Rebound for Washington

Everything about Kermit Washington suggests All-America. His surname aside, he was born in the nation's capital, attends American University, dates a cheerleader, plays basketball in a red, white and blue uniform, scores 20 points a game and, to the surprise of everybody, leads the country in rebounding.

Unfortunately, Washington also leads the country in obscurity. Having played but a year in high school, he was the consummate sleeper, which explains why American, almost as unknown as he was, got him, Few other schools even tried.

As a sophomore last year, the 6'8" center finished second in the nation in rebounding, sandwiched anonymously between the statistics of Artis Gilmore and Julius Erving. In one game he grabbed more rebounds than the entire opposing team, and he is working more magic this season. He got 30 points and 23 rebounds in an overtime loss at St. John's and made such an unbelievable dunk at King's College that a pair of stunned referees allowed the basket.

"Kermit can make two or three successive leaps in the time a normal player is able to jump once," says his coach Tom Young. "He keeps the ball alive with both hands and looks like a man playing volleyball on a trampoline." He is, in other words, the center of the American revolution, Leastwise, that's what they say in—and of—Washington, by George.