Gus was money

His fingers slid across the top of backboard in search of the object, but this time they hit the silver dollar and it went flying down into the northeast floor seats of the gym with a clatter.

In the few previous tries, Gus Johnson had been feeling around the top of the east backboard in Memorial Gym at the University of Idaho, in search of that coin. Only minutes earlier, I was confused when a couple of men brought out a tall ladder onto the gym floor and placed a silver dollar on top of that glass backboard. But now it all made sense.

Since then, I have talked to one person who remembered seeing Gus pluck a silver dollar off that same east backboard and on a different occasion, another person who saw him take a $20 bill off the west backboard when challenged to do so.

According to a now-extinct NBA Web site, the 6-foot, 51/2-inch Johnson could touch the top of a backboard (13 feet) by using “just a two-step running start.”

Gus, you finally made it to the basketball hall of fame.

Keith Gunther

Moscow, Idaho