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Home , Chris Ford, Chuck Daly, Palestra, Penn Quakers

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL COACHING

Chuck Daly gave the 1972 the gift of the meaning of life, on the court and off

BY ALAN K. COTLER

huck Daly came to in the late spring of 1971. A much older. He did not have a particularly warm face. Sort of rub- bunch of us were working off our recent excruciating loss bery with a large nose. I was apprehensive, not sure what to make Cto Villanova - 90 to 47 in the finals of the Eastern Regionals. of him. He was a former Duke and guy. But basi- We played every day after classes in the hot, sweaty cally an unknown. The Penn AD was Fred Shabel, a Duke guy. , trying to understand how we could have imploded like Maybe that's how Chuck got the job. We had never seen some- that. We were 28-0 and ranked 2nd or 3rd in the country, and we one like him before. In time we learned how true that was. thought we were going to Houston for the Final Four. Then Shabel was on to something. Howard Porter, Chris Ford, and company dismantled Coach Daly introduced himself to us that Palestra afternoon, us on national TV. sunlight peeking through the rafter windows. He was relaxed and I still think that team was the best in Penn history: 6-7 Corky friendly. I was a 6-5 guard hoping to play a lot my senior year. He Calhoun, sweet-shooting 6-8 Bob Morse, the super quick guards, told me he spoke to coach Harter about me and he was looking and Steve Bilsky and a squadron of super subs. forward to working with me. I thought that was just coach speak. We were shell-shocked 19- and 20-year olds. Our coach Dick It wasn't. Chuck did not speak in clichés and he meant what he fame or glory. He opened himself to us. By revealing himself to us turned mediocrity into national prominence. We had Harter left for the University of Oregon right after the Villanova said. His words were his mark. If you did not listen to him, he did he helped us learn about ourselves. meetings about the loss. We felt like we lost our souls. For the debacle. Dick was a Marine - disciplinarian, organized, intense. not yell or get angry. He was there for you no matter what. After each practice Chuck and his assistant coach who came seniors this was our fourth loss in 84 games. Chuck did not panic Digger Phelps, who coached our undefeated 3rd-ranked freshman The next fall, we assembled at the Palestra to start the 1971-1972 from Stony Brook University, , would walk naked - he took it in stride and didn't “jump off a bridge.” We went on to team, helped recruit most of us and who was a force to be feared, season. The pressure was on Chuck. We lost two great guards. in their towels from the Palestra over to Hutch gym to get their Louisville and beat Western Kentucky and kept on winning. was at Fordham on his way to Notre Dame. We were Ivy League champs and a national power that still saw daily steam bath. Something about that sight made me love I remember one long practice when we were running a new set We were orphans without a coach. Rudderless. Bilsky and Wohl 90-47 tee-shirts worn up and down the Main Line. Chuck kept those guys. Two buddies not afraid to show their less than of plays. Chuck teaching, hand on chin - that clean look of interest were graduating. Corky, Morse and I were heading into our senior telling the media, “If we lose a few games, I ain't jumping off a scrumptious physiques to the players heading off to bond and talk and intense joy on his face. Rollie watching and working and year - but there was an uncertainty as if your parents had left. bridge.” He entrusted me to be point guard with Corky, Bobby, hoops in the smoky sweaty Hutch saunas. sweating hands always working, happy to be in the Big Leagues. Teenage athletes are very dependent on their coaches - espe- from Cheltenham and a wiry young 6-7 shooter, Rollie, who would play cards with us late at night on the road, My back froze into a vice-like pain. I could hardly breathe. I felt cially in those days. Your coach lived with you forever, the good Phil Hankinson. Four of us would be drafted by the NBA. (Guess became the great Villanova coach and won a national title - like so alone with the pain. Chuck spotted it, came over, gave me a bear and the bad. He was your father figure and for some even more. which of us was not.) many others Chuck helped without asking for anything in return. hug and unlocked the vice. He said that will fix it. I felt like my You lived with him in an intense, competitive climate for thou- We were five forwards. But Chuck made us comfortable. He For Chuck, it was not about getting something. It was about giving Dad just took care of me. I forgot stuff I did this morning, but I sands of hours practicing, playing and studying . We ate hugged us in practice, taught us different zone defenses we never someone else an opportunity. Chuck convinced Rollie it was remember that moment in time from 37 years ago. Why is it cer- together, joked together, talked about girls, school, parents, and used before, showed us the flexibility you needed to succeed on worth getting less money as an assistant at Penn to get into the tain things we feel never leave us? When we feel connected to even social and political issues. You traveled with your coach to the court and off. He never shamed or humiliated a player. We Big Leagues. I can imagine the loss Rollie feels for his lifelong another human being. Chuck could do that. hostile environments. He taught you how to survive clawing grew to love him, all that hair and his penchant for sharp suits. He friend right now. Their love for each other was unabashed. Full of When I learned Chuck had pancreatic early in 2009, I got on defenses, difficult referees, boisterous crowds and your own glitch- also had that smile that said he cared about you. It was easy to emotion, they held nothing back. the phone with my teammates. Corky related a story to me. es and bouts of shame, insecurity, fear, selfishness and all the rest. underestimate Chuck when you first met him. But the more you The season got underway and we kept winning until something Corky was the absolute glue to our success. Corky played like he Daly walked through the Palestra that late afternoon in a sparkling got to know his every move, the more