On a roster as veteran-heavy as the Ducks’ is this season, a freshman has to work pretty hard to see any real action.
Not a problem for redshirt freshman LeKendric Longmire, who by many accounts is one of the hardest working players on the team.
Longmire developed that work ethic early on in life, as he watched his grandfather scrape together enough to support his grandmother, aunt, three cousins and himself on his wage working for a golf ball manufacturing company in rural Catham, Ala.
Longmire was a football player more than a basketball player as a child and excelled first as a quarterback, then as a receiver. He was thrilled when he made his first all-star team, but knew his grandparents didn’t have the money to afford the team uniform.
Longmire’s grandfather managed to scrape together the money and surprised him with the uniform one afternoon after school.
“He was willing to make that sacrifice to allow me to be able to have the things that I needed; maybe not the all the things that I wanted but the things that I needed,” Longmire said. “He was always there cheering me on, always there pushing me to get better and I loved my grandfather for that.”
Longmire had been sent to live with his grandparents at age five when his parents split, and his grandmother, Shirley McKinnis, played a large role in his young life as well. The “Yes, sir,” and “No, sir” that Longmire still replies to questions with is proof of her demand for respect from her boys.
“She’s a very strong woman,” Longmire said of his grandmother. “From day one she has always pushed me to be better than the norm and not to just settle. I think that’s helped me a lot.”
So when Longmire’s grandfather passed away in August, he was sure to be right there to support his grandmother. “Talking to my grandmother and just making sure she got through it helped me a lot,” he said of losing his grandfather. “It held me down for a long time but I’m finally comfortable enough now to where I can talk about it.”
Family encouragement was all around Longmire as a child. The sons of Longmire’s aunt Charlotte Scruggs, Ricky and Arturo, were boyhood idols of his as he watched the older boys excel in sports. They pushed him to get out of Alabama and make something of himself. Longmire’s basketball number, 24, is a tribute to Ricky and Arturo, as their numbers in football and basketball were two and four, respectively.

Back to Mississippi

At the end of Longmire’s fourth-grade year he was visited by his mother, who offered to take him home to Mississippi for the summer. She was married again, and he would have a chance to get to know her, her new husband and his three younger siblings.

“My stepdad, when he found my mom, it was just magical,” said Longmire of the reunion. He spent the summer with his family in Pascagoula, Miss., and never moved back to Alabama.
“I missed my grandma and my older cousins but I think it was the best thing for me,” he said. “I met my stepdaddy and from the time I got there he started working with me on basketball.”
His shift from football to basketball came at the urging of his stepfather, Victor Thompson, who wanted him to pick a sport and focus in on it. There wasn’t any money to send him to college, and Thompson thought his stepson’s best chance to get a scholarship was to excel at one sport. Longmire chose basketball, and the two went to work on his game.
“I always respected him. I think the reason I have discipline now is because he’s retired military so he instilled that discipline in me,” Longmire said. “It’s safe to say if I never met him I don’t think I would be where I am today, so I appreciate him for everything he’s done for me.”

Earning his minutes

As this season has progressed, Longmire has seen more and more playing time as his hard work and energy on the floor have caught the attention of his coaches. His minutes have gone steadily up over the last two weeks of the Pac-10 season, culminating in a career-high 14 points in 19 minutes off the bench in the Ducks 80-68 win over the Beavers last week in Corvallis.
“We don’t win that game without his performance because he played very, very well,” said Oregon coach Ernie Kent. Longmire followed that up with eight points, a steal and a rebound in 16 minutes Thursday night in a 67-61 win over Arizona State.
“Anything comes off that bench playing that well is going to help us down the stretch right now,” Kent said.
The energy that he brings to the floor is invaluable, as he acts as a sparkplug for his teammates when he comes into games, Kent said.
“LeKendric is a great energy guy. He’s somebody that just plays hard all the time,” said senior guard Bryce Taylor. “He’s showing he has a bright future here.”
And if that future holds a college degree for Longmire, he’ll be the first in his family to achieve it. He said that he holds himself responsible to set that example for his younger siblings.
“I always wanted to set a high standard for them,” Longmire said. “To show them if they want to succeed in the world, if they worked hard enough they could do it.”
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