Jerry Fort beamed with pride in February as he watched Nebraska — his alma mater — slay the great Michael Beasley and Kansas State on ESPN2.

Fort, the third-leading scorer in Husker basketball history, fired off a congratulatory e-mail to the NU hoops office the next day.

Thus ensued some overdue communication between Nebraska and Fort, now an insurance executive in suburban Hartford, Conn. After receiving the e-mail, NU officials in turn began the process of contacting Fort about returning to Lincoln for the 2008 Doc Sadler Golf Classic, to be held today at Hillcrest Country Club.

Roger Brown, vice president of the Rebounders Club booster organization, was persistent in his phone calls to Fort regarding the golf outing.

“We targeted him,” Brown said.

Turns out, the last concentrated effort to bring back Fort for any type of Husker hoops-related event occurred in 1991, when he was inducted into the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame.

“I received an e-mail last year about (Sadler’s) golf outing and just couldn’t make it,” said the 6-foot-3 Fort, a slender and slashing four-year starter for the Huskers (1972-76), whose 1,882 career points trail only Dave Hoppen (2,167) and Eric Piatkowski (1,934).

“This is basically the first time somebody actually picked up the phone and said, ‘Jerry, we want you to come back,’” the affable Fort said without a trace of bitterness. “Roger told me that Sadler is really trying to reach out and get to know the former Nebraska players, which is a lot different than the previous head coach.”

Among those at last year’s golf outing were Hoppen, Piatkowski, Erick Strickland, Tyronn Lue, Beau Reid, Henry T. Buchanan and Bus Whitehead. Former Big Red head coach Danny Nee was one of the stars of the show. It was a great mix of guys. There were lots of laughs.

Sadler has a gift of making everybody feel like Michael Jordan. He also has a terrific outlook when it comes to former players.

“There’s nobody who gives more to the program than the players,” he said.

Sadler said he wants all ex-Huskers to feel they have ownership in the program. Every year, he said, NU officials hope to attract an increasing number of ex-players to the golf outing.

Getting Fort is a nice touch. He describes himself as a “basketball junkie” and praises Sadler’s first two seasons in Lincoln.

“With the talent he had, to get what he got out of them, was a very good job,” Fort said. “I really like what they did on defense.”

Fort played for the late Joe Cipriano, whom Fort remembered as being charismatic and fan-friendly — much like Doc. Fort and Cipriano enjoyed a strong relationship, probably in part because Fort was willing to play hard on defense.

“We had to play good defense because we were so small,” Fort said.

Few mortals have taught defense better than Moe Iba, a Husker assistant at the time.

“He’d get right into you if you didn’t play it,” Fort said. “You just saw the Boston Celtics win it all because of their defense.”

Nebraska had a record of 7-19 in Fort’s freshman season (1972-73). As a senior, he led the Huskers to a 19-8 mark, including 10-4 in the Big Eight, and became the school’s first player to earn All-Big Eight honors three straight seasons.

Memories of his playing days have rolled through Fort’s consciousness with greater regularity this year because of the successes of the Celtics and Kansas Jayhawks.

The Celtics drafted Fort in the third round in 1976, but he suffered a fractured fibula playing in a pickup game the day after the NBA Draft, which hindered his chances of making the team.

Fort enjoyed some of his best games against Kansas. In fact, the KU basketball media guide used to include a special section titled “Biggest Headaches for Kansas,” and Fort topped the list.

 When Fort was drafted by Boston, the Celtic roster included guards Jo Jo White, John Havlicek, Charlie Scott and Kevin Stacom. It basically came down to the Celtics keeping either Fort or Stacom. They chose Stacom, who had played at Providence College in Rhode Island.

Fort went to training camp with Boston the following season and was the last player cut, with Stacom — the local guy — again winning out.

Fort settled into a successful career in the insurance business. He remains an astute observer of the college game.

Players are bigger and more athletic nowadays, although “they maybe lack a little on fundamentals when it comes to execution,” said Fort, who executed fundamentals well enough to become easily one of the top 10 players to wear the scarlet and cream.

“He represents history, you know,” said Brown of the Rebounders Club. “We’re making a big deal of him coming back.”

A nice touch indeed.

Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.