you were wowed by his unusual occurred. We lost an early Big Five game to Temple 57-52, was 6-10. He could guard a 5-8 guard (he shut down Ernie spiffy suit. Of course there was the hair - a lot of it, high with per- understanding and forgiveness. I believe. Losing was stunning. This was a crushing blow. My class DeGregorio of Providence) or a 6-10 Howard Porter. Corky could fect waves. He was only 41 years old though to us he seemed so Chuck knew how to laugh at himself and never drowned in lost six times in 105 games from 1968 - 1972. Harter and Phelps defend, shoot, rebound, and make everyone else better. He was the fourth player picked in the 1972 NBA draft. But Corky was not photograph of our starting five coming off the court together after a gunner. He would score 15 points when you wondered why he we were introduced at center court (there were no high five s and did not try to score 25 or 30. What was holding the quiet, polite, fancy dance moves at introductions in those days). The photo sweet Corky back? Corky told me how Chuck asked Corky to made it into the 1972 Penn yearbook. Our faces were grim, we read a book about how you viewed and thought of yourself and were all looking down, the body language was not good. Carolina imagined what you looked like when performing. Corky never was ranked second nationally, I believe. I am not sure we knew we read it. (We were busy studying.) But it made sense to me how could beat them - but we could have. We fell behind by 10 early Chuck was always trying to help people figure themselves out. He and then played them even. McAdoo, , Bobby Jones, was curious about what made people tick. and Bill Chamberlain were too much. Our season We lost one other ended. regular season game It's like being hit by that year - at a Mack truck when Princeton. We sur- you mentally prepare vived that and blew to play and play and them out at home. play and then you are We were 23-2, ranked done. Now what? 3rd in the country Sure, you're at an Ivy again going into the League school and NCAA tournament. you've studied but Whenever things basketball has been would go crazy your life. Now what? around us, Chuck I saw my friend, Fran would calm them Dunphy, try to down. He took care of describe the feeling his basketball family. last spring when We beat Providence Temple got knocked in the first NCAA out. For the seniors game at St. John's in it's a major life adjust- Queens, where I grew ment. up. Chuck had me We got on the pick my favorite plane home. I sat restaurant for our next to Chuck. I will team dinner the night never forget our talk. before. He just told me how Villanova (90-47!!!!) he felt, with that smile was next in of his - disappointed Morgantown, W. Va. with not getting to the Chuck asked me if I Final Four, but content was “concerned.” We with what we did, con- beat Nova by 10 earli- tent with his team, er that year. I said no. accepting of what the Nova pressured us at basketball gods gave the end. Rollie's face us. He said he was showed great anguish exhausted. I told him ager, Stu Suss, our loyal statistician, the fans, the AD, the players, interested in joining his coaching staff. I never gave it much as our 10-point lead I was drained - all the families. It was everyone. Chuck knew that hoops was a vehi- thought. I was destined for graduate school. I did not appreciate diminished after those days of playing cle for the way we chose to live. then the impact a coach could have on people's lives. I did not Ingelsby drained some ball from seventh On that plane ride back to Philly, Chuck was just a “regular guy” see back then how Coach Daly was a role model to emulate. It jumpers with two minutes left. But Chuck just calmed us down. grade on, playgrounds, tournaments, all-star games, playing alone from Erie, as Albom would say, satisfied with his lot in life. Chuck was a fork in the road, and I did not know it. He kept everything in perspective. at night on cement courts skipping dances and parties. Chuck had no clue that in the fall of 1977 Sixers coach Coach Daly was blessed with a gift. The ability to listen to what Maybe it was what I read in Mitch Albom's remembrance of said “Alan, I have to do this all over again next year.” would see his specialness and send him on a path to greatness another person was saying, absorb it all, understand how that per- Chuck about how Chuck had regular guy jobs in the Erie area Chuck was a friend just sharing his feelings. He said, “Alan, you where his simple gift of understanding people would be recog- son felt and what they were thinking, and then how best to make before basketball - “dishwasher, bouncer, a grunt in a lime pit, slap- know I never really was into basketball. I didn't read the scores in nized on an international scale. Chuck could not have guessed he that person feel good and be placed in a position to succeed. ping leather hides.” Chuck got on one knee, gave us an out of the newspapers. I just sort of fell into coaching.” I am paraphras- was a future NBA Hall of Famer who would have , Karl Chuck was able to avoid having his own feelings, judgments or bounds play where I heaved a long pass to Corky who caught it in ing as best I can remember. “I don't really need this,” he said. Malone, and the rest listening to his instructions glitches interfere with his receiving and analyzing the information stride for a layup, and we calmly held on to beat Nova by 10 again. Chuck was saying that it wasn't the hoops that motivated him. on America's Dream Team. The love Chuck's death has from that person with whom he was connecting. Chuck had that little smile of relief. But he didn't look like he Sure, he wanted to win and succeed. But Chuck knew there was unleashed from all he came in contact with is astounding. From The fact that Chuck was coaching basketball, I think, was beside would die if we lost that game. something larger than that. Today, I know he meant it was us, him, the NBA commissioner to . Players, coaches, the point. Chuck could have used his gift anywhere - and he did. In the Final Eight it was and Carolina. There is a the referees, the trainers, Mike Nazerock our old equipment man- friends. There were no enemies. Alan K. Cotler is a partner at the law firm Reed Smith LLP. A few weeks later after a Big 5 luncheon, Chuck asked if I was