By Chris Cook
LongwoodLancers.com
 
Jerome Kersey was many things to many people. To NBA fans in the 1980s and 90s, he was a high-flying rim-rocker whose relentlessness on the court earned him the nickname "No Mercy Kersey."
 
To people in the Portland community, he was a philanthropist, a contributor to many charities and initiatives who was selfless with his time and money both during his playing days and after retirement.
 
To Longwood fans, he was one of the greatest athletes to ever walk the campus, a small-town-star-turned-NBA-sensation whom all Lancers, past and present, can still proudly recognize and say, "He went to my school."
 
To long-time friend and fellow Lancer Kevin Brandon '82, Kersey was all those things and more. Brandon spent decades at Kersey's side during a lifelong friendship that began at Longwood and blossomed throughout their different, yet intertwined careers.
 
Now, approximately two years after Kersey unexpectedly passed away at age 52, Brandon is furthering the legacy of his long-time friend through the establishment of the Jerome Kersey Men's Basketball Scholarship.
 
"Jerome deserves this because he helped people, and he helped me," said Brandon, who accepted the William Henry Ruffner Alumni Award on Kersey's behalf in 2015 and returned to campus again this past December when Longwood's home court in Willett Hall was named in Kersey's honor.

"He has done incredible things for my wife and me, for other people that I don't even know of.  Everything lined up perfectly to where setting up this scholarship in his name was so right. I want to keep Jerome's legacy alive."

The scholarship will be awarded annually to a men's basketball player who embodies Kersey's drive and dedication on both the hardwood and in the classroom.
 
"I wanted it to be for a student like Jerome that worked hard to play ball and worked hard to stay in school," Brandon said. "Not necessarily based on one or the other, but a combination of the two. Work hard in the classroom, and work hard on the court – that was Jerome."
 
The bond Kevin and Kersey formed began in the early 1980s when they were two of the few men on Longwood's newly integrated co-ed campus. Brandon, two years ahead of Kersey, graduated in 1982 as a therapeutic recreation major, but their friendship continued well after their Longwood days. Kersey went on to get drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1984, and he brought Brandon along for the ride.
 
"We talked every day," Brandon said. "I was in Portland two or three times a year. Jerome would call me at the spur of the moment and say, 'I want you to meet me here,' and I'd go see him. I'd go out there for his birthday parties, I'd go out there for basketball games, or meet him somewhere on the road. Even when they were playing Washington, Jerome would come to my house the night before the game and sleep on the floor because I didn't have a bed long enough for him."
 
While at Kersey's side, Brandon got a taste of the spotlight that followed Kersey throughout his 17-year NBA career, even as Kersey spent the bulk of his career shrugging off that fame and the perks that came with it.
 
"We would go places, and we knew we could get access without having to wait in line, but Jerome wouldn't do it," Brandon said. "We knew we could have our cars parked in certain areas, and he wouldn't do it. He just refused to put himself in front of anybody else because that's the way he was raised."
 
But despite the prime seats at Veteran Memorial Coliseum, and the face-time with NBA Hall-of-Famers, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal, the moments that defined Brandon and Kersey's friendship came away from the crowds and the stadium lights. That's where, Brandon says,  Kersey shined the brightest.
 
"He was so down to earth. It was incredible. We spent incredible time together," Brandon said.
 
"When I left Longwood, I worked at a rehab hospital in Washington, D.C., the Hospital for Sick Children, and I dealt with a lot of disabled children. Jerome was in the NBA, but every year they played Washington, he would go and do a tour of the hospital. He would visit the kids and the staff. He would be there just to hug them. I'm talking about extremely disabled children that I worked with for about 10 years. Jerome donated quite a bit of money to the hospital to start a playground in the backyard for the kids."
 
Brandon still tears up when he recalls Kersey, still unsettled by the premature death of a person whose spirit he called one-of-a-kind.
 
"He just had a heart of gold," Brandon said. "Jerome was ferocious on the basketball court, but his spirit was just as soft. We'd be walking down the street after going to a party and see homeless people. Jerome would do whatever he could. That's just how he was wired."
 

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