CincySportsWorld.com Gateway To SW Ohio & N. Kentucky
Sports & Competitions
Photo by Tony Tribble
Gary Lumpkin: Peaceful In Cincinnati
By SAM WILSON
When his basketball career at Xavier ended in 1999, Gary Lumpkin went to play professionally in Finland.
“They like saunas, beer and lunchmeats,” he said. “That’s all I remember, a lot of bologna and ham. Food was very different, I think one time they had raw fish. So, it was kind of different.”
Despite the cultural differences, Lumpkin looks back positively on the two seasons he spent playing in Finland and France.
“If I had to do it again, I would have played longer,” Lumpkin said. “But it was a really good experience. I learned a lot, got to see a different part of the world that I had never seen before. It was really good.”
But after two seasons overseas, Lumpkin came back to Cincinnati and got married. He now has three children, lives in Forest Park, and works as an underwriter for Cincinnati Financial.
“I’m thankful for the job, but that’s not my kind of job,” Lumpkin said. “I like being interactive with things like this, basketball and coaching.”
Since returning to Cincinnati, Lumpkin spent a season as the junior varsity boys basketball coach at Summit Country Day School. He also was a varsity assistant at Northwest High School. He is not currently involved in coaching, but is hoping to begin teaching private basketball lessons to young players at Courts for Sports in Mason.
In addition to being an underwriter, husband, father and potential basketball instructor, Lumpkin also serves as minister of music at Peace Baptist Church.
“I’m at a good church, I’m still a musician and I’m over 3 or 4 choirs,” Lumpkin said. “My goal one day is just to be able to do full-time ministry and basketball.”
Lumpkin has been in his position at Peace Baptist for a year and a half. He had previously served as a guest musician there during the Palm Sunday program.
“I tell you everybody was just blown away,” church and choir member Kenneth Barber said. “Like, ‘my goodness, this young man is just an awesome musician.’ So of course, once you got a chance to meet him, he had a great personality. And I tell you, when we found out there was a possibility that he and his family were thinking about coming here, we were like, ‘My goodness, this is a blessing from God.’”
In the year and a half that Lumpkin has been at the church, he has gotten to become friends with Barber, especially as their wives became closer friends. On one occasion, the four went out to dinner at a restaurant with live jazz music.
“I said, ‘Wow Gary, wouldn’t you love to get up there and play with them?’” Barber said. “And he said, ‘No, I asked God, if you ever allow me Lord to play the way I want to play, I’ll only use my gift to glorify you.’”
Lumpkin remembers that night.
“From (when he was) a young child, I’ve always played gospel music,” Lumpkin said. “So I made a vow to God that as long as he blessed me with the talent, I wouldn’t play any other music but gospel. Not that I don’t know how to play that music, but I always vowed to him that I would stay focused on what he’s blessed me with and I would keep it in the function of the church.”
Peace Baptist member Wanda Gibson met Lumpkin more than a decade ago through his wife, Caley, when the pair had started dating.
“Gary’s light just shines,” Gibson said. “And it definitely shines from the moment you meet him. You know he’s very well-mannered, he was a very well-mannered young man, he was very focused.”
On Tuesday nights, Gibson and Barber join other members of the church for a choir practice led by Lumpkin. Lumpkin has the choir sing portions of the song repeatedly until it sounds exactly right. Lumpkin is quick to chime in with the way a phrase needs to sound. Lumpkin provides the accompaniment to the music on the keyboard.
“His passion actually is drums,” Gibson said. “Nobody knew that, but that’s actually his passion, he plays the drums extremely well. But you wouldn’t know that by the keyboard.”
Lumpkin often has the choir repeat the same line of a song more than 10 times. When he says, ‘one more time,’ he is met with skeptical looks from his members. They are often correct, as one more time turns into three or four in an attempt to get the music exactly correct.
Gibson said one of Lumpkin’s talents is his ear for music beyond just reading notes. Gibson recently celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary. She envisioned a song for the event, but didn’t formally write it.
“I just wrote this song in my head, the words and how I wanted it to sound,” she said. “And he just started playing it. So, we rehearsed it like twice.”
On weekends this summer, Lumpkin is playing in The Deveroes Summer Basketball League for Game Day Communications. As of June 30, the team is the only squad in The League that remains undefeated.
“Every now and then I play in my company league at work,” he said. “That just gets me some exercise, it’s not really good competition. But playing here is where I get a lot of my fine-tuning and a stuff and hopefully get back into playing again regularly.”
Lumpkin hadn’t played basketball on that level in five years before rejoining The League this summer. So he considers calling himself a little out of shape an understatement.
“If you don’t play for five years in this kind of league and come back and play, it can be rough,” he said. “And it was rough today.”
Lumpkin sees more basketball and church in his future.
“I don’t see myself 20 years from now being an underwriter,” he said.
He hopes his faith in God will help him make the change.
“By a lot of prayer,” he said. “A lot of prayer and just doing what I do, going out there and networking, trying to stay up on some skills.”
Photo by Tony Tribble
