Growing up in his early years in an extended family community that has since become known as Darden, Texas and then moving to Baytown, Elbert Darden was the 49th winner of the Bob Quin Award. At Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, he played point guard on a phenomenal team that scored over 100 points in several games. He was first team All-District and also lettered in track and advanced to the regional championships in the long jump. Elbert was a National Merit Semi-Finalist and a member of the National Honor Society and he graduated cum laude.
At Rice, he was the leader of the Owl basketball team and always kept Rice close with his timely shooting. He was never a ball hog, and despite multiple surgery on his shoulders, he became Rice's all-time scoring leader and finished his senior season with a 20.1 point scoring average. With his scoring achievements he became the 2nd leading scorer in Southwest Conference history. He was second team All-Southwest Conference and an honorable mention for All-American. A young man of strong faith, he became active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the Rice Intervarsity Christian Fellowship that met on campus. In his senior year, a Bible study was held in his dorm room and was joined by several of the Freshman basketball players. It became a factor in their adjusting to college academics and college basketball.
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Elbert received his B.A. from Rice University in 1979 and then went on to earn his Master of Divinity Degree from Columbia Theological Seminary. Dr. Darden completed his doctoral studies in Counseling Psychology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is married and has two daughters.
As of 2007, Elbert is the Assistant Director of the Rockhurst University Counseling Center in Kansas City, Missouri. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association of the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Education.
Sports were a major influence from the beginning. As the youngest of 3 boys, he says he "was routinely beaten at baseball, football, and basketball. Dominos and checkers became an arena for humiliating defeats. The key was that at no time did I ever give up. It was not that I didn’t like to win…quite the contrary. I wanted to win so badly that I would keep coming back time and again no matter how many times I lost. It was an important and difficult lesson to learn. It would also prove to be excellent preparation for my life in sports".
All of the requisite characteristics of the winners of the Bob Quin Award were soundly in place in Elbert Darden, and his choice as the 1979 winner of the award
was on-target and spoke most accurately about the person he was and is.