Former WVU basketball player Willie Akers, left, was one of the athletes who found a home with Ann Dinardi, center, who might be the subject of an upcoming film.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After leaving West Virginia University as a freshman to play in the pros, basketball player Rod “Hot Rod” Hundley wanted to return and needed a place to stay. Athletic Director Red Brown had to find Hundley housing in order to get him enrolled and game eligible.
Brown ended up placing Hundley with Ann Dinardi, owner of a Morgantown pharmacy, Moore & Parriott, who lived next door to the Field House that accommodated the basketball program.
Thus began a tradition in which Dinardi — a 1931 graduate of the WVU School of Pharmacy — took in not only Hundley but also a who’s who of WVU basketball players that also included Jerry West, Willie Akers and dozens more. She gave them not only a roof over their heads and food to eat but also the motherly guidance that many of the men credit with shepherding them to outstanding careers in the NBA as well as successful lives.
“She was a major character,” said Sharon Lee, a Morgantown native who now lives in the Los Angeles area. “My father used to call her ‘the maitre d’ of Morgantown,’ because she knew everyone. Going into Moore & Parriott was similar to going into ‘Cheers,’ and she was the Sam Malone.”
Like the fictional Sam Malone from the long-running NBC TV series, Dinardi’s story might be turned into a celluloid production, albeit one for the big screen.
Lee and her producing partner, Teri Fettis D’Ovidio, have traveled to West Virginia this week to drum up support for a film that has the working title of “Hurricane Ann,” which they liken to a feel-good “The Blind Side” meets “Hoosiers” type of project.
“What our movie is about is (Brown) goes to Ann Dinardi and asks if she knows anybody who would be willing to take this boy on a short-term basis so he can enroll in class, and it was the future of the WVU basketball team,” Lee said.
Hundley and West went on to play for the Los Angeles Lakers under coach Fred Schaus, who also had helmed the WVU team while they were there. West also co-captained the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal basketball team and eventually served as the Lakers’ general manager, signing both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
According to Lee, both men credit Dinardi’s help and maternal love for how well they ended up doing in life…
