Bingo Smith’s ‘saving grace’: Meet the Akron couple who connected with late Cavs legend

Bobby “Bingo” Smith and George McClain sat in the cab of a new Ford F-150, its passenger window rolled down so Cavaliers fans could touch one of their most adored legends.

There had been countless rides together since the two met on a basketball court 45 years earlier. But none like the glorious 2016 championship parade.

“There were no barricades, people were sticking their hands into the truck right off the street,” McClain said. “Bingo was shaking their hands. They were 10 to 12 deep.”

Their day had begun at 5 a.m. when McClain, his wife, Sandra, and a driver had picked up the wheelchair-bound Smith. They needed help to push and lift him through the crowd of at least a million people in downtown Cleveland to get in place for the start of the celebration.

Photos on the digital frame in the McClains’ Akron living room give visitors a sense of where that experience ranks in the ultimate buddy story of McClain and Smith, who passed away on Oct. 26 at age 77.

“There’s no doubt. Evidence is everywhere,” Smith’s former Cavs teammate Campy Russell, now the team’s director of alumni relations, said of the pair’s tight bond. “It’s a story of great determination.

“Not just on Bingo’s part, but the determination that George and his wife and our organization put forth. It was a great determination effort by all.”

That was most evident as Smith’s health failed. He suffered strokes in 2001, 2009 and 2017 and required a caregiver. As he battled a litany of health issues, the McClains took Smith to Cavs events and doctors’ appointments, kept track of his schedule, got him dressed and into the car. When McClain suffered a stroke in 2010 and lost peripheral vision, he called on men from Second Baptist Church in Akron — first Bill McCloude, then Alan Thomas — to drive them.

The McClains became Smith’s medical and financial powers of attorney while Smith’s son Andre served a 10-year prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. Sandra McClain, retired after 36½ years as a teacher/educator, paid Bingo’s bills online and took detailed notes for Andre on his dad’s condition. When Andre was released in 2014, they became a team.

“Bingo had, you hear nine lives, he had 40,” Andre Smith said.

“George and Sandy kept him alive another 10 or 12 years because they got him out. They arranged for everything. Huge.”

Russell stayed in touch and offered the assistance of the Cavs organization, which still invites McClain to its Legends Lounge.

“There’s no question that their relationship helped keep Bingo here longer,” Russell said by phone. “Not too many people have friends like that, (who) would be available to him in any situation. That’s what I witnessed with Sandy and George. There was never any hesitation in what they were willing to do for Bingo. There came a time when he was not able to attend any events, but they were still there for him.

“When I look back at this, George was definitely a part of Bingo’s saving grace.”

As Smith chose to live primarily in Akron, he became part of the McClain family. They took him with them on holidays, to picnics at their kids’ homes. Sandra said their youngest granddaughter became fascinated by Smith’s size 15 feet, once putting her foot in his shoe.

“They loved being around him,” Sandra said of their grandchildren.

From day one of Smith’s and McClain’s friendship, McClain felt the same.

A product of John Hay High School, McClain, 78, was playing for the University of Akron in the summer of 1971 when he began scrimmaging against the Cavs in area college gyms. The Cavs franchise was a year old and McClain got to know its cornerstones like Austin Carr. But he was drawn to 1970 expansion draft pick Smith.

“We both were in our 20s. We just meshed. We’ve been together ever since,” McClain said. “Over the years, it was almost like he was my brother.”

Sandra McClain, 74, understands why the two clicked immediately.

“They’re a lot alike. They act alike. They think alike,” she said.

During a nearly two-hour interview, they rarely spoke of Smith in the past tense.

After McClain left UA, including a Division II runner-up season in 1972, he played semi-pro ball for Revco Drug and Novak Insurance and still scrimmaged against the Cavs. Smith, a key member of the 1975-76 “Miracle of Richfield” team, stayed in the NBA through the 1979-80 season, playing 865 games, 720 for Cleveland over 10 seasons. His No. 7 jersey was retired before he finished his career with the San Diego Clippers.

McClain wasn’t through with basketball, turning to the NBA Legends circuit that traveled to Dayton, Columbus and all over the East Coast. McClain spent nine years on the Cleveland team and one with the Akron Old-Timers, which included Smith. McClain’s career path included a stint in the U.S. Army, selling insurance and jobs with the Urban League of Greater Cleveland and the Neighborhood Centers Association.

His oldest son, Kevin Edwards, played 12 years in the NBA, primarily with the Miami Heat and New Jersey Nets.

After Smith’s health forced him to surrender his driving privileges, McClain spent about four years taking Smith to Cavs public appearances and autograph signings. The McClains saw the magical way Smith related to people.

“One thing about my father, no matter how big his name was or what he did, he was just a normal person,” said Andre, 48, who played basketball at Hudson and Firestone high schools and Xavier University. He now lives in Akron, working as a home health care aide and for the Akron-Urban Minority Alcoholism Drug Abuse Outreach Program.

“Some of these guys leave that behind when they get to a certain level. He always had a lot of friends. He didn’t think he was better than anyone. He would go to Cavs, Indians, Browns games, he’d come to all my games. He volunteered for the teams I played for; he’d show up at practices. He worked for boys’ homes.”

McClain’s UA teammate Karl Schwarzinger played chauffeur a few times and was similarly struck by Smith’s personality.

