LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Sports fans love to howl about Jerry Eaves and the things he says on his local radio talk show.
Too negative. Always critical. Never satisfied.
"I'm Darth Vader," Eaves said with a smile.
Sorry, Jerry. For this story, Oprah Winfrey is a better comparison. But instead of cars, Eaves is working to give away homes.
Over the next 10 days, two of Eaves' former basketball players at Simmons College of Kentucky will move into sparkling, refurbished homes on the 1100 block of South 28th Street that Eaves, several local businessmen, Simmons College and Park Community Credit Union have worked more than two years to provide.
They will make no down payment other than earning their degrees from Simmons and completing personal finance courses.
If they stay in the homes for at least 10 years, they will become the homeowners with all the equity. Both properties have more than 1,200 square feet of living space in the Parkland neighborhood, which anticipates a rebirth with the plans for the $40 million Norton Healthcare Goodwill Opportunity Campus at Broadway and 28th Street.Â
Eaves and his partners want to rejuvenate the area. Following the upgrades both homes are likely to be valued at more than $150,000.
"Give the west end an opportunity to be like the east end or southeast, all the other places that people think are places they want to live," Eaves said.
One of the first two players to move into a home will be James Mosley, a three-year starter for Eaves at Simmons. Eaves said that Mosley currently pays $950 per month to rent a two-bedroom apartment. Eaves said he was optimistic that Mosley's house payment on South 28th Street would be closer to $600, and he would have a yard as well as the other benefits of home ownership.
Remember this about Eaves: He played on a Kentucky high school championship team at Ballard High School. He started next to Darrell Griffith at guard on the University of Louisville's 1980 NCAA title team. He played parts of four seasons in the NBA, scoring 35 points on Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons as a rookie in 1983. He finished his basketball playing career overseas. Eaves has been a college basketball assistant coach at Louisville, a head coach at North Carolina A&T and an NBA assistant for three franchises. He's directed the program at Simmons since 2015.
Eaves speaks clearly and forcefully on hot topics during his one-hour radio show that airs at noon Monday-Friday on 1080 AM, WKJK, in Louisville. Not just basketball. Not just sports.
Simmons College men's basketball coach Jerry Eaves stood on the porch on one of the homes that has been remodeled for a Simmons graduate. WDRB Photo Rick Bozich
But this is different. This is not talking. This is doing.
"The sports piece, I'm going to be honest with you: I love it, but I'm sick of it," Eaves said Tuesday morning outside one of the properties. "The sports piece has used African American males and females to think that the only way and the only reason they're doing this is to get to the NBA. And there's only 450-500 players.
"It's just ridiculous. But that's where this began.
"So I wanted to change the concept that athletics is for a reason, (to develop) a tax-paying citizen that understands what is going on in the world and to try to be a better person, not just be a better athlete, where we're stuck."
Eaves has always credited his parents for driving home the message of education, community service and making wise financial decisions with him and his siblings. He is convinced that property ownership is an essential component of being a responsible adult. The project has been encouraged by Dr. Kevin W. Cosby, senior pastor at St. Stephen Baptist Church.
This is his opportunity to pay that message forward in a program that he hopes will grow into providing at least a half-dozen homes to Simmons graduates every year. He said he will follow up with his players to discuss financial literacy, home maintenance, decorating and cooking.
Eaves said that he began talking to his players about the program several years ago. During the summer of 2020, when COVID-19 and protests about the shooting death of Breonna Taylor led to uncertainty and discord across Louisville, Eaves developed a relationship with local businessman Frank Harshaw of Harshaw Associates and Richard Pickren of H2H (House to Home).
What could they do to make a difference?
After a series of discussions, this idea emerged as their answer: providing quality housing for Simmons graduates.
All three men have invested in the project. They recruited Tony Silver of Red Door Properties to find houses and then remodel them. They convinced city officials they were not trying to flip houses for a profit.
"It's a great program," Silver said. "This house would have been a sub-par rental. It wasn't like this."
Like this, of course, is a remodeled first-floor primary suite with a deep walk-in closet and modern bathrooms fixtures. The kitchen was freshened with new cabinets and paint, leading into a hallway with laundry room tucked near the back entrance. The living room flows into a stairwell that takes you to two more bedrooms as well as a family room and 1 1/2 bathrooms. There's a security system, upgraded HVAC and high-speed internet with a wireless router.
"I would have loved to have a place like this when I was 24 or 25 years old," Eaves said.
Now, two of his Simmons players will have homes on the same block. This is the beginning. The plan is to try to make at least a half-dozen available to athletes that graduate from Simmons every year,
"I started to speak with (his players) about this about two years ago," Eaves said. "They couldn't envision it because they'd never seen it. They'd lived in apartments their entire lives.
"But now that the houses are starting to be ready, you can see them start to understand the magnitude of what's going to happen to their lives."
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