Howard W. Wade Obituary (1956 - 2016)

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Howard will go down as one of the great Warriors, his battles with NBA great Bill Cartright of Elk Grove High School were awesome when the two schools met. Howard was also a pretty good 1st baseman in Babe Ruth with his bat, speed and glove work at 1st base. Had he gone out for baseball at Hiram Johnson he probably would have been drafted to play pro ball. As for Howard's basketball career and playing at a higher level, I may have caused him to shorten his career. I was in a bad motorcycle accident with Steve Wright- 73' HJHS Grad and was up at our ranch in Omo Ranch, CA rehabbing from the accident when Howard and Gary Court (not sure of his last name spelling) came rolling up our driveway to visit me on Gary's LITTLE Honda. I was rolling when I saw Howard on the back of Gary's bike, with Howard's big feet almost dragging on the pavement. While at the ranch, Howard asked if he could ride one of our horses. The three of us went down to the corral, with me on crutches and a cast on my left leg clear up to my butt. As I struggled to I a halter with a lead rope on an OLD mare that we had Howard jumps on the mares back with no riding saddle and starts kicking the mare, but she wouldn't move so I tapped her gently on hindquarters with a crutch and she took off like a bat out of hell with Howard screaming for help. When the mare ran into the barn, she bucked Howard off onto some hay bales we stored in the barn. When Gary and I finally got to Howard he was laughing and said he was done cowboying. A little later when they got ready to leave Howard mentioned that his knee hurt and he may have injured it when he got bucked off the horse. My mom told Howard to get it x-rayed and that she would pay for everything, but Howard said no, it was his fault that he got hurt and that he should have waited to put a saddle on the horse. A few weeks later Howard ended up having surgery on his injured knee and was never the same at any sport he played. When we would see each other from time to time after his surgery, we would always laugh about he cowboy skills, but he never once put the blame on me. Howard and I lost touch with each other in the mid 70's and it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I had heard he passed away, way too young. RIP my friend...............Frank Stone