Sunday, March 18, 2001
Catching up with Rick Apke
Ex-Elder star a rare champion
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rick Apke played on Elder's state championship teams in 1973 and'74.
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Rick Apke grew up in a basketball family. He starred at Elder and at Creighton University, where he played for his older brother, Tom. Apke, however, doesn't expect the legacy to continue with his sons, Luke and Paul.
Apke settled in Denver, where he practices internal medicine.
“They play ice hockey,” he said. “When they were looking for another sport, it happened to be the time the Avalanche had moved to Denver from Quebec. They were already playing street hockey. So that's what they wanted to do.”
Luke, his 12-year-old, gave basketball a try.
“He played for a team I coached,” Rick said. “After the season, he said he didn't want to play basketball anymore.”
That's OK with Rick. But if the kids had grown up in Price Hill, like Rick, they probably would be playing basketball. Rick was the third Apke brother to play at Elder.
He was a starter on varsity by his junior season. That gave him and teammate Bill Early a distinction no other Cincinnati high school basketball players can claim: They started on back-to-back state championship teams.
That's a rare thing. No team, local or otherwise, has repeated as big-school state champion since Elder did it in 1973 and '74.
“I didn't realize that,” Apke said. “But it doesn't surprise me. We were the first Triple-A team to win from Cincinnati. It's pretty hard, because at the big schools, you don't have a lot of sophomores and juniors who play.”
Apke and Early started along with Steve Grote and the Miller brothers, George and Henry, on the 1973 title team. They won in 1974 with a different cast around them.
“We were fortunate to have three seniors and three juniors (in '73),” Apke said. “So we had some continuity.”
Elder did not win the Greater Cincinnati League title either of those years; LaSalle did.
“We got on a roll at the right time,” Apke said.
Apke, a 6-foot-7 center, averaged 16.8 points and 12.2 rebounds a game as a senior. He was named The Enquirer player of the year. He turned down offers from bigger schools to play at Creighton for his brother.
Apke started four years at Creighton. The highlight came his senior year when the Blue Jays beat Indiana State and Larry Bird on Apke's 17-foot jumper at the buzzer to the win Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and earn an NCAA bid.
Apke was drafted by the Detroit Pistons.
“I got accepted to medical school at Creighton around the same time,” he said. “I had to decide between basketball and medicine. I eventually decided on medicine.”
He settled in Denver after completing his residency there.
He continued to play some serious basketball on the side.
“Denver has a good pro-am league,” he said. “I was playing in an NCAA-sanctioned league until I was 38. Then my ego forced me to give it up.”
Apke tried an over-40 league until a torn meniscus — suffered skiing — forced him to give it up.
Apke gets back to Cincinnati occasionally. He has three siblings in town. He also came back when Elder's state championship teams were honored.
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Catching up with Rick Apke
