COLLEGE BASKETBALL NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Oh, Baby, Can He Play : For Western Kentucky’s Bell, the Youngest of 17 and Father of Two, It’s Always a Family Affair

Some are suggesting that Mark Bell, a 5-foot-8 guard for Western Kentucky, has helped put his extended family--including 16 brothers and sisters, 48 nephews and nieces and 15 great nephews and nieces--on the map.

That simply would not be true.

Belltown in Marion County, Ky., was named in honor of Mary Durham Bell’s brood some time ago.

It is simply the nature of the NCAA tournament that the rest of the sports-crazed country has discovered Bell and his life as the youngest of 17. Bell would tell you 18 because he has a stepsister, Kathy Jo.

And the matriarch of this clan, Mary, reminds people there were 21 children in all from two fathers. Four died before Mark was born.

“It’s pretty special growing up in a large family,” Bell said Wednesday, a day before his Hilltoppers face Florida State in the Southeast Regional semifinals at the Charlotte Arena.

“Everywhere you go, you have support. Thank God for it.”

Bell will have his own cheering section for tonight’s game. At least a dozen family members are expected to attend.

They have reason to be so proud of their youngest brother. Bell, 22, married with two children, is on schedule to be the first of the Bells to graduate. He and his wife Dacia are earning degrees in physical education.

And since leading Western Kentucky to victories over Memphis State, 55-52, and Seton Hall, 72-68, last

weekend, Bell has been thrust into prominence.

“I’ve been fighting for attention all my life,” he told reporters in Orlando after making two free throws with 31 seconds left to beat Memphis State.

Some in the family might disagree.

“Oh, he’s the spoiled one,” said Sheila Pitts, 36, of Louisville. “He was babied. He enjoyed the attention.”

Although 30 years separates the oldest, Shirley Henderson of Louisville, from Mark, the family is inseparable. All the children but Mark live in Louisville, Indianapolis or Lebanon, Ky. They counted on each other as children, and continue to do so today.

Mary, 69, a widow twice over, said she needed everyone’s cooperation to survive each day.

“The older ones did the baby-sitting and the younger ones did the chores,” Pitts said.

Remarkably, none of the siblings are twins or triplets.

One right after the other, Mary said.

“It’s been hard at times,” Mary told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I never believed in birth control and I still don’t.”

By the time Mark arrived, Tony was 7, Clemon 9, Tricia 10, David 11, Sheila 13, Bridgette 16, Brenda 17 and the rest adults.

With so many hungry faces and no husband to support her, Mary worked as a cook at Spalding College in Louisville. She finally retired last December.

“I always provided,” Mary said. “They never was hungry. They had a place to sleep.”

And there never was time for boredom. With so much commotion around the household, young Mark was game to join in. Although some of the other boys played sports recreationally, none took them as seriously as Mark.

Mary recalled that her baby tried to dribble a green tennis ball when he was crawling. The older kids found it amusing when the boys made a “basketball court” in the house.

They attached a laundry hanger to a door, and Mark rolled his socks to make a soft ball.

“I said, ‘Mark, don’t do that,’ ” Mary said.

“He said, ‘Oh, Mama, someday you going to be happy I’m playing basketball.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, I know it. You just telling me that now.’

“He said, ‘Yes, I am. I’m going all the way through playing basketball.’ ”

By the time Bell was playing in high school, the family realized his intentions. Bell helped lead Louisville Ballard High to the 1988 state championship.

But the diminutive Bell was not Ballard’s player of distinction. That honor went to Alan Houston, who went to Tennessee. Bell attended Barton County Community College in Kansas.

When Coach Ralph Willard of the Hilltoppers called, Bell was more than happy to return home.

Willard knew Bell could play, but he wanted to know more about his prize recruit. So he asked Ballard Coach Scotty Davenport.

“He said he had great character and played with a lot of heart,” Davenport told the Courier-Journal.

“Mark just has an unbelievable desire to win. He is just one of those rare kids who give you everything he has.”

Perhaps that can be traced to his lack of height. But more likely, it is his upbringing.

Bell said his biggest childhood memory was having to repeat the seventh grade.

“Not because I failed, but because my brother John jumped all over me, and told me I have the ability,” Bell said. “Somebody needed to do that.”

Chances are, someone would have sooner or later. Pitts said the Bell sisters and brothers consider it their duty to offer advice--even about Mark’s play.

“He listens to everyone,” she said. “But he makes his own decisions.”

Well, most of the time. Mark’s older son, Mark Jr., is 5, and is at the age where he has something to say. The younger son, Isiah, is 2 months old. And Dacia knows more about basketball than any of Mark’s family. She also played at Barton College, where they met.

“I stay focused on him,” she said. “Like (during a) scrimmage, I told him he needs to penetrate more.”

At 5-8, Bell has found it easier to shoot from beyond the three-point line. He was the Sun Belt Conference’s most accurate long-range shooter, and averaged 16.8 points a game. He also was sixth in the conference in assists at 3.9 a game.

But the statistics are not as important as the leadership Bell brings to the Hilltoppers. That comes from his mother.

“She’s a very strong woman and it rubs off on all of us,” Bell said.

Although Bell missed many of the trying times, he has heard the stories. Mary and Henry Louis Bell’s first child died during childbirth. Another boy was a victim of crib death when he was 2 months old. A daughter died at 2 during a house fire, one of three the family has survived.

“I was sick in bed with a fever,” Mary told the Courier-Journal. “I had sent two of her sisters out to get ice and the coal stove blew up. I heard her hollering, but I couldn’t get to her. She couldn’t open the door.”

A fourth child died in the mid-1970s of a gunshot wound.

Mary’s first husband, Henry Bell, died of a heart attack. Mark’s father, Clemon Durham, died of cancer when Bell was a high school sophomore. Mark was given the Bell name because he was born before his parents were married.

He would not want it any other way. After all, he is a product of the Bells’ toils.