Mike Glenn of Bucks Can ‘Talk’ to Deaf

The Milwaukee Bucks were lounging around an airport in New York on a stopover during a recent road trip. A deaf man was also there, trying to sell cards which explained the sign language he uses to communicate.

The man had trouble making himself understood to the players and, like many people confronted with the alien presence of a handicapped person, they shied away from him.

All but Mike Glenn, the nine-year veteran guard who joined the Bucks midway through this season.

Glenn approached him and started “talking” to him in sign language, their fingers wiggling and waggling speedily as they conversed. The rest of the players, intrigued by Glenn, gathered around.

“Hey Mike, what’s he sayin?’ ” asked a teammate.

Glenn told them the man had a wife and two children, worked two jobs and still had trouble making ends meet, which is why he was selling his cards in the airport.

The man told Glenn he was a basketball fan and when he learned they were members of the Bucks, he asked about All-Star guard Sidney Moncrief. He said he hoped the Bucks did well in the playoffs.

“When they found out those things, all of a sudden they felt he was a real person,” Glenn said. “They started saying, ‘Hey, I’ll take one of those, man.’ They patted him on the back, they gave him some money. I had been able to build a bridge between the two sides.”

Bridging that silent gap between the hearing and the deaf is something Glenn, who does not have a hearing problem, has been doing all his life.

His father, Charles Glenn, taught math at the Georgia School for the Deaf for more than 30 years. He was also the basketball coach there for 18 years before retiring two years ago.

“I grew up in the company of deaf kids,” said Glenn. “They really adopted me. They taught me sign language, they took me to the carnival or special events. I grew up as a deaf person that could hear.”

The 30-year-old Glenn, a 6-foot-3 guard now with his fourth NBA team, has never forgotten what deaf people did for him when he was growing up.

To repay them, Glenn has run a basketball camp for deaf kids for several years. He also speaks to deaf groups, as he did recently at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan.

“I didn’t just talk about basketball, although they all want to hear about it,” Glenn said. “I talk to them about life and not to let their deafness put limits on them.”

John Shipman, superintendent at the school, said Glenn’s visit was a very special one.

“There was a tremendous reaction to him,” Shipman said. “There was one little shaver who kept waving and waving until he got to speak. All he wanted to say was how excited he was.”

Shipman said Glenn talked to them about “love, pride and respect, not just basketball.” But he said it meant a lot to the deaf students that a pro athlete understood their problem.

Glenn, who starred at Southern Illinois University, played his rookie season with Buffalo in 1977 and was with the New York Knicks for three years and the Atlanta Hawks four years. He was not re-signed after last season by the Hawks and the Bucks picked him up.

He has been a reserve on a team that is considered a contender for the NBA title, playing in 36 of the team’s first 79 games and averaging 5.9 points in a limited role.

But basketball is not his only interest. He is also a stockbroker in the off-season and works with deaf kids whenever he can.

Glenn started his camp for deaf kids six years ago when he was with the Knicks. For a few years he ran camps in both New York and Atlanta but now only has one camp a year in Atlanta.

“The whole camp is done in sign language and we don’t charge any of the kids,” he said.

Last year about 75 deaf children from 26 states attended the week-long session, including some girls and boys from the Wisconsin School for the Deaf.

He recruits friends from the pros like Tree Rollins, Mitch Kupchak, Mike Gminski and Eddie Johnson and Glenn said they love it.

“These guys are so intrigued with it they keep coming back,” he said. “They’ll develop little friends and go swimming with them. They just take over your hearts.

“The love from these kids is something they can’t get over. Deaf people are more emotional and warmer. They love you more because they are often overlooked.”

Glenn said he teaches the players a few basic things in sign language and “the recognition they get from these kids when they spell their names out on their fingers is fantastic.”

He is quick to point out that basketball is important at the camps.

“Basketball is the main thing. Hey, deaf kids can play as well as anyone else,” he said almost defensively. “Don’t put a limitation on them, in basketball or anything else.”

Deafness does not hurt very much in basketball, said Glenn, except that the players have more trouble communicating on the floor.

“But from being deaf, they gain a better court awareness,” he said. “They know no one’s going to scream, ‘Hey, I’m open.’ They’re more concerned with watching for those things. They learn to see the whole floor and anticipate it.”

Noise and crowd pressure are not a factor for the deaf, Glenn said, and “sign language makes it easy to communicate between coaches and players even during a game.”