Walk-on Thomas brings energy, humor to Irish
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Associate Sports Editor
Saturday afternoon, Charles Thomas will run onto the basketball court for pre-game warm-ups right behind David Graves and ahead of Ryan Humphrey and Harold Swanagan. Before the game, Thomas will be introduced — along with Graves, Humphrey and Swanagan — as one of four seniors playing his final game in the Joyce Center.
There's just one difference between Thomas and the other three seniors.
Graves, Humphrey and Swanagan will play significant minutes in Notre Dame's game against Providence.
Thomas will be lucky if he plays at all.
Does he think he deserves to play? Yes. Does it bother him that he doesn't play? No.
"I think I should play, but it's not something I dwell on," Thomas said. "I just go with the flow. I could play, but it's not going to happen, so I'm not going to worry about it."
In a sport dominated by selfish egotists who often demand playing time or threaten to leave a program, Thomas' quiet confidence is both refreshing and inspiring. He knows he can compete on the court, but he also accepts his limited role during games and does whatever he can in practice to help Notre Dame win.
Notre Dame's only walk-on basketball player is one of the hardest working players on the team. He's one of the quickest players on the Irish. And despite his small stature — Thomas is 6-foot, 164 pounds — he's not afraid to mix it up with big players.
He just doesn't get the chance to do it during a game.
Earlier this season, freshman point guard Chris Thomas played 60 minutes in a quadruple-overtime game against Georgetown — three minutes more than Charles Thomas has played in his entire career. Most walk-ons would moan and gripe if they only played 57 minutes in their four-year college career. Or more appropriately, they'd moan and gripe if they stayed on the team.
But Thomas isn't your typical walk-on. He's one of the most resilient players on Notre Dame's team because he refuses to quit — at anything.
"He's one of the hardest workers on the team, not just on the floor, but off," teammate and good friend Torrian Jones said. "Sometimes I go over to his room to hang out and he's there studying. If I'm not studying there, I'm sitting there silent the whole time."
Studying and basketball are Thomas' two passions. But he makes it crystal-clear which one he really loves.
"Without basketball," Thomas said, "I'd be bored out of my mind."
He came to Notre Dame with the intention of walking on to John MacLeod's team. As soon as he arrived on campus, he began scrimmaging with the team during the early fall and was invited to stay on as a walk-on. The only problem was that Thomas was one of eight walk-ons — and he was by far the smallest player.
"I was thinking there's no way I'd be able to make it. Halfway through, I stopped coming for four days, and I said, `Forget it,'" Thomas said. "But the more I thought about it, I said, `I've got nothing to lose, so I might as well try to see what happens.'"
Even Thomas is surprised he's made it all four years. But he admits there were times when he wanted to cave in and give it all up. Each time a new basketball coach was hired, Thomas worried that he wouldn't want to come back, or worse, that he wouldn't even be invited back.
He only played one game under MacLeod. His second college coach, Matt Doherty, initially made Thomas wonder if he'd even be on the team and then didn't give Thomas the playing time the walk-on thought he deserved.
So when Doherty left to coach at North Carolina and Mike Brey was hired two years ago, Thomas walked into the new coach's office to set the record straight.
"If you ever need me to play, just know that you've got someone that's always going to work hard, give 100 percent all the time, and never be a head case," Thomas told Brey that summer. "If you want me to play, I'll play. If not, then I know that's not my role, and I'll do whatever I have to do to help our guys to win."
"I don't consider you a walk-on," Brey responded. "You're a team member."
There's no division between the lone walk-on and the other 12 players on the team. He's earned the nickname "Chuck," and he and Graves make fun of each other so much that Graves jokes the two will get into a boxing match when the season is over. He's not afraid to give advice to the younger players, and Jones said the walk-on is one of the fiercest competitors he's every played against.
He also earned a scholarship for his final semester at Notre Dame, Brey's way of rewarding Thomas' hard work ethic.
"Chuck's a guy who his practices are his games," Brey said. "He knows that. And he plays that way."
Thomas loves the perks that come with being a member of the Notre Dame basketball team. Students across campus know who he is, even though he has no clue who they may be. And for some reason, people want to play against him in pickup games at the Rock. But he just shakes his head and proceeds to "embarrass" his opponents, as he puts it.
"I take it all as a compliment," he said. "I know I'm doing something a lot of people want to do."
He knows he's a fan favorite, too. When he gets into games, he hears fans telling him to shoot the ball, and he's more than happy to oblige, he laughs.
He's made countless friends with little kids who idolize him, and still chats over Instant Messenger with a fifth-grader he met in basketball camp last summer.
"I didn't think — even when I made the team — I didn't think I'd still be playing as senior," Thomas said. "Especially with me not playing a lot, I didn't know if I could stick it out."
But the player who had trouble believing he would make it to Senior Day four years ago is suddenly finding it very difficult to realize that his college basketball days are nearly over.
He hopes to find some kind of league after he graduates so he can keep playing. He's not sure if he wants to go to graduate school to prepare for a career in the FBI or try to break into the coaching ranks.
But no matter what happens to him, Thomas will probably take it all in stride — just like he's done with his life.
"I'm not a quitter," Thomas said. "Whatever happens, happens."
Contact Andrew Soukup at asoukup@nd.edu.
All Sports Stories for Friday, March 1, 2002
