In a 2022 interview, Williams said he still heard regularly from Walker, adding: “The only thing that interests him is why the Bulls will never retire his No. 25. He’ll say, ‘You and I helped save Chicago basketball.'” They already pulled Bob Love’s number and Jerry Sloan’s number, so why didn’t they pull Chet’s number?
Chester Walker was born on February 22, 1940, in Bethlehem, Miss., the youngest of John and Regina Walker’s ten children. His family owned a small cotton farm, which Walker worked until his mother, after losing her daughter in 1950 to tuberculosis and suffering physical abuse from her husband, moved with her young children to Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Experiencing integration for the first time, Walker starred at Benton Harbor High School and earned a scholarship to Bradley University, where he was a two-time consensus All-America selection, averaging 24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds over three seasons. Nicknamed “Chet the Jet”, he was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals in the second round, made the NBA’s All-Rookie Team and moved to Philadelphia with the franchise in 1963. He finished his career averaging 18.2 points and 7.1 rebounds.
Information about Walker’s survivors was not immediately available.
Walker’s mentor in the film industry and connection to Hollywood was producer Zev Brown, a neighbor in Chicago. Brown was executive producer of Walker’s first production, 1979’s “Freedom Road,” a television miniseries about a former slave who rises to the U.S. Senate during Reconstruction. The series is based on the 1944 novel by Howard Fast, and stars Muhammad Ali and Kris Kristofferson.
Walker’s 1989 television series, “Mother Courage,” co-produced with Richard L. O’Connor, won an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Children’s Program category. Starring Alfre Woodard, the film is based on the life of Mary Thomas, a single mother who struggled to protect her nine children on Chicago’s poor West Side, and whose youngest, Isiah, became one of the NBA’s most prolific guards.
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