Recasner Wants to Know: Where's No. 40?
Eldridge Recasner, former Washington standout basketball guard, doesn't have much to complain about.
He was a three-time All-Pac-10 selection for the Huskies, an NBA player for five teams, somebody who lived his dream. You can hear him on the Pac-12 Network basketball network, doing game commentary.
He's normally an agreeable guy--until he looks up at the rafters in Alaska Airlines Arena.
At the numbers hanging in retirement: 2, 3 and 25 for UW men's basketball. Thomas, Roy, Houbregs.
According to Recasner, there's one missing: 40.
That belonged to Christian Welp, a highly decorated Huskies center from 1984 to 1987. Still the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,073 points, with nobody close. Somebody who drew double-teams.
The 7-footer from Germany was a three-time All-Pac-10 player himself, plus the league's player of the year as a junior in 1986.
He helped advance the Huskies to three NCAA tournament appearances and an NIT berth, so good that agents hounded him all weekend through the 1987 Pac-10 tournament at UCLA, offering him stuff.
I know this because one of those guys interrupted my interview with Christian in, believe or not, a Pauley Pavilion locker room. The guy gave me his business card. The big center told him to get lost.
Welp was a first-round draft pick for the Philadelphia 76ers and spent three seasons in the NBA until he slipped on a wet floor and injured his knee, which never really recovered.
Yet No. 40 remains tucked away. Nobody wears it now. Nobody should. It should be part of the overhead display.
"It still puzzles me why his number isn't up there," Recasner said. "Sometimes I think guys fall through the loophole. Christian Welp is one of those who should have his number retired."
Sadly, Welp died in 2015, just 51. He has two sons, with Collin, a 6-foot-9 forward, now playing for UC-Irvine. He wears No. 40.
Recasner will keep stumping the UW on behalf of his ex-teammate, hoping history is not forgotten, rather that it rights itself.