Drexel University Athletics
Through Jaelen Strong, Memory of Late Drexel Great John Rankin Lives On
12/5/2016 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By: Kevin Rossi
PHOTO GALLERY: John Rankin
PHILADELPHIA – Cancer has a way of making even the strongest among us seem like mere mortals.
That's why Houston Texans wide receiver Jaelen Strong honored his father with a message on his cleats during Sunday's game against the Green Bay Packers. His father, of course, being the late, great Drexel men's basketball forward John Rankin.
As part of the NFL's #MyCauseMyCleats campaign this past weekend that allowed players to wear custom cleats for the cause of their choice, Strong chose to recognize and raise money for the American Cancer Society. His cleats featured his father's name, the date of his father's death (04/04/03) and the orange bow symbol for leukemia. Rankin died at age 34 when Strong was just nine years old.
"To get these cleats made means a lot," Strong, now 22, told the Texans' official website. "It's a good thing the NFL is letting us do this.
"He was at most of my games. I started playing football when I was six so he got to see a couple of years of it."
Jaelen Strong's cleats have his father's name and date he passed away from leukemia. Strong was 9 years old, his dad 34. #MyCauseMyCleats pic.twitter.com/FRmEDcozmi
— Deepi Sidhu (@DeepSlant) November 30, 2016
Strong, who is in his second professional season with the Texans, has been limited this season with an ankle injury but has managed to catch 14 passes for 131 yards. A third-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft out of Arizona State, it's hard not to see a bit of Rankin in his play. Strong has the frame, the motor and the supreme athleticism, traits that so many remember in his father. The two came through the same West Catholic High School in Philadelphia en route to cementing their respective legacies.
West Catholic was where Rankin's legacy began, on his way to becoming one of the top high school players in the basketball-crazed city. His journey would lead him fewer than a dozen blocks down Chestnut Street to Drexel where he played for longtime head coach Eddie Burke, beginning in 1985. That season, Rankin's freshman year, the Dragons would make their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance behind the play of Rankin and Drexel's all-time leading scorer Michael Anderson.
In the tournament, Drexel found itself as a 15 seed in a first-round matchup on March 13 in Ogden, Utah against a powerhouse second-seeded Louisville team that featured Billy Thompson and Pervis Ellison. The Dragons played the Cardinals close and found themselves down by only six at the half. Louisville, however, would pull away down the stretch, but not before Rankin finished with a team-leading 19 points and six rebounds for Drexel to outplay the Cardinals' highly touted freshman, Ellison, who finished with 11 points. Louisville would go on to win the national championship.
Although the 1985-86 season would be his only NCAA Tournament appearance, Rankin's name can still be found all over the Drexel record book. Rankin is still the only player in Drexel history to score at least 400 points in each of his four seasons on campus – a feat that not even Anderson or Malik Rose accomplished. He ranks second all-time in Drexel history in scoring (2,111), second in scoring average (19.19), first in field goals made (854), fourth in rebounding (886) and fourth in blocks (207). He was inducted into the Drexel Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004 and named to the school's all-millennium team. Those around Drexel who had the chance to see him play remember his complete game, his ability to bang around in the middle but also step out and knock down a left-handed jump shot or use his touch off the glass.
"Certainly he embodied all of the traits of a leader, of a protector," Rankin's former teammate Michael Thompson, a former Drexel great in his own right, told DrexelDragons.com. "He was a great player. He scored over 2,000 points and definitely was a workhorse for us. He led by example and played with a lot of passion and energy."
His impact, though, would be felt off the court as well. Thompson, who began his career at Drexel just as Rankin was concluding his, remembers still how Rankin immediately took him under his wing.
"I was a freshman when John was a senior, and John was like an older brother to me," Thompson said. "I remember when my dad dropped me off to school, and he looked at John and another senior, Jimmie Parker, he told those guys, 'Make sure you take care of my boy.'
"John without hesitation said, 'Without a doubt, Mr. Thompson.'"
That was just the kind of guy Rankin was. After his Drexel career came to an end, Rankin went on to become one of the most well-regarded detectives in the city, a familiar and comforting face around the West Philly area.
"John was an intense personality both on and off the court," Thompson said. "Certainly when he pursued civil service as law enforcement, protecting and serving civilians, it was of no surprise to any of our teammates that John pursued that career because really that represented who John was as a person."
Following their respective graduations from Drexel, Rankin and Thompson attended each other's weddings, and Thompson visited his former teammate in the hospital when Rankin fell ill. The two remained close friends until Rankin's untimely death on April 4, 2003 after a battle with leukemia.
"It took a toll on me," Strong told AZ Central back in 2013 of his father's death. "My mom was trying to be strong, but just not having him around, not seeing him at my games, it was weird. It bothers me to this day."
While Thompson has never met Strong in person, he did reach out a few years back. A friend of Thompson's had a son who was a teammate of Strong's at Arizona State. Through his friend, Thompson sent along photos of Rankin he had saved from his time at Drexel.
"I thought it would be cathartic for him to see some pictures of his dad from Drexel and help him get through a loss that you never grow accustomed to," Thompson said. "He was probably too young to comprehend that kind of loss."
On Sunday, Rankin's legacy lived on through Strong's tribute, joining the Strong's every-day tribute with his father's name tattooed across his chest. When Strong gets back on the field, Rankin's legacy of athletic prowess will again be on display.
But pieces of Rankin and the Drexel teams of the mid- to late-1980s can be found on the corner of 34th and Market as well. Thompson hears it in the way first year Drexel head coach Zach Spiker talks about building the program.
"We had a vintage basketball team in that we were very skilled, very coachable and very passionate about our craft," Thompson said. "I think if there are any hallmarks that we had that we could transfer to this generation of Drexel basketball it would be the unbridled energy and enthusiasm and passion for what we did every day.
"And that was play the game of basketball."
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