kareem Rush (Pembroke Hill), Earl Watson (Washington), Kris Weems (Schlagle), Tyronn Lue (Raytown), Terry Nooner (Raytown) and Michael Watson (Central).
Jack Bush (Central), Bud Lathrop (Raytown South) and Mark Nusbaum (Liberty) were among the legendary coaches of that era.
“So the story starts with Peeler, who’s the first McDonald’s All-American in Kansas City history and ends with JaRon, who obviously was a McDonald’s All-American, too,” Harrison said. “So the core of the story is from 1988 with Peeler’s senior year and leaves Paseo until JaRon leaves Pembroke.
“I’ve always felt growing up that JaRon’s story is like the the prototypical documentary, that it’s sort of the rise and fall ... like a perfect arch, and I guess part of me was just thinking, there have to be more stories to tell than just this one.”
Harrison spoke with 50 people for the 88-minute documentary, including many of the players and coaches from that time, along with members of the media who covered the teams at that time.
Metro Sports, which is now Spectrum Sports, had a wealth of game footage that Harrison used for the documentary.
After its debut on Sept. 30, the documentary will be shown three times a day from Oct. 1-3 at the Screenland Armour. Harrison thinks it will be shown at a theater in Kansas as well.
“I think what the doc does a really good job of celebrating is there was just an intense amount of competition during this era, all kind of centralized, at one time,” Harrison said.
“There was a time where the greatest pride that you took was to play at your local high school, whether it’s Raytown or Ray South or Shawnee Mission East or wherever. It was such a great pride to play for your neighborhood, and I really hope that is maybe the biggest takeaway that people get from the documentary is the pride that people take in their own individual high school.”
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