“We’re driving up to Cleveland and he’s sitting in the front seat and we’re talking. You think, ‘I’ve known this guy for 20 years and I’ve met him four or five times,’” Schwarzinger said. “He asks you questions about yourself. I had a 2006 Lexus. When we almost got there, he goes, ‘Are you going to sell this car? I want to buy it from you.’ I said, ‘But you can’t drive.’ He said, ‘But I still want it.’”

Rebuffed, McClain said Smith got a BMW.

Smith didn’t remember names, so he and Sandra found a way to work around that.

“He would say, ‘This is my sister, Sandy.’ I would stick out my hand and say, ‘Hi, I’m Sandy,’ … they would say, ‘Hi, I’m so-and-so,’” Sandra McClain said.

Andre Smith remembered a time growing up when kids would ask Bingo to come out and play. After his father passed, Andre said he received about 10 letters, some relaying stories from their childhood.

He recalled one from a man who lives in New Jersey, who said, “It was raining cats and dogs one day. I was 12 years old. Big silver Mercedes pulled over and Bingo said, ‘Do you need a ride?’ He would take him home and meet his parents when he let him out.”

Kids and adults marveled at Smith’s athletic prowess. He was drafted as a pitcher by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Melrose High School in Memphis, Tenn., where he was also a third-team All-American in football who drew scholarship offers.

“I was playing softball every Saturday and Sunday, and Bingo came down one time and played first base,” McClain said. “He couldn’t hit it, but he sure could pick it up.”

Andre said football was Bingo’s best sport, but the wide receiver broke his arm his senior year in high school.

“When he went to Tulsa, he went to two days of football and got hit and said, ‘Nope,’” Andre said. “Right before he had the first stroke, he was a zero handicap (golfer).”

McClain learned to play from Smith and said Smith trounced his Cavs teammates on the golf course, even Carr, at 75 still devoted to the sport. Smith and McClain once teamed with two others to win a Kiwanis Club tournament in Lorain. They split the $1,000 prize and Smith gave Sandra the set of golf clubs.

McClain said Smith loved to bet while golfing, at least $5 at a time.

“He would come back and have me clean his golf balls and there would be 40 $5 bills in his golf bag,” Andre said.

When Smith moved from Akron to Cleveland for a time, Smith and McClain lost touch. McClain was attending a UA basketball game in the Mid-American Conference tournament when he learned from Russell that Smith was back in Akron.

“I said, ‘What do you mean back in Akron? I’m surprised he didn’t call me,’” McClain said. “He’d been back about a year or two, he was living with [his daughter] Monique. At that time, somebody told me they saw Bingo at a nursing home. He was in a wheelchair. I said, ‘Wheelchair? Nah.’ I had to look him up.”

The McClains were there for Smith the rest of the way. As Smith deteriorated physically, the McClains thought they were ready to let him go, but that was not the case.

“George, I could see the pain in his face,” Sandra said. “It hurt him deeply and he was trying his best to be strong. And we were trying to be strong for Andre, too.”

The morning Smith died, Andre couldn’t believe it when a 1978 light blue BMW 530 just like his father’s passed him while he was smoking a cigarette in the hospital parking lot. Former Cavs stars Carr, Russell and Jim Cleamons and former Browns Ben Davis and Greg Pruitt, Bingo’s golfing buddy, attended the celebration of life service at Wilkinson Funeral Home, owned by the McClains’ daughter Brandee and husband DaMarcus Wilkinson.

McClain absorbed another heartbreaking blow when Thomas, the church usher who drove Bingo for years, passed away three days after Smith due to complications after a knee replacement. McClain and Thomas had talked that Thursday, the day Bingo died, laughing over their lengthy list of medications. The funerals were held the same day, Nov. 4.

“It crushed me when they called me that Sunday, ‘You know Al died?’” McClain said. “I was getting ready to eat dinner. I had to go the room and lay down.”

When it was suggested that McClain had been rocked by both deaths, Sandra nodded.

The McClains now look fondly at the photos in the living room frame, including one with the late Browns legend Jim Brown at the parade. Downstairs, Sandra has the prized Kiwanis golf clubs. McClain opens the cover on an ottoman and reveals a stash of Cavs promotional gear from Smith’s appearances and games they attended together.

“Do we miss him? Yeah. I can close my eyes and hear (him), ‘Hey, hey, baby,’” Sandra said. “Sometimes you talk about things that made you laugh because he was hard-headed, like his friend.”

In the spring, Andre Smith plans to scatter some of Bingo’s ashes at the site of the Richfield Coliseum, where his father’s rainbow jumper wowed Cavs fans. Andre said the now-demolished arena meant more to him than to his dad. Andre has gone back there before, saying it’s “weird” to him that the turn-in is still there, “it’s like you can almost still see the silhouette.”

What Smith went through in his final days has not eased the grief or filled the void for Bingo’s determined team — the McClain and Smith families.

“Like I said, the 40 different lives he had, you think you can prepare that this is going to happen. It didn’t turn out to be that way,” Andre said. “I found myself a couple weeks ago during this ‘I’m wacko for Flacco’ grabbing the phone to call him, like, ‘Are you watching this?’ He’d been gone two months.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs great Bingo Smith leaned on this Akron couple in his final days