SANDY HOOK, Ky. — What makes a legend?

Memorable stories?

Successful career?

Great nickname?

Check, check and check.

Say hello to 6-foot-10 Orb “Big Chief” Bowling, who trudged up and down hollows and up and down the basketball court for Sandy Hook High School some 50 years ago.

While a half-century has passed since the “Big Chief” played for Sandy Hook, he’s still one of that town’s most memorable characters.

And even though he now lives in a suburb of Memphis, Tenn., “Big Chief” is still a fan of basketball in Sandy Hook, especially the brand being played by Elliott County High School these days. He follows the team through the hometown newspaper he receives in the mail every week, the school’s newsletter and with phone calls back home. Last year’s 16th Region championship by Elliott County High School — the first in school history — was a triumph for anyone who ever wore a Lions’ uniform.

Sandy Hook High School was changed to Elliott County High School in 1973.

“Big Chief” is the biggest player to ever play basketball in that town and in 1958 was the biggest player on a Kentucky high school roster.

“He’s still a legend,” said John Williams, the Elliott County superintendent.

After a college career at Tennessee, Bowling was drafted by the New York Knicks in the 11th round, but found out he wasn’t NBA material. Instead, “Chief” signed to play for the Washington Generals, the patsy team for the Harlem Globetrotters, for $700 a month.

After that, the “Chief” got the chance to play in the fledging American Basketball Association for the Kentucky Colonels.

After the ABA, “Chief” landed a job with Union Planters National Bank and became a security bonds salesman in Tennessee and Kentucky.

“We underwrote a bunch of bonds, all over Pike County, $50 million worth,” he said. “I made a lot of money selling bonds on Rupp Arena, too. They borrowed about $25 million worth of bonds to build Rupp Arena. I sold them all over Kentucky and Tennessee.”

Bowling also married well. Donna, his wife of 45 years, met Bowling while attending school at Tennessee.

“He’s a real down-to-earth person who doesn’t mind people making fun of him,” she said. “I guess if he had good sense, he wouldn’t like it.”

The couple has two sons, Orb Jr. and Jason.

Bowling keeps up with Elliott County basketball and knows the players by name. He talks about the Faulkner twins, Ethan and Evan, and Jonathan Ferguson, and how well the team is doing. The team returns to the state tournament this year, playing Thursday against Mason County in the opening round. Bowling has said he’d like to attend.

Bowling would love for one of the Elliott County players to get a scholarship to Tennessee.

“Big Chief” played for the Volunteers from 1960 to 1963, becoming known throughout the South for his country wit and wisdom and an ability to block shots and rebound. He once scored 31 points against Vanderbilt.

The prankster of high school that was Orb Bowling was also the prankster of college. Campus police once arrested him for throwing snowballs.

As a prospective recruit, Orb was courted with letters from Tennessee, South Carolina and some others.

As the story goes, Orb was working in the tobacco fields with his father when the ut coaches came driving up for a visit. They spotted Orb and his father in the field and asked them if they knew where Orb Bowling lived.

Orb pointed to his house and the car drove off. They later met up with Orb and his father when they got in from working the field.

Bowling said going to Tennessee was the “best thing ever happened to me.” He said he loved playing against Kentucky and usually had a good game against the Wildcats, even though UK typically came out the winner.

Bowling had 15 points and 14 rebounds in a 1962 game against Kentucky in a 95-82 Wildcats victory. Bowling also had a double-double — 13 points, 10 rebounds — in a 1962 loss to the Cats. He averaged a respectable nine points and six rebounds in six games against UK.

Bowling first had a basketball put in his hands as a 6-5 seventh-grader at Sandy Hook High School.

He started mastering some of the basketball skills that would be his ticket later in life. He played on some of Sandy Hook’s all-time great teams and with some of its greatest players, like Roy Fannin and Bob Rice.

While many in Sandy Hook only call Bowling “Chief” even today, most don’t know how he picked up the nickname. Orb said when he was 15 years old, he and a cousin decided to have some fun on Halloween. They doused themselves in the juice from the red berries of a pokeberry bush and rode two horses into town and screaming like Indians.

“They didn’t arrest us, but they ran us out of town,” he remembered. “Ever since then, they nicknamed me ’Big Chief.” ’

Today, at the age of 68, “Chief” plays basketball five days a week at the Schilling Farms YMCA near Memphis with a group of businessmen. But instead of the inside game, Bowling now specializes on the 3-point shot.

“I’ll hit two or three out of five from 3-point range,” he said. “It’s almost like a foul shot once you get your rhythm. Like my golf game, it’s strictly for exercise.”

Bowling comes back to Sandy Hook at least once a year to visit his sister Sarah Jane Ison and take in the tobacco festival and visit with his many friends.

The stories are endless from anybody who knows him. But everybody always remembers him.

Legends are like that.

© 2008, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.