Living His Dream 21 Years Later -- At 39, Jerry Citro Returns To Play College Basketball

UPPER MONTCLAIR, N.J. - Losing hurts. Jerry Citro could have given them a dissertation on that. But why would he? He saw their fallen faces. It was time for encouragement, nothing else. Other than being with his wife and baby and playing ball, giving encouragement may be Jerry Citro's favorite thing in the world.

The Montclair State College men's basketball team had lost a 15-point lead and an overtime game to Kean College. The defeat all but crushed Montclair State's postseason chances. And crushed was exactly how his teammates felt.

In the locker room, Citro consoled them. "The easy thing to do now is quit, go through the motions, call it a year," he said. "What takes courage is to keep trying. That's what courage is - giving 100 percent when you feel like quitting."

They listened. Why wouldn't they listen to Jerry Citro? So he's the 15th man on the team. So he has scored one point all year, when Coach Nick DelTufo let him shoot a couple of technicals.

So he's 39 years old.

"Jerry's a role model for most of us," said Lee Mullins, a senior. "Going through the things he's gone through, it gives us all an incentive to be grateful for what we have. I respect him a whole lot, for never giving up."

DelTufo, the coach, is six years younger than Citro. Before the season, Citro told him he would like to try out.

"I'm thinking, `Hey, I'm trying to build a program here, not run a senior-citizen center or a circus,' " DelTufo said. The coach figured Citro would be gone after a day or two of his punishing preseason conditioning.

"Couldn't get rid of the guy," the coach said.

Jerry Citro, No. 40 on the Red Hawks, is a 6-foot-3 forward and probably the oldest college basketball player in the country.

Citro is living a dream. That it has come two decades later than he thought, after The Accident, The Addiction, The Broken Marriage, The Broken Life, The Walk Away From Wealth, well, it only makes it sweeter.

"It's like an untied knot, and I went back and tied it up," Citro said. He smiled. "It's never too late to start over. Never too late."

Basketball was to be Citro's ticket out of the projects of Hoboken, N.J. He was all-county, and earned a scholarship to the University of New Hampshire.

Then came a fall Sunday in 1971, Citro's freshman year. He was returning to school, but missed the bus and decided to hitchhike. It was dark and drizzling. On I-95, near the New Hampshire border, a driver in a car going 70 mph didn't see him. The car smashed into him, shattering his right leg, knocking him 50 feet.

The leg almost had to be amputated. Later, an infection required doctors to remove half his calf muscle. The injury shortened his right leg by 1 1/2 inches. His basketball dream was finished.

Citro's whole identity was built around playing ball. His psyche was as shattered as his leg.

Citro left school, went home and spent the better part of 15 years sinking deeper into despair. How many jobs were there? Fifteen, 20? Citro can't remember.

The problem was alcohol. It was ready-made relief for his inner pain. There were DWI arrests and binges and so much shame.

"I disgraced my family. I lost everything. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't want to die," Citro said.

The downward spiral didn't stop until Sept. 8, 1986, when Citro had his last drink and went into recovery.

Citro beat his dependency and earned his real-estate license when Hoboken was booming. He made $100,000 in one year. He opened his own agency and grossed $150,000. He met Cheryl and they married. He had a nice house, a summer place on the Jersey shore, a Jaguar - more than he'd ever imagined. But he wasn't happy.He finally knew what he wanted: to be a coach.

Citro was accepted at Montclair State. He moved his family, which includes 15-month-old Vincent, nearby last year, and he and Cheryl remodeled their house into a small day-care center. It's their sole source of income.

Last spring, Rob Gilbert, director of sports psychology at Montclair State, frequently saw Citro in the gym, playing pickup games. Gilbert could see how much Citro loved to play. One day, Gilbert said, "Wouldn't it be great if you could play on the school team?"

"Are you crazy?" Citro replied. "Against 18- and 19-year-olds?"

Before long, Citro went for it. He ran for miles, lifted weights and did sprints, pounding his body into shape. Day by day, Citro won the the skeptical players over with his unflagging work ethic.

"I feel very blessed. I pray to God every night to thank him for what I have," Citro said. "I'm getting to do what I truly want to do in life."