Former All-American Dean Church calls his ex-coach, the late Beryl Shipley, someone who was "a friend for life."

"It wasn’t ‘After you’re finished playing, it’s all over,’ " said Church, who was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 10th round of the 1965 NBA Draft, after playing for Shipley at what was then USL. "He stayed in touch with all of his players, for a lifetime."

There was one, whoever, who got away.

Until this week, that is.

Roy Ebron, a 6-foot-9 center then from Norfolk, Va., didn’t always see eye-to-eye to Shipley.

They at times argued about this and that, even over facial hair.

Ebron, according to former Cajuns radio announcer Ron Gomez’s 2007 book Slam Dunked, grew a beard during the week or so after then-USL’s 1973 NCAA Tournament win over the University of Houston.

That was in violation of Shipley’s strict team rules, and it led to Ebron being benched for the start of a season-ending tournament loss to Kansas State that denied the team a shot at John Wooden’s highly regarded UCLA Bruins and their star center, Bill Walton.

When the NCAA subsequently shut down Shipley’s program for recruiting and rules violations, Ebron — seen earlier this week autographing a 1972 Sports Illustrated magazine issue that had his picture on its cover — went on to play one season with the old ABA’s Utah Stars.

But he never did return to Lafayette for functions like a 2001 reunion of ex-Shipley players, another reunion held last January or even the memorial service held after Shipley passed last April.

Not everyone knew why Ebron did not show.

But he did.

"Nobody knew were I was," Ebron said. "They couldn’t find me. I was moving too fast.

"I didn’t find out about Beryl (dying)," he added, "until the day of his memorial."

Eventually, though, former teammate Steve Caldwell caught up with Ebron.

It turns out that for the last few years he wasn’t far away at all, now living in St. Rose, near New Orleans.

When he heard about festivities this week honoring Shipley — a special viewing of the still-being-produced documentary "Lights Out In Blackham" on Wednesday, the three-day Beryl Shipley Classic college basketball tournament at the Cajundome — he decided to come.

"I saw (Caldwell)," Ebron said, "and finally realized what this was all about, and everything that was going on."

Getting here, however, took some doing.

Ebron is not in the greatest of health; the once-proficient shot-blocker no longer moves nearly as quickly as back in the day.

Earlier this week he had a cast removed from his leg that he said he had on for about two years, making Wednesday the first time he had walked without it in that lengthy span.

But he sincerely wanted to be on hand, chiefly, Ebron said while picking at a plate of party food Wednesday, "to pay respects to a real man."

"I wish I could have gotten back before this happened to him — let’s just say ‘to tell him I respected him,’ " he said.

"We never resolved everything," Ebron said.

"But we knew enough — just between him and I — of what he had to do to me, and what I had to do to you, so we all made it.’

Athletic Network Footnote:

Click here for the Beryl Shipley Tribute Gala.

Click here for the Tribute to Coach Beryl Shipley.