Jerry Alexander, one of the all-time great basketball players in Drury University history, passed away early Friday in a hospital in Kansas City.

Alexander, who turned 52 on October 7, was the centerpiece of the Drury basketball program from 1975 to 1979.  With "J.D." leading the way, the 1979 Drury team won the NAIA national championship while fashioning a 33-2 record.  The 1978 Panther team was ranked #1 in the nation at the conclusion of the regular season and finished that campaign in the quarterfinal round of the NAIA national tournament with a 29-4 mark.

Alexander, whose retired basketball jersey No. 15 hangs in the rafters at Weiser Gym, came to Drury in the fall of 1975 from Boley, Okla, a small community in the east central part of the state.  Almost immediately the program became a national powerhouse.  In the fall of 1976, with the arrival of his longtime high school friend, Nate Quinn, and other newcomers like James Bone of Chattanooga, Tenn., the program skyrocketed. 

It was the "Boley Connection" that paved the way for Drury to become a uniquely exciting and successful program for a marvelous four-year period.  The Springfield newspaper once ran an article entitled: "Drury No Longer Dull, Boley Has Arrived."  For that four-year period Drury was Springfield's team and Alexander was the most recognizable athlete in Springfield.

"Jerry and I were friends as kids and that continued through our college years and to the present," said Quinn. "J.D. was a great athlete.  He could do anything and he could play most any sport at a very high level.  He also had the enthusiasm that made being a teammate of his fun.  And he had the competitiveness that made you work harder so any team he was on was a winning team.  He was a true friend of mine and a big part of the lives of many who followed him in high school and college.  We all remember his sweet left-handed jump shot and his athletic dunks.  But to those of us who knew him as a person and as a friend feel a void that no basketball memory can totally erase."