Bobby Ray Parks Sr. (November 26, 1961 – March 30, 2013) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player from

Grand Junction, Tennessee Grand Junction is a city between the border of Hardeman County, Tennessee, Hardeman and Fayette County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 325 at the 2010 census, and was estimated to be 303 in 2015. It has been called the "bird dog, Bi ...

. He played for

Memphis State University The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

(now the

University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

) from 1980 to 1984 and played internationally in the Philippines, Indonesia and France. As one of the most celebrated "import" players in the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

(PBA), Parks became the second American ever inducted into the

PBA Hall of Fame The Philippine Basketball Association Hall of Fame is an institution that honors selected former players and personalities of the Philippine Basketball Association. It was launched on May 29, 2005, during the Reunion Game pitting two teams consis ...

in 2009.

College career

Bobby Parks came to Memphis State University in the fall of 1980 under head coach Dana Kirk. Over the next four seasons he helped the

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is tradition ...

to an 86–34 record, two

Metro Conference The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because its six charter members were all in urban metropolitan areas, though its later members di ...

Championships and three appearances in the NCAA Tournament. He appeared in 27 games as a freshman and totaled 238 points. During his second season with the Tigers, 1981–82, Parks upped his scoring average to 11.4 points per game in leading the team to a 24–5 record. As a junior, Parks received All-America honors from ''

The Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

'' after scoring 488 points and helping his team to an NCAA Midwest Region invitation. He capped his Memphis career by again averaging in double figures in scoring and finished his senior season with a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Parks is now ranked 15th in his alma mater's career scoring with 1,266 points. M Club Hall Of Fame To Add New Stars In 2004 :: Basketball star Bobby Parks leads new group of honored Memphis athletes
/ref>

Professional career

Continental Basketball Association

Parks was chosen in the third round by the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Easte ...

in the

1984 NBA draft The 1984 NBA draft was the 37th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It was held at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, on June 19, 1984, before the 1984–85 season. The draft is generally ...

, the 58th player of 228 chosen in the draft. Wearing his trademark no. 22, Parks played for the Hawks in the NBA pre-season but was cut before the regular campaign started. He also played parts of four seasons in the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

, appearing in 83 games for the

Pensacola Tornados The Pensacola Tornados was a basketball team that played in Pensacola, Florida in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) from 1985–1991. 1985–1986 season Ted Stepien bought a CBA franchise for Toronto in 1983 after threatening to mo ...

Mississippi Jets The La Crosse Bobcats were a Continental Basketball Association (CBA) basketball team located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from 1996 to the league's bankruptcy in February 2001. The Bobcats were the second CBA team located in La Crosse; previously, th ...

Rockford Lightning The Rockford Lightning was a basketball team that played in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). They were based in Rockford, Illinois. History The Lightning were the oldest team in the CBA, originally existing as the Lancaster Red R ...

and

Rochester Renegade The Rochester Renegade (later Rochester Renegades) were a professional basketball team based in Rochester, Minnesota. They played 2 seasons in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), the defunct development league for the National Basketbal ...

between 1985 and 1994.1994-95 Official CBA Guide and Register, pages 327-8 He was selected to the CBA All-Defensive Second Team in 1986.

Philippines

Parks began a career overseas in France in 1986 and in 1987, then played in the Philippines where he would become a legend. He made his PBA debut with

San Miguel Beer San Miguel Beer refers to San Miguel Pale Pilsen, a Filipino pale lager and flagship beer of the San Miguel Brewery. The original San Miguel Brewery, Inc. was founded in San Miguel, Manila, as La Fábrica de Cerveza San Miguel in 1890 by Enri ...

in 1987. He saw action the following year for Formula Shell until 1999. He finished his 12-year PBA career with nearly 9,000 points, over 3,000 rebounds and more than 1,000 assists in 220 games. In 1989 alone, he averaged 52.6 points in 23 games with a high of 72. Parks won a PBA record of seven Best Import awards and led his teams (San Miguel and Shell) to three PBA championships. While in the Philippines, Parks also appeared in several Filipino movies.

Indonesia

After his PBA stint, Parks went to Indonesia to play for

Aspac Jakarta Stapac Jakarta is one of Indonesia's top basketball clubs. They have won 13 national championships, entering the finals of the top-tier domestic competition started from Kobatama and IBL, since its founding in 1986. Historically, the team has sent ...

in the Kobatama (Kompetisi Bola Basket Utama) competition. Parks, called by Indonesian fans as 'The Ice Man' or 'Uncle Bob,' suited up as import for the Indonesian club teams in the Seaba tournament and Asian Basketball Confederation (now FIBA-Asia) Champions Cup. Parks involved in bringing Aspac to final since 1994 and dedicated two titles in 1995 and 1996. Parks sweetly closed his stint in Indonesia in 1997, when Aspac defeated

Indonesia Muda Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Comprising over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea, Indo ...

with 112–99. Parks made 12 3-point shots to break the previous record set by

Pelita Jaya Madura United Football Club is an Indonesian professional football club. The club is based in Pamekasan, Madura, East Java. They currently play in the Liga 1. The current form of the club was established on 10 January 2016; the team's lin ...

's Aprijadi who made 10. Parks dominated the Indonesian league especially since local basketball players in this country at that time are not that talented at all.

Coaching record

PBA

Retirement

He returned to Memphis in 2005, partly to finish his degree under the invitation of coach John Calipari and the athletic department. Another motivation for the move was to bring his son Bobby Jr. (also known as "Ray Ray"), a promising teenage player, to Memphis to expose him to better basketball competition. Parks also served as the personal assistant to John Paul "Jack" Jones, a wealthy

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

alumnus from Memphis who is the namesake for UVA's current basketball arena. On June 2, 2010, Parks and his family moved back to the Philippines. Parks accepted a position as athletics director at

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. In the United States, the term "national university" connotes the highe ...

in Manila. During that time, he was in the middle of a battle with laryngeal cancer; his treatment was reported to be successful in April 2011. In November 2010, Bobby Jr. signed a

letter of intent A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement, term she ...

to play basketball at

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

, but then disappeared from the view of both Tech and the American media for several months. Eventually, Luke Winn of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' tracked the younger Parks down, discovering in April 2011 that Bobby Jr. had enrolled at NU and was expected to lead the

Bulldogs The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is a stocky, muscular dog of medium size, with a large head, thick folds of skin around the face and shoulders and a rel ...

in the upcoming

UAAP The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univer ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. In 2011, the

San Miguel Beermen (ABL) The San Miguel Beermen was a professional basketball team that played in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) from 2012 to 2013. The team was from the Philippines and owned by San Miguel Corporation (SMC). This franchise was separate and distinc ...

joined the ASEAN Basketball League and named Parks its first head coach. He led the team to a finals appearance, losing to the

Indonesia Warriors The Indonesia Warriors was an Indonesian professional basketball team that last competed in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL). Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Warriors replaced Satria Muda BritAma as Indonesia's representative in ABL. On 19 ...

Death

On March 30, 2013 (Black Saturday), Parks died after a long battle with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

, which developed from his previously untreated

laryngeal cancer Laryngeal cancer is a kind of cancer that can develop in any part of the larynx (voice box). It is typically a squamous-cell carcinoma, reflecting its origin from the epithelium of the larynx. The prognosis is affected by the location of the tumo ...

Legacy

To commemorate Parks' legacy, the PBA renamed the prestigious "PBA Best Import of the Conference Award" to the " Bobby Parks PBA Best Import of the Conference Award". The award was renamed on March 31, 2013, a day after Parks' death, as it coincided with the scheduled awarding during the

2013 PBA Commissioner's Cup The 2012–13 PBA season, 2013 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) PBA Commissioner's Cup, Commissioner's Cup was the second conference of the 2012–13 PBA season. The tournament began on February 8 and ended on May 19, 2013. The tournament i ...

. The first recipient of the renamed award was

Robert Dozier Robert Lorenzo Dozier Jr. (born November 6, 1985) is an American professional basketball player. College career In the 2007–08 season, Dozier started in all games with Memphis, along with the Memphis Tigers' future NBA players Derrick Rose, Ch ...

of the Alaska Aces—coincidentally, also a former

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

player. Parks became the second American and the first import ever inducted into the

on October 9, 2009. Parks was inducted into the University of Memphis' M Club Hall of Fame on September 10, 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Bobby 1961 births 2013 deaths American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in the Philippines Atlanta Hawks draft picks ASEAN Basketball League coaches Basketball players from Tennessee Deaths from lung cancer in the Philippines Deaths from laryngeal cancer Memphis Tigers men's basketball players Mississippi Jets players Pensacola Tornados (1985–86) players People from Grand Junction, Tennessee Sportspeople from the Memphis metropolitan area Philippine Basketball Association All-Stars Philippine Basketball Association imports Rochester Renegade players Rockford Lightning players San Miguel Beermen players Shell Turbo Chargers players American men's basketball players Guards (basketball) United States Basketball League players Stapac Jakarta players 20th-century American sportsmen