40 for 34 # 22 - June 6

A Stylin' Bias

A focus on Len's lifestyle off the court

With a loss to Duke in early February, 1986, Maryland dropped its first six conference games of the season. That tied its worst conference start in history. With Maryland sporting a disappointing 11-10 overall record and 1-6 in the ACC, attention turned to Bias’s life off the court. After all, how often can the media write about his accomplishments on the court before fans might lose interest? It was the same old story: Maryland struggles, but Bias dominates.

A feature in the Washington Post focused on Bias’s talents as a graphic artist and a fashion fanatic. “I’d like to play basketball, model clothes and draw, in that order,” Bias said in the story. Bias proudly wore a new piece of outerwear thought to be a fur coat, but his friends knew it was faux fur. Johnnie Walker, Len's youth coach and mentor, claims Bias bought the coat at a cheap store in Georgetown, where the two ventured frequently to satisfy Bias’s need for stylish clothing.

“He liked silk shirts,” says Walker. “We used to get the silk shirts by the boatload. He was a

clothes horse. He liked being stylish. Leonard wanted to be fashionable. He loved the ladies.”

Jeff Adkins, a Maryland player from 1981 to 1985 who shared a suite with Bias for two years,

remembers Bias as a “neat freak. He always ironed his jeans and his room was spotless.” Bias’s dapper style extended to game time. “On the court he always kept his hair cut and shaped up,” says Brian Waller, his high school teammate. “He always tried to look nice.”

Excerpted from the book,

Born Ready: the Mixed Legacy of Len Bias

Buy autographed copies

as a Father's Day Gift

The audio for this post was narrated by the author,

Dave Ungrady.

And listen to more about Len's early life in Episode 2 of the narrative podcast series, Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